An iconic name in the audio industry, Bang & Olufsen has just announced a new product aimed at gamers. The new edition of Beoplay Portal is an upgrade of the last year’s headphones with the same name. The new headphones add PlayStation 5 support, something that the previous model lacked, yet they cost the same. Overall, Bang & Olufsen’s new Beoplay Portal wireless gaming headphones cover three major gaming platforms: PC, PlayStation and mobile.
Well, according to Bang & Olufsen, the
Beoplay Portal headphones should be able to provide a rich audio experience
thanks to the two custom-designed 40mm drivers with neodymium magnets, which
also help with precision and faithful acoustic reproduction.
One of the important uses of neodymium is
as a component in the alloys used to make magnets like the ones found in the
Beoplay Portal. The neodymium magnets are pretty common in various products
such as microphones, loudspeakers, in-ear headphones, HDD (hard disks), and
even electric motors and generators. The catch is that neodymium magnets are
the strongest type of permanent magnet available on the market.
The Beoplay Portal also feature Dolby
Atmos for Headphones and Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation technology. Bang
& Olufsen has used a combination of feed-forward ANC and feed-back ANC to
further improve the typical active noise active technology. Interesting enough,
the folks at B&O have added something called “Own Voice,” which allows you
to hear your own voice while canceling out external sounds. Another important
thing to mention is that the Beoplay Portal headphones come with a new wireless
dongle that allows for faster connection across PC, PlayStation or any other
USB-C input device. Equally important for mobile gamers is that the headphones
feature Bluetooth 5.1 with aptX Adaptive technology. Specifically designed to
provide low-latency, low-bit rate, high quality wireless audio, aptX Adaptive
technology isn’t really new, but it’s something that you’ll definitely want in
your headphones if you’re planning to play on mobile.
As far as the battery goes, B&O claims
the Beoplay Portal offers a significant increase in battery life, providing up
to 42 hours of continuous playtime using Bluetooth and Active Noise Cancelation
(+18 hours), or 19 hours of wireless playtime with Active Noise Cancelation (+7
hours). Design-wise, the Beoplay Portal headphones comes with earcups that
feature touch sensitive aluminum discs, which are produced using a proprietary
anodization technique. The earpads are crafted from lambskin-wrapped memory
foam. Each cushion has a protrusion on the rear that confirms to the shape of
the user’s head making them very comfy to wear. The inner headband padding is
covered with a high-quality bamboo fibre textile. Also, they only weigh 279
grams, which puts it among the lightest wireless headphones on the market. As
I’ve already mentioned, the Beoplay Portal aren’t cheap at all, so if you want
these, you’ll have to come up with no less than US$ 500/€ 500. The headphones are
available starting today in three different colors: Black Anthracite, Grey
Mist, and Navy.
