I work from home, so I usually listen to audio through headphones or AirPods. But I’ve always wanted a desktop speaker that doesn’t take up too much space, which made the new Sonos Play the first appropriate Sonos product to review.
The Play, released in March, is the first new device from Sonos in more than a year. The $299 speaker is a hybrid: part home speaker, part portable. It sits on your desk on a pill-shaped base, but with a weight of 1.3 kilograms and a “utility loop” on the back, it’s easy to carry around the house or take outside.
While testing it, I would often start a podcast at my desk and take the Play into the kitchen while cooking or making coffee. The advantage about using AirPods is that you remain aware of your surroundings and will no longer miss what someone across the room is saying. And you don’t need to rely on voice commands to control playback; Sonos Assistant and Alexa are integrated.
Physical controls are another advantage. Skipping tracks or adjusting the volume with greasy hands is awkward on the AirPods; The Play buttons are more forgiving. That said, the controls are easy to miss: They’re the same color as the silicone top and barely protrude from the surface. After a few days I had their positions memorized, but the learning curve is a minor frustration that could have been avoided with better contrast or more touch buttons.
The speaker is rugged and IP67 rated, meaning it can withstand rain and brief submersion; I put it under a faucet without problems. It can also charge your phone in a pinch, and doubles as a power bank, which is a welcome feature for outdoor use.
For sound, Play relies on dual-angle tweeters, a mid-woofer and three digital amplifiers, with two passive radiators to reinforce the bass outdoors. The result is balanced and detailed at moderate volumes; instrument separation is particularly good. However, the soundstage is narrow, meaning the music can seem somewhat restrained rather than expansive, and at higher volumes the mix loses some of its clarity.
The Play fits well on a desk or patio; It’s not trying to fill a room. For that, the Sonos Era 100 SL, which launched alongside the Play, is the best option. Two Play units can be paired in a stereo setup, either via the app or, more cleverly, by holding down the play/pause button on both speakers simultaneously. It’s a useful feature that makes a noticeable difference for music, although not so much for TV audio, which these speakers aren’t designed for anyway.
Sonos has also built in Trueplay, which uses the speaker’s microphones to automatically calibrate the sound depending on the room. Previous versions of this feature required moving the phone around the space to tune the audio, a cumbersome solution that would have made little sense on a portable speaker. The new implementation handles it automatically.
Sonos has had well publicized fights with its app (disappearing speakers, glitchy volume controls) and while the company has made significant improvements, some rough edges remain. Syncing between Play and my MacBook sometimes lagged, for example, and playing or pausing audio on YouTube sometimes produced a noticeable delay before the speaker responded.
Switching audio between speakers worked reliably via AirPlay, but it repeatedly failed in the Sonos app until I installed the Apple Music integration, and even then, the process is more cumbersome than it should be.
The “Apply” button in the Sonos app, required to confirm speaker changes, seems like an unnecessary extra step. AirPlay handles the same action with a single touch.
The Pocket Casts integration has a resume bug: podcasts restart from the beginning instead of picking up where they left off.
Overall, the Sonos Play is a solid speaker that largely lives up to its premise. The app’s problems are real, but they’re not deal-breakers, and Sonos has shown it’s willing to repeat them. If portability isn’t a priority, the Era 100 ($219) or Era 100 SL ($189) offer more volume for less money. If you want something more rugged and truly portable, the Sonos Roam 2 or JBL Charge 6 are worth considering. But if you want a speaker that works equally well on a desk and on a back porch, the Play makes a compelling case.
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