We've had ours installed for 24 hrs and I thought I would report our experiences.

Compatibility

1.  Whereas the European versions have limited compatibility with the Euro versions of BeoLine 1, BeoCom 6000 Mk2 and BeoCom 2, it turns out that BeoCom 5-US/BeoLine 2-US is completely incompatible with BeoCom 1,  BeoLine 1-US, BeoCom 6000-US, and BeoCom 2-US.  This is because these other US systems run at frequencies other than 1.92Ghz, which is what BeoCom 5-US uses.  Euro BeoCom 5 uses DECT 1.9 Ghz, whereas the US version is DECT 6.0.

1.1 We've decided to operate BeoLine 1-US and BeoLine 2-US side by side in the backwall of a storage space.  They do not interfere with each other because the older one is 2.4GHz, the newer one is, as noted, 1.92GHz.  We are thus able to keep a bit of variety.  The downside is that phonebooks are not shared across terminals made for each system and each system's terminals cannot page each other.

USB

2. Both BeoLine 2 and BeoCom 5 are powered via transformers which have a female USB connector.  Each device has a device-specific plug on the device side and a standard fullsize flat male USB connector on the transformer side.  The dealer told us we can power BeoCom 5 from anything including a computer, but the manual states one should use only B&O authorized accesories.  The BeoLine 2 manual states one should only use the supplied USB transformer, which outputs 5V (USB standard) and 0.7A.

2.1 The black USB transformers are made in Germany.

Speakerphone base/charger

3. One can unplug the speakerphone and take it elsewhere; it is then powered by the handset's battery for up to 4 hours of talk time.  We found no difference in loudness or quality from a plugged speakerphone base to an unplugged one.  Volume levels are adjustable only during a call, with levels from 1 to 8.  This is annoying because volume cannot be adjusted while one is ringing another party.  We found performance very lacking at volumes 1 and 2, as our caller's voice quickly shifted (<1s.) from barely audible to audible to barely audible.  I speculate this is because of some sort of haywire echo-preventer or ambient-noise adjuster.  In our environment, in repeated blind tests, volume 4 produced results indistinguishable to the user and to the caller from the speakerphone on our BeoCom 3, which features a world-class speakerphone.  The BeoCom 3's speakerphone, however, produces outstanding results at any volume save the very highest of its range.

Handset

4.  In my initial excitement, I tried to make my first call putting the screen-side to my ear, like all other phones, so my initial call was less than successful and ended up hanging up and needlessly checking my cable connections.  Beware of your future visitors and BeoCom 5!

4.1 The handset is very light.  Weighs a lot less than an iPhone and I think less than a BeoCom 1/BeoCom 6000.

4.2 This morning the handset was accidentally dropped 29 inches / 74 cm to a marble floor —it wasn't me.  Careful inspection revealed no scratches or dents.  Even better performance than our first BeoCom 6000, which dented almost imperceptibly on a corner edge under similar conditions.

4.3 The phonebook can store up to three numbers per named entry: home/mobile/work.

4.4 Missed calls are reported as "New Calls".  This announcement will not go away until you manually hit OK to see whose calls you missed, even if you make calls and happen to call these same people.  This behavior is similar to BeoCom 3, but at least BeoCom 3 does not stop showing the clock while at idle because of this.

4.5 Hitting L1 while on an L2 call hangs up L2.  It is required that one depress HOLD prior to switching lines.  This is the same as BeoCom 1 but not as BeoCom 3.

4.6 I want my BeoCom 1/6000 keyboard back!  You can operate a 6000 with your eyes closed .  Key 5 on BeoCom 1 even has a protuberance so you can align your fingers for eyes-up operation.  The BeoCom 5 keyboard is an atrocious step back in usability.  On the other hand, BeoCom 5's keyboard is backlighted.

