Designed for life on the go by award-winning designer Cecilie Manz it fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and packs a punch well beyond its size.

B&O PLAY today announced the smallest and most adventurous member in its family of portable Bluetooth speakers, Beoplay A1. Designed for life on the go, the Beoplay A1 combines beautiful Danish design by award-winning Cecilie Manz, signature sound by Bang & Olufsen, a speakerphone for taking calls out loud and up to 24 hours of battery life that keeps the music playing long after most competitors have gone silent.

"People today seek elegance, simplicity and flexibility in the way they live with music. They want their speaker to deliver a rich and beautiful soundscape for their home as well as seamless portability for life on the go", says Henrik Taudorf Lorensen, Corporate VP of B&O PLAY.

"With the Beoplay A1 we have pushed the boundaries of the ultra-portable speaker category and empowered people to take powerful sound and beautiful design anywhere they choose".

Designed for everyday adventures

Beoplay A1 comes with a beautifully contoured aluminum dome, which gives it a light and elegant appearance and forms a strong protective housing for the technologies within. The dome conforms seamlessly to the double molded polymer base presenting a completely smooth and continuous surface.

As part of the design, there are no protruding buttons or legs to snag, and the surface of Beoplay A1 is completely smooth and robust enough to handle the bumps and scrapes of everyday use. It comes with a soft leather strap inviting you to carry it everywhere, attach it to a rucksack on the go, or to hang it anywhere in your home.

"We wanted to make a portable speaker that people would not leave at home. The size and shape of the speaker invites you to pick it up and bring it with you as the most natural thing. The combination of premium materials, cool aluminum, soft polymer and the warm touch of leather makes it almost desirable to hold.

I like the fact that the rounded, circular shape very clearly indicates the sharing of sound while lying on the table", says designer Cecilie Manz.

Signature sound by Bang & Olufsen

Building on more than 90 years of sound expertise, the Beoplay A1 sets new standards for portable Bluetooth speakers on sound dispersion, volume and bass characteristics.

• Using a unique dedicated DSP algorithm with advanced high slope filtering, Beoplay A1 is able to create a spacious 360-degree soundscape. This provides listeners with the same beautiful sound experience wherever they are located.
• Despite its compact footprint, measuring just 133mm x 48mm (5.2" x 1.9") with a weight of only 600g (1.3 pounds), the speaker's fully active, two way design using an aluminum cone mid woofer, a silk dome ¾" tweeter and advanced DSP filtering will wow you with crisp, loud and clear audio.
• Thanks to a new aluminum Cone Mid-Woofer using a powerful neodymium magnetic system and high peak power amps, the Beoplay A1 delivers a full range deep bass to as low as 40hz and enough stamina to keep the music playing for hours on end.

24 hours of portable playtime

Beoplay A1 comes with a rechargeable 2200mAh Li-Ion battery that provides up to 24 hours portable playtime during everyday use. This industry-leading standard is delivered by the inventive amp control. The Adaptive Power Management makes it possible to feed the exact amount of power needed by the amplifiers - and only when they need it. This means the power supply changes dynamically for increased battery life.

Speakerphone for business and pleasure

Beoplay A1 has a built-in speakerphone for taking calls out loud, and the patent-pending rimmed design on the speaker's bottom edge enables the microphone to provide uniform 360 speech sensitivity. This enables the person listening to recognize voices perfectly, no matter where people are speaking in proximity to the microphone.

Easy access to your favorite music

Pressing the circular connect button on the side of the speaker will reconnect the speaker to the last used device and instantly play the last song you heard. Going forward the connect button will receive updates to add even more functionality to the speaker.

Price and availability

Beoplay A1 launches in moss green and natural and is available for a suggested retail price at $249. Both colors will be available in B&O stores, on www.beoplay.com/beoplaya1 and in selected third party retailers from April 21 2016.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Cecilie Manz (1972) is a Danish industrial designer considered to be one of the leading Danish industrial designers of her generation. In September 2014, she won the Danish Crown Prince Couple's Culture Award for her contribution to design. Her work includes furniture, jewellery, lamps and sculptures and her Mikado table has been included in MOMA's design collection. Cecilie Manz has designed the Beoplay A2 (2014) and the Beolit 15 (2015) for B&O PLAY.

http://www.ceciliemanz.com/

Find out more about B&O PLAY at: www.beoplay.com

ABOUT B&O PLAY

Firmly grounded in decades of design excellence, craftsmanship and product innovation from Bang & Olufsen, B&O PLAY interprets the same values for a new type of contemporary product aimed at design-conscious urbanites with an active lifestyle. The B&O PLAY portfolio is made up of products, that are intuitive to use and easy to integrate into your daily life - at home or on the move.