So this is the Sonos Roam, its Sonos’s latest ultra portable bluetooth speaker that’s either meant to be used at home or you can just throw it into your back pack and take it on the go with you to either to the beach or on a camping trip. Now even though the Roam is packed with a whole lot of smarts… for me its very hard to justify getting this thing and I can’t help but feel that its just been over hyped. 

Now the main reason why the Sonos roam is so hard for me to justify is its price to sound ratio. The Roam retails for $170 by its self. Putting the Roam in the mid sized speaker pricing category. But with the roam you’re not getting mid sized speaker sound quality. With the roam you’re getting JBL Flip 5 or Sony XB23 sound quality which can usually be had for around $100. The Roam’s price premium is really cause of its smarts. It has Airplay 2 support and it also supports both Alexa and Google assistant. But if you really want to get the most out of  Airplay 2 and of your voice assistant of choice then you’re either going to have to always keep it connected or you could spring for Sonos’s optional wireless charging which retails for $50… which would mean that a fully featured Sonos Roam is going to run you $220. So even though its cool and all that the Roam has a lot of smarts… for me the roam really under delivers when it comes to sound and battery life for its price. So if you’re looking for a small portable Bluetooth speaker ill leave some options down below… and if you are looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker and you’ve got a budget between $150 and $200 than I do recommend that you just go with the JBL Charge 5.

Now if you’re still here lets take a closer look at the roam. Design wise the roam is tinny, its actually a little smaller than the JBL Flip 5 and it absolutely dwarfed by both the Sony XB23 and JBL Charge 5. Now durability wise the Roam is rocking an IP67 ratting meaning that its both dust proof and water proof. Which nowadays is pretty standard for portable Bluetooth speakers. However I do gotta point out that the Roam has a mostly plastic body… now there’s nothing wrong with this and it does feel and look premium, but this is a deviation from the norm cause most portable Bluetooth speakers now have a mostly fabric wrapped body so that they can better stand up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes. Where as with the Roam’s plastic body I would expect it to be a scratch magnet if you really take it out a lot. So design wise the Roam is fine and its very small and I personally really like its honey comb grill… but from a durability standpoint I do think its going to be a scratch and finger print magnet.  

But now let's talk about tech specs and we’re going to have to start off with connectivity. Like I mentioned earlier the roam has Airplay 2 support which is great if you’re an iPhone user but it also has bluetooth. But one of the things that I really don’t like about Sonos is that when you first get your product you gotta sign into your Sonos account and register your new product, in this case the Roam… before you can even use Bluetooth on it. Now personally I hate when manufacturers force you to create an account to use your new product cause you don’t know what data they’re collecting in the background. And this is something that Bose used to do but they recently stopped.  

Now with that being said, like ive mentioned a couple of times already the Roam has Airplay 2 support which means that as long as your roam is connected to the same wifi as your iPhone or any other apple device then you can stream music to it from any of your apple devices. However just keep in mind the quality of your AirPlay 2 connection is contingent on your homes wifi. So if you’ve got a weak or spotty wifi signal cause you’re still using your ISP’s provided router then you could have connection issues. Now for me connectivity isn’t an issue cause ive got a pretty sick ASUS AI Mesh network with multiple access points around the house… but I do think its something to look out for. 

So whether you’re in an area of the house where your wifi is very spotty, or if you’re at the beach away from your homes wifi, or if you just want to share your speaker with your friend then you can always just use bluetooth. But nonetheless is the Roam is a wifi first speaker that works best with an iPhone and Sonos really only wants you to use bluetooth when you have to. 

Now if you’re an android user you can still stream to the roam over wifi… but you gotta link your streaming service of choice to your Sonos account which can be a little annoying. So personally I just connect to the Roam via Bluetooth when im using my pixel 5 cause it just easier… and using Bluetooth is just easier especially if you’re playing something from an app that isn’t supported by Sonos’s app like either Youtube, or Patreon. 

So overall if you want to get the best connectivity experience out of the Roam you wanna use it with an apple device cause then that way you won’t be as reliant on Sonos’s app like if you were using it with an android device… and also keep in mind you can only use this speaker wirelessly cause unfortunately this speaker doesn’t have an audio jack. 

Now besides airplay 2 support the Roam’s wifi capability allows it so that it can also be used as a smart speaker. And you can either use Google assistant or Alexa on it. “HEY GOOGLE, What is the Current Price of Bitcoin”
Now personally for me I am rather indifferent about have a voice assistant on a small portable Bluetooth speaker like this cause I never really use it. If I need to use my voice assistant I usually just end up doing it on my phone. 

So like I mentioned at the top of this video with the roam you’re really paying a premium for all of its smarts. But if you want to get the most out of it and always have it on so that its constantly connected to your wifi and so that you can use it use at a smart speaker then you’re going to have to constantly have it plugged in. 

