Finest Speakerphone in 2023 for Working From Dwelling – CNET

Bang & Olufsen has upgraded its dome-shaped aluminum-clad A1 speaker with improved battery life, higher speakerphone efficiency (it now has a three-microphone array) and barely improved sound. It’s not solely the smallest wi-fi speaker from the Danish firm, but in addition essentially the most inexpensive with a listing value of $250 (you may get sure colours for over $50 much less). Whereas it doesn’t have the extra strong speakerphone-centric options of different merchandise on this checklist, this speaker simply sounds the very best for music playback.

The speaker drivers stay the identical as these within the earlier mannequin, however the Qualcomm chipset that powers the speaker has been upgraded (the speaker makes use of Bluetooth 5.1), bumping the sound high quality up a tad, notably at larger volumes, with higher digital sign processing. It stays one of many best-sounding mini Bluetooth audio system, with richer extra tonally balanced sound than different Bluetooth audio system its measurement — and it ought to sound good, contemplating its elevated value level.. 

It’s additionally price noting that the A1 has multipoint Bluetooth pairing so you possibly can join this to your PC and smartphone on the similar time and simply swap backwards and forwards between the 2 if a name is available in in your cellphone. Moreover, the speaker is Alexa-enabled, which means you possibly can activate Amazon’s voice assistant by simply saying “Alexa.” 

Battery life is rated at as much as 18 hours at 50% quantity (the sooner A1 didn’t stay as much as its battery life claims, however this quantity is extra correct) and for those who can afford it, you possibly can hyperlink two A1 audio system to create a stereo pair. The speaker is waterproof with an IPX 67 score that permits it to be submerged briefly in shallow water.