Sonos Move initial review: The portable Bluetooth smart speaker we've been waiting for

Sonos offers multiple speakers within its portfolio, but as great as they are, until now none have been portable, none have been waterproof and none have offered Bluetooth audio support. 

Instead, Sonos has previously focused on offering speakers designed for the home that require mains power and use a mesh Wi-Fi network to talk to each other. Then the company announced the Sonos Move and everything we thought we knew about Sonos changed.

Here are our first impressions of the portable, Bluetooth Sonos smart speaker that marks the beginning for Sonos outside of the home.

Design

• Capacitive touch controls
• IP56 water and dust resistant
• Integrated handle
• 240 x 160 x 126mm, 3kg

Sonos plays close attention to design and all its latest speakers - from the 2015 Play:5 to the Sonos Beam - share similar design features, like capacitive controls, black and white colour options and plastic detailing.

The Sonos Move shares the same design ethos as these newer Sonos speakers, with rounded edges, capacitive controls and an almost identical top to the Sonos One - albeit oval and with repositioned controls - but it raises the stakes when it comes to design in terms of durability.

While the design of the Sonos Move shows clearly resembles the Sonos portfolio, it offers an IP56 water and dust resistance and it is one tough little cookie. Sonos says it can withstand pretty much every obstacle life might throw at it, whether that be sand, water or a drop on concrete.

To achieve this, the bottom of the device is silicone with a clear coat of paint over the top to deter dust and everything inside has been considered, from a custom-made polycarbonate basket case reinforced with glass for the mid-woofer, to the colour of the Move itself - it is Shadow Black and not black to take UV exposure into account.

The portable speaker is not small though. It's wider and taller than the Sonos One and it weighs a hefty 3kg so you'll need a pretty decent-sized backpack to lug it around. The point is though, you can bring it wherever you want, whether that's your garden, the beach or a camping trip.

On the rear, there is a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggle switch, a power button and a pairing button - the latter of which all Sonos speakers offer. The buttons are all positioned on an inward slant that allows for the convenient integrated handle that is built into the design, rather than a separate strap or handle. The integrated handle means that when the Sonos Move is on its charging cradle - called Loop Dock - it looks like any other Sonos speaker and will blend into a home.

A USB Type-C port sits below the integrated handle and the buttons, as well as two charging pins below that for the Loop Dock - which the Sonos Move snaps into place easily on. On the front, the metal speaker grille mimics the look of the Sonos One and there is a Sonos tag at the top, delivering a simplistic, fuss-free design.

Hardware and specs

• 45W power
• Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy
• AirPlay 2 support

The Sonos Move delivers 45W of power, coupled with Bluetooth for audio streaming capabilities with a paired device and Bluetooth Low Energy for easy setup. The Sonos One, by comparison, offers BLE for setup but not Bluetooth for audio streaming, making the Sonos Move the first Sonos speaker to offer the technology. Finally.

The Sonos Move speaker also supports Apple's AirPlay 2 - as the Beam, One and Play:5 do, as well as the Sonos One SL that Sonos revealed alongside the Sonos Move. This technology allows for easy streaming from an Apple device without the need for users to open the Sonos app. It's quick, convenient and it offers Apple users integration with Siri too.

The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggle switch on the rear of the Sonos Move that we mentioned allows users to switch the speaker into each mode - as you would expect. When the Sonos Move is ready to pair, the LED light on the top will flash blue and solid blue when pairing is successful.

The power button meanwhile, allows users to switch the Sonos Move off entirely if they so wish, otherwise it will stay in a low power mode when not being used, allowing it to wake up quickly if it is grouped with another Sonos speaker or an alarm is set, for example. 

Features

• Functions as typical Bluetooth speaker
• Also functions as Sonos speaker in Wi-Fi mode
• Automatic Trueplay
• Alexa and Google voice control

The Sonos Move speaker functions as a typical Bluetooth speaker when in Bluetooth mode, allowing users to send music to it via a paired device, as you would the Ultimate Ears UE Megaboom 3, for example. In Bluetooth mode, the Sonos Move isn't controlled via the Sonos app.

When not in Bluetooth mode, the Sonos Move functions as a traditional Sonos speaker, but it appears with a battery indicator in the Sonos app. Functioning as a traditional Sonos speaker means you can group it with other Sonos speakers, control it through the Sonos app and access all the features that come with the Sonos app, including compatibility with over 100 music streaming services and customisation of EQ levels, to name but a few. Read our Sonos tips and tricks to learn more about the features offered by the Sonos system.

The Sonos Move also offers a new feature called Automatic Trueplay. Trueplay is a software feature Sonos introduced with the Play:5 in 2015 and it allows users to tune their Sonos speakers according to their surroundings using their iOS device. You can read all about it in our seperate feature but it involves user input, including walking around the room waving your device up and down slowly. Yes, really.

Automatic Trueplay uses the four built-in microphones on the Sonos Move speaker itself to listen to the sound produced by the speaker and tune it automatically according to its surrounding, making for a much simpler process, even if the original Trueplay feature is easy enough to perform.

Sonos said it has used what it has learned over the four years of the traditional Trueplay software to create an algorithm used by Sonos Move to make sure it doesn't get it wrong make unnecessary adjustments. The Trueplay Automatic feature was introduced on the Move to combat the issues of moving a speaker from outside to inside and still ensuring it sounded good. An accelerometer helps the Sonos Move detect when it has been moved, allowing it to adjust itself within around 30 seconds to what it deems as the best for its new surroundings.

Additionally, the Sonos Move speaker supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice control, as the Sonos One and Sonos Beam both offer. You won't be able to have both assistants set up at the same time but you will be able to switch between them as you please. Voice control will only be available when in Wi-Fi mode, aka standard Sonos mode, for now. 

Sound and performance

• Two Class-D digital amplifiers, tweeter and mid-woofer
• 10 hours battery life
• Replaceable battery 

The Sonos Move has a downward-firing tweeter, coupled with a mid-range woofer inside. For those wondering why the company has used a downward facing tweeter, Sonos told us it was to achieve evenly dispersed sound and the Sonos Move has what the company has called a Wave Guide inside the bottom of the speaker to enable this to happen.

Based on our first experience of the Sonos Move, the speaker offers a great sound quality for its size. It's on the bassy side, which is typical of Sonos speakers but we liked that about it.

We'll have to wait until we get the Sonos Move into the office to cast proper judgement on the sound experience, but we are impressed with what we've heard so far and we're looking forward to taking the Sonos Move around the house and into the garden.

Sonos claims the battery will deliver 10 hours of music playback, but again, we will need to test that ourselves. The battery can be replaced though - it will last around 900 charging cycles - or around three years - after which it is recommended user's replace it to get the most out of the device.