Sonos roam v move12/2/2023 ![]() ![]() The company commits to a minimum of five years of software support for feature updates after it stops selling a product, but has a track record of much longer including bug and security fixes for its legacy products. The battery is not user-replaceable, but the company will offer a factory replacement service similar to most smartphones. Sonos rates the battery in the Roam for 900 full-charge cycles before a significant drop in performance, which is says equates to about three years of use. Sonos sells an optional £44 wireless charger that magnetically attaches to the base of the speaker, but any Qi-compatible charger should do it. It can also be charged via Qi wireless charging in more like four hours. It takes more than two hours to charge with a basic adaptor or faster with a more powerful 15W one. The speaker ships with a USB-A to USB-C cable, but no charger, requiring a 5V/1.5A (7.5W) or greater power adaptor, which should be most smartphone chargers. You can see battery life in the Sonos app on wifi or ask the voice assistant, but there’s no way to see it on Bluetooth other than a blinking LED when the battery is low. The Roam lasts for about 10 hours of playback on battery on wifi or Bluetooth, which is a bit short of key Bluetooth speaker competition but more than enough for a day’s music in the park or around the house. The power button is just above the USB-C charging port. You can also adjust the treble, bass and “loudness” in the Sonos app and create stereo pairs with two Roams while on wifi, but not Bluetooth. Still, I think it sounded slightly better when stood on its end than when laid horizontally. The Roam also has Trueplay, the system which tunes the speaker automatically, adjusting for orientation, environment and obstacles. It will handle anything from high-energy electronica to a string quartet with aplomb. But its separate mid and tweeter speakers give a real vibrancy and depth to music that is often poorly reproduced on competitors of this size. It doesn’t have really thumping bass, and while it is certainly loud enough for personal listening or in small groups – anything louder than 30% while on a table in front of you is really more than enough – it isn’t up to smashing out the beats for a large outdoor party. Its audio performance punches way beyond its weight and size, producing some of the clearest, crispest and most well-balanced audio even at high volumes that I’ve heard from a portable speaker. ![]() The Roam lives up to Sonos’s reputation for quality sound. The speaker sounds its best when playing something grand and melodic over wifi cranked up to at least 20% volume. They need an internet connection to operate so don’t work on Bluetooth. It has three mics built into it and works just like one of Google’s Nest or Amazon’s Echo speakers on wifi, answering questions, streaming and controlling music. The Roam also supports voice assistants from Google and Amazon’s Alexa, allowing you to swap between them. But it can also create an instant group with your nearest Sonos speakers or transfer music to or from them just by holding the play/pause button on the Roam. It can share music being streamed to it via Bluetooth with other speakers on your home wifi network. The Roam has a few tricks up its sleeve if you have other Sonos speakers. To use it outdoors you simply pair it with your phone via Bluetooth like a regular portable speaker. The speaker can also be controlled straight from the Spotify app or using AirPlay 2 on Apple devices. The Sonos app acts as a controller for playing music from practically every music streaming service available via wifi. You must set up the Roam on wifi using the Sonos app before you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker, but it only takes a couple of minutes. The Roam has three LED status lights: one on the top showing when the mics are turned on, one just above the Sonos logo showing when the speaker is turned on and one at the bottom showing when it’s charging.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |