The new speaker is IP67 water resistant. | Image: Bang and Olufsen
Bang and Olufsen’s latest Bluetooth speaker is the Beosound Explore, a $199 (£169) speaker that’s rated to run for 27 hours “at typical listening volumes” before needing a charge.
That’s an impressive amount of battery life for a small (roughly 5 x 3 x 3 inch) Bluetooth speaker like this. For comparison, JBL’s slightly larger Charge 5 speaker goes for 20 hours, while even the much larger UE Hyperboom tops out at 24 hours.
Bang and Olufsen tells me that the Beosound Explore’s battery life is thanks to a couple of things. It’s one of the first speakers to support the new Bluetooth 5.2 standard, which offers a more power efficient way to receive audio from your devices. This combines with the Explore’s innards, which are tuned with power…