"This magical little speaker could do for Sonos what the iPod did for Apple."
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Excellent design
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Lightweight and portable
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Completely waterproof and dustproof
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Very good sound for its size
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Selection of intelligent speaker assistants
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Wireless charging
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No Bluetooth stereo pairing
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Does not work as a speakerphone
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Less battery life than some other speakers
The $ 399 Sonos Move is a very powerful wireless speaker. When you're at home, it can be connected to the rest of your Sonos gear. Thanks to the built-in microphone, it can act as a smart speaker powered by Google or Alexa. On the go, the Bluetooth radio and 10-hour battery ensure a powerful, portable sound system. Well, maybe not that portable.
As good as the Move is, it will never be a grab-and-go speaker because it's just too big and too heavy. Go out onto the terrace from the living room? Grab the train. Going to the park from the terrace? That’s a different story.
But now we have the Sonos Roam for $ 169. It has all of the features of the Move (and a few more) but is only a fraction of the size, weight, and price of the Move. Is roam a breeze for Sonos fans? Let's try it out.
What's in the box?
Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
Sonos has long been a leader in sustainably packaged products, but the Roam is its best performance yet. It even includes a handy label to help you determine which parts can be recycled.
In the small, simply printed cardboard box you will find the Roam, a USB-C charging cable, a printed quick start guide and no reference to plastic or foam.
design
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The first thing you notice when you unpack the Sonos Roam is how small it is. Not only is it the smallest Sonos speaker by far, with a hair over 6.5 inches tall, it's also slightly smaller and lighter than many of the Bluetooth speakers it'll compete with, like the $ 120 JBL Flip 5 and the $ 150 Marshall Emberton.
The shape of the roam practically begs you to pick it up and take it with you.
Despite its small size, the Roam's minimalist design is a pure Sonos, regardless of how our test device comes in matte black or matte white.
The Toblerone style triangular shape isn't just for looks. it makes the roam extremely tangible. Point one of the three sides towards the palm of your hand, and your fingers will naturally curl around the curved edges along the other two sides. While the Move's integrated handle always feels a bit risky to grasp, the shape of the Roam practically prompts you to pick it up and take it with you.
The only thing missing is a built-in lanyard option for those times when you need your hands free.
You can stand the Roam vertically or lay it horizontally with the four built-in rubber feet to anchor it securely to your chosen surface.
In any case, the simple elegance of the Roam can be invisibly combined with almost any decor.
Sonos Roam (front) and Sonos Move Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
The physical controls are also very stealthy – a set of four buttons hidden behind a layer of rubber on the top, barely hinted at by their slightly raised icons. From a distance they disappear completely.
The loudspeaker grille with its thousands of tiny perforations fits seamlessly into the body of the Roam. It looks like it could be badly dented, but behind that thin layer is a much tougher hexagonal grille that gives the grille an impressive level of rigidity.
Two tiny LED lights hidden behind the grille indicate the status of the speaker: one light shows whether you are in WiFi or Bluetooth mode, and one that shows the charge level of the battery. A third light next to the microphone button indicates when the microphone is active. According to Sonos, this cable is permanently connected to the microphone circuit. When the lights are off, you can be sure that no one is listening.
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On the back is the USB-C charging port and a small power switch that is also used for Bluetooth pairing. When you're at home, it's a good idea to keep the Roam plugged in so it's always ready to play your music. However, if you're likely to move it around a lot, you should take advantage of wireless charging.
Sonos sells a custom Qi charger for $ 50 that is shaped to fit the bottom of the Roam and stays magnetically locked until you need it. However, I did not receive a charger to test. Not that it matters – any Qi charging mat does the job, and I found it very easy to just let the Roam sit on one when I wasn't carting it around.
Setup and configuration
If you're a Sonos owner, I don't have to tell you how easy it is to set up the company's wireless speakers. A few taps of your finger on the Sonos app, a few keystrokes on the speaker and less than two minutes later you are done. With the Roam, Sonos has made this process even easier.
Every technical product should be this easy to configure.
After you've connected the Roam to a power source using the supplied USB-C cable (or wireless charger) and opened the Sonos S2 app, the app will automatically prompt you to set up the speaker. It's very similar to how Apple's AirPods prompt you when you first open the charging case.
The next step is to tap the back of your phone against the back of the Roam. This should allow the speaker's NFC sensor to detect your phone for the process to complete.
