Sonos Roam can share music with other Sonos speakers with one click
Sonos’ introduction of the Roam, its first JBL Charge equivalent, is almost certain. The details of the portable Bluetooth speaker are starting to leak out faster and faster. This time a list with the (full) feature set of the Sonos Roam has been published, showing that the speaker will receive a new ‘Sound Swap’ function, among other things.
Sonos Roam feature set
Sonos’ Move was the very first portable speaker from the American speaker manufacturer, but our review later showed that the speaker was only ‘portable’ to a limited extent due to its high weight. With the Sonos Roam, the company is going for a second chance, among other things with a lower weight and a much smaller size, according to the rumors that have been spread about the speaker in recent weeks. On Saturday, The Verge again managed to publish details about the upcoming speaker.
Several details of the forthcoming Sonos Roam seem to be one-on-one in line with the larger and more expensive Sonos Move, as is the case with Auto Trueplay, for example. The Trueplay function allows the Roam to adjust its sound based on its position in a room. For the Trueplay functionality, Sonos uses microphones that pick up the reverberation of sound in a room. Furthermore, you cannot link the Sonos Roam to Sonos Arc or Beam speakers, this was previously also the case with the Sonos Move.
Share music more easily
Although the Sonos Roam has many similarities with the Move, there are also details in which the Roam knows how to distinguish itself. Unlike the Move, the Roam can use its WiFi and Bluetooth functions at the same time. This can be useful if you stream music from your phone to the Roam via Bluetooth and then want to stream it via WiFi to all Sonos speakers in a room.
Sonos Roam compared to the Move, image: The Verge
Sonos’ Roam also has a unique Sound Swap function that allows you to send media played to a nearby Sonos speaker by pressing and holding the play / pause button on the Roam. After sending the played media to another Sonos speaker, the media will probably no longer play on the Roam. How this feature works doesn’t seem to have come out at the time of writing.
JBL Charge competitor
In terms of size, weight and price, the upcoming Sonos Roam seems like a direct competitor to the JBLs and Ultimate Ears of this world. A function that the Roam also has in common with speakers from both manufacturers is that it has been given an IP67 rating and can therefore spend 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter in the water. In other areas, the Sonos speaker surpasses both JBL and UE. Whether the Sonos can match the JBL Charge and UE Boom in terms of sound will have to be seen in the long term.
Sonos will likely introduce the Roam on March 9th. The Roam is expected to retail for $ 169. As with all rumors, it is wise to take the above details with the necessary grains of salt until the Sonos launch event takes place.
