Sonos Roam Portable Smart Speaker, (Black)
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product Type | Ultra Portable Smarter Speaker | Ultra Portable Smarter Speaker | Portable Smart Speaker | Wifi Smart Speaker | Wifi Speaker |
| Bluetooth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Voice Control | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Water/Moisture Resistant | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Portable | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Suitable for Outdoor Use | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Colour Available | Black, White | Black, White | Black, White | Black, White | Black, White |
| Dimensions & Weight | 168 x 62 x 60 mm; 0.43 kg | 1.68 x 62 x 60 mm; 0.43 kg | 240 x 160 x 126 mm; 3 kg | 162 x 120 x 120 mm; 1.85 kg | 162 x 120 x 120 mm; 1.85 kg |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 6 x 17 cm; 400 Grams |
| Model: | ROAM1R21BLK |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | SONOS |
| Dimensions: | 6 x 6 x 17 cm; 400 Grams |
I love this thing, sounds incredible, easy setup but you must remember to hold the on button for two seconds till the light goes blue! Then it comes up in list of Bluetooth devices! Enjoy!
Very good once you get it working! First one I had had to be returned to Sonos as there was an issue and when you change your Wi-Fi it’s better to factory reset it to make it work again as the setting up is the most painful experience ever.
The Sonos one speaker 2nd generation is a great speaker. Connects with other Sonos speakers. The Alexa and Google assistants are great. Overall brilliant sound. May be more expensive than other speakers but worth the money for the sound experience.
Nice speaker, built well, and great sound. Considering the price I was surprised it didn’t come with a case, bit dissapointing. If it had a case I would have given 5 stars
I’ve purchased many-a-Sonos product, but the Roam, despite having plenty of neat features, has been the most problematic so far for me. The good — It’s stylish, and sounds great with nice bass and crisp treble. It’s handy to use Alexa to play songs while you’re in the shower. Being able to use it horizontally or vertically is underrated. The bad — AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth is very unreliable on the Roam. I had to return one and get another because I thought it might have been a hardware defect. Nope, just buggy software. Sound swap (with my Beam) doesn’t work like it’s advertised. Haven’t had problems with its short battery life but I can see it being an issue for others. Hoping that all of this will be ironed out with the Roam 2, but until then, I’m cautiously enjoying mine.
Easy to set up, fantastic sound, robust and life proof.
So the sound is great, plenty of volume and once you get over the trickiness of the Sonos app (you can just Bluetooth onto this so no worries if you don’t want to set that up) has a really clever and fun design.
The battery life of ten hours is more than enough for any adventure you might be on, but if you are long hauling a cheap battery pack will work wonders, but if you are looking to use this for a few days without worrying about charging it might not be the one for you.
Value-wise, it’s pricey, you can get cheaper speakers but, it’s a premium product and you are getting what you pay for, so it’s very much spot on.
Don’t be put off by reviews complaining about battery life. I can only think they haven’t figured out how to turn it off. I’ve turned mine off come back a week later and still got the same battery life as when I turned it off.
Sound great for the size. I use it mainly as a bridge to connect my Bluetooth record player to my sonos sound system without have to pay the ridiculous price of a sonos connect. I also have a portable Bluetooth speaker now.
My only negative would be I wish there was a different button to connect the Bluetooth. It’s the same as the on off button. This can take a bit of getting used to as I turn it off every now and then instead of connecting. Other than that I’ve had no problems connecting to Bluetooth. Very simple really.
My old speaker was dying and I chose this one as it seemed to be good quality and stylish with future thinking technology and a good price tag. Very happy to report that is exactly what I received
Top quality sound from Sonos, a little expensive but hard to find a better outdoor speaker.
Good range with no issues upto approximately 40 meters from the router.
A little fiddle setting it up but once done no problems at all with connectivity when used with the sonos app.
I found it annoying to set up, but once you do it’s very practical. I’m mostly using it with a Bluetooth connection to my phone. I connect from my bed first thing and then play radio 4!
I am particularly picky when it comes to speakers. I have tested out JBL flip 6, Harman/Kardon Onyx 4, bose soundlink, UE Megaboom 3 alongside the Sonos Roam.
Short review:
Sonos roam is fairly easy to set-up despite what you might read, you have ro download an app and connect to WiFi. You can add Alexa or Google voice assistant, you have a good equaliser and feels quality.
The sound quality is exceptional, it produces a really rounded sound, clear mids and highs and decent bass, which can be modified with the equaliser. For features, ruggedness, portability and sound quality it’s the best speaker i could find under 200. And I tried lots!!