Now the roam charges via a Usb C port as it should. And you also get a USB C to USB A charging cable. But if you do plan on constantly having this speaker plugged in and turned on then you are going to have to supply your own power brick cause you don’t get one in the box or you could always go with the more elegant option and get Sonos’s wireless charger that magnetically attaches it self to the speaker it self. 

But technically speaking you can charge the Roam with any QI certified wireless charger and you can also use the roam’s wireless charger to charge any other QI certified device. And personally I do think its pretty cool that Sonos isn’t just using some proprietary wireless charger. 

But regarding battery life, the Roam has an advertised battery life of 10 hours which is a little below average cause most speakers of this size try to shoot for an advertised battery life of 12 hours and speakers that cost more that $150 try to shoot for an advertised battery life 20 hours like the charge 5.

And real world use with the roam playing at 80% im getting about 5 hours of playback time. So if you are looking for a speaker to use on the go with you on a regular basis then the Roam wouldn’t be my first choice. 

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with this speaker. Regarding speaker set ups  the Roam has a single frontward firing woofer and a single tweeter. Now this is reminiscent to the JBL Charge 5 which I just reviewed which has a 30 watt woofer, a 10 watt tweeter and it has a pair of dual passive radiators that shoots out the sides. Now the reason for having a woofer and tweeter set up on these speakers is cause it helps with instrument separation cause the Woofer’s handle the mids and the tweeter handles the highs. But let me just show you.

So like you may have just seen, the woofers handle the mids and the tweeters handle the highs. Except since the Charge 5 also has a pair of passive radiators that focus on the bass, so the charge 5 not only sounds more open than the Roam… it also has way a lot more bass to it. So like I said at the beginning of this video, with the roam you’re really paying a premium for its smarts and not so much for it sound. But still for comparison sake the roam’s speaker set up is very different from other speakers of the same size like lets say the UE boom thats rocking a more traditional dual transducer and dual passive radiator set up. Now before we jump into the sound test just know that we’re using my EQ settings which you can adjust through Sonos’s app. Out of the box the roam sounds super bright and flat. So I went in and raised the bass and lowered the treble. But also the roam is playing at max volume here where as the Boom 3 is playing at 90 percent volume and the Charge 5 is just coasting here playing at 80% volume. 

So like I mentioned earlier with the Roam you’re mostly paying for its smarts and not so much for its sound. Cause when compared to the JBL Charge 5 which is very similarly priced to the Roam, the Charge 5 has much better instrument separation to it and it also has more physicality to its bass. Where as like I mentioned earlier right out of the box the Roam sounds very bright and flat. As in it puts an emphasis on the mids and highs and its bass doesn’t have all that much physicality to it. Now having a brighter sound signature can sometimes be beneficial cause it does bring out the vocalists, and a bright sound signature makes your speaker sound louder which is good for out door use… But over all the Sonos roam doesn’t sound too impressive considering its price tag. So if youre mainly concerned about sound and you’ve got the budget for it, I would recommend that you go with the Charge 5. The Charge 5 not only sounds better… it also gets louder. But even if we were to compare the Sonos Roam to other similarly sized speakers like the UE Boom 3… even though the roam does have similar instrument instrument separation… the roam’s bass is still flat and it doesn’t get as loud. 

But finally lets talk about speaker spring protocols. If you already have multiple Sonos speakers or soundbars you can pair them up together and get them to play in sync. And if you’ve got two Sonos roams then you can pair them up and have them play in left and right stereo mode. However you can only pair your Sonos speakers together if they’re all connected to the same wifi network.

So lets say you’ve got a Sonos Move and you’re planning on getting a Sonos Roam and pairing your two speakers together at the beach… unless that beach has wifi you can’t pair your speakers together. And you know this is a huge draw back cause if we were to either compare to JBL or UE’s eco systems you can pair multiple speakers together anywhere. No wifi required. 

So with all that being said… for me its very hard to justify getting the Sonos roam. Ill admit that the Sonos roam is very smart cause it has AirPlay 2 support which is great if you’re an apple power user and it also has voice assistant support. But sound quality wise this speaker is really lacking especially for its $170 price tag. And sound does take priority over smarts. But even still the roam isn’t the best speaker to take on the go with you cause of it shorter battery life and due to its over reliance on wifi if you wanted to get multiple Sonos speakers together and get them playing either at the beach or on a camp site, you can’t cause you don’t have wifi. So if you’re currently looking for a speaker and you’ve got a budget between $150 to $200 and you’re really concerned about sound, I highly recommend that you pick up the Charge 5. Or if you’re looking for smaller speaker then the JBL Flip 5, Sony XB23, and UE Boom3 are all good options to consider as well.