Sonos Play Assessment: Efficiency Meets Comfort

It’s smaller and extra transportable than the brutish Transfer, but giant sufficient to sound a lot fuller than the pint-sized Roam. It will probably sit mounted on its charging cradle to rival the homebound Sonos Period 100, or observe you anyplace. In different phrases, it’s the epitome of Sonos versatility, and now that it’s working correctly, it’ll be onerous to go up.

Play On

Opening the Play’s brown cardboard packaging feels equal elements Scandi minimalism and sustainability, consistent with latest releases just like the Arc Extremely soundbar. Inside, a white acoustic wrapping provides technique to a stout tubular speaker with a rubberized loop connected, measuring 7.6 x 4.4 x 3 inches and weighing slightly below 3 kilos. You’ll additionally discover easy setup directions and a wi-fi charging stand, however no wall adapter. You’ll want one that may provide no less than 9 volts and a couple of amps (18 watts), however a 15-volt, 3-amp (45-watt) mannequin is really useful for “optimum” charging. Sonos says the adapter omission is about lowering e-waste, however will fortunately promote you one for $29.

In any other case, the Sonos app is all it’s essential get going. After the compulsory firmware replace, my Play was streaming on my dwelling community in minutes. Sonos hosts over 100 streaming companies instantly, and you can even stream over third-party companies like Spotify Join, Tidal Join, Apple AirPlay, and extra. You’ll discover the speaker as its personal “Room” on the app’s primary web page, the place you possibly can swipe as much as group it with different Sonos merchandise in your community, or go into the settings to tweak choices like EQ, Room title (necessary when you have a couple of Play), and Sonos Trueplay to auto-adjust the sound to your surroundings.

You’ll additionally discover a Battery Saver toggle, which is about by default to close down the ability when it’s idle for too lengthy. It’s this characteristic that, based on Sonos, brought on my connection woes as I examined the speaker’s 24-hour battery declare. Sonos says it recognized the foundation trigger, and after the firmware replace I’ve let the speaker energy down a number of instances, with no additional community disruptions over per week of additional testing.