Long review:
I compared the Roam to 4 speakers. JBL flip 6, Bose soundlink, ue megaboom 3 and H/K onyx 4… the Sonos was the winner.
Sound quality: The Hardan/Kardon was the winner her but the Sonos was not that far behind. The H/K is around 225 and is much bigger therefore that’s expected. However, the sound difference was only really noticeable at high volumes.
The Roam v Bose soundlink 2 is a really close call too, but I think the Roam slightly edges it.
The Roam v JBL FLIP 6, there is no competition, the JBL flip 6 mids and highs are poor
The Roam v Megaboom 3, the megaboom has an echo sound that means it doesn’t sound as premium as the Roam, but the megaboom does get very very loud so if you like it super loud then it might be what you want. But the Roam is no slouch in volume.
Features: the Roam and the megaboom are pretty equal in terms features. The sonos easily has the best app out of all the models, it has a decent equaliser, alexa and Google voice assistants and has plenty of decent playlists too which is a nice surprise!
The other either have no real features or very limted.
You can pair up several roams together to create a stereo but I haven’t done that.
Portability and ruggedness: the sonos is smaller than expected and is in fact the smallest speaker that I have tried. For this reason I expected it to under perform. But somehow SONOS have done some magic as the quality it produces is impressive. This means that it truly portable. To take abroad or in a bag no problem. This is where JBL also is good. However, H/K is massive so is only portable around the home really. The megaboom is portable but is bigger than it looks in pictures!
Overall, I wanted a portable speaker that I can use on holidays and when working. But I want it to produce clear and quality sound. Therefore, the SONOS is the best speaker for me and I’d be surprised if there is a better one under 200.
* If i only wanted a speaker to use at home then I would have gone for the Harmon/Kardon onyx 4 as the sound is incredible, but it’s too big to be truly portable.
This speaker is awesome, great sound, punchy for its size. Great addition.
Have a number of Sonos products and this didnt fail to impress. Charger should be included
A good sound and works via Wifi or Bluetooth. Links to my Sonos system.
Good sound, fills a small hall, has its own app and can have multiple devices accessing it, one at a time.
Set up is cumbersome. When you see how easily a new smartphone can now be set up and data transferred from the old one, you look at the set up of the Sonos Move and think ” Gosh! This is clunky!!!” A lot of hit and miss, number of visits to various websites for help etc. Ok once this is done.
I don’t know why people are saying it’s hard to set up as it’s so simple and such a fantastic piece of ki
Whilst the sound is very good, I have found that I have to charge the battery more often than I expected.
I don’t understand the difficulties people have had setting up the Sonos Roam. Yes, you need the Sonos S2 app, but if you already have a Sonos system running on S2 it’s very simple and quick. If you’re totally new to Sonos, then I wouldn’t buy the Roam. There are probably better, less expensive Bluetooth speakers available. The Roam sounds amazing, my only slight concern at this stage is that battery life doesn’t seem great, but I’ll keep and eye on that.
Nice looking, neat but the battery life isn’t that long
We already have sonos, so this product lets us carry the sound with us when we’re doing housework or whatever.
It’s easy to set up, if you’re familiar with the Sonos app then this is just like adding a new speaker, if you’ve not used Sonos before then just give yourself some time to understand it better.
The sound quality is great for the size, and battery life is great for what we need.
I’ve had Sonos products for 7 years now, and have had to call technical support once during that time. They were incredibly helpful, I highly recommend their systems.
This review is the from the viewpoint of a someone using the speaker at home. I have a cheaper bluetooth speaker for outdoor use.
This is certainly not for everyone. If you will mainly be playing party music and need loudness and thumping bass above all else then there are cheaper speakers that will fulfill these criteria. This has a much more balanced and clear sound. It’s not small-sounding by any means, just not a party animal. I was using a much cheaper Tribit StormBox and compared to the Roam, the StormBox is a bass-heavy muddled mess. The Roam is in a different league, as you would expect for the price. Trueplay is also brilliant, it runs in the backgroud and optimises the sound for whatever environment it’s in. Works brilliantly in our bathroom.
The other thing worth mentioning is that setup is a cinch if you are an existing Sonos user, for both iOS and Android users. I mainly use Android and it took maybe 1 minute to add it to my app. Operation has been flawless, and works just as slickly as the other Sonos speakers.
I’m afraid I can’t comment on bluetooth connectivity, or how it works for people new to Sonos. If you are just looking for a bluetooth speaker then this is probably overkill. Without the Sonos app you will lose a lot of the functionality. If you’re sharing the speaker with multiple members of a household then each person would need to re-pair the speaker to their phone when they need to use it. In the Sonos ecosystem, everyone would have the app on their phone and would be able to control the speaker at any time, without needing to pair with it. Enable voice control and you won’t even need to use the app to play music.
