Sonos, makers of whole home wireless speaker systems, just accounced a small but important addition to their line-up. The Sonos Roam ($169) is a portable bluetooth speaker designed to work both inside and outside the home. When it's at home, the Roam connects to your WiFi to integrate with the Sonos mobile app and with other Sonos speakers. You can play music from any of over 100 streaming apps, or directly from your phone or other mobile device. On the road, the Roam supports a bluetooth connection to your phone, PC or tablet. And its IPS 67 rating means you don't have to worry about sand, dirt, dust or water intefering with your mobile musical enjoyment.
The Sonos Roam weighs in at just 15 ounces and is a bit smaller than the average water bottle at 6.61 x 2.44 x 2.36 inches. According to Sonos, the Sonos Roam sounds like a much larger speaker thanks to its advanced design, high efficiency motor, custom racetrack mid woofer and separate tweeter. The Roam has a built-in farfield microphone array which enables control by either Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. The microphone also enables one of the speakers coolest features: Automatic Trueplay. With Automatic Trueplay, the Roam uses spacial awareness and the microphone to intelligently adjust the sound for the speaker's orientation, content and placement.
The Roam isn't the company's first battery-powered speaker - that would be the Sonos Move - but it's the first designed from the ground up to be truly portable. The Sonos Roam can play music up to 10 hours on a full charge and can last up to 10 days in sleep mode. It can be charged via the included USB cable or via any compatible Qi wireless charger. A slick matching magnetic wireless charging base is available for $49.
When you leave home (or technicaly when you leave the range of your home WiFi network), the Roam automatically switches from Wifi to Bluetooth, so you won't have to worry about fiddling with your phone or the speaker to get them paired. And when you get back home, you can take advantage of the "Sound Swap" feature - press and hold a button on the Roam to automatically swap the sound to the closest Sonos speaker in your home.
As far as controlling the unit, you can do that via voice (Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant), via the Sonos app, or touch controls located on top of the speaker itself. The buttons are slightly raised so you can operate the speaker without turning on the light (and possibly killing the mood).
The Roam is available to order now on the Sonos web site and soon on partner retailers like Amazon. The Roam will be available in black or white, shipping on 4/20/21 at a price of $169. We'll be sure to post more when we have a chance to check out it out in person.
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