Sonos Roam will include Auto Trueplay and new ‘Sound Exchange’ feature

On Tuesday, Sonos will present its latest product called Sonos Roam, which The Verge extensively detailed a few days ago. Now I can share a little more about the new features that will be launched first on the tiny speaker to take anywhere.

My previous report presented the basic specifications of Sonos Roam. Measuring 6.5 inches long and weighing around a pound, the portable speaker offers up to 10 hours of battery life on one charge. Like Move, it supports voice commands for Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Sonos plans to sell it for $ 169, and Roam will launch in April.

But now for the new things:

• Sonos Roam will include automatic Trueplay.
  As the most expensive and largest Move, Sonos is building its Auto Trueplay audio tuning feature right on Roam. The speaker will use its built-in microphones to calibrate performance based on the environment around it. This can make a real difference in echoey rooms.
• You can play music via Bluetooth for your entire Sonos system.
  Sonos designed Roam so that it can use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth simultaneously (with Move, you had to choose one or the other). Connecting to both at the same time will allow you to play a song from your phone or other device close to Roam over Bluetooth – and that song can also be played on the rest of your Sonos system for multiple rooms.
• “Sound Swap” allows you to switch music from Roam to another Sonos speaker.
  Another new feature exclusive to Roam is what Sonos will call Sound Swap. If you hold the play / pause button, Roam will send the currently playing song to any nearby Sonos speakers. I don’t know all the details about this one, but my guess is that it involves using Bluetooth Low Energy to find out which speaker is closest.
• Roam is rated IP67 for dust and water resistance.
  This means that it is completely dustproof and waterproof in up to one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. This puts Roam on an equal footing with the EU Wonderboom speaker.

The photo at the top of this story is another new image that facilitates a size comparison between Roam and the largest and most expensive Sonos Move. And this is what the optional wireless charger looks like:

The biggest question I can’t answer is how it sounds. Can Sonos do well in its sound quality history with such a small speaker? I’m optimistic, the answer will be yes – but don’t expect miracles.

Automatic trueplay can help Roam stand out from many of the Bluetooth speakers with which it will compete. An UE Boom or JBL Charge will always sound the same, no matter where you place it. But if Roam can adapt itself noticeably to the environment, that will be a differentiator. And this sound switching trick certainly seems to be useful for a possible pair of Sonos headphones …

We will be covering any other news that Sonos has to share on March 9th. In case there are still some surprises on the way.