Picked-up my Beotime from B&O Castle Street today. Declined Nick's offer of a demonstration using the shop display model........ for which I got a ticking-off from the wife at home as I fiddled around with the controls.
Batteries had been inserted with a tiny piece of plastic isolating the final connections.... removed the plastic and it came to life. TV suddenly started changing channels as I tried to work out the difference between menu and idle mode.
No complaints, and as has been said before in this thread, if you've got one on order you wont be dissappointed. Looks good and has a lovely feel to it. Contrary to some early reports the display does stay on at a low level and can be read if there is any source of external light, even very low levels. Touch it and the backlight comes on. Touching effect seems to vary...very gentle tap or just rolling the Beotime by a few degrees back and forth. But you can grasp it very gently and nothing will happen with the display until you've moved it around.
Displays turn-over as necessary. Overall I would say that the touch and movement sensitivity is just right.
Very powerful magnet in the wall cradle. I haven't fixed-up the cradle yet, but wonder whether the magnet holds the Beotime so firmly that this may be the situation where more than a light tap is needed to bring the display on? The battery compartment key is magnetically attached to the underside of the cradle...... but you would have no idea it was there unless you remembered or still had the instructions to hand at whatever date the batteries eventually need replacing. (Maybe you need to leave the paper warning tag in place for long-term reference).
How do you value this sort of thing? Well, you could imagine under different circumstances an exclusive jeweller offering something similar as a bedside alarm without the B&O control functions. It's very elegant and beautifully made.
Graham
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure. [W C Fields]