4.7 The graphics on the screen are modern, B&O-like, well designed, and attractive.  Great use of "watermark" graphics to show which line one is using.  The screen's technology, however, is passé and inferior.  Colors shift depending on one's angle to the screen.  There are eight colors to thematize the user interface.  I liked white-red because it matches BeoPort for Windows (as I recall), but we settled on white-orange.

4.8 BeoCom 1/3/6000 still used the same mechanical wheel from 1998 and analogous to the 1st generation iPod of 2001.  BeoCom 5's wheel, while still mechanical, is now a clickwheel like the one first introduced in the iPod Mini of 2004, meaning that the wheel itself can be depressed at various points in its circumference, in addition to retaining the original center button.  I love it.

4.9 If BeoCom 5's screen and keyboard backlight is dimmed, lifting or moving the phone turns it on.  Very nice.

4.10 Speaker base, Beoline 2 and BeoCom 5 all made in Czechia.  All our other BeoCom kit going back to BeoCom 2400 was made in Denmark.

4.11 Products ordered 25-Nov and arrived Dec-18.  Price $785+tax = $839.95, no extra shipping charge.

Conclusion

All in all, an easy to use, high quality modern phone that will still turn on and control volume on our BL 2000 and 3500 and control volume on our BS 3000.  A worthwhile adieu and last-in-the-line for Bang & Olufsen telephones.  

Very interesting and helpful information. As I have preordered I think it's really good for me to read the report.

thank you very much for this!!!!

Best regards

Spiros

XavierItzmann:

4.10 Speaker base, Beoline 2 and BeoCom 5 all made in Czechia.  All our other BeoCom kit going back to BeoCom 2400 was made in Denmark.

Conclusion

All in all, an easy to use, high quality modern phone that will still turn on and control volume on our BL 2000 and 3500 and control volume on our BS 3000.  A worthwhile adieu and last-in-the-line for Bang & Olufsen telephones.  

"Made in Czechia" ... very sad for B&O! 

 

« "Made in Czechia" ... very sad for B&O! »

 

Oh well, these days a VW Phaeton V8 has an engine made in Hungary and a Porsche Cayenne is assembled in Slovakia.

So long as a product maintains the design integrity for which the firm is known, I'm OK with its place of manufacture.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up.  This is very useful information.

I'm still on the fence...  I think the handset is too small and a little blah, but I would like a phone that doesn't interfere with my with Wireless1 and Wifi...

Stan

Just out of curiousity, what does this phone's frequency offer for those of us in the USA?  Is the fact that it isn't 2.4ghz making it less likely to interfere with 802.11g WiFi?  I've moved on to 802.11n WiFi at home, but I still have to have a smaller network running 802.11g to run the iPhones.  I've never noticed any interference from my Beocom 1s (which I think are 2.4ghz), but who knows.

 

M

Stan:

I'm still on the fence...  I think the handset is too small and a little blah

 

I agree that at first blush the handset by itself looks like something you may have seen before.  But if you think about it, this home wireless phone's design is better than most other non B&O wireless home phones you can purchase.

In phone design, you have large mobile phone firms such as Nokia, SonyEricsson and Apple which have the resources to hire good industrial designers and implement their ideas.  You also have smaller organizations building wireless phones for home use.  I think BeoCom 5 roughly sits at the design level of the best of Nokia/SE/Apple and kilometers above the standard anonymous or adolescent  design in home wireless phones.

In my opinion, the handset by itself does not look much different from any number of anonymous mobile phones out there, generally speaking... however, there is a big and major exception in the middle which is the gorgeous metal clickwheel.  And still the clickwheel may be overlooked by some, so one might think... oh it looks like last year's mobile.  But compare it to the industrial design on any wireless phones sold at Best Buy.  I think these often seem designed by look-at-me art school students.

So, this is just another Nokia-looking handset, right?  By itself, maybe.  But B&O has a trump card: the speakerphone base.  Sitting on it, the handset acquires a whole other dimension.  It really looks like a Bang and Olufsen product, i.e., like absolutely nothing else.

