I’ve been meaning to review B&O Play Beoplay P2 for a while, but only recently got my hands on a review sample. (Believe it or not, the full name is “B&O Play by Bang & Olufsen Beoplay P2.”) At $169 (£149, AU$249), it’s currently the company’s least expensive portable Bluetooth speaker. It’s also the smallest and lightest and one of the best sounding mini Bluetooth speakers available.
The speaker reminds me of a swankier version of the old Deck X speaker from Motorola and Sol Republic Deck and is in the same “slim” speaker genre as the Harman Kardon Esquire 2, which doubles as a business-class speakerphone. The P2 likewise has a decent speakerphone performance.
One unique design trait on the P2 is the lack of physical buttons. There’s only a power on/off button on the bottom of the speaker. Controlling volume playback is done through “tap and shake interactions” that you can customize in Beoplay App. Also, like the earlier Beoplay A1, the this speaker charges via USB-C.
I liked the hamburger-size A1 and thought it sounded excellent for its tiny size. This speaker is slimmer and lighter, but B&O Play claims the bass performance in the P2 “isn’t compromised” thanks to a redesigned mid-woofer. I wouldn’t say that’s totally true. While the P2 has impressive bass for its size — its low-end performance approaches that of Bose’s newer SoundLink Micro — it just can’t output as much bass as a larger Bluetooth speaker. That said, the speaker mostly managed to handle our bass-heavy test tracks without distorting, which we always appreciate.
