B&O Play, Bang & Olufsen's lifestyle arm, has released a new portable wireless speaker. Called the BeoPlay P2, it's the company's smallest wireless speaker to date and comes with some intuitive controls to replace physical buttons.

By default, a simple double tap anywhere on the front grille of the compact speaker will play or pause whatever song is playing, while shaking it will skip forward to the next track. There's not a single button or switch on the speaker, save for an embedded power button on the rear, as all other controls are done through the companion Beoplay app for iOS and Android.

You can use the app to access personal assistants such as Siri and Google Assistant to play music, you can change the sound profile of the speaker using the ToneTouch feature, and even set alarms. The double tap and shake features are entirely customisable, so you can double tap to access Siri for example.

Despite only having a speaker grille on one side, B&O Play says the P2 can output sound in 360 degrees, and borrows sound technology from the larger BeoPlay A1

However, the speaker drivers inside the P2 are completely new and of a custom design to fit into such a small body, while still being able to produce B&O's signature sound. It benefits from a brand new anodised aluminium cone mid-woofer, coupled to the same 0.75-inch fabric dome tweeter that's used in the BeoPlay A1. The drivers are connected to two 15 Watt Class D amplifiers to ultimately deliver 100 Watts of peak power.

b o play beoplay p2 is a palm sized wireless speaker you control with your hands image 5
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Because of its small size, you'll want to take the P2 everywhere with you, including by the pool, and you can as it's splash proof and dust proof. A built-in microphone for taking calls through the loudspeaker is able to pick up your voice in 360 degrees, so you don't need to be standing in a 'sweet spot' of sorts for the person on the other end to be able to hear you properly. 

The P2 also has a long-term sleep mode, which will keep the speaker on for a month, but in a low-power state. It's so you can instantly connect your smartphone to the speaker, without having to turn it on, enable Bluetooth pairing and find the P2 in your devices. 

The B&O Play BeoPlay P2 is available now in Black, Sand Stone and Royal Blue for £149 and an optional black lambskin leather sleeve is available for £29.