Still, there is no accounting for taste!  Some will like it, others will not.

BeoNut1:

  I've never noticed any interference from my Beocom 1s (which I think are 2.4ghz), but who knows

 

I live in a 36th floor and anytime I bring a new 802.11 device home, the devices see at least a couple of dozen bases from my neighbors.  Pretty scary.  And still, from year to year I have a chance to see that my communications speed maximum is set by my DOCSIS cable modem and not by my Airport wireless router.  So I think that somehow the 2.4GHz 802.11 devices manage to live with each other at a level that is acceptable to me.

There are three items that I have seen nuke each other:

1.  My microwave oven slows down Airport 802.11 communications to a crawl, whether b, g, or n.  No interference perceived on BeoComs, though.

2.  I was not able to operate our old BeoCom 6000 simultaneously with our BeoCom 1.  Even setting the bases rooms apart, they killed each other with noisy (drummer-band like) voice communications in both sides, though I seem to recall the older 6000 suffered significantly more.  So the 6000 is in storage.

3.  Our Xlink BTTN Bluetooth gateway that enables our cellphones to ring on the house phones collides mightily with BeoCom 1 (Bluetooth and Airport use the same 2.4 GHz frequency).   The BeoLine 1 base hangs on the backwall of a closet the furthest distance away possible from where the Bluetooth gateway sits; otherwise, the drummer-band shows up during calls.  The Beoline 2 and BTTN are temporarily sitting contentedly close to each other with no perceived interference.

Per the Wikipedia, DECT 1.92 GHz is "less likely to experience interference from other wireless devices such as baby monitors and wireless networks".

The interference between my wifi, BeoCom 1s and Wireless 1s is not consistent, and has been much improved now that most of my wifi is n.  However, there are times when the wireless1 causes "tapping" on the BeoCom1, and times when the wifi degrades - especially when the wireless1 + BeoCom is active.  It's not huge problem.

I agree that the BeoCom5 is light years ahead of any other non-Beo wireless phone.  It's just that I already have 2 BeoCom 1s and a BeoCom3 (as a speaker phone) so I guess I don't need the BeoCom5, and, so far, the design hasn't grabbed me.  Maybe in a few years when the BeoCom 1s start to look "big and clunky"

Stan

Came back from vacation and there was a letter from B&O U.S. (Illinois) in our mailbox, dated 12/30.

The bad news:

«We have received feedback that some BeoCom 5's are experiencing intermittent sound quality issues.  Based on a review of serial numbers, we have determined that your particular handset and/or base are among those affected.»

This is the issue to which I had referred on my original review of 20.December: "We found performance very lacking at volumes 1 and 2, as our caller's voice quickly shifted (<1s.) from barely audible to audible to barely audible.  I speculate this is because of some sort of haywire echo-preventer or ambient-noise adjuster."

During the following few days before we left for vacation, it became clear that the issue was more severe than we had thought at first.  After two work-related conference calls, my wife simply stopped using BeoCom 5 and went back to BeoCom 3.  I left this as an issue to be sorted with B&O after our January return.

The good news:

This will be fixed via software update available after January 25th at our local showroom.  It will take 20 minutes.

The very good news:

«In order to thank you for your understanding, we would like to give you a COMPLIMENTARY pair of A8 Earphones valued at $160.  Simply bring this letter and your receipt»

The weird news:

«we hope you can appreciate that this was a human error at our production lines in Denmark and is not a reflection of the quality of the product you have in front of you»

Look, I couldn't care less that my phone's boxes state "Country of origin: Czech", a wonderful Republic of which I was 20 kms away just a couple of days ago.  It would be interesting, nonetheless, to visit the BeoCom 5 production lines in Denmark, don't you think?

