Sonos Move-ing to places, no speaker has been before
Sonos The Move is a breakthrough product for Sonos, a 20-year-old company that made a name for itself by providing top-notch audio home products.
For years, Sonos provided high-quality sound speakers, but it lacked a field.
Competition like Bose portable smart speaker, JBL Bluetooth speaker, and Klipsch speakers has taken the outdoor world by storm, and that was until Sonos Move was released.
Whether it is the garden, kitchen, or even in the bathroom, the Sonos speaker has made a move (pun intended), and it’s here to eat competition lunch.
If price is no concern, this premium home speaker from Sonos will give fill your home with great sounds in a premium design form factor.
Let’s dive into Sonos Move design: Sonos Move Review
The first thing you will notice as soon as you pull it out of the box is, Move is one heavy mean boy. It measures 9.44 x 6.29 x 4.96 inches and weighs 6.61 pounds. It is available in black and white (the white version is slightly pricey).
At 6.61 pounds it is indeed heavy, but unlike most portable Bluetooth speakers, Sonos Move is meant to be carried around the room, or from indoors to outdoors, not the kind of smart speaker you just toss in the bag for light traveling.
When you compare Sonos Move with the rest of the Sonos line up for example the Sonos One or Sonos Roam, Move is like that cool cousin we all look forward to in the family gatherings. It comes in an oval shape and it has a nice matte finish with a metal front grille, that wraps around the speaker.
The move has an IP56 rating, making it dustproof and waterproof, but don’t go so far as to submerge it, since it was made only to withstand poolside splashes and rain.
Connectivity and Functions
The connectivity of a portable Bluetooth speaker is quite important.
On the front of the grille, you will spot the iconic Sonos Logo facing downwards, and on the top, the touch-sensitive controls. The controls include a central play or pause button that is multifunctional, side buttons to increase or decrease volume, and there’s also a mic mute button.
On the back, it has 3 more buttons-Power, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and Join (this helps with pairing the smart speaker), and at the bottom of the back, there’s the useful USB-C port, which is a huge help for charging on the go.
The Sonos App sure does work with the Sonos The Move, which is available for both Android and iOS. In the app, you have the freedom to do tons of stuff, including access to internet radio, the ability to stream your phone’s music library, by voice commands, you get Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant, and you can even adjust the sounds to your own liking. Sonos App is something that is viable with most sonos speakers, so make sure you check it out.
It supports Bluetooth 5.0, meaning it can transfer data at up to 2Mbps, which is twice the speed of Bluetooth 4.2. There’s also the stereo pair, which let you connect Sonos with other products for a louder and better sound quality
The Move also comes shipped with a charging base. You won’t have to throw in extra cash for it. (More on this later.)
Sounds big too, Performance: Sonos Move Review
In terms of inputs, Sonos Move makes use of two Class-D digital amplifiers, one downward-firing tweeter for great highs and one mid-woofer for mid-ranges and bass. The downward-firing tweeter also stands to provide us with an omnidirectional soundstage. Even though it is a mono speaker, you will hear the music regardless of where you are.
The movie sounds great across all genres of music, at both high and low volumes, meaning you are not forced to crank the volume at maximum and get cursed by your neighbors.
What I liked the most about the Sonos Move was its versatility in sound quality, something we are used with Sonos sound signature.
When I wanted to throw a room party on my own and dance around, it was loud and fun. When I wanted slow background music to accompany me through the day at work, it was there. When I had friends over and had to carry the conversation, it was still there.
I also had the chance to compare the Sonos Move to the competition, and oh boy, it sure outgunned most of them, especially Apple’s HomePod. Well, the HomePod sure is a great speaker. After all, it comes from an industry-leading brand, but sound quality?
Sonos Move was a league above.
Overall, Move provides great punchy bass, clear highs, and warm mids.
Made to accompany you for hours, Battery-Life
Sono Moves packs a 36WH battery that promises us up to 11 hours of continuous playback with a single charge. It kinda lived up to that, the unit I had the chance to test lasted me around 9 hours and 47 minutes, at a moderate 50% volume.
A pleasant surprise for me was that the battery on move is replaceable. Sonos says that the battery on Sonos Move should last around 900 charging cycles, while gradually decreasing the longer you charge it, and then you will have the chance to buy a replacement.
Charging the battery via the dock I mentioned earlier takes about three hours, and there’s also the USB C port that helps with charging on the go.
- Robust and durable
- Stylish it can blend anywhere
- Great Portability
- Great audio quality
- Not feature-rich
- On the pricey side
- A bit heavy for a portable device.
To wrap things up, The Conclusion
Sonos One sure comes in half the price but half the performances of Move too.
The Move does things that no other Sonos speakers can do, it gives you great portability, sound quality, a stylish and durable design, on top with great battery life, and it does all that with no compromise at all. This is indeed a portable speaker, however, I wouldn’t call it quite the portable speaker, it is big compared to some other speakers, and I would like to refer to it as an outdoor or home speaker instead despite the move name.
Further Reading
If you are done with portable speakers, audio interfaces might be interesting to you, you may look at some amazing live streaming audio interfaces here before learning more about the distinctions between amplifiers and preamplifiers.
And here you may learn about the most amazing DAC amps designed just for Sennheiser HD58X.
See whether there are that many differences by looking to this fantastic comparison between studio and gaming headphones.
Sound Artist
I’m a Sound Artist creating immersive sonic experiences. I turn everyday objects into music, turning the mundane into something marvellous!
