So the Sonos Roam is here just in time for summer 2021… but like I mentioned in the full review with the Sonos roam you’re paying a premium cause of its smarts and not so much for its sound. Now like I said in the full review if you’re looking for a Bluetooth speaker and you’ve got a budget between $150 and $200 then I highly recommend that you just get the JBL Charge 5. With the Charge 5 you’re going to get much better sound and a much better battery life. But if you’re specifically looking for a small speaker like the Roam… then today we’re going to directly compere it to both the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23. 

Now first lets address pricing, like I said in the full review for me its very hard to justify the Sonos roam cause of its price to sound ratio. The Roam retails for $170 putting it squarely in the mid sized speaker category. But with the roam you’re not getting Mid sized speaker sound quality. You are however getting a lot of smarts like wifi capabilities which give the Roam Airplay 2 support and you can also use it as a smart speaker. And then there’s also the fact that the roam has wireless charging. Which is pretty neat. But the roam does fall short when it comes to sound and battery life, which are the two most important things to take into consideration on a portable speaker like this. But then there’s the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23 which aren’t as smart… but they do have better audio performance and they also have a longer battery life. Now the flip 5 retails for $120 but can usually be found on sale for $100 and the Sony XB23 has a retail price of $100 but likes to go on sale as well. So if you’re looking for an ultra portable Bluetooth speaker for summer 2021 then both the Flip 5 and Sony XB23 are good options to consider and they’ll be linked down below. 

Alright, if you’re still here let's take a closer look at how the Sonos Roam compares to the Flip 5 and XB23. Size wise the roam is tinny, its a little smaller than the flip 5 which really is pretty impressive and its absolutely dwarfed by the Sony XB23. 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… like the Flip 5 and Xb23. 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. So if you are looking for a portable bluetooth speaker to constantly chuck into your back pack and take it on the go with you then I would recommend that you go with the Flip 5. Its not just small and durable… its also got a little built in strap which could be useful. 

But now lets talk about tech specs and we’re going to have to start off with connectivity. Like I mentioned earlier the Roam has wifi and it also has AirPlay 2 support, which is great if you’re an iPhone or apple power user cause as long as your speaker and apple devices are connected to the same wifi you can just stream music to your speaker. However just keep in mind your AirPlay connectivity is contingent on your wifi network. So if you have spotty wifi then you could have connection issues. 

So whether you’re in an area of the house with spotty wifi, or if you’re at the beach away from your wifi, or if you just want to share your speaker with a friend… then you could alway just use trusty old bluetooth just like with the Flip 5 and XB23. But nonetheless the Roam is a wifi first speaker that works best with an apple device and Sonos really only wants you to use Bluetooth when you have to. And also keep in mind you can only use all of these speakers wirelessly cause none them have an audio jack. 

Now for my android users, you can stream music to the roam over wifi but you gotta link your streaming service of choice to your Sonos account which is a little annoying. And over all it is easier to just use Bluetooth with an android device cause not all services are supported by Sonos’s app specially Youtube and Patreon. But over all its cool that the Roam has airplay 2 support, but its not must have feature for an ultra portable Bluetooth speaker. 

And like I mentioned earlier since the Roam has bluetooth it can also be used as a smart speaker and it has support for both Google assistant and Alexa. “Hey Google, what is the current price of bitcoin”

But again this isn’t a must have feature for me on a portable Bluetooth speaker like this. 

But next I want to touch on one of the things that I really dislike about Sonos and thats the registration of their products. When you first get your roam, before you can even use bluetooth on it you gotta connect it to your wifi, and either sign into your Sonos account or make an account and register your new product. Now personally I hate when manufactures force you to make an account to use their products cause its a sneaky way for them to collect data on you. Where as with both Sony and JBL, they don’t force you to make an account to use their products or apps… and thanks to Apple’s new App Privacy labels you can also see that they collect much less info on you than Sonos’s App. 

But with all that being said lets move on to battery life, the roam has an advertised battery life 10 hours but real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume its good for about 5 hours of playback time. Then there the XB23 which has an advertised battery life of 12 hours but thats when this speaker is playing at 50% volume and while in stamina mode. And quite frankly this speaker is worth using while in stamina mode cause stamina mode makes this speaker sound very flat.

Where as while in extra bass mode, which is how you should use this speaker… the XB23 has an advertised battery life of 10 hours. But real world use with it playing at 80% volume the XB23 is only good for about 5 hours as well. So both the XB23 and Roam wouldn’t be my first pick if im looking for a speaker to constantly take on the go. But then there’s the Flip 5 which has an advertised battery life of 12 hours, and real world use with it playing at 80% volume its good for about 7 to 8  hours of playback time. 