Unfortunately, this didn't work with my iPhone 11, but after two failed attempts, the Sonos app offered another solution: the Roam gave a beep that was picked up by the iPhone microphone and the setup completed automatically, including adding the Roam to my Wi-Fi network. No buttons to press and no passwords to enter. Every technical product should be this easy to configure.
At this point, you can play music through the Sonos app, manage the roam as a single speaker or as part of a group of Sonos products, or stream audio directly to the roam using Apple AirPlay.
However, since the Roam can also act as a smart speaker, you may want to take the extra step of adding it to the Google Home app or the Amazon Alexa app – it only takes a few extra minutes.
Sound quality
JBL Flip 5 (left), Sonos Roam (center) and Marshall Emberton Simon Cohen / Digital Trends
In line with Sonos' reputation for products well above their weight class, the Roam sounds fantastic for such a small speaker.
It delivers a warm yet clear signature with a decent response considering how compact it is.
Indoors, the Roam is an ideal loudspeaker for smaller rooms.
If you have WiFi, you can use the Sonos app to adjust the bass and treble if you want to override the factory EQ – an optimization that's retained even if you switch to Bluetooth.
Indoors, the Roam is an ideal speaker for smaller spaces – such as a bedroom, bathroom or even a kitchen. Outside, it gets loud enough to host a pool party or a backyard gathering. Speaking of volume, the Roam is virtually distortion-free up to its loudest setting, and the speaker housing doesn't hum in an uncomfortable way, which can be the case with lower-quality Bluetooth speakers.
As you turn up the volume settings, the roam keeps the frequencies in balance – until you hit around 75%. Once you exceed this limit, the speaker simply no longer has a low or mid range and uses the high frequencies to reach maximum volume.
There is simply no way a speaker this size can deliver the deep bass or powerful sound of larger devices. However, when you place the roam in a corner – a tried and true way to improve bass response – it's surprising how deep the sound can get.
The roam outshines that JBL Flip 5 However, for clarity and sound quality, it delivers an almost identical signature to the Marshall Emberton.
The Emberton proved to be a little more flexible for outdoor gatherings thanks to its 360-degree speaker pattern, while the Roam is more directional.
In theory, the roam's automatic Trueplay feature will continually adjust the roam's sound depending on where you place it. It works whether you're using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and you won't find it on any other non-Sonos-branded wireless speaker.
In practice, I found it difficult to determine if Auto Trueplay actually made a significant difference. I moved the roam to different indoor and outdoor locations and turned Auto Trueplay on and off to see if I could see it. For the most part, the changes were barely noticeable even when I placed the speaker in places that should have caused a lot of adjustment (like the corner placement mentioned above).
user friendliness
If you've never used the Sonos app and Roam is your first Sonos product, it's time to pamper yourself. It's the best audio streaming software in the world other than none. Not only is it compatible with almost every streaming music source imaginable – over 100 so far – but all of this music is incredibly easy to navigate and find thanks to the universal search function.
The Sonos software is so good that it's reason enough to buy the Roam over any other portable speaker in its price range.
You can create your playlists and favorites that will work independently from the ones you may have already created in your music apps. If you have more than one Sonos speaker, you can control each speaker independently or as a group.
Most other Wi-Fi speakers rely on Apple HomeKit, Google Home, or Amazon Alexa for their multi-room capabilities. However, these cannot affect the extensive range of functions of the Sonos app.
The Sonos software is so good that it's reason enough to buy the Roam over any other portable speaker in its price range.
As with any other Sonos speaker, the controls are as intuitive as possible. The two volume buttons work exactly as expected, while the play / pause button can skip a track forward with a double press or backward with a triple press.
Switching from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth is also very easy. A long press on the small button on the back will put the speaker in bluetooth mode and the Roam will automatically re-pair with the last paired device.
Pairing a second or third device is a little more complicated. You must turn off the bluetooth radio on the currently paired device so that the roam can re-initiate bluetooth pairing. Once the second (or third, etc.) device is paired, you can control which device the Roam is talking to without repeating the pairing process.
Unfortunately, Sonos does not support stereo pairing of its speakers via Bluetooth. To do this, you need to be on your home Wi-Fi network and have a matching set of Sonos speakers. The roam can only be paired with a second roam in stereo, and even a paired set of roams cannot be used as surround speakers for Sonos Arc, Beam, Playbase or Playbar.
