Sonos Roam 2 Speaker Review

The Sonos Roam 2 looks identical to the Sonos Roam/Roam SL, as it's a triangular prism that can be seated horizontally or vertically. There's a sleek plastic grille wrapping around its front face, and, in a noticeable departure from the previous generation, the Sonos logo is now of a similar color to the speaker instead of white, which is handy if you're looking to tone down the logomania. This speaker also comes in a few different colorways, including 'Black,' 'Red,' 'White,' 'Green,' and 'Blue.'

This speaker is portable since it's small, lightweight, and easily carriable with one hand. Because it has a battery, you don't have to worry about plugging it into a power source. You can also see this speaker in its vertical position here.

The Sonos Roam 2 has an excellent build quality. It's mostly made of plastic with a sleek grille and silicone end caps. If you place it horizontally, four small rubber feet keep the speaker in place. Although there isn't a cover for the USB port, the speaker is certified IP67, so it's fully dust-tight and can be immersed in water for up to 30 minutes, making it a solid choice for pool parties. Sonos also mentions that this speaker is drop-resistant, so it can survive an accidental tumble, but there's no IK rating.

The controls are pretty simple and easy to use. You can see a video of it in use here. In addition to the standard play/pause and volume controls, there's a voice assistant control. Unlike the previous gen, this model has also split the power and Bluetooth buttons, so no more accidentally turning off the speaker when you're trying to pair it to your phone. You can even place this speaker alongside another Sonos speaker's play/pause button to swap audio.

There's a light on the front of the speaker that changes color to indicate its status. Another light on the opposite side of the speaker lets you know the status of the battery. There's even a microphone light to tell you when you're muted and unmuted. There are chimes to let you know when you've reached max volume and beeps that change in volume to indicate the general volume.

• Sonos Roam 2 speaker
• USB-C to USB-A charge cable
• Manuals

This speaker sounds fairly similar to its predecessor. It also has Trueplay, which is a room correction feature that uses the speaker's microphone to optimize its sound to your room's unique acoustics. You can only set this up via the Sonos app, which is compatible with iOS devices, so Android users can't take advantage of this feature.

After using Trueplay, this speaker sounds well-balanced. Vocals and instruments sound clear, present, and detailed, making this sound well-suited for a variety of audio content. That said, due to its small size, it lacks low bass, so if you're into genres like EDM and hip-hop, you'll notice the absence of thump and rumble in its sound. You can customize the sound using the app's bass and treble levels, but adding more bass won't get you much more of a thumpy sound.

The soundstage of the Sonos Roam 2 is mediocre. On its own, it has to downmix stereo content into mono, which creates a flat and narrow soundstage. You can always pair it with another compatible speaker to create a stereo pair though. On the upside, the speaker has good directivity, so sound is consistent regardless of where you are in relation to it. 

The Sonos Roam has a mediocre dynamics performance. It can get louder than the Sonos Roam/Roam SL but isn't designed to fill a large room or open space with sound. As you raise the volume, the sound compresses, especially in the bass range, which means your audio doesn't sound as clear.

Sonos advertises that this speaker can play audio for 10 hours continuously. That said, we measured half of it over Bluetooth, possibly due to the battery testing conditions, including volume and connectivity (like Wi-Fi vs Bluetooth). In contrast, when used over Wi-Fi, we measured roughly eight hours. If you're worried about battery life, you can enable power settings in the app and, more specifically, enable 'Wi-Fi Power Save,' which will extend the battery life over this connection. You can also place this speaker on a wireless charging pad if you don't want to fumble with the charging cable. It's worth checking out a speaker like the Ultimate Ears EVERBOOM if you're looking for something with a similar form factor with over four times the battery life.

There's outstanding voice assistant support in the form of built-in Amazon Alexa and Sonos voice assistant. There's no Google Assistant support, unlike the Sonos Roam/Roam SL. If you use the voice assistant feature, the assistant can capture your voice if you're far away or in a noisy environment. There's also a mic mute button that you can use for more private moments.

If you want to access the Sonos voice assistant, you can say, 'Hey, Sonos.' You can play audio from common streaming services, move audio from one group to another (once set up in the app), and even do playback controls like play and pause audio or turn on your TV if you already have a Sonos Beam or Sonos Arc soundbar (and they're connected to the app).

The Sonos app is outstanding, and you can see it in action here. You can set up a Sonos network with your Wi-Fi, making it easy to pair other Sonos speakers together for stereo sound or group multiple speakers for a wider, more encompassing sound across different spaces in your home. If you're using two of the same speakers as a stereo pair, they can play Bluetooth audio when connected via Wi-Fi, but if Wi-Fi isn't available, you can't stereo pair the two speakers. In addition to setting up speakers, you can use the app's bass and treble sliders to adjust the sound and even access your streaming services for a more seamless experience.

The Sonos Roam 2 has decent Bluetooth connectivity. It doesn't support multi-device pairing, which can be a little limiting if you tend to switch audio sources. While latency is lower on iOS devices, there's some latency present; there's still some present via Android, though, which isn't ideal if you want to stream video. Some apps and devices compensate for latency, though.

This speaker supports Wi-Fi as well as Apple AirPlay 2. The latency is somewhat low using this connection, so you can stream video without major lipsync mismatch. Unfortunately, Android users can't make the most of Wi-Fi since there's no support for Chromecast.