I’m very pleased with it. The sound quality is just amazing for a small portable speaker, and it’s just what I was looking for.
Having received this for my birthday I was surprised how small it is, but am rather impressed with the sound that comes out of it.
The battery life isn’t as expected from the description, after a few hours of music playing it needed charging again, which needed the plug changing as it wasn’t powerful enough to charge the little speaker.
But considering I only wanted it for the sound reputation, the battery life isn’t such of a big issue for me.
The sound quality is great and you can use Bluetooth to cast from an Android phone so it does everything I want. However I have two gripes…the bluetooth is tempremental, I thought to start with it wasn’t working but there is a knack to it, even so I sometimes have to try several times before it comes on. The other gripe is that when the battery is low – you do get a warning chime – but a few minutes later it switches itself off but when you put it on charge it comes back as being on (but Bluetooth is off) so I then have to turn it off which I find annoying. The battery doesn’t last long either – I recharge it daily and I don’t listen for long periods. Maybe it lasts better with an iPhone and when you’re not having to use Bluetooth? I think it’s worth buying for the great sound quality but it could definitely be improved
The hardest part of the installation was charging up with coloured flashing lights everywhere, each of which was supposed to mean something. I just left it plugged in in the end and it charged up just fine. From theron installation was easy. I already had the Sonos app on my phone and it recognised this device and quickly had it up and running. The sound quality is really good for a device of this size and it looks good anywhere you put it. Very happy with this purchase.
Great size makes it perfect for travelling / picnics. It does seem to constantly run out of charge though, even when it’s not turned on. Make sure you check the battery level before taking it out!
Nearly didn’t buy this to replace a broken cheapo portable speaker due to the various adverse reviews on setup, battery life and overall use. However, I wanted to have an Alexa and Siri controlled device I could use indoors (bathroom) and out and my existing Sonos devices (beam and 2 x play1’s on Samsung qled) are magnificent, so I went for it.
From the (all cardboard – wonderful!) box it got itself onto my Sonos2 network in moments, Bluetooth pairing to iPad easy, slight issue when similarly connecting to iPhone as Bluetooth wouldn’t pair, however starting Spotify and selecting the Sonos roam as speaker worked immediately. Could this be the issue several people reported, trying to get it onto your device Bluetooth list ? This tech is clearly smart enough not to have to do this. Playing on Bluetooth outside for an hour left 85% battery life, which is fine for me. It switched itself off so no standby battery-draining issue I could see (this variously reported by other reviewers) and the sound is excellent – very good bass for such a small speaker and treble range wide (better than my Robert’s radio). All-in-all, I would say as an addition to your Sonos network it’s worth it, especially if your network stretches outside. I would imagine there might be better sounding Bluetooth/network speakers but with the Sonos build quality and robust design (seems pretty much bullet proof), alleged waterproof and dust proof qualities it absolutely hits the mark for me – 5 stars!
Easy to use and the sound quality is pretty good a nice bit of ki
Great sound as per any Sonos Device, only thing letting it down is the battery life! Doesn’t hold up as long as I’d wish
Good quality speaker easy set up however recommend buying a stronger USB c Cable for charging as mine broke within a few days of having i
Amazing sound from such a small speaker, I know Sonos are good but OMG awesome sound and do powerful..love i
Easy to set up onto WIFI with SONOS app. Bluetooth works fine, although instructions could be clearer. Power button is effectively multi function – 1 sec standby, 2 sec Bluetooth (light goes blue) and 5 secs power off. Sound is superb for such a small speaker, miles better than my UE Boom. Not cheap though. Docker worth buying but makes it a total over 200, which is top end for little Bluetooth speaker. However, as I say sound is fantastic.
Set up was a bit more fiddly than I would have liked, but this is because I had all of my existing products on their legacy S1 system, whereas the Roam needs the S2. Not a problem, but would have liked an indication of what I needed to do in the instructions enclosed, rather than having to google.
The speaker is great and I really only have one complaint – you cannot link in stereo mode with another one unless you play music through Sonos. Minor point, but hope they’ll fix via a software update.
Battery life is good (indicated 10 hours, and based on usage so far that looks about right). Would have given 5 stars if that had been a bit longer, but it’s still pretty decent.
Can definitely recommend Sonos products – their quality is superb and they do just……work!
Brought this for the Sumer for outdoor events and activities and was shocked by just how small it actually is. Ive had portable speakers before but they are always much larger, and the sound quality on the SONOS is spectacular. Worth the money in my opinion.
