Review: The new Sonos Play has the right mix of sound and portability

Sonos has a new portable speaker.

This may not sound groundbreaking, given the company already has two portable speakers in its lineup, the Sonos Move 2 and Sonos Roam 2, putting the new Play smack in the middle in terms of size. But I bet the news put a smile on many Sonos fans' faces, as Play was just what Sonos needed.

The Roam 2 is portable (Sonos calls it ultra-portable, but we're not sure about that), but it doesn't come near other Sonos speakers in terms of sound. (One Mashable editor described it as "tinny.") The Move 2, on the other hand, sounds amazing, but it's just too big to be called a true portable Bluetooth speaker. I'm not kidding, it weighs 3 kilograms.

But the Sonos Play isn't just an ordinary product launch. It's part of a potential Sonos redemption arc following a disastrous 2024 app re-launch. The company has been off the audio scene as it solved software problems, making the Play part of a larger potential comeback.

After spending a week with the new Sonos speaker, I found it's just the right mix of portability and sound.

Not too heavy, not too small

Sonos sent me a black review unit of the Sonos Play 2 (it also comes in white), and as soon as I unpacked it, I thought this was the right size for a Sonos portable speaker. You can comfortably grab it with one hand, hand it over to someone, or put it in a bag. It's not super light, but at 1.3 kilograms, it's manageable.

On the back, you'll find a tiny carrying loop for extra portability, though I never found an actual use for it.

Design-wise, well, it's a Sonos speaker. Like pretty much every other Sonos, it's wrapped in a black mesh with an understated, black-on-black company logo on the front. On top, however, it has a rubber surface with buttons you need to actually press, unlike the touch buttons on the Move 2. It's not as fancy, but probably makes the speaker more resistant to the elements (Sonos says the Play is waterproof up to IP67 specs; the Move 2 only goes to IP56).

On the back, there's a power button, a Bluetooth button, a button that lets you disable voice commands, and a USB-C connector for wired listening (you do need a USB-C to 3.5mm dongle). The connector isn't needed for charging, as the Sonos comes with a charging base similar to the one on the Move 2. Thankfully, you can charge the Sonos Play with a USB-C cable if you're on the move and don't want to lug the charging base around with you.

A battery that will survive a camping trip

Battery life on the Play is rated for up to 24 hours, just like on the Move 2 (the Roam 2 only has up to 10 hours). In my experience, the Play's battery is good enough for about two long evenings of partying (in my age, that means having friends over for dinner and playing music in the background for a couple of hours). It might not be enough for a third.

At home or near it, battery is not an issue as there's always a way to easily charge the Play. But I think its battery is good enough to endure a short camping trip, and that's basically all you can ask for.

The Play also has a cool, last-resort trick for when your phone is out of juice: You can connect it (or any other USB-C device) to Play, which then acts as a portable 35Wh battery.

It's loud, but not very refined

The Play is loud, and it sounds good, but make no mistake: It's not anywhere near the level of Sonos Move 2.

The sound is punchy and precise, often leaving me surprised at just how deep the bass goes, or how clean a certain instrument is; a good test of both is John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme."

When things get more complex, however, such as when the entire band joins in full blast in Queens of the Stone Age's "Little Sister," the sound will get mushy and cramped, especially at loud volumes. In contrast, the Move 2 continues to sound amazing no matter the volume or genre.

It's not an entirely unfair comparison. Both speakers have stereo sound. The Play has one mid-woofer paired with two angled tweeters, and three Class-H digital amps, and the Move 2 has the same specs, though it has the more efficient, Class-D digital amps. Of course, that mid-woofer inside the Move is much larger, and I guess that makes all the difference.

One thing to note: Sonos Play has a "Loudness" setting enabled by default. You can turn it off in the Sonos app settings (it's buried under Sound — EQ), and I suggest you try it out both ways. When it's on, both the bass and treble get louder, which can sound attractive in certain genres and settings, but I preferred to keep Loudness off as it made the sound more balanced.

Another thing to note: The Play isn't one of those 360-degree speakers that sound good no matter where it's turned. It does cast a wide sound, but you still need to be facing it to get the best results.

The app isn't nearly as bad as you might think

Sonos made the wrong kind of headlines when it launched a big overhaul of its app in 2024. The new app was so bad that Sonos scrambled for years to fix all the issues, while apologizing to its users almost on a monthly basis.

I'm happy to report that, as it stands, the app isn't too bad. Adding new devices isn't a chore, and the home page, while sometimes confusing, can be (lightly) edited to be more to your liking. And while I haven't had any major issues, such as complete freezes or speakers dropping out of my system for no reason, there's still some room for improvement.

For example, finding the album I want almost always takes at least one step more than I'd like. If I just use the search function in the Sonos app by typing the artist's name, I'll get a combination of results from Apple Music, Spotify, and Sonos Radio (the first two require a subscription, and you need to connect them to the Sonos app for this to work). But tapping on the artist will only yield me a list of songs, with no obvious way to get actual albums.

I've found that the best way to get what I want is to limit my search to just one service (such as Apple Music), which gets me a more comprehensive list of results.

Also, some elements of the user interface can be slow and, frankly, baffling. For example, touching the volume slider in the app opens another card with exactly the same volume slider, but now your finger is in the wrong place to actually slide it. Why, Sonos?

It's not a huge deal, but little things like this do, eventually, make you wonder whether using the Sonos app over Apple Music, Spotify, or Tidal is even worth it.

Well, it is if you have more than one Sonos speaker.

In the Sonos app, I can just go to whatever's playing right now, tap on the speaker name at the bottom, and get a list of all the Sonos speakers in my home. From there, I can get my music to play on all the speakers or pick just the ones I want, as well as adjust the volume (both in general and for each speaker individually). Given just how great a Sonos system sounds when you have a couple of speakers in a room, especially with Trueplay enabled (the tech that optimizes the sound based on where the speakers are positioned in a room), this is a pretty great option to have.

You can do these things via AirPlay, of course. But it's easy to get lost when you juggle multiple speakers, devices, and headphones; I prefer to keep the Sonos system under the Sonos app umbrella.

As far as voice assistants go, you still only get Sonos's own, or Amazon Alexa; nothing else is offered. The Sonos assistant is alright, but in the age of super-smart AI, I sometimes wished it were smarter.

The right size, but the price isn't quite right

I guess the main beef I have with the Play is that I'm spoiled by the Move 2. Sonos' new portable speaker sounds good, it's loud enough, and has all the features you'd expect, with excellent battery life. But you just don't get the sonic nirvana that the Move 2 provides.

If the Play was offered at around two hundred bucks, which seems to be the sweet spot for a decent portable speaker these days, I'd say it's an instant buy, especially if you're already invested in the Sonos ecosystem. But the price for Sonos Play is $299 in the U.S. and (ouch) €349 in Europe, which is around $402, and that's a lot of dough for what Sonos Play offers.

I still recommend the Play if you want a truly portable Sonos speaker. Its bigger brother, as great as it sounds, is just too big to carry around. Just know that you're paying a pretty hefty premium for the name.