It is no secret that Sonos is planning to announce something next week – the company has sent virtual invitations to press events, and we will be tuned in. But we found that we didn’t have to wait so long to get a good look at the product; a report from The Verge broadly details the new Sonos Roam, with images and everything.
As predicted by previous leaks, Sonos Roam is a more compact Bluetooth speaker than Sonos Move – the type of speaker you can keep in a backpack. It is also much cheaper, costing $ 169, instead of $ 399 for Sonos Move (as good as that speaker is).
Here are the other details we learned from the report:
- It’s tiny, only 6.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches.
- It weighs “about half a kilo”.
- USB-C charging and wireless charging (with a $ 49 dock) are on board.
- It should last about 10 hours on a charge.
- It is waterproof.
- Roam can connect via Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth, and supports stereo pairing in Wi-Fi mode.
- Supports AirPlay 2.
- There are microphones on board for Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
And that’s it. Wi-Fi connectivity should help to differentiate you from most other Bluetooth speakers, as it can readily integrate into homes equipped with Sonos. Sonos also has a reputation for sound quality that I hope it will maintain with Roam.
What I’m curious to see is whether Sonos takes advantage of Wi-Fi connectivity for other home applications. Although this speaker is positively small compared to other Sonos offerings, it could theoretically be used as an inexpensive surround speaker or Atmos in a small home theater system.
To be clear, the report does not claim this functionality, but it would be an interesting advantage for Sonos that could help attract potential buyers to its ecosystem. Whether this is really feasible will depend on how loud and good the speaker actually turns out to be – I think we’ll see it soon.
Did you know that we have a consumer technology newsletter? It’s called Plugged In – and you can sign it here.
Published on March 4, 2021 – 19:24 UTC