REVIEW
Sonos Roam Portable Speaker
By Michael Potuck
April 6, 2021
Sonos Roam
Sonos unveiled its new ultra-portable speaker last month along with opening pre-orders. Ahead of the Roam arriving to the first customers later this month, we were able to test out this slick new speaker to see how it compares to other options in the ultra-portable category along with the larger Sonos Move portable speaker.
1
Features
Sonos Roam comes with an impressive list of features that matches the competition and goes beyond with additions like AirPlay 2, Qi wireless charging, auto EQ with Trueplay, auto-switching between Bluetooth/WiFi, and more.
2
Materials and build
Sonos Roam uses a triangular prism shape that makes it easy to grab, place on its side, or stand up. It uses a durable rubber on the bottom and top for drop protection and those end caps are also concave so the buttons aren’t accidentally pressed. And the Roam base offers handy Qi wireless charging.
3
Design
Four small rubber dots on one side of the prism offer a stable non-slip base when you want to use Roam horizontally. Around the back, you’ve got the sleep/power button and a USB-C port for wired charging.
4
Setup
The setup process is smooth and easy but there are a few steps to get everything going. First, you need to use the Sonos app to set up Roam over WiFi (required before you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker). It automatically shows up as an AirPlay 2 speaker after that but you’ll need to add it to the Home app to get Siri functionality going.
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