The Sonos Roam 2 is one of the recent releases towards the local market that focuses on audio portability that can be carried everywhere with ease. In this review we will focus on the compatibility and the quality it has to offer on this tiny set of speakers.
Design & Aesthetics
At a glance, the Sonos Roam 2 looks triangular with the almost flat bottom with all of the control buttons located on the left, while the power button, charging port and Bluetooth button is located at the back, which is just nice and convenient for charging. The only thing that is missing is the 3.5mm headphone jack for connecting devices that does not support Bluetooth or any form of wireless connection, however being marketed as a portable speakers, I guess that is totally fine since it has IP67 protection against water splashes.
The Sonos Roam 2 is weighted at 430grams only with Two Class-H digital amplifiers, one midwoofer and microphone that is cramped inside in a single design that is still impressive within the footprint.
Features, Experience & Performance
The Sonos Roam 2 is basically still a mono speaker, however if you have another Roam 2, you can connect it together and create a full stereo setup, and again, it is portable and it is not too hard to set it up, since it supports Bluetooth multi connect protocol from the start. Apart from that, the Roam 2 does support both Bluetooth connection and WiFi connectivity via the Sonos App which can be downloaded via Apple App Store or Google Play Store, giving it the ease step by step connectivity from your phone or tablet towards the speaker. If you are using a PC or Laptop, your only choice is to connect via Bluetooth without any additional application support.
Coming over to the performance, the Sonos Roam 2 can run on continuous playback near towards 10 hours, which is pretty impressive small size 18Wh battery, while recharging took about less than 2 hours which is good enough and within expectation. Audio wise, we tested it in a close room environment and it is loud enough for a small group of gathering around and listening to it. Quality of the audio wise, it has a pretty good balance in bass and treble when testing with various type of music, although it is still tested in a single speaker mode, but still the delivery of the audio level is still deemed at a higher quality for its size that it has with relatively low latency between the device and the speaker that one could appreciate. The same can be said for microphone quality as well, good enough for conferences and communications via any compatible apps. The last portion that we tested is the range, surprisingly the Roam 2 can be connected and play music between devices even over three rooms apart with walls and this shows it can be connected at a fairly far range.
Verdict and Conclusion
Overall, the Sonos Roam 2 takes portable audio entertainment easy at a quality that everyone can appreciate greatly with its small size yet powerful in it’s own right. Besides that it can be further paired with the same Roam 2 speaker to create a fast stereo enjoyment, and this is highly recommended if you are just a person that needs something small to carry around, or if you have some Sonos speakers at the same place with the reason that it can inter-connect and combine your audio devices over seamlessly, this is another worthy investment that one can consider to get. Price wise, it can be a little pricey at RM1199, but considering on what it has to offer with the sense of enjoying quality audio everywhere, you might want to give this one a shot.