The new Sonos Play fills a gap that’s been in Sonos’ growing portable speaker lineup for a while now. It’s bigger and louder than the tiny Roam 2 but far more portable than the chunky Move 2, all while offering the same smooth integration into your existing Sonos setup for seamless multiroom audio.
The Play looks slick, sounds good and gets seriously loud for its size, and its handy charging base gives it a unique advantage over other Sonos speakers. However, it’s got some notable drawbacks, including its steep $300 price tag, especially because many of the best Bluetooth speakers cost much less. So, is Sonos’ new middle child worth the premium? Does it deserve a place among the best Sonos speakers? I spent days blasting music out of one for hours at a time — both on its own and as part of a larger Sonos system — to help you decide.
The Sonos Play offers big sound in a compact package that works both on the go and in your existing home Sonos system.
What we liked about it
A familiar, sleek and versatile design
The Play doesn’t deviate much from the classic Sonos design, which is to say its sleek, cylindrical and clean minimalist look will blend right into your living room, kitchen or wherever you decide to travel with it. It sits somewhere between the portable Roam 2 and the stationary Era 100 in terms of size: You can easily fit it on a bookshelf, and while it feels a little hefty at three pounds, I was able to comfortably lift it with one hand and fit it into my backpack.
The green carrying strap on the back is a nice touch, as are the responsive physical buttons up top, which I much prefer to the sensitive touch controls on the Era. The Play’s charging base is another perk that sets it apart from the Roam. The base makes charging a lot more convenient than fishing for a USB-C cable, and makes it easy to use the Play as a stationary smart speaker at home without running out of battery. Once you take it out into the wild, the Play carries an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating to handle the elements. It kept jamming just fine after I put mine under running water for 30 seconds, so you shouldn’t have to worry about everyday splashes by the pool.
Sonos’ latest portable speaker comes in the company’s usual duo of black or white, and I’ve enjoyed having a pair of the latter flanking my entertainment area. That said, I’d love to see the Play eventually add more vibrant colors to the mix, much like the Roam series has over the years. Still, the Play is a nice-looking portable speaker that’s ideal for folks who want something bigger than the Roam but don’t want to lug the much chunkier Sonos Move around their home.
All of the perks of the Sonos system
Like the Roam and Move before it, the Sonos Play stands out from other portable speakers because it can seamlessly integrate into your existing Sonos speaker setup. And while the now-infamous Sonos app has no shortage of quirks (more on those below), the Play really does sing when it’s paired with other Sonos speakers to share big sound throughout your home.
After some minor hiccups, I was able to get a pair of Sonos Play speakers, as well as a Sonos Era 100 SL, all set up together on my Wi-Fi network. From there, I put them in a group together via the app, linked my Apple Music account (most major streamers are supported) and was blasting music from all three with a single tap pretty quickly. I dig the fact that I was able to easily control the volume of the entire system at once and go into the app to adjust the sliders for each individual speaker (after all, I need much less sound in my bathroom than I do in my living room). If you’re already deep into the Sonos ecosystem, you’ll have an easy time integrating the Play into your setup.
The Play supports voice control via Alexa and the company’s own Sonos Voice Control (sorry, Google Gemini and Apple Siri fans), and both assistants were simple to set up. Alexa responded to my weather requests and gave me reminders to pick up my laundry just like she does on my Amazon Echo Studio, while Sonos Voice Control (which features the iconic timbre of actor Giancarlo Esposito) was mostly reliable for handling my music playback requests. I got a real kick out of Esposito saying things like “fantastic” and “great choice” after certain requests, though his voice sounded uncannily robotic when giving longer responses.
Sonos’ voice assistant held up pretty well when I asked it to play specific artists or genres, but it wasn’t without its hiccups. When I said “play some instrumental hard rock,” it gave me a piano rendition of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own.” While I love that song, and it was certainly an instrumental version, it was far from hard rock. When I asked it to play the new Snail Mail album, it gave me one of the artist’s older tracks instead. Still, when it came to pausing music, skipping tracks and adjusting the volume without having to touch my phone, Sonos Voice Control did what I needed it to.
If you’d rather not use the Sonos app, the Play works great with Apple AirPlay. I was able to beam my music to both my Play and Era 100 SL simultaneously with just a few quick taps in supported apps like Apple Music and YouTube. Of course, you can also just tap the Bluetooth button and use the Play as a regular ol’ wireless speaker with any playback device of your choosing.
