Beolit 20 review: Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 Review

Bang And Olufsen Beolit 20 Review: A Bluetooth Powerhouse

Welcome to your all-access Bang and Olufsen Beolit 20 review. Here’s everything you need to know about the updated version of the heralded Beolit 17…

Bang and Olufsen stand out in the audio environment with a unique focus on aesthetic appeal and impeccable performance. Virtually every B&O speaker, from the Beosound A1, to the Beoplay P6 promises the same studio-quality sound and minimalist appeal.

The Beolit 20 is the latest (at the time of writing) in a series originally launched in 2012. A powerful portable speaker with 8 hours of listening time and QI-wireless charging technology.

While this is a device for the modern age, it does have some connectivity limitations, which we’ll cover in more detail.

So, if you’re thinking of investing in the B&O Beolit 20, read on before making up your mind.

Beolit 20: Design

The Beolit 20 Bluetooth speaker is another excellent example of how B&O makes an impact with design. There aren’t any fancy extras like LED lighting and waterproofing. Instead, you get a timelessly elegant design which looks amazing anywhere.

Though there’s a leather handle included for portability, the Beolit 20 seems like something you’d want to give pride of place somewhere in your home. The chances are you’re not going to take this device to your next picnic.

Available in gray and gold or black and blue, the Beolit 20 looks like a high-tech lunchbox, with a weight of around 5.9 pounds. It feels seriously hefty.

The middle section of the speaker features a wraparound aluminium grille. Behind, you’ll find a 5.5-inch woofer, and dual 35-watt amps (class D).

The very top of the Beolit 20 is slightly recessed, and flat. This makes the surface feel almost like a tray. This is great because the center of the device is Qi wireless charging ready. You can just pop your phone on there and let it charge while you groove.

Beolit 20: Features

At first glance, the Beolit 20 looks a lot like its processor, the Beolit 17. If you’ve used the 17 before, this will feel like a natural upgrade. Alongside wireless charging, this portable speaker offers a range of additional features.

There’s no weather resistance or waterproof rating. However, Bang and Olufsen doesn’t really expect you to test the durability of this speaker against the elements. The B&O Beolit 20 is an investment in style and quality. It’s not meant to be thrown in a backpack.

In place of ruggedization and waterproofing, however, you get high-performance Bluetooth for seamless streaming and stereo pairing to fill your home with music. The Beolit 20 also comes with a larger battery than the 17 with 8 hours of charge.

Features include:

8-hour battery life
Stereo pairing (with Beolit 20 or 17)
Qi-charging station
USB-C charging
Leather handle
True 360 sound
Bluetooth 4.2 streaming

Beolit 20: Connectivity

There are various buttons on the top of the B&O Beolit 20 for controlling playback. We much prefer using the app, which gives you a range of bonus features to explore. The Beolit app controls playback, volume, and track navigation. You can also explore a range of EQ presets.

Beolit 20: Performance

Bang and Olufsen speakers are appealing not just because they look good. These speakers sound amazing too. On tracks with a lot of low-frequency content, you’ll notice a powerful thump.

High volumes don’t cause any distortion, and sharper frequencies are crisp and clear. Out of the box, with no pre-sets applied you get a natural listening experience.

The Beolit is excellent at ensuring sounds never get lost or muddied because of heavy bass. Despite a relatively small size, the Beolit is also surprisingly loud. This is the kind of portable device capable of easily filling an entire room with sound.

Exploring the available EQs is a good way to find a sound signature perfect for you. Just be careful. It’s easy to drag certain presets too far in specific directions. You may end up with more bass than you really needed.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: premium, portable, powerful

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Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 deals

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Looking for a powerful portable speaker? The Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 is worth considering because it’s one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy. It’s a luxurious device for listening to music around your house or garden. If you have the money to spend on it, you’ll love what it can do.

Bang & Olufsen are known for their lavish audio devices. Anyone who wants their tech to look just as elegant as their home should take a look at what they have to offer. But it’s not all about looks, B&O devices boast both power and quality as well.

Not sure your budget will stretch this far? You could consider the best Bose Bluetooth speakers instead. They’re still very impressive but they’re a smidge cheaper.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: price and features

The Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 sits in the middle of B&O’s range of portable speakers but it doesn’t come cheap. It’ll set you back around $500 in the US, £380 in the UK and AU$750 in Australia. Take a look at the widgets on this page to find out where you can buy one.

Keeping things simple, the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 only has a few features worth mentioning here. Firstly, it’s packed with a 240W speaker system that will sound the same wherever you stand in relation to it because of its 360-degree design. If you wanted to make the audio even bigger, you can pair two of the devices together as well in stereo.