Excellent sound for such a compact speaker. Fantastic quality that I have come to expect from Sonos.
Really hand to be able to take around
Bought as a present. A great new small weatherproof portable speaker from Sonos. Clever design good looks / build quality and really great sound.
Uses Sonos App 2 on smart-phone for streaming music direct or via wifi. Li-On rechargeable battery enables all day portable listening. Charge via cable or using magnetic charger base (sold separately) – a neat unit.
I’ve since listened to the Roam speaker whilst streaming music outdoors and I was amazed at the sound quality and volume capability.
Voice control (eg Alexa) also great.
Love it – we have Sonos throughout the house – and this is perfect for outdoor listening – our wifi signal is strong enough to use the speaker in the garden and for it to play the same music in the house – you end up not playing it as loud to hear it in the garden which is nice.
We used if for BT speaker on a weekend away – connection is easy and it doesn’t get confused when you want to get back onto the wireless app at home.
Sound quality is good – it sounds much louder than you’d assume but different to that of a Play 1 but better than you’d expect on it’s own.
Battery seems decent we had it on all day for a family BBQ and it was only down to 40% it was on for well over 8hrs. Hopefully this doesn’t decline over use. Will get a couple of charging docks. Use it in my office alongside my Play 1 – it sounds better when the 2x of them
I’ve had a few portable speakers and my previous favourite was a Bose. However, the SONOS Roam not only sounds better but integrates seamlessly with my existing SONOS setup. It took a couple of minutes to set-up and was very easy, so not sure why some less favourable reviews complained about the set-up. I’m guessing those reviewers are used to just pairing a Bluetooth speaker to their phone/tablet. You need to connect the Roam to your wifi, so you can take advantage of the SONOS ecosystem. You can also connect via Bluetooth if you want. It’s all quite simple and quick.
I find the battery life to be fine. If you just put the speaker to sleep (by pressing the power button) it does drain the battery when not in use, as it remains connected to wifi. It is better to hold the power button for 5 seconds to switch it off completely when you have finished listening to it.
The sound quality is excellent for its size. The treble is crisp and clear and it has a good bass without sounding too artificial. It’s amazing that something so compact can have such a full sound. I’m very impressed with this speaker.
Great product from Sonos only downside had to bug the wireless charger in addition to the speake
A nice bit of kit. Hopefully the battery will not lose its capacity for quite a few years.
Connected to existing system and working within 2 minutes. Sounds pretty good. Not sure about battery life as haven’t run it much yet. Only really has one failing – it costs twice as much as it should. Also it’s 159 everywhere – which sounds like price fixing.
Perfect partner to my Sonos Move the work perfectly together. I can’t believe the sound quality of such a small device. Handy to take in the Moho
Great sound from a small speaker – easily linked to existing system
It does exactly what it says on the tin, great for use in the shower and if close by great in the garden excellent Sonos sound
Just received so first impressions
Small good sound and battery seems to last ages charged yesterday and has been running in my home office for hours. Sure there are probably better sounding speakers out there but not one that just drops into my Sonos dominated house!
If it’s your thing the Sonos packaging and unboxing is as usual a delight
Will do a further review when I used it more
I find changing from WiFi to Bluetooth using the button the back a little bit hit and miss but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
Sound wise it is very good for the size but you can’t expect to it to be as good as the Play one for example. It’s great being able to move it around and particularly take it into the bathroom or garden.
The battery life is okay as long as you completely turn it off which I have done so far. I have got around 10hrs of music from a single charge but I only timed it once. I’m not sure about leaving it constantly plugged in and charging as Sonos have said is safe to do (in sleep mode).
I did have to buy a fast charging socket in addition which adds further cost but I got one relatively cheap on amazon. You’ll struggle with a normal phone charger.
Overall a nice bit of kit, good sound quality for the size and great to be able to move it around the house or into the garden (using Bluetooth if out of WiFi range).
Great speaker. Easy to set up, excellent sound quality. Will be a great addition for when we can get away or even in the bath. Very satisfied with it.
I have quite a few Sonos products now and have never been disappointed. I was a little unsure about getting the roam due to a few poor comments. I should have just trusted my passed experience. So easy to set up, a great design with excellent features and an amazing sound. It obviously doesn’t sound like a one (like someone complained about) because its half the size! but TBH it’s not far away. I don’t normally write many reviews but felt the roam deserved it and it might help with someone else’s decision. There maybe other speakers cheaper and possibly with a slight better sound?? (if possible) but as a addition to a sonos family this is a must.
My only criticism is that there is no travel case included, which I would have expected given the fairly high price tag.