Rumors of a new Sonos speaker have been swirling for a while now, and it seems every detail of the new Sonos Roam has been leaked ahead of its announcement.
The Verge obtained images and specs for the $169 Roam, which is a waterproof portable speaker that looks to be a UE Boom 3, but, you know, Sonos. The price, if accurate, puts the Roam squarely between the $150 Boom 3 and $200 Megaboom 3.
The speaker reportedly weighs in around 1 pound and measures 6.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 inches, which makes it a smidge smaller than the Boom 3. And like the Boom 3, it can be charged wirelessly via a $49 charging stand that will be sold separately. As you can see below in the image obtained by the Verge, the Roam looks pretty Boom-like (though a little more triangular in shape and minus the absolutely gigantic volume buttons).
There are a few differences between Sonos’s new speaker and the popular Boom 3, though, according to these leaked details. For one, the Sonos Roam will reportedly use both Bluetooth and wifi, so you can connect to your home network while at home and pair with Bluetooth on the go. And the Boom 3's microUSB charging port is inconvenient for those of us who are fully USB-C, so I’m heartened by what appears to be a USB-C cable in one of the leaked images. The Verge reports that the Roam will last about 10 hours on a charge, which is considerably less than the Boom 3's 15-hour battery life—though to be fair, speaker battery life claims depend on a whole host of factors, including volume levels.
And according to the Verge, the Roam has built-in mics for activating voice assistants (Alexa and Google Assistant), support for AirPlay 2, and can be paired with another Roam over wifi for stereo sound. Those advanced features suddenly make the Boom 3 seem a little basic.
As someone invested in the Sonos ecosystem who also owns a Boom 3 for outdoor hangs, I’m curious to see how the Sonos Roam stacks up. I had considered buying a Sonos Move, which is the company’s only portable offering currently, but that speaker is much larger and freakin’ expensive. I would love to stream music over my Playbase and then bring the party outside (when we’re having parties again) with a smaller, more rugged speaker.
Sonos had previously announced that it would be holding a March 9 event, presumably to launch this speaker. According to The Verge, the Sonos Roam will ship April 20.