Sonos’ First Truly Portable Speaker Is Here – But Is It Worth The Hefty Price?
While small and mighty, the $279 price tag hits hard.
Around this time last year, I was busy throwing my Sonos Move down the stairs and spraying it with a hose in my backyard — all in the name of testing out its durability.
The Move was Sonos’ first-ever portable and Bluetooth compatible speaker, a big deal for the company that had held onto that WiFi-only connection like Mufasa hanging from that cliff. Sonos talked a big game about the Move — it was water and shock resistant, built to be truly portable but still deliver the sound quality the American company was famous for.
The Move was a fantastic-sounding speaker, absolutely, but the ‘portable’ aspect of it was a little questionable — it was a bulky piece of tech, weighing about 3kgs, so it was hardly the kind of speaker you’d take to the park or throw in your bag. It was also very pricey, put on the market at an eye-watering AUD$649 — which is hardly the most expensive of Sonos’ range, but still…a big chunk of money nonetheless.
So the Sonos Roam, released last month, is the company’s first real foray into the portable speaker game. At a smidge over six inches high and weighing about 500g, it’s smaller than arch-rivals like the UE Boom and JBL Flip 5. Like all Sonos products, it’s sleek and elegant, eschewing the standard cylinder design of most other speakers in the category for a curved, triangular one. It’s dustproof and fully waterproof — the presser states that it can survive in one metre of water for 30 seconds, but it doesn’t float…a crucial detail. Perhaps don’t try to listen to ‘Mr. Saxobeat’ underwater anytime soon, but at least if you punch it off the pool ledge it won’t die.
Like the Move, it has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity — it will happily operate as part of your Sonos speaker family at home, and is easy enough to throw in your backpack to go annoy some people at the beach. It’s pretty durable — I spent a happy hour strategically dropping it and throwing it around a little and the music didn’t budge, nor did any massive marks appear.
As for battery, it’ll offer 10 hours of continuous playback on a single charge; it’ll last for up to 10 days in sleep mode. It’ll also happily power up on one of those nifty Qi wireless chargers. All that said, that’s a few hours less playback than its direct competitors.
You too can sip sparkling water and softly lay the Roam into a tote bag. Credit: Sonos
But What About That Sonos Sound?
Obviously, the Roam is not going to have the power of the Move or other Sonos speakers out there — but it packs a punch nonetheless. The sound is clean and balanced, and while you might not have the bass power of bigger speakers, or some similar-sized ones like the UE Megaboom, the EQ will satisfy most fussy listeners. More importantly, the sound doesn’t get muddled when you crank it up — the treble and mids hold their own and don’t skid off into the ether.
And let’s be real — this isn’t going to be the speaker you use to blast through a house party of 50 people. If you’re after a house shaker, look elsewhere.
Sonos have imbued the Roam with Trueplay Tuning, meaning the speaker will automatically adjust its sound according to its environment — which does actually make a noticeable difference — and unlike the Move, it works while on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
It also comes with a brand new feature called Sound Swap: by holding the play/pause button, the Roam will throw the music over to the nearest Sonos speaker. Which, sure? It’s a cool trick, although I’ve never really felt the burning need for a function like that.
You too can artfully arrange oranges on a picnic throw. Credit: Sonos
As Dads Say — What’s The Damage?
At $279, the Roam is one of the cheapest Sonos speakers there is (the One SL is $10 less). But like with the Move, that’s still a fair whack of money to be taking out of your wallet for a small speaker like that — especially when you consider that the JBL Flip 5 is $169, and the UE Boom 3 is $199. If you’re a causal music listener, are you really going to fork out nearly $100 more for the Roam?
If you’re already a Sonos user, you’ll like the fact it can slip into your existing speaker family and be easily transportable — and if you’re a stickler for sound, you’re going to prefer it to most other speakers on the market. For a picnic blaster, you can’t beat it.
Jules LeFevre is the editor of Music Junkee and apologises to her neighbours for once again blasting ‘Mr. Saxobeat’ at unforgivable levels. She is on Twitter.