XavierItzmann:

The weird news:

«we hope you can appreciate that this was a human error at our production lines in Denmark and is not a reflection of the quality of the product you have in front of you»

Look, I couldn't care less that my phone's boxes state "Country of origin: Czech", a wonderful Republic of which I was 20 kms away just a couple of days ago.  It would be interesting, nonetheless, to visit the BeoCom 5 production lines in Denmark, don't you think?

hmm, that sounds strange and funny... I think you (B&O) shouldn't lie to your customers! :-)
But it would be nice to do the factory tour in Denmark and simply ask "Can we see the Beocom 5 production?" Than everybody should make a photo of the managers face getting white ;-))

 

When can we expect the beocom 5???

And they key here is that the factory in the Czech Republic was built and is being run by B&O directly.  It's on the European continent, which has more of a history in manufacturing, and electronic manufacturing, along with being in that part of Europe which has a history of people known for innovation, especially in electronics.  Think Tesla. 

This is unlike other products from other manufacturers that are outsourced to China, where factories are under contract to churn out goods, and are often not directly owned, or controlled by the main parent company.  And then when they are owned and somewhat controlled by a Western or European company, the plant is located thousands of miles away, so quality control suffers. 

I am a big believer in the proximity of a manufacturing plant being close to where the products are developed, considered for marketing, and most importantly available for good oversight of the quality control.  Many factories in Asia churn out products in which they have no real vested interest as to their quality or failure rate, since it's not often their brand name on the product.  They are often more interested in only getting the product on the boat, so they can get their letter of credit paid by a Western or European bank of the manufacturer. 

I just hope that B&O does not move in the direction of Asian outsourcing, other than maybe some products from Japan, possibly.  No disrespect intended for Asia.

Sorry to be so long winded about this, but many people often have little idea what's involved in manfacuturing.  The bottom line is that you pay for what you get.

>>It would be interesting, nonetheless, to visit the BeoCom 5 production lines in Denmark, don't you think?<<

They still do have some operations in Denmark that are used for testing and product development. 

That said, I know some do not favor the move east however as times and market environment changes they need to make many uncomfortable moves to survive and this one most customer will not worry about.

When you poke around here, I do see mostly software or electronic component related issues - I rarely recall an assembly related issue.

 

My wife is somewhat mortified because on the one day a week when she works from home she is unable to conduct conference calls with the wireless BeoCom 5 speakerphone, and must instead rely on the wired BeoCom 3 speakerphone —and the wired phone is not in one of her preferred locations.

I called the dealer today to see if by any chance they had already received the updated software —hey, I know the letter said "after January 25th," Monday, but I figured they may have received their upgrade box already today; maybe we could schedule an appointment for this weekend?

 

waltoninn:

I just hope that B&O does not move in the direction of Asian outsourcing, other than maybe some products from Japan, possibly.  No disrespect intended for Asia.

Well - The BeoVision 8's are all produced in Taiwan and the Earset 1 Home is to my knowledge partly or fully produced in China...
Having said this, the products still go through a strict quality control in Denmark.

I believe the labels on at least the BV8's are stating "Made by Denmark" instead of "Made in Denmark".

Update today: my dealer tells me the software the dealer received for test purposes... did not really work.  So they are waiting for Struer to send a further revision.

Funny comment from the gal with whom I spoke: "you know, these Europeans don't know anything about how our phones work.  They know about sound, but not about our phone system".  

XavierItzmann:

Update today: my dealer tells me the software the dealer received for test purposes... did not really work.  So they are waiting for Struer to send a further revision.

Funny comment from the gal with whom I spoke: "you know, these Europeans don't know anything about how our phones work.  They know about sound, but not about our phone system".  

It's just a funny comment from someone who doesn't seem to know what he's talking  about ;-)

But seriously:

I hope that B&O soon fixes the problem and we can buy the phone here in Europe; if it works on those crappy american networks without problems, it should work everywhere! :-)

 

Update today... dealer called and advised:

1.  SW Version 1.7 is being tried by dealers but has not been approved for U.S. customers.  The software addresses most concerns, but two problems remain:

1.a Voice cuts in an out randomly.  Turning phone on or off provides relief for a while.