You can even pair multiple Play and Move 2 speakers together in Bluetooth mode, getting the multispeaker Sonos experience without the need for a Wi-Fi network. I was able to instantly pair my two Play speakers together with a single long-press on one of them, though this does seem like a fairly niche use case, as it’s a setup for folks who are taking multiple $300 to $500 portable speakers on the road with them.
Good, loud sound
The Sonos Play makes good on its promise of room-filling sound. It coated my entire living room with big rock guitars and soaring indie-pop croons during a long afternoon tidying up the apartment while providing plenty of volume for shower singalongs in my bathroom.
The speaker made a great showpiece for the new Tigers Jaw album “Lost on You,” as the band’s buzzsaw electric guitars, crackling drums, punchy bass and interwoven vocal harmonies all had plenty of room to breathe, even coming out of such a small source. With the Play as my main speaker, the angsty alt-rock riffs of Footballhead had me banging my head just as fiercely as Muna’s pop smash “Dancing on the Wall” had me shaking my butt. That sound only became richer when I paired two Play speakers together in stereo mode, and even more so when I added an Era 100 SL to the mix. If you want a small speaker that offers huge sound for everyday listening and social gatherings, the Play more than delivers.
That said, I noticed that the Play’s output can get fairly muffled at higher volumes, and the bass quality tends to vary by genre on default settings. While Kendrick Lamar’s vocals on “Not Like Us” were so clear I felt like he was in the room hating on me personally, the track’s typically pulverizing bass was relatively subdued on this speaker. The Sonos Era 100 SL offered clearer, wider sound by comparison, but its positioning is less flexible than a wireless Bluetooth speaker. Fortunately, you can offset the Play’s inconsistent bass by using the EQ controls in the Sonos app, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
A long-lasting (and replaceable!) battery
The Play is rated for 24 hours of battery life, and I’m inclined to believe that claim based on my own testing. After three straight days of using the Play for several multihour sessions, I’ve still got 54% battery left in the tank. You can confidently take this thing out to a day at the beach or use it to power your next rooftop party without worrying about a dead battery; heck, you can probably squeeze out at least two days of heavy use without needing to recharge.
Even better is that the Play includes its aforementioned charging base, which means it can stay fully charged when you use it as a stationary speaker at home. Like most competitors, the speaker also doubles as a power bank that can charge your other electronics via USB-C, something that worked instantly with my iPhone 16 Pro and AirPods Pro 2. Here’s the real kicker: The battery is fully replaceable, which means that your Play doesn’t have to become a pricey paperweight should its battery get worn down over the years. You can get a battery replacement kit for $69, and while that’s not super cheap, it sure is less expensive than buying a whole new $300 speaker.
What we didn’t like about it
It’s expensive for what it does
As smart and versatile as the Play is, I can’t help but feel that $300 is a bit too steep for what this speaker does. It sounds good, but at that price it should sound great. The Play certainly sounded more refined than our top upgrade pick, the JBL Charge 6, when I put the two head-to-head, but not to a degree that the average person is likely to notice during casual outdoor listening. And JBL’s speaker can be found for half the Play’s price on sale.
What you’re really paying for is compatibility with the Sonos ecosystem, but even that has a more affordable entry point in the $179 Sonos Roam 2. It’s not nearly as booming as the Play, but it’s still quite loud and clear for a small speaker. More importantly, it has the same ability to join your home Wi-Fi network and seamlessly sync up with your other Sonos speakers for multiroom listening.
The Sonos app still isn’t great
You can’t talk about Sonos without talking about its app, which got a much-maligned redesign in 2024 and caused a fervent customer backlash the company is still trying to recover from. I didn’t use Sonos’ app pre-redesign enough to have an opinion on how the two versions compare, but I do know that its current iteration could still use some work.
The app’s home screen is fine enough, putting your linked streaming services front and center alongside a collection of Sonos Radio recommendations and any content you’ve saved to your Sonos Favorites. There’s a universal search bar that can pull up music, podcasts and audiobooks from any of your connected streamers. But while you can customize this page, you’re limited to simply rearranging and deleting various rows.
My biggest issue is that the settings menu for your individual Sonos speakers are fairly buried. You need to tap the little speaker icon on the playback widget to bring up your system and then tap on your speaker of choice to dig into the menu. This doesn’t take much work, but it didn’t feel very intuitive to me at first. Amazon’s Alexa app isn’t worlds better, but there’s at least a clear Devices menu that lets me get right to my hardware.
