Sonos Roam 2 Review: One New Button, and Nothing Else Changed

The entire upgrade, listed

Same tweeter. Same mid-woofer. Same battery. Same Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC and AAC and nothing else. Same IP67 body, same size, same weight.

New: a Bluetooth button, and a logo that matches the colour of the speaker.

SoundGuys' summary is that this is more of a replacement than an upgrade, and that is factually correct.

And why that button matters anyway

The original Roam made you install the Sonos app and connect it to WiFi before you could use it as an ordinary Bluetooth speaker.

For a portable device that people buy to take to a beach, that was a strange requirement, and it kept a lot of buyers away.

SoundGuys, who found the WiFi setup frustrating enough to need extended troubleshooting and hit app bugs including EQ sliders that would not move, note that standalone Bluetooth operation is now perfectly viable for anyone who wants to avoid the app.

That is a small hardware change fixing a large software problem, and it is the reason to consider this over a discounted original.

It genuinely does survive things

Gear Brain took one to a beach. Sand, splashes, and an accidental fall into the ocean. It carried on working.

IP67 means dust-tight and submersible to a metre for half an hour, and that test is a better demonstration than the rating.

The sound, from three angles

Pocket-lint: unbelievable sound from a speaker this small, with clarity, power and resonance, and synth bass that moves air.

Gear Brain: big, balanced sound, clear and rich, while noting owners find it less loud and less bass-heavy than larger competitors.

SoundGuys: decent bass and treble from a tweeter and a mid-woofer, in mono.

They are all describing the same thing at different distances. For its size it is excellent. Against a speaker twice as large it is not, and no amount of tuning changes physics.

Trueplay, which measures the room and adjusts the output, works over WiFi and is the feature that most separates this from ordinary Bluetooth speakers.

Battery, honestly

Rated ten hours. Gear Brain achieved it. Pocket-lint says maximum volume gives less.

SoundGuys measured the original Roam, which shares this battery and these drivers, at 5 hours 23 minutes on a fixed-level test.

Both are true at different volumes, and the shape is the same as every portable speaker in this catalogue: the claim assumes moderate listening.

The two verdicts

Pocket-lint: five out of five, Editor's Choice, the best combination of performance, size, features and quality in a portable speaker.

SoundGuys: 7.4 out of 10, a minor refresh, recommended mainly to existing Sonos users.

The gap between those is the app. If you want a speaker that joins a Sonos system and you already live in that software, this is superb. If you want a Bluetooth speaker and nothing more, the button now makes that possible and you are paying for a system you will not use.