You’ll also be able to fine-tune the output using the manual equaliser in the smartphone app and you can even use the top panel to wirelessly charge your phone.

(Image credit: Future)

Far from being a compact portable Bluetooth speaker, the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 is a big, powerful device to use around your home and garden. It measures 135 x 230 x 189 mm and weighs about 2.7kg so it’s not a speaker you’ll be chucking in your backpack to take to the park with you.

You can buy it in Black Anthracite (black and blue) or Grey Mist (grey and brown). I tested out the grey version.

Created in the classic B&O style, this luxurious box-shaped speaker is made from sturdy polymer with an aluminium speaker grille wrapped around its body that is backed by classy brown mesh, and there’s a matching leather strap to carry it around with.

The biggest flaw of the design is that there’s no official waterproof rating, so if you plan to use it outside you’ll need to watch out for dark rain clouds or keep it sheltered. That’s not ideal especially given the price of the thing.

Across the top, there’s a panel that houses a few buttons to control your music including a pause/play button as well as volume controls. They’re indented to suit the shape of a finger so you’re less likely to mis-press them.

You’ll be able to connect to this speaker wirelessly through Bluetooth or through a wired 3.5mm connection if you want to hook up devices like a vinyl player.

To activate the Buetooth connectivity, there’s a dedicated button below the power button, you just need to hold it down until the tiny LED light switches from white to blue. After that, the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 will connect automatically each time you turn it on.

In terms of battery life, you can expect to get about 8 hours of music at so-called ‘typical listening volumes’ – I’d imagine that’s about halfway up. It’s nowhere near the best portable speaker for battery life which is something to bear in mind if you plan to host people for a whole day or more. When you run out of juice, it’ll take about 3 hours to recharge it.

One significant benefit of this speaker is that the top panel doubles up as a Qi wireless charging pad to keep your devices topped up. So if you’re using the speaker outside and your phone starts to die, you can give it a boost and keep the music playing. If the speaker isn’t connected to its own power source, using the wireless charging feature will drain the speaker’s battery much faster, though.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: performance

(Image credit: Future)

You get booming full-bodied sound from the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20. It’s made up of a 5.5-inch woofer with three 1.5-inch full-range drivers and two 4-inch passive bass radiators, all powered by dual 35W class-D amplifiers.

The result is punchy, balanced and crisp across every and any genre. Even podcasts sound great because voices come across very clearly. It’s seriously loud as well, the sound will very easily fill the room. Even when I whacked it up to full volume, there wasn’t any distortion at all and every track was just as clear as it was on 50% volume.

You can also adjust the audio in the Bang & Olufsen smartphone app to suit you better. Make it sound more bright, more energetic or warmer by dragging the slider around the circle. I personally found this more straightforward to use than the usual 2, 3 or 5 band equalisers but some people might feel differently.

There are also a number of preset audio settings to choose from including Optimal, Ambient, Party, Speech and Favourite – the latter you create yourself.

Through the app, which is available for both iOS and Android, you’ll also be able to turn off the wireless charging feature, find out the battery percentage of the speaker, adjust the volume and set up stereo pairing with another Beolit device.

Considering how expensive the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 is, it would have been good for there to have been a few more features, like a microphone to use it as a speakerphone or even Wi-Fi connectivity to use it as a multiroom device.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: verdict

(Image credit: Bang & Olufsen)

If you care a lot about having a strong mix of style and good sound quality, the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 is sure to tick a lot of boxes.

It’s a modern and powerful speaker that you can use around your whole home and garden without needing to hook it up to a power source.

At this price, I would expect a bit more in the way of battery life, and perhaps a few more features added to the mix. But in saying that, what this speaker does well, it does extraordinarily well.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: also consider

If you want plenty of bang for your buck, you could consider the Audio Pro A15 instead. Not only is it a little cheaper than this but it actually has a lot more in the way of features as well including Wi-Fi connectivity and multiroom functionality. The battery will last longer as well with 11 hours at 50% volume under its belt.

For those who want an all-singing, all-dancing portable speaker that is complete with smart features, the Bose Portable Smart Speaker is the best you can buy. It’s stylish, it sounds great and you can control it by voice.