And despite the presence of a microphone, you can't use the Roam as a speakerphone – which is a bit confusing given the number of business people likely to pack the Roam in their pockets when traveling.
Smart speaker skills
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The Sonos Roam is by far the cheapest portable speaker that can also act as a smart speaker – and one of the few where you can choose between Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
It's amazing how easily the roam can hear and respond to your commands
I set it up with the Google Assistant. This process takes about two minutes and requires that you have the Google Assistant app installed on your phone.
Once you're ready, it's amazing how easily the roam can hear and respond to your commands. For fun, I placed the roam at one end of our yard and called "Hey Google" at the other end – about 40 feet away. The Roam heard and answered immediately.
Smart speakers are pretty darn handy and allow you to do everything from managing music playback to organizing your shopping lists to controlling smart home devices like lights and cameras. But smart speakers usually need to stay plugged in, which is why people often buy a Nest Mini or Echo Dot for every room in their home. Since the Roam is completely wireless, it can be used anywhere and will continue to function as a smart speaker as long as it has WiFi.
The Ultimate ears blast and JBL Link Portable can do this too, but they cost $ 10 more than the Roam and they only work with one assistant (Amazon Alexa for the Blast, Google Assistant for the Link Portable).
If freedom of choice is important to you, the Sonos Roam is clearly the best option.
Extras
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What makes the Sonos Roam such a remarkable speaker is its additional features. Some, like wireless charging, Auto Trueplay, AirPlay, and its ability to act as an assistant-free smart speaker are tangible benefits for anyone who buys it.
However, if you have or want to buy other Sonos products, there are other cool features available, such as: B. Sound Swap, which allows you to transfer a Wi-Fi streaming session to and from the Roam by pressing and holding the Play / Pause button. It only works with newer Sonos products like Sonos One, One SL, Beam, Move, and Arc, but it works just fine.
You can also use the Roam's Bluetooth connection as a source for your other Sonos speakers. For example, if you're away from home and using the roam as a bluetooth speaker, when you return home you can open the Sonos app and group your other speakers with the roam, which will then share the roam's BT session with the group.
It's also a great solution for giving guests access to your Sonos system without giving them your WiFi password or forcing them to download and install the Sonos app.
It's also a great solution for streaming songs stored locally on your phone – a feature Sonos offered in its app.
Battery life
With a claimed battery life of 10 hours, the Roam doesn't set any endurance records, especially when you consider that the JBL Flip 5 packs 12 hours and the Marshall Emberton packs 20 hours. On the other hand, the Emberton weighs 40% more than the Roam.
Still, 10 hours is probably more than enough for a day trip. If you need to add more playtime to the Roam, you can always bring a portable battery pack as the Roam (unlike the Move) can be charged from virtually any USB power source.
robustness
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With an IP67 rating, the Roam can handle just about anything you throw at it, from full immersion in water to a sandy day at the beach. That makes it a great companion for pool parties, as long as you're ready to dive in afterwards when it gets kerplunk: The Roam doesn't swim.
However, I am not convinced that the Roam can withstand drops on hard surfaces such as the JBL Flip 5 or Marshall Emberton.
Despite its thin rubber end caps, the body of the Roam is made of unprotected hard plastic that may crack or flake upon direct impact. Care should be taken to prevent this from happening.
Our opinion
Sonos packed so many features into the roam that it is easily the best value for a portable speaker.
Is there a better alternative?
You can find portable speakers with better sound quality, longer battery life, or louder volume, but you won't find one that offers all of the features of the Sonos Roam at all costs – including its more expensive big brother, the Sonos Move.
But if you're willing to forego WiFi, Apple AirPlay, voice commands, and the Sonos ecosystem, you get $ 150 Marshall Emberton sounds just as good and has a 20 hour battery.
If you're willing to forego a selection of voice assistants, Apple AirPlay, and Sonos Ecosystem, get $ 180 UE explosion has longer battery life and 360-degree sound.
How long it will take?
Sonos products are very well built. If you consider protecting IP67 from dust and water, it should last for many years as long as you protect it from severe shock. All Sonos products come with a one-year warranty.
Should you buy it?
Yes, I can only recommend Sonos Roam if you intend to start a new Sonos system, add it to an existing system, or use it all on your own.
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