Sonos Roam, small but fierce [REVIEW]

There are more and more sound alternatives that come up, especially when we talk about mobility, and it never hurts to go down to the pool or go for a barbecue with our smart speaker and take advantage of it to liven up our afternoon as much as possible. Sonos noted the success of the Move and has wanted to make it smaller and more attractive.

Discover with us all its features and why Sonos now claims the throne of portable speakers.

As on many other occasions, we have decided to accompany this review with a video on our channel YouTube in which you will be able to see the complete unboxing, the setup steps and some other cool features like sound tests. We recommend that you visit our channel and take the opportunity to join the community of Actualidad Gadget, only in this way can we continue bringing you the best content and help you in your decisions. Remember that the comment box can accommodate all your questions, don't hesitate to use it. Did you like it? You can buy the Sonos Roam at THIS LINK.

Materials and design: Made in Sonos

The North American firm is capable of building devices with its own identity, and has been doing so for many years. In this case, the Sonos Roam inevitably reminds us of another brand product, the Sonos Arc. that we have recently analyzed. And it is that being honest, it is like a small copy of this design so attractive and that so many compliments has served the firm. It has a fairly compact size and the brand's own materials, with a unique body that completely gets rid of nylon to provide greater resistance. We opted again for two colors, white and black with matte finishes.

• Size: 168 × 62 × 60 mm
• Weight: 460 grams

Obviously it is not a light device, but it is that no self-respecting speaker is going to have a light weight, in this of sound products the extreme lightness usually means poor audio quality. This does not happen with the Sonos Roam, which also includes IP67 certification, it is waterproof, Dust resistant and can be submerged in water to a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes depending on the brand. We haven't checked these terms for obvious reasons, but at least the Sonos Move did certify it to us.

Technical characteristics

As it happens on other occasions, Sonos launches a product that is eminently designed to be used by Wifi, therefore it includes a network card compatible with any router 802.11 b / g / n / ac 2,4 or 5 GHz with the ability to play wirelessly. This is interesting to be compatible with 5 GHz networks, we know that not many speakers are compatible, in this Sonos Roam it is not lacking. However, we must not forget that Sonos is a small computer in the shape of a speaker, it hides in its heart a 1,4 GHz quad-core CPU with A-53 architecture that uses a memory 1GB SDRAM and 4GB NV.

• Google Home compatibility
• Amazon Alexa compatibility
• Apple HomeKit compatibility

All this makes the Sonos roam an independent device that has in turn Bluetooth 5.0 for those moments that take us far away from home, and for what this Sonos Roam is eminently designed. Apart from this, we will also have Apple AirPlay 2 which makes it fully compatible with the devices of the Cupertino company and with Apple HomeKit when creating multiroom events in the easiest way. All this allows us to enjoy SpotifyConnect, Apple Music, Deezer, and so much more.

Automatic TruePlay and Sonos Swap

The added value of the Sonos Roam is not only the aforementioned, although it may seem contradictory because it is the cheapest Sonos on the market, we find two software and hardware features that for the moment Sonos has not included in the rest of its smart speakers . We start with Sonos Swap: When connected to Wi-Fi and the play / pause button on Roam has been pressed and held, the speaker will signal other Sonos speakers on your network to emit ultrasonic frequency sound. Music will be transferred from the Sonos Roam to the nearest speaker in seconds.

We are now talking about Automatic TruePlayMany of you know that TruePlay is the environment analysis system for Sonos devices that allows us to obtain the best sound for each moment. Now we can activate an automatic function that guarantees us that the Sonos TruePlay is constantly working to offer us the best audio even when we are connected via Bluetooth, something exclusive at the moment of the Sonos Roam.

Autonomy and audio quality

We go now to the drums, without specifications in mAh we have a 15W USB-C port (adapter not included) and wireless charging support qi, whose charger we must buy separately for 49 euros. Sonos promises us 10 hours of playback, which in our tests have been reached approximately as long as we have the voice assistant disconnected and the volume exceeds 70%. To charge it we will take a little over an hour through the USB-C port, we have not been able to test the Qi charger.

• Dual Class H Digital Amplifier
• Tweet
• Midrange speaker

Regarding the sound quality, If we compare it with the rest of the products in its range, such as the Boom 3 from Ultimate Ears or a JBL speaker, we find a clearly superior product. Yes OK we have some noise above 85%, It seems inevitable due to the size of the product, in the same way that its quality is very high, the bottoms are especially highlighted. I was surprised by the enormous power of the device, the range of its integrated microphone. All this makes it the most powerful and highest quality compact portable speaker on the market for € 179., and surprisingly does not advocate a price that is excessive compared to the competition.