Sonos, today, announced its least expensive speaker till date. Dubbed Sonos Roam, the speaker promises to be “the best-sounding ultraportable speaker ever made.”
Sonos today announced its least expensive speaker, Sonos Roam, which starts at $169. The product will start shipping on April 20th, though the preorders are going live starting today. Announced at its virtual-event, Sonos Roam promises to be the best ultraportable speaker to date.
Roam is the smallest speaker Sonos has ever made, coming in at the dimensions of 6.61 x 2.44 x 2.36 inches, and weighs just under a pound. The speaker has more of a triangular shape, rather than the traditional round shape of the low-cost Bluetooth speaker. Sonos says that this design was intentional, and the speaker can fire audio ‘in every corner of the room.’ It is IP67 dust and water-resistant and promises to live underwater for around 30 minutes. Though we don’t recommend you to test this functionality.
Like its Move, Roam can stream music over both WiFi and Bluetooth. It comes with Trueplay technology, which streams audio based on the speaker’s environment. The speaker can even use a combination of both WiFi and Bluetooth to ensure high-quality audio streaming. Two Roams can pair up over WiFi and act as a stereo speaker. Though the functionality isn’t available over Bluetooth.
Read: Sonos Sues Google for Stealing its Smart Speaker Tech
Sonos has added a neat trick to the Roam. Called Sound Swap, you can ‘pass’ the music playing on the Roam to any Sonos speaker in your room by holding the play/pause button for three seconds. The speaker supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 and has an array of microphones for Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. You can even play music from the Sonos S2 app with integrated music services available right within the app.
Sonos say the Roam will get 10 hours of battery life per charge. There’s also a ‘low power mode’ that the device will immediately enter into when it’s not playing anything. It can be charged via the 15W USB-C port or any Qi-certified wireless charger. A wireless charger made specifically for the speaker will be available for $49.
What are your thoughts on Sonos Roam? Let us know in the comments section below!
