Sonos Roam: Compact speaker with Bluetooth and WLAN presented
With the Sonos Roam, a Bluetooth and WLAN loudspeaker has been introduced in a compact format. It can be controlled with the Sonos S2 app, Alexa, Google Assistant. In this article we will clarify what else the new speaker from Sonos can do.
There are a lot of Bluetooth speakers - we already have a few of them here on the blog tested. The Sonos Roam, on the other hand, only looks like a Bluetooth speaker, but can also do WiFi and much more. What makes it special is that it can be controlled with an app and voice assistant. If you have two Sonos Roam, you can use them as a stereo pair - for even better sound.
Sonos Roam: AirPlay 2, wireless charging and much more
The Sonos Roam comes with dimensions of 168 x 62 x 60 mm and a weight of about half a kilogram. Thanks to the built-in Bluetooth 5.0 and WLAN module with 2,4 and 5 GHz, it can be used for many purposes. When the user is out and about, the loudspeaker connects to the smartphone via Bluetooth. If you are then back within range of your WLAN, it will reconnect to your home network. We already know that from Sonos Move - but is much more portable than that one.
Under the hood are two amplifiers, a midrange and a tweeter. In addition, the equalizer can be adjusted by the user himself. In addition, like the Sonos Move, it also supports “Sonos Trueplay”, whereby the loudspeaker automatically “calibrates” the equalizer to the environment.
In your own WLAN you can use the speaker like a normal Sonos speaker: AirPlay 2, voice assistant and all functions of the Sonos S2 app are included. According to the manufacturer, the Sonos Roam can last up to 10 hours to make all of this fun. In idle mode (so that it always responds to Bluetooth connections and WiFi), the Sonos Roam lasts about 10 days. The speaker is refueled via wireless charging or USB-C. The latter is included, a magnetic Qi charger from Sonos is available for 50 euros.
The buttons on the top allow you to start and stop music, skip songs and adjust the volume. In addition, thanks to the IP67 certification, you don't have to worry next to the pool: Sonos Roam can withstand water up to a meter deep for 30 minutes. In addition, Sonos has presented the new "Sound Swap Feature", with which you can hold down the Play / Pause button and send the playback to the closest speaker in the system.
Sonos Roam: availability and price
From April 20, 2021, the new loudspeaker from Sonos will be available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other countries. The Sonos Roam is priced at 179 euros (RRP). "Lunar White" and "Shadow Black" are available as matt color variants. Here the Sonos speaker can be pre-ordered directly.