Sonos Roam 2 evaluation: A Bluetooth button!

Sonos is on a bit of a roll. The business justrecently revealed its veryfirst earphones, the Sonos Ace earphones — earphones that I enjoyed when I evaluated them. But there are other brand-new items from Sonos too, consistingof a follow-up to its most portable speaker. The Sonos Roam 2 might not represent a enormous upgrade, however it does bring brand-new functions to an already-loved speaker.

The Sonos Roam 2 uses a coupleof style modifies and some brand-new functions while staying at the exactsame cost as before. Let’s get this out of the method right now — if you have a first-generation Sonos Roam, you mostlikely puton’t requirement to upgrade to the second-gen design. But, if you’re freshly looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker, the Sonos Roam 2 makes a major case for itself as the go-to alternative for those who focuson audio quality.

At $179, the Sonos Roam 2 is certainly more pricey than other portable speakers. Is it worth purchasing as a premium choice?

A streamlined and trendy style

For the most part, the Sonos Roam 2 keeps the verysame style as before, with a coupleof small tweaks. The logodesign color hasactually been altered to match the rest of the speaker, enabling it to mix in, and there’s a committed Bluetooth button.

The truth that the speaker is so comparable to the previous generation isn’t a bad thing. The speaker plainly has Sonos’ style perceptiveness, and looks right at home next to other Sonos speakers and soundbars. It’s plainly developed from premium products too — a mix of metal and a matte rubberized plastic.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

Speaking of construct quality, the speaker is developed for mobility, and it still has the verysame waterresistant construct. That’s a excellent thing — with IP67 water resistance, it’ll quickly endure splashes and rain, and oughtto be fine immersed in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. To be clear, you won’t desire to drop the speaker in water deliberately, nevertheless if it accidentally takes a bath, it must makeitthrough completely fine.

On the left side of the Sonos Roam 2 speaker, 4 buttons can be discovered. There are 2 buttons for volume control, a play/pause button, and a microphone button. On the bottom of the speaker are a coupleof additional manages: a power button and, brand-new for this variation, a devoted Bluetooth button. There’s likewise a USB-C port here, however that port stays exclusively for charging and can’t be utilized for wired audio playback.

Like other Sonos speakers, the Sonos Roam 2 is readilyavailable in black and white. However, it likewise comes in a coupleof other enjoyable colors, consistingof red, blue, and green. I like that Sonos hasactually branched out a little in colors for its portable speaker. It makes sense that you wouldn’t always desire a green soundbar, however a green portable speaker looks excellent.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, covered into one

For the most part, the function set stays the verysame on the second-generation speaker. However, the method you’ll usage the speaker is a little simpler. That’s duetothefactthat the brand-new speaker has a integrated Bluetooth button, which implies you can just turn the speaker on and link it to your gadget through Bluetooth without having to go through the setup procedure in the Sonos app . The addition of the Bluetooth button might be a little modification, however it certainly assists make the speaker simpler to usage daily.

Of course, you can still include the speaker to the Sonos app if you desire to, and if you’re a Sonos user with other Sonos speakers, you’ll mostlikely desire to do that. The Sonos Roam 2 isn’t simply a Bluetooth speaker; it can likewise link through Wi-Fi, which suggests that when you’re not utilizing it outside of the home, it can technically be utilized as part of your bigger multi-room speaker system. Sonos even offers a cordless batterycharger that can be utilized with the Roam to keep it continuously powered. However, the speaker can technically be utilized with any Qi cordless batterycharger as well. Sonos’ own cordless batterycharger supports 10W charging speeds, while most Qi cordless batterychargers max out at 7.5W. I didn’t have the Sonos cordless charging to test with.

Image source: Christian de Looper for BGR

The Sonos Roam 2 has a microphone developed into it and supports Sonos’ TruePlay innovation, which implies it can continuously tune your Sonos speaker. I truly like the TruePlay tech, nevertheless I’ve discovered it mainly helpful for speakers that are repaired in a area rather than those that