ISSUE 88 • ANDROID ADVISOR 99Nobuttonshere.TheBeoplayPortalfeaturesa TouchBarthatsmoothly
adjuststhe volumeas you slide your finger over it.
ordecreasesis Goldilocksperfect– and
it workedeverytime.I triedtoseeif I
could get the Touch Bar to misfireby
layingdownon a pillow or rubbing my
head on a headrest. The Portal would
have none of it.
Noise cancelling and
transparency features
Active noise cancelling is a modern
marvel; but when done wrong, it can
wreak havoc on a headphone’s sonic
performance. In my experience, B&O
has never had the best noise cancelling
performance, but they’ve always
delivered superior sound thanks to their
tuning. The Portal improves upon the
company’s ANC performance while
maintaining a
high bar for audio
reproduction. You
won’t hear any
overt hiss, and
the underwater
effect that so
many competitors
suffer from is not
a factor here.
My review unit
had two strength
settings for
transparency,
and two for
adaptive noise
cancellation. A B&O representative told
me a future firmware update will increase
this to five gradients for each, allowing
you to fine-tune each setting to your
environment and preference.
With ANC enabled, the Portal
provided a black background from which
music burst. I tested this headphone
in the presence of noise generated by
HVAC systems, boilers, air purifiers, and
more. In each instance, these cans did a
superb job of reducing ambient noise so
I could focus my attention on the music.
I did not, however, have an opportunity
to evaluate B&O’s new ANC algorithm
on an aircraft. And all that said, Sony and
Bose – in that order – still do active noise
cancellation even better.