1.b BC3 sometimes cuts off calls for no apparent reason or restarts itself.

 

2.  B&O is feverishly working on an update

3.  Once the final update is ready, which is expected during March, I will receive a call and someone will come to my home to update my telephone.

4.  The (smart) chap took advantage of his conversation to try and sell me a BV-10 which will be available in the U.S. from July onwards.  I'll go visit his store once he puts it up on a wall.

Update today... Since the dealer never called back and it's been over five weeks since they last called me, I went ahead and called them.

1.  The dealer received a sw update version, they had expected this version would work, alas!, it failed to address a couple of concerns the dealer had.

2.  "B&O is making it «interesting»"

3.  Dealer expects resolution in a couple of weeks, but dealer also says this «may be optimistic."

 

I am left with several thoughts:

(a) The behavior I have seen from B&O regarding this debacle is eerily similar to that of technology firms at their last gasps.  Promises made, promises broken, deadlines missed, little progress towards resolution.

(b) It is quite possible B&O understands very little about modern software development.  Modern, successful companies today ship sw and update it based on customer performance on an as early-as-possible basis, learning more on each cycle from the wide customer base and their thousands of unique scenarios and circumstances.  B&O's failure to provide even interim, intermediate steps and improvements is baffling or archaic, or both.  One is tempted to predict the final version will be quite imperfect due to lack of a broad base of users.

(c) It's been over 160 days since my purchase.  I like to think as myself as unusually patient.  One wonders about the damage being visited to the brand.  Is it possible the management thinks that because this is a soon-to-be-dead telephone division this does not impact consumer's perception of the core audio/video reputation of the company?

Is Sw 1.70 still the latest Software version?

I really cannot believe it has taken 160 days with no resolution.  Perhaps B&O outsourced this software development (like everybody on this board thinks they should) and the vendor is now busy on other contracts now.  Outsourcing can be a double-edged sword...  Or worse, perhaps they let the staff go since they're not making any new phones...

As to your comment about software, it's easy to update software frequently to devices that are on-line (in fact, some (like me) might argue "too easy", since developers can then take the attitude that the software must not be perfect since we can just release a fix tomorrow - not the attitude I want in my developers).  However, software updates to a non-internet connected device like a phone is much more problematic.  You've got to bring the phone in, somebody has to hook it up to whatever machine downloads the software (best case) or open it up and replace a chip (worst case), now take it home.  Do you really want to do this a few times if it is not actually fixing the problem?  Your dealer and/or B&O probably thinks he is doing you a favor by not giving you these intermediate releases...

Stan

I just received very latest version (ordered in March, just received... had to wait for software fix)

Even making vol. 8, still very hard to hear, specially at outside. Maybe I'm too used to the other B&O's analogue phones but

this is not so nice. Speaker on the other hand, once placed it works brilliantly. I hope B&O find way to remote fix this issue.

XavierItzmann:

Speakerphone base/charger

3. One can unplug the speakerphone and take it elsewhere; it is then powered by the handset's battery for up to 4 hours of talk time.  We found no difference in loudness or quality from a plugged speakerphone base to an unplugged one.  Volume levels are adjustable only during a call, with levels from 1 to 8.  This is annoying because volume cannot be adjusted while one is ringing another party.  We found performance very lacking at volumes 1 and 2, as our caller's voice quickly shifted (<1s.) from barely audible to audible to barely audible.  I speculate this is because of some sort of haywire echo-preventer or ambient-noise adjuster.  In our environment, in repeated blind tests, volume 4 produced results indistinguishable to the user and to the caller from the speakerphone on our BeoCom 3, which features a world-class speakerphone.  The BeoCom 3's speakerphone, however, produces outstanding results at any volume save the very highest of its range.

 

sofware fix...What software do you have imakino