The Pine Beat portable Bluetooth speaker uses swappable 30-hour battery packs, and has been designed with easy servicing and upgrading in mind.
It'll be available in June for £170 (around $227 / €199).
Few manufacturers design their portable Bluetooth speakers with longevity in mind, but that's exactly what UK firm Poca Audio does. Its latest release – the Pine Beat – promises to be "loud for life".
One of the problems with even the best Bluetooth speakers is that their batteries can fade over time – the more you recharge them, the more quickly the batteries will wear out. And because most portable Bluetooth speakers are sealed units, that makes them hard and uneconomical to update when the battery loses its maximum capacity. That inevitably means many of them are destined for landfill.
However, the Pine Beat speaker is modular. It has been designed with replaceable bits, including the battery.
"We're here to stop this shameful waste with a speaker designed for life," explains Poca co-founder and product designer, Aaron Ox.
Pine Beat portable speaker: features and pricing
The Pine Beat is a portable IP67-rated Bluetooth speaker with a swappable battery pack and a design created with longevity in mind. The firm gives the example of updating the circuit board with a future Bluetooth chipset to keep it current – although as there's already Bluetooth 5.3 in the device, so that's not a pressing concern.
At 40W, it's loud for its size. It features a custom 2.5-inch driver for mids and bass, a tweeter for the highs and a two-inch passive bass radiator.
There's a custom EQ, so you can tweak the sound, and if you're feeling flash you can pair it with up to 100 additional speakers to really upset the neighbours. The frequency response is 58Hz to 20KHz.
You don't need to wait for the battery to expire in order to benefit from the swappable design – the 2,600mAh battery packs are relatively affordable so you can pack a spare for longer trips.
Each pack delivers up to 30 hours of play time and a full charge takes 2.5 hours. And you can use the Pine Beat as a power bank for other devices too.
In addition to the speaker itself there are multiple accessories, including a handle strap that doubles as a hanger, a magnetic base, and a ground peg for beach days, BBQs or picnics.
The Poca Pine Beat will ship in June 2025 with a 30-month warranty and costs £170 (about $227 / €199 / AU$350). Additional battery packs are £25 (about $33 / €29 / AU$51).