Then, once you get to the Play’s settings menu, your options are pretty basic. The EQ for customizing the sound output is limited to a pair of sliders for bass and treble. That may be fine for most people, but audio nerds who like to fine-tune things will likely be disappointed — especially when rivals like JBL offer multiple sound presets and a fully customizable equalizer.
The current Sonos app is far from unusable, and thanks to decent voice controls and wireless connection options, you can get by without having to use it much at all. That said, it could stand to be a lot simpler and easier to navigate, especially compared to the competition.
Bottom line
The Sonos Play is an excellent addition to the company’s portable speaker lineup that will likely scratch an itch for a very specific type of user. If you found the Roam 2 too small and the Move 2 too big and bulky, the Play serves as a fantastic middle ground that’ll get you huge sound while still being compact enough to fit in your backpack. Put another way, the Play is more or less an Era 100 — essentially the classic Sonos speaker — that you can take on the go. Even if you own those other Sonos products, the Play will fit right into your setup and give you one more source for spreading sound throughout your household (or your next big outdoor gathering if you have multiple portable models).
That said, the Play’s appeal depends on you both having $300 to spare and being really into the Sonos ecosystem. If you just want a good midsized Bluetooth speaker, our favorite upgrade model in the JBL Charge 6 is much cheaper, gets similarly loud and has its own smooth multidevice connectivity with other JBL speakers. And if you’re looking to dip your toes into the Sonos world, the $179 Sonos Roam 2 is a great portable entry point. Plus, the new $189 Era 100 SL sounds even better for folks who don’t need portability or a built-in microphone. The Sonos Play is a fantastic portable speaker, but until it starts going on sale, it’s more of a luxury option for Sonos enthusiasts who want the brand’s signature sound and connectivity anywhere they go.
FAQs
The Sonos Play and Sonos Move are both Bluetooth speakers that also work with the Sonos ecosystem, meaning you can use them as stand-alone players on the go while pairing them with your other Sonos speakers over Wi-Fi for multiroom audio at home. The big difference between the Play and Move is size. The former speaker is small enough to fit in a backpack while the nearly 10-inch-tall and 6.6-pound Move is portable but best suited for patios and backyards.
Meanwhile, the Sonos Era 100 SL is a stationary speaker that must be plugged into power and can’t be taken on the go. It supports both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi playback, but is generally designed to stay in place as part of your larger Sonos setup. The new SL model is mostly identical to the standard Era 100, but ditches the built-in microphone for voice commands in favor of a lower $189 price.
Pretty much. The Sonos Play can function as a standard Bluetooth speaker, meaning you can pair just about any phone, tablet or laptop to it and play tunes from any app of your choice. If you have the Play set up with the rest of your Sonos system via Wi-Fi, then you’ll have to use one of the Sonos app’s supported services. Fortunately, the Sonos app works with almost all of the big names in audio streaming, including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music and the company’s own Sonos Radio. It also supports a number of audiobook services, including Audible and Libby.
Yep, that’s kind of its whole thing! The Sonos Play can be paired with other Sonos devices in a few different ways. You can pair together up to 32 Sonos products in a single system via the Sonos app, which effectively puts them all on the same Wi-Fi network and allows you to play audio from all of them at once. The Sonos Play can also be paired to up to three additional Play or Move 2 speakers via Bluetooth, meaning you can enjoy the company’s multispeaker audio perks even when you’re away from Wi-Fi.
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CNN Underscored thoroughly tests the products in our testing guides and provides full transparency about how we test them. We have a skilled team of writers and editors who have many years of testing experience and ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when relevant to make certain we’re testing each product accurately, recommending only the best products and considering the pros and cons of each item.
CNN Underscored senior tech editor Mike Andronico has been writing tech product reviews for 13 years and has tested no shortage of speakers and audio products in that time. He’s been rocking multiple Amazon Echo devices around his apartment for months now, though the Play has him tempted to switch to a Sonos setup.
Mike Andronico is CNN Underscored's senior tech editor, overseeing coverage of phones, laptops and everything else consumer electronics. When he's not knee deep in review units, you can find him hunting for retro video games, hanging with his French bulldog and playing with his band, Ghost Tour.
