Over the past couple years, Bang & Olufsen has shipped more and more of its Beoplay-branded speakers to South African shores. The latest one is the Beoplay P2, which also happens to be one of the smallest and cheapest the Danish company makes. Set to land locally in June, we got hands-on with the new speaker. 

1. New addition

The P2 serves up some of the smallest dimensions within the Beoplay range. Weighing it at 275 g, it's both light and still quite sturdy, making portability one of the big selling points for this offering. There's also dust and splash resistance thrown in for good measure. 

Although the form factors are quite different, the Beoplay P2 leverages much of its design and specifications off of the Beoplay A1. To that end, it features a similar mid-woofer setup to deliver 360-degrees of sound, along with two 15W amps to keep things balanced.   

2. Three colours

When the Beoplay P2 makes its debut locally in June, it will do so in three different colour options - Royal Blue, Sand Stone and Black. Bang & Olufsen has not mentioned specific numbers to us just yet, but they are expecting a small batch of each colour to arrive in South Africa, so we'd advise pre-ordering if you're keen on the Beoplay design aesthetic and the quality of sound the P2 belts out.  

3. Booming sound

Speaking of sound, the P2 is relatively bassy, like many of the smaller Beoplay speakers. In terms of frequency range, the P2 can start at 68 Hz and go all the way to 21 KHz. As such it can produce a real bellowing sound when the volume is turned all the way, good enough to fill any large room with sound. 

It does come at a price though, as a slight tininess can be heard at full volume. To compensate for that we'd suggest tweaking the equaliser settings on your mobile device for better quality playback.  

4. Get the app

As far as controls go, the P2 has a few subtle ones. A single button on the underside doubles as the power, as well as toggling Bluetooth (4.2) for connections. One can also tap on the top of the P2 to pause and play music, along with shaking the speaker to skip tracks. 

While these are pretty nifty, you're likely going to want to download the Beoplay app (iOS and Android), which has the added advantage of creating presets for different types of music or products, as well as an interesting ToneTouch feature for exploring different depths of sound. 

You could probably manage okay with just the standard controls on your mobile device's music player, but to get a better experience, the Beoplay app is the way to go.    

5. Pricing and availability

Now for one of the most important considerations when buying a Beoplay product - price. The P2 carries a R3 499 RRP, but pre-orders, currently available in store, are listed at R2 999. 

If you need further convincing of the P2's quality, demo models will be on show at Bang & Olufsen stores nationwide (Melrose Arch, Mall of Africa, Sandton City), with an official launch during the first week of June.