Now when it comes to actually charging these speakers they all charge via a USB C port as they should. However the Roam also has wireless charging which is pretty neat. Now you can either get Sonos’s own wireless charger which magnetically attaches itself to the speaker or you can just use any QI certified wireless charger. And personally I wouldn’t mind if more speakers introduced wireless charging, and maybe even reverse wireless charging… just as long as it doesn’t affect sound quality.

But now let's talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. The Roam has a rather unconventional speaker set up for a speaker of this size. The roam has a single front ward firing woofer and a single frontward firing tweeter. Where as the XB23 has the most conventional speaker set up here cause it has a dual frontward firing transducers and dual passive radiator set up that shoot out its sides. And then there’s the Flip 5 which has a single frontward firing transducer and dual passive radiator set up. Now since both the Flip 5 and XB23 have dual passive radiators they both have a lot more bass to them than the Roam cause the radiators focus on the bass and the transducers focus on the mids and highs. Where as with the roam, the woofer focuses on the bass and mids and the tweeter focuses on the highs. But let me just show you. 

So like you may have just seen the Woofer on the roam focuses on the bass and mids and the tweeter focuses on the highs. Where as with the XB23 even though it has two transducers they’re both doing the mids and highs. And then there’s the Flip 5 which has that single transducer and nothing on the right half. But both the Sony and JBL have a lot more physicality to their bass than the Roam cause of those passive radiators. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test… for starts just know that we’re using my EQ settings on the Roam. The roam sounds very bright and flat right out of the box so I went in and raised the Bass and lowered to treble. Where as with the XB23 its playing while in extra bass mode. And when it comes to volume, the roam is playing here at max volume where as the XB23 is playing at 95% volume and the Flip 5 is playing at 90% volume. 

Now when it comes to sound stage and instrument separation I feel the Roam and Flip 5 are very similar to one another and they do like to put an emphasis on the mids and highs. Where as with the XB23 it does sound more open. Now if you’re someone thats planning on mostly using your speaker outside then you’ll might want to go with something with a brighter sound signature like what’s found on either the Roam or Flip 5 cause a brighter sound signature makes your speaker sound louder and your music is going to travel out farther. But besides a brighter sound signature, the flip 5 also get a little louder than both the roam and XB23 while at max volume. Now the XB23 might not get as loud as the Flip 5… but it is the better option here if you plan on mostly using your speaker indoors cause of its better instrument separation. But then there’s the Roam which gets just as loud as the XB23… but since it doesn’t have passive radiators like the Flip 5 and XB23, its bass is rather flat.

But finally lets talk about speaker pairing protocols. With both the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23 you just press one button on each speaker and you can pair them up to other speakers of the same ecosystem. With the flip 5 you can pair it up to any other JBL speakers that are using party boost and with the XB23 you can pair it up to any other Sony speakers using party connect.

However I do gotta point out the JBL’s party boost is much easier to use and much more reliable than Sony’s party connect. So if you do plan on constantly pairing multiple speakers together I do recommend that you invest into JBL’s eco system here. 

Where as with the Sonos Roam, you can pair it up to other Sonos speakers and sound bars. However you can only pair your Sonos speakers together if they’re on the same wifi. So if you’ve got a Sonos Move and you’re planning on getting a Sonos Roam and pairing them up at the beach… unless that beach has wifi you’re not going to be able to pair your speakers together. Where as with both of Sony’s and JBL’s speakers… you can pair them anywhere cause they’re using Bluetooth. 

So with all that being said, for me its very hard to justify getting the Sonos Roam. Like I said at the top of this video with the roam you’re really paying a premium for its smarts. Its cool that the roam has AirPlay 2 support, its cool that you can use it as a smart speaker and its pretty cool that it has wireless charging. But when it comes to sound and battery life the roam falls short especially if you’re looking for a speaker to constantly take on the go with you. And due to its over reliance on wifi you can’t pair it up to other Sonos speakers if you want to get something going at a camp site or beach. So if you’re looking for a speaker for summer 2021 then personally I do recommend that you go with the Flip 5. The flip 5 has a great real world battery life of about 7 to 8 hours while at 80% volume, it gets decently louder, it has a good amount of bass to it, and if you want to can get other JBL speakers and you can pair them up any where no wifi required. But fi you are looking for a smaller speaker to mostly use at home than you’ll might want to go with the Sony XB23 cause of its better instrument separation.