It isn’t the biggest or the loudest and doesn’t have thumping bass or super-long battery life. But the Roam produces quality, well-rounded sound with a clarity unmatched by rivals. Outdoors it functions just like any rugged, water-resistant Bluetooth speaker. Inside it works like Sonos’s other excellent wifi speakers, compatible with practically every music service available and with a choice of voice assistants too. It even looks great as a sleek piece of premium electronics, and like other Sonos speakers will be supported for a very long time. The speaker sounds its best when playing something grand and melodic over wifi cranked up to at least 20% volume. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

For anyone who hasn’t used the Sonos app before: it’s simply the best out there. It’s simple to use, and as well as being vital for set-up is where you can control a number of features, such as compatible voice assistants and Trueplay tuning. In theory these speakers should work with video with minimal lip sync issues when used over wifi with a Sonos system. I say in theory because there are often reported issues with Sonos wireless latency. Given its nomadic ambitions, the Roam cannot rely on wi-fi alone for its music streaming, so Bluetooth and AirPlay 2 are also on board. Connecting via Bluetooth is as simple as holding down the Roam’s power button and waiting for the Sonos to pop up in your available devices. It is angled, though, so generally if you’re putting it at ear height then upright will give you better focus; anywhere lower and having the Roam on its side will direct the sound upwards toward you and improve on stability. Given the choice, we usually ended up with the latter placement in our testing. Is Sonos Roam compatible with S1? Trueplay is a Sonos technology that has been around for a while, allowing its speakers to tweak EQ settings automatically depending on where they’re placed –in open space or near to a wall, for example.The Roam lives up to Sonos’s reputation for quality sound. Its audio performance punches way beyond its weight and size, producing some of the clearest, crispest and most well-balanced audio even at high volumes that I’ve heard from a portable speaker. It doesn’t have really thumping bass, and while it is certainly loud enough for personal listening or in small groups – anything louder than 30% while on a table in front of you is really more than enough – it isn’t up to smashing out the beats for a large outdoor party. But its separate mid and tweeter speakers give a real vibrancy and depth to music that is often poorly reproduced on competitors of this size. It will handle anything from high-energy electronica to a string quartet with aplomb. Because the Sonos Roam has only one tweeter and one woofer, playing in mono, that makes it pretty versatile in terms of orientation. I could be mistaken as I'm evaluating these but do not own them, so please confirm or deny - I think there are a couple advantages over standard BT portable speakers such as the JBL: Will that matter to most people? Depending on when and where you encounter the Sonos Roam, it probably won’t. It just means there is better all-round sound out there – and there has been for some while.

The Roam can breathe underwater for 30 minutes but only at a depth of one metre, so we wouldn’t risk it floating around the pool on a lilo, but we’ve used ours on a drizzly day along the British coast and neither rain nor sand has stopped it working yet. For existing Sonos users after a portable speaker, the Roam is a no-brainer. For others what you get is far more than a simple Bluetooth speaker for much the same price as top competitors. For many it might be the only personal music speaker you need. Detail and clarity are two such areas. This speaker doesn’t particularly sound boxed in, but pit it against some of the best portable speakers, which might have fewer features but offset that with a lighter price tag, and the difference is a little disappointing. Clarity is an area in which Sonos often excels, but we’re talking about a noticeable step behind its rivals here. Superior high-end articulation is one thing, but comparisons reveal textures and timbres can be greatly more insightful throughout the frequency range. You can, but only via wi-fi and the Sonos app; this can’t be done using only Bluetooth. That isn’t the end of the world if you want to do so outside, but it does make things a bit more difficult enjoying a proper stereo mix out in the wilderness.You could, but it wouldn’t be the best use of the Roam. There is no physical audio connection, let alone HDMI, so you’d be connecting it to your TV via Bluetooth. That wouldn’t be the end of the world, as the Roam boasts Bluetooth 5.0, but you aren’t going to get anything approaching the sound or features of a dedicated soundbar such as the Beam or Arc. Can I pair two Roam speakers in stereo? The latter, with help from the built-in mic, tweaks the EQ automatically depending on the speaker’s surroundings, though you can also fine-tune bass and treble yourself. lovlid said:Not much really. What with it being a regular Bluetooth speaker. You can take it on a picnic though. Again, don’t take what Sonos says as a challenge, but the Roam should withstand a number of bashes, bangs and falls. So no, you shouldn’t need a case unless you can’t bear scuffing the ends.

While placing two Roam speakers near the house might work when you’re in the garden, further afield you’ll need to set up a wi-fi network perhaps using a second phone or tablet. You can’t use the same device to work the control app and provide the wi-fi hotspot, so it does start getting fairly convoluted, but it is possible if you’re desperate open-air stereo. How does the Roam work with other wireless speakers? As we’ve said, if you aren’t already invested in the Sonos multi-room family then you might be better off looking elsewhere for your portable wireless speaker needs. The IP67 rating means the Roam is watertight enough to deal with rain or snow, and Sonos promises it’ll operate in more extreme high and low temperatures as well. A listen to other portable Bluetooth speakers around this price also confirms that we could be expecting more in terms of timing and dynamics. There is plenty of punch to the Roam’s performance, but it is far less expressive than the competition here, and can also seem quite sluggish. Verdict The roam can connect via wifi to a Sonos system, allowing them to play in sync with other speakers, given one owns supporting Sonos equipment. So it should be possible to have a subwoofer fill in the low range that these speakers are missing, greatly improving their presence, especially at low volumes.For the uninitiated, Sonos S2 is the latest app and operating system – essentially a complete update to the software side of the ecosystem. Which voice assistants can I use with Sonos Roam? Though you can’t use the Roam as a surround speaker, because the Roam is part of Sonos’s multi-room family you can still play the same audio as is playing on any other Sonos speaker on your home network. That includes the Arc and the Beam. A simple one to answer, this: no, version one of the Sonos platform isn't compatible with the Sonos Roam, so you’ll have to update to the Sonos S2 control app. There is currently a battery-drain bug with the Google Assistant integration for which Sonos is working on a fix, but in the meantime it suggests turning the speaker fully off after use, turning off Assistant or switching to Alexa. Unlike other Sonos speakers, Roam cannot be paired with a sub or used as surrounds in a home cinema setup.

The Roam certainly isn’t the best-sounding wireless speaker you can buy for this money, which is why we gave it four stars in our review, so it’s a good question to ask yourself. Very few speakers let you switch between two different voice assistants, stopping you from being tied into only one service forever. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianThat said, if you are determined to add some extra protection, long-time Sonos-collaborator Flexson has just launched a case for the Roam and we're sure more must be on the way. Can Sonos Roam play while charging? That’s not necessarily a bad thing when you consider how the Roam might be used. There’s nothing worse than coarse hi-hats cutting through the chatter at a party when the speaker is turned up too loud. A clear high-end would be even better, but sometimes we can understand playing things a bit safe.