Sonos' first portable speaker is the $ 399 Move

Sonos finally launches into the world of portable speakers. The company announced the launch of the new Sonos Move, a $ 399 speaker compatible with Sonos' current Wi-Fi system, but also offering the ability to connect to devices via Bluetooth. It comes with an internal battery, which is good for up to 10 hours of reading, and a charging base to keep it charged when it is at home. The Move will be available for pre-order today, September 5th, with retail availability starting September 24th.

Measuring nearly 10 inches and weighing more than six and a half pounds, the Move is considerably larger than the Sonos One, making it a little more portable than the typical UE Boom Bluetooth speaker. Sonos has designed a handle directly into the molded plastic shell of the Move to facilitate transportation and movement from room to room or outside the house. The charging base, with two pogo pins aligned to the contacts on the back of the Move, gives the speaker a "home away from home" when it's not in use, ensuring it's charged and ready to work when you need it. If you are on the move and need to charge the battery, you will also find a USB-C port on the back.

The larger footprint of the Move gives it more volume and power than the Sonos One. It is equipped with two class-D amplifiers, which push a single tweeter and a medium-bass driver. According to Sonos, the Move is powerful enough to overcome the rapid drop in volume that occurs when you listen to music outdoors. The Move also has an IP56 resistance rating of water and dust, and the company says it is strong enough to withstand accidental falls, rain and moisture, sand and dust, as well as other items that may be encountered when a loudspeaker is out of the house.

The Move is also the first Sonos speaker with an automatic TruePlay setting, which allows the speaker to adapt its sound to its surroundings. With previous Sonos speakers, the TruePlay setting required moving around a room with an iPhone or iPad while emitting a beep sound from the speaker to "map" the room. The Move can use its own microphones to adjust the sound within 30 seconds after playback, which is much easier than the previous and convenient method for a speaker that regularly migrates from one place to another. ;other. Sonos says it's likely that other speakers with microphones will have it in the future.

Move's battery is also replaceable: the company says it should support up to 900 recharges (or about three years of use), and will sell replacements so that owners can exchange them as needed. The battery charge takes a few hours, but the Move can last up to five days between two charges in "suspension" mode with low power consumption when not in use.

Of course, all of these features take into account that you can actually use the Move Outside Your Home feature, which is not possible with any other Sonos speaker. This is mainly thanks to the battery and the new Bluetooth 4.2 feature, which allows you to associate your phone, tablet, laptop or other device to the Move as you would any other Bluetooth speaker. According to Sonos, there should be no discernible difference between listening to music via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and the speaker is smart enough to remember the last device it connected to when you switch to Bluetooth via the button located at the back.

Sonos says that the radios and Wi-Fi antennas that he set in motion are the most powerful ever used. If you simply move the speaker from your house to your deck, it will probably be able to use your Wi-Fi. -Fi for this, without the need to pair it via Bluetooth. In Wi-Fi mode, the Move is very similar to the Sonos One: you can pair two units in stereo; control it with the Sonos, Spotify Connect or Apple AirPlay 2 app; and use your voice to order Alexa or Google Assistant from Amazon via Move. These features are not available when the device is used in Bluetooth mode. (You can not use Move as a surround speaker and Sonos says it makes no sense for a portable speaker.)

Patrick Spence, CEO of the company, explained that it was a variety of factors, including development resources, available technologies and, unsurprisingly, a Bluetooth-resistant corporate culture. The development of support for other protocols has helped the company prepare for a product that would not rely on Wi-Fi at all. "Supporting AirPlay helped us learn about an experience. similar to Sonos via a wireless protocol other than Wi-Fi, "says Spence. "We also had to deal with battery technology, which was also new to us, because we have always worked so far in situations where you could connect the speaker to the wall."

The company has also standardized the technology used in its products, which it has never done before. Although each Sonos loudspeaker has its own setting and design, most of the lessons learned from the development of voice control and other features of previous speakers can be easily transmitted. According to Spence, the use of similar hardware, such as processors and memory, facilitates the development of software that is compatible with all products.

In short, the Sonos Move project would probably not exist if the company had not yet developed Sonos One and Sonos Beam, which use similar processing hardware and have a similar set of features, but in different formats.

The move will probably not be the last or only Sonos speaker with Bluetooth or portable features. It's just the first. Spence explained that one of his goals when he arrived in the company in 2017 was to speed up the pace of new products. Teams are working on more products at the same time than ever before.

But the Move is the first Sonos loudspeaker you can get out of here. Although its price is very high compared to conventional Bluetooth speakers, it will probably find a lot of fans among the faithful Sonos. We will spend more time with Move when we review it, so stay tuned for that.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence the editorial content, although Vox Media can earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.