It’s been a busy week over at Sonos HQ, with the long awaited Sonos headphones finally arriving and now, a brand new speaker from the multi-room audio specialist too.
Well… sort of. The 2nd-gen Sonos Roam may well have the moniker Sonos Roam 2, but it all feels a bit Sonos Roam 1.5.
Not that that’s a bad thing; the Santa Barbara company have addressed a few niggles that I actually had with the original and made things a whole lot simpler for music on the go.
On the original Sonos Roam, the Bluetooth and the power button were one of the same and caused me all sorts of problems… accidentally switching the speaker off or initiating pairing mode when I just wanted to sync with my phone, and so on.
On the Roam 2, there’s a separate Bluetooth button to make things clearer.
Like the new Sonos Ace headphones, the Roam 2 is Bluetooth-out-of-the-box, so you don’t actually need to sync up with your Sonos system via Wi-Fi to get started, although you can of course get it singing and dancing with your other Sonos speakers in Wi-Fi mode too.
The design and the internals stay basically the same, so don’t be expecting an audiophile experience although the Roam punches ok for its form factor.
Obviously, the idea behind it being so compact is that it’s designed to be taken out and about. It could easily be slipped into a beach bag, sports holdall or suitcase, and accompany you to the pool, picnic, gym, park… wherever you want to take it really.
Portable showdown: Sonos Roam vs Sonos Move
The Roam 2 can ping a Bluetooth tune around your other Sonos speakers when you’re in range of them, meaning that you can use any music app on your phone that you like to send to the Roam 2 and then group the Roam 2 with other Sonos speakers.
You are also able, using ‘Sound Swap’, to fire the audio from your Roam 2 to a nearby Sonos speaker by simply holding down the play button.
This is a super handy feature for when you’re taking the party indoors and you want the music to carry on, on your better speakers. Sonos uses the ultrasonic frequency of nearby speakers to work out what the best speaker is to Sound Swap with.
The Sonos Roam 2, like its predecessor, offers Automatic Trueplay, so it adjusts dynamically to its surroundings, registering all of the different reflection patterns of each individual space (this can be turned off if you’d prefer).
Alexa is available for voice commands when on Wi-Fi mode and the Sonos Roam 2 is also an AirPlay 2 speaker, so you’ll be able to get your Sonos speaker singing and dancing within your Apple speaker setup.
The Roam 2 is IP67 rated, which means it’s fully dustproof and waterproof in up to one meter of water for up to 30 minutes; so a bit of rain or a splash from a pool shouldn’t do it any harm.
Battery life remains at 10 hours, and there’s still no replaceable battery option, which is a shame.
The Sonos Roam 2 is available now, priced at $179 / £179 in olive, sunset, wave, black or white.
