Rumours and leaks about a bluetooth Sonos speaker have have been circulating for awhile now. And it turns out they were absolutely true.
The company just unveiled the Sonos Move at IFA and we got to spend a little bit of time with it.
This is the first time that Sonos has developed a product for outside the home and extensive stress tests were undertaken to make sure it was up to the challenge.
In addition to drop, tilt and dust test, it was also put up against snow, sand, sweat and even sunscreen. However, don’t try to submerge it anytime soon, it only has an IP56 water resistance rating.
I was fortunate enough to experience it by the banks of quaint German river during European summer, and it was difficult not to be charmed.
The sound was impressive, loud and crisp. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a proper testing environment. But I enjoyed what I heard.
When used in the home it works the same as any other Sonos speaker attached to Wi-Fi, including the ability to pair to other Sonos devices.
Once out of the home it switches to bluetooth and gets 10 hours playback, 5 days on standby and a charger in the box. So you get a good amount of juice out of Sonos’ first battery powered speaker.
One can subsequently imagine how this could be something worth taking on a picnic or somewhere else pleasant in the outdoors. Until you actually pick it up.
The press materials haven’t revealed the the exact weight, but there sure was a noticeable heft to the thing.
Picking it up by the rear handle, I didn’t struggle with it, but it seemed a little too inconvenient to take on adventures outside of the home.
While I can’t speak for everyone, until there is a lighter and more compact version of the Sonos Move, I can see this working more in an outdoor garden space.
Still, it’s a sleek looking device and like its home-bodied predecessors comes with a choice of voice assistants, every music streaming service and access to the Sonos app.
If you’re keen on the Sonos it will be available for pre-order from today and will release globally on September 24. It will have an RRP of $649.
But wait, there’s more!
Sonos also unveiled the Sonos One SL, which is literally just the Sonos One but without microphones, which means no voice assistants. It’s $30 cheaper too at $269 and is available for pre-order today, with it going on sale on September 12.
Ans finally there is the Sonos Port. Much like the Connect before it it extends the Sonos system to traditional stereos and receivers. That bad boy is going to cost $599 and will have limited availability until January 2020.
The author traveled to IFA 2019 as a guest of Lenovo.