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20: Price Comparison

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Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 at a glance

Details

9. 7/ 10

Rating

900 11

900 18 Charging port

9002 0 3200 mAh

Key Features 90 015
Type	stereo
Smartphone control
Sound and design
Minimum playback frequency	37 Hz
Maximum playback frequency	20000 Hz
Sound functions	equalizer, speaker sync
Housing material	metal
Number of strips AC	2
Connectivity
Wireless	Bluetooth
Bluetooth version	4.2
Supported codecs	AAC, SBC
Connectors and interfaces	RCAx 2 audio input, 3.5 mm mini jack audio input
USB Type-C
Power supply
Battery type	own
Operating time	37 h
Battery capacity
Other
Features	strap, Power Bank mode
Width	135 mm 9002 1
Height	230 mm
Depth	189 mm
Weight with batteries	2. 7 kg
Additional information	wireless charging output up to 5 W; 3 x 1.5” full range drivers, 1 x 5.5” long throw full range bass driver, 2 x 4” passive woofers

Rating
5

Advantages: Sound

Disadvantages: Size

Comment: I received this device as a gift, until I googled it I didn’t even know what it was) I don’t bother with the sound and settings, but when I connected it, I and all the guests were shocked from the sound, of course you won’t take it to nature because of the size, but it’s gorgeous for the house

andrey4ip

April 8, 2022,
Moscow and Moscow region

Rating
4

Pros: Great speaker sound
Bass is killer
With Tidal it’s very nice to listen to hifi. It is certainly not for hifi, but we hear the difference with spotify on it.
Very good equalizer in the Android application
Type C charging

Disadvantages: The application is a bit buggy, freezes, this is rare today . Took her to listen to jazz, mostly. I drag around the apartment: the kitchen is there, the shower-toilet …
Disabled wireless charging for a smartphone in the application, this is pampering, and they write that it consumes a charge even when idle …

DeZign

January 21, 2022
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Rating
5

Pros: First of all, B&O signature sound – it’s incomparable!!!

Disadvantages: it’s clear that the price, but it’s B&O

Comment: Almost any music starts to sound different when compared to portable speakers from other well-known companies (such as Harman, Sony and even Marshall). To be honest, I did not expect such a big difference, but for me personally it is obvious!

Sergey Kuznetsov

January 20, 2022
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Rating
5

Advantages: The most pleasant sound and materials

Disadvantages: At peak power it simply turns off even when in the network

Ottone Radavi

January 1, 2022,
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Rating
5

Advantages: all

Disadvantages: none

Comment: high-quality sound

December 29, 2021,
Belgorod

\ Using experience: several months

Rating
5

Advantages: Design, compactness, wireless charging for third-party devices. For its size, the sound quality is amazing.

Disadvantages: I would like even more operating time, provided that it is also a wireless power bank.

Comment: True HiFi in a compact package. Of course the volume is not great. But it is quite enough for a room of 30-40 meters. On the street, too, you can’t arrange a big party, but the background for the street is enough. The sound quality is just fine. The mini jack sounds even better. Of course, there are distortions in the balance at different volume levels, but they are easily corrected through the equalizer of the native application. There are no failures in frequency and this is the main thing. Naturally, the price corresponds, but there are simply no competitors in terms of sound quality in this format and size. It can be charged from a power bank, of course, with the corresponding indicators of the power bank itself. Well, in general, the presence of type-C unifies its charging very much. No need to take your own charger with you. Or from native charging, you can charge other gadgets.

Roman Negrienko

December 21, 2021,
Belgorod

Estimated
5

Advantages: Some pluses

Disadvantages: None

Dmitry K.

19December 2021,
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Using experience: less than a month

Rating
4

Advantages: Convenient form factor
Long battery life
Well made, good materials
Able to charge from powerbank
Sufficient sound level for a party indoors about 30-40m2

Disadvantages: No AirPlay and Bluetooth 5 support. It is correctly described in one of the reviews above that it successfully plays bass, and cuts off all frequencies at a low volume (my most frequent use mode)0189 No built-in streaming players

Comment: Bought to replace a burned out H&K Mini. The price is almost 3 times higher, the functionality is almost the same (from the special stages – charging from powerbank and wireless charging), it plays a little better, but not three times better than it should. At a volume below average, there is practically no difference
– I think that it is not worth the money, as in terms of functionality; and sound quality

A Sh

September 27, 2021
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Rating
5

Advantages: Sound
Powerful, very. Pumps a party for 20 people.
In the apartment you can put a well-tuned equalizer mode on Speech and listen without getting your neighbors!

Disadvantages: Did not find
Worth every ruble

Comment: We used the portable Bose Soundlink revolve+, the sound was fine, really high quality. But Beolit excels by far. The materials have been cut by a Danish company since 1930s, materials use: softening, optimizing the sound. They are at the forefront of sound technology.

