Sonos Play Review: Performance Meets Convenience

It’s smaller and extra moveable than the brutish Transfer, but giant sufficient to sound a lot fuller than the pint-sized Roam. It might sit fastened on its charging cradle to rival the homebound Sonos Period 100, or comply with you wherever. In different phrases, it’s the epitome of Sonos versatility, and now that it’s working correctly, it’ll be arduous to go up.

Play On

Opening the Play’s brown cardboard packaging feels equal components Scandi minimalism and sustainability, according to current releases just like the Arc Extremely soundbar. Inside, a white acoustic wrapping offers approach to a stout tubular speaker with a rubberized loop connected, measuring 7.6 x 4.4 x 3 inches and weighing slightly below 3 kilos. You’ll additionally discover easy setup directions and a wi-fi charging stand, however no wall adapter. You’ll want one that may provide at the very least 9 volts and a couple of amps (18 watts), however a 15-volt, 3-amp (45-watt) mannequin is really useful for “optimum” charging. Sonos says the adapter omission is about lowering e-waste, however will fortunately promote you one for $29.

In any other case, the Sonos app is all it is advisable get going. After the compulsory firmware replace, my Play was streaming on my residence community in minutes. Sonos hosts over 100 streaming providers immediately, and you may as well stream over third-party providers like Spotify Join, Tidal Join, Apple AirPlay, and extra. You’ll discover the speaker as its personal “Room” on the app’s essential web page, the place you’ll be able to swipe as much as group it with different Sonos merchandise in your community, or go into the settings to tweak choices like EQ, Room title (necessary when you’ve got multiple Play), and Sonos Trueplay to auto-adjust the sound to your atmosphere.

You’ll additionally discover a Battery Saver toggle, which is ready by default to close down the facility when it’s idle for too lengthy. It’s this characteristic that, based on Sonos, brought about my connection woes as I examined the speaker’s 24-hour battery declare. Sonos says it recognized the basis trigger, and after the firmware replace I’ve let the speaker energy down a number of instances, with no additional community disruptions over every week of additional testing.