Bang & Olufsen Beosound 6: You'll need a second mortgage

If you're struggling to peel open your frontal vision spheres this cloudy morning, we've got something to wake you with a jolt: an MP3 player with the functionality of the iPod nano, but for an expected price of £400. It's gotta be the work of those iconic Danish entrepreneurs, Bang & Olufsen, back with an uber-classy middle finger of an audio player.

The Beosound 6 follows on not from the Beosound 5 (which doesn't exist), but the Beosound 2 that we reviewed back in 2005. We didn't like it, aside from its exceptional sound quality. In fact, it sucked something royal considering its half-a-grand price tag. Despite a pair of years having passed since the BS2, B&O hasn't got the hint that charging stupid amounts of money for average gear will only attract the attention of idiots (read: celebrities).

So the Beosound 6 comes with 4GB of flash memory (that's £100 per gigabyte for the record) and a 46mm (1.8-inch) black and white screen. Aside from this, no technical specifications have yet been announced. MP3 and WMA support is certain, but unlike the BS2, the BS6 will surely support protected content. Battery life will sit around 20 hours and we doubt it'll have an FM radio, but it'll definitely boast a pair of B&O A8 earphones.

We'll be keeping you posted on this new toy and we'll have a full review for you as soon as humanly possible. In the meantime, consider looking over our written and video reviews of Cowon's new iAudio 7. It's a killer, and it won't require extensive refinancing. -Nate Lanxon