Where this beats other small Bluetooth speakers like those from Ultimate Ears, JBL and others is it has more bass and sounds a little fuller with decent clarity. It's not up to the same level sound-wise as the Sonos One or the Move, which produce more sound with more bass, but it's closer than I thought it would be and can fill a small to medium-sized room with sound. And my first reaction after setting it up was, wow, this sounds really good for a speaker this size. I had some fun moving the Roam from room to room, as well as outside like I would any Bluetooth speaker. The USB-C charging port and power button are on the side of the speaker. The Roam has buttons on top for controlling music playback and muting the microphone. But it took several button holds and releases to finally get the speaker to show up in the Pixel's menu for Bluetooth pairing. The power button next to the USB-C charging port doubles as a Bluetooth button and allows you to put the speaker into Bluetooth pairing mode. Where things got a little trickier is when I wanted to switch the Roam over to Bluetooth on a Google Pixel 4 XL Android smartphone when I was out and about and using the Roam as I would a typical Bluetooth speaker. I initially linked the speaker to an iPhone 12 Pro and the transition from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth seemed to work smoothly over the three days I tested it. The Move doesn't do that you have to manually activate the Bluetooth on that speaker. But what's new is that when you're away from your home network the Roam will automatically switch over to Bluetooth and switch back when you're within range. David Carnoy/CNET Wi-Fi at home, Bluetooth on the goĪs noted, like the Move, this speaker also has built-in Bluetooth. The Roam has an IPX67 water-resistance rating, which means it's fully waterproof and dustproof. (Sonos moved to its new S2 app last year, creating some havoc for owners of legacy Sonos devices that aren't compatible with the new app, bifurcating users' multiroom setups.) It also supports Apple AirPlay 2, so you can cast audio directly to it from an Apple device without using the Sonos app. This model, like Sonos' earlier Move portable speaker ($400, £399, AU$649), is equipped with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and can tap into your existing Sonos multiroom audio system and link with other Series 2-compatible Sonos speakers. I'm happy to report that to a large extent it does, at least compared to other speakers of similar size and weight.Īvailable in white or black for $169 (£159, AU$279), the Roam is currently Sonos' smallest and most affordable speaker (if you don't count those $99 Sonos-compatible Symfonisk Ikea Wi-Fi bookshelf speakers), though it's fairly expensive for a mini wireless speaker. Sonos calls the Roam "the best-sounding ultraportable speaker ever made." That's a big claim, so needless to say, as soon as I got my hands on a review sample, I was eager to hear whether it lived up to that lofty billing. Pricey compared to many mini Bluetooth speakers Voice-enabled (on a Wi-Fi network) with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa Automatically switches between your Sonos home Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth
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