Earlier this month, I reviewed the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay EX wireless earbuds. I declared them the best sounding in-ear noise-cancelling buds I’ve ever used, but was disappointed with their not-so-accessible price point. I then moved on to test out the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Explore which, to the surprise of absolutely no one, has also taken the crown of my favourite device among its peers.
It’s not hard to fall in love with how B&O kit sounds – after all, the company does have an exceptional track record of investing in the space. While the sound is good, and the device itself is a perfect weight for carrying around, it’s not without some faults (despite how minor they might be).
Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Explore portable speaker
Bang & Olufsen pitches the Beoplay Explore as a device you can take for a bushwalk, sitting down around a campfire at night with the portable speaker by your side. They also reckon you can take it cave diving, but I wasn’t going to entertain that for the sake of content.
The speaker itself is waterproof (legit, you can wash it in a stream), reasonably tough (it can withstand dings but maybe not being dropped off a cliff….actually, it probably could handle it) and light enough to carry around with you (631 grams). It comes in five Earthy colours (grey, green, chestnut, navy and charcoal). Its shell is scratch-resistant, anodised aluminium and the body itself is ribbed to prevent those drops from having an impact on the guts of the Beoplay Explore. The case is also rubber so it keeps steady on most surfaces.
It’s easy enough to carry around in your hand via the strap and as someone with small hands, I can fit my hand around the device to carry it that way or pick it up and move it one-handed. The strap can also clip onto a backpack or your belt if you’re, for example, hiking.
The non-sound-related things
I already had the B&O app installed from reviewing the Beoplay EX wireless earbuds, but it’s very easy to get the Explore speaker up and running. After installing and setting up an account via the Bang & Olufsen mobile app (you can, thankfully, log in using your Apple/Google ID), connecting the Beoplay Explore was easy and very quick.
As I said last time, the B&O app is probably the most beautiful and feature-packed sound device apps I’ve ever used. There are a tonne of features to fine-tune your sound. You can choose from the pre-set sound modes or move around the little knob to find your sweet spot. This was a little difficult in open spaces playing specific genres, but more on that in a sec.
Battery life is also fantastic – B&O reckons you’ll get up to 27 hours of playtime out of a single charge, and I’m currently on hour 24 with ~25 per cent battery left. It’s not a steady drop in battery percentage (displayed in the app for you), but it’s on par with the company’s estimate, even might go a little more I’d guess. From completely dead to fully charged will take you 2 hours. It also connects super quickly to both Android and iOS phones and the Bluetooth range drops out at around the 10-metre mark.
The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Explore is also very easy to clean off, rinsing it under a tap won’t affect a single thing inside.
Sounds about right
The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Explore portable speaker is made for outside, but it fills an enclosed room with a much more nicer sound.
While walking, we stopped off at a football field to test the, I guess, length of the sound in an open space outdoors. At around 15 metres, the sound became less audible. By 23 metres, I couldn’t hear a thing. The field was open, no trees, no people, no dogs and no overhead planes. It just didn’t stretch. That being said, that isn’t what B&O pitches the Beoplay Explore for.
Outside but closer to the speaker, it was clear, and the sound held up well moving around the space (yes, I may have been that guy at the park doing a workout with a portable speaker). Using it indoors was where the quality of the Explore is truly noticeable.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great outdoors, but you tend to not notice the full quality of B&O’s portable speaker until there are walls keeping the sound in. Across most genres, the smarts Bang & Olufsen has baked into the Beoplay Explore really shine, adjusting the bass to account for a usually overbearing pop backing thud; levelling out the instruments on a rock track and isolating the vocals without distortion or tinniness on an acoustic track with a dude who hits notes I didn’t know were possible.
In the B&O app, you can choose from pre-set sound profiles, but you can also move around the dial to get the sweet spot for the specific genre you’re listening to. I found it easy enough to use, but listening to tracks with heavy instruments (guitars dropped to a level they have no right being at) and a screaming vocalist took a bit of time to sound as perfect as they do from a larger, more expensive Bang & Olufsen speaker. If I had to pick out something it could be better at, its bass handling would be what I’d flag. Gimme a little bit more, B&O, I beg you.
The casing of the portable speaker means it not only is smash-proof, it also allows for none of that vibrating sound reverb that many speakers send out when placed on a table with volume pushed to max. Indoors it’s almost too loud at max, but not distorted, just uncomfortable. The 360-degree speaker is also great for ‘sittin’ around’ with pals listening to music. I didn’t make it to an open-air campfire with friends, but B&O are right, the Beoplay would be perfect in this environment.
Should you buy the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Explore portable speaker?
If you’re looking for a portable speaker and have $380 to spend on the cause, then absolutely. Bang & Olufsen make great sounding devices and the Beoplay Explore is no exception. It’s a bit of a tough sell on its value being above the likes of the Sonos Roam or even the much cheaper JBL Flip, but it’s light, easy to carry and has a brilliant battery life. All of those components together make it a compelling proposition.