July 29, 2021
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Rating
5

Advantages: Sound, operating time

Disadvantages: Plastic bottom and top, frequency cutting when listening quietly

Comment: I duplicate my review from ozon.
We chose between Dali Katch and Beolit. In the end, they took her and did not regret it. The sound is really juicy, bassy. The sound is better than a computer wired speaker with a subwoofer the size of 5 of these. Especially the bass is felt by the whole body. Many songs are not as clear and rich in voice as pure music.
On the body. These parts above and below (the ones outside the grille) are plastic, which may not be cheap, but still plastic. It directly cheapens tactility when you take a column. The strap is awesome, this grille is nice, made of solid metal, and here the hand goes further – and there the plastic is ordinary. As if from some other column inserted.
Color as written – Misty Grey. Those. this plastic is really gray. In the pictures, renderings of many, and even in the vidos, because of the light, it seems that there is a white color. Those. bronze-white column. But it’s actually pure grey.
Upd:
I listened for a couple more days. As a result, in terms of sound, this column, as it turned out, places more emphasis on bass and low frequencies. This parameter is her best and if we talk about hi-fi sound, then it is the only one. Medium and high frequencies are common here. Well, that is, the most common – neither bad nor good. Also, at the speaker, if the volume is set below 25-35%, then so simple medium and high frequencies are completely muffled and only bass and low frequencies remain.
What a verdict I formulated for myself.
This speaker is NOT SUITABLE for those who like to listen to music quietly with high and detailed sound details. And also for those who are going to listen to the classics, instrumentals on it. The sound here will be just good, but there will be no hi-fi.
This speaker is SUITABLE for those who like to listen to music at above average volume, very loud, and also in the context of parties. And who loves the genres of hip-hop, rap, pop music, ambience, club music, dj tracks, etc. Where exactly “movement”, “buildup”, the feeling that “shakes” are important. In such a scenario, you will really get a sense of complete satisfaction from the sound of the speaker.

Maxim P.

July 6, 2021
Moscow and Moscow region

\ Usage experience: less than 9 months0003

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 selected in rating:

Bang & Olufsen introduces Beolit 20 portable speaker

News

Bang & Olufsen has released an updated version of the Beolit, a powerful portable Bluetooth speaker with a design inspired by the 1939 radio.

The Beolit 20 traditionally delivers superior sound performance and an excellent cabinet design that makes it easy to carry or move around the house. However, the new 2020 received significantly improved autonomy compared to the previous release, built-in Qi wireless charging and a refreshed design.

“With our customers using the product all day long – indoors and outdoors – we focused on dramatically extending battery life, which is now 30% longer at normal listening volume.

This allowed us to add Qi wireless charging to the top plate so you can charge compatible devices such as a mobile phone if your battery runs out at a party or in the park,” commented Bang & Olufsen Vice President Product Management Christoffer Poulsen .

The Beolit 20 retains the iconic Beolit silhouette, which was developed in 2012 in collaboration with Cecily Manz. At the same time, the column has a number of updates that are in tune with the latest design trends. The distinctive hole pattern and rounded corners not only give the unit an original and modern look, but also optimize acoustic performance with 45% airflow for pure, perfect sound.

The height and curvature of the top panel has been changed to make it easier to position your smartphone while charging. The speaker is now equipped with stronger and more reliable buttons, and the tanned leather strap has become an elegant finishing touch to the product!

Big sound in a compact body

Beolit 20 has a small body with great portability. At the same time, the speaker sounds amazing A 5.5″ full-range woofer, combined with three 1.5″ full-range and two 4″ passive woofers, delivers an impressive bass output of up to 77dB.

This performance, combined with True360 omnidirectional sound technology, means Beolit 20 can easily fill most rooms in the home with Bang & Olufsen signature sound. You can also connect two Beolit 20 speakers to create a stereo system, or pair Beolit 20 with its predecessor, the Beolit 17, to get the most out of your new product!

Long-lasting pleasure

With a much more powerful battery, Beolit 20 now delivers up to 8 hours of playback time at normal listening volume.

Bang And Olufsen Beolit 20 Review: A Bluetooth Powerhouse

Beolit 20: Design

Beolit 20: Features

Beolit 20: Connectivity

Beolit 20: Performance

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: premium, portable, powerful

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: price and features

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: performance

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: verdict

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 review: also consider

Bang & Olufsen Beolit ​​20 at a glance

Bang & Olufsen introduces Beolit ​​20 portable speaker

Big sound in a compact body

Long-lasting pleasure

Bang & Olufsen Beolit 20 at a glance

Bang & Olufsen introduces Beolit 20 portable speaker