It’s no secret that Sonos plans to announce something next week. The company has sent virtual event invitations to the press, and we will engage. But it turns out that we do not have to wait that long to look good. the product; a report from The Verge contains a detailed breakdown of the new Sonos Roam, images and everything.
As predicted by earlier leaks, the Sonos Roam is a more compact Bluetooth speaker than the Sonos Move – the type of speaker you can keep in a backpack. It’s also a lot cheaper, with $ 169, rather than the $ 399 of the Sonos Move (as good as the speaker may be).
Here are the other details we learn from the report:
- It is small, only 6.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches.
- It weighs “about a pound.”
- USB-C charging and wireless charging (with a $ 49 dock) are on board.
- It should take about 10 hours at a cost.
- It is waterproof.
- The Roam can connect via Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth and supports stereo connectivity in Wi-Fi mode.
- It supports AirPlay 2.
- There are microphones on board for Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
And that’s what it’s about. The Wi-Fi connection should help differentiate it from most other Bluetooth speakers, as it can be easily integrated with existing Sonos-equipped households. Sonos also has a reputation for sound quality that I hope maintains with the Roam.
What I’m curious to see is whether Sonos uses the Wi-Fi connection for other home applications. Although this speaker is very small compared to Sonos’ other offerings, it can theoretically be used as a cheap surround or Atmos speaker in a small home setup.
To be clear, the report does not claim this functionality, but it is an interesting lead for Sonos that could help attract potential buyers into the ecosystem. Whether this is really feasible will depend on how loud and good the speaker is in the end – I think we’ll see soon.
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Published on March 4, 2021 – 19:24 UTC