After a bit of a hardware hiatus, Sonos is back with two new speakers, one of which is brand new to its lineup. The newest of the new is the Sonos Play, a $299 Bluetooth speaker meant to be used on the go.
The Play has a 24-hour battery life, physical buttons for play/pause, track skipping, adjusting the volume, and activating a voice assistant, and it comes with a charging dock, which is nice if you want to just slap your speaker down in the same place for in-home listening. Inside, there are three amps, two tweeters, and a woofer, which feels like a solid array as far as sound is concerned.
Feature-wise, the Play, which has microphones, also supports Sonos flourishes like Trueplay, which can EQ the speaker automatically for your room. You can also use the Sonos app to fine-adjust EQ if that’s more your speed.
While the Play isn’t the cheapest portable Bluetooth speaker out there, it feels well-positioned to take on competitors like Bose’s SoundLink Plus, which also comes with a $299 price tag—a pretty hefty sum for a portable Bluetooth speaker that you might not use all the time. Having tested Bose’s expensive SoundLink Plus myself, though, it’s hard to argue with the results—it’s a great speaker, and if Sonos’ Play can keep up, it might also be worth considering.
As for where the Play slots in for Sonos’ current lineup, it’ll land somewhere in the midrange: more expensive than the $179 Roam 2 speaker, but less expensive than the $499 Move 2.
Sonos Era 100 SL
If portable Bluetooth speakers aren’t your thing, Sonos also revealed a successor to its Era 100 speaker, the Era 100 SL, which, like its namesake, is a wired speaker and doesn’t have an independent battery. While there’s not as much that’s new here, it slots in as a cheaper option to the Era 100, though it does have at least one notable difference—there’s no microphone, so you won’t be able to use the Era 100 SL as a smart speaker. The internal configuration is the same, though (three amps, two tweeters, and a woofer), so if you like the sound of the Era 100 and you’re okay going mic-less, this is an easy choice for building out your Sonos speaker lineup since the Era 100 SL costs $189 as opposed to the $219 starting price of the Era 100.
While Sonos hasn’t released a new speaker in a while, the Play definitely feels like a solid comeback after the company’s recent stumbles with its app and the subsequent shakeup in leadership. Whether it compares well to competitors is hard to say until I hear it for myself, but on paper, I’m optimistic. Both speakers are available for preorder now in either black or white and will be available for general purchase on March 31.
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