The brand new Sonos Play has develop into my go-to desk and kitchen speaker

I do business from home, so I sometimes hearken to audio by headphones or AirPods. However I’ve all the time wished a desk speaker that doesn’t take up an excessive amount of area, which made the brand new Sonos Play a becoming first Sonos product to assessment.

The Play, launched in March, is Sonos’s first new system in additional than a yr. The $299 speaker is a hybrid: half residence speaker, half transportable. It sits in your desk in a pill-shaped dock, however at 1.3 kilograms, with a “utility loop” on the again, it’s straightforward to hold round the home or take outdoors.

Whereas testing it, I usually began a podcast at my desk and carried the Play to the kitchen whereas I cooked or made espresso. The benefit over carrying AirPods is that you simply stay conscious of your environment — no extra lacking what somebody throughout the room is saying. And also you don’t have to depend on voice instructions to manage playback; the Sonos Assistant and Alexa are each in-built.

Bodily controls are one other benefit. Skipping tracks or adjusting quantity with greasy arms is awkward on AirPods; the Play’s buttons are extra forgiving. That mentioned, the controls themselves are straightforward to overlook — they’re the identical shade because the silicone prime and barely raised above the floor. After just a few days I had memorized their positions, however the studying curve is a minor frustration that higher distinction or extra tactile buttons may have prevented.

The speaker is sturdy and IP67-rated, which means it could actually deal with rain and temporary submersion — I ran it underneath a faucet with out concern. It may possibly additionally cost your telephone in a pinch, doubling as an influence financial institution, which is a welcome function for outside use.

For sound, the Play depends on dual-angled tweeters, a mid-woofer, and three digital amplifiers, with two passive radiators to strengthen bass open air. The result’s balanced and detailed at average volumes — instrument separation is especially good. The soundstage is slim, although, which means the music can really feel considerably contained fairly than expansive, and at larger volumes the combo loses a few of its readability.

The Play is well-suited to a desk or a patio; it isn’t making an attempt to fill a room. For that, Sonos’s Period 100 SL — which launched alongside the Play — is the higher selection. Two Play models will be paired right into a stereo configuration, both by the app or, extra cleverly, by holding the play/pause button on each audio system concurrently. It’s a helpful function that makes a noticeable distinction for music, although much less so for tv audio — which these audio system aren’t actually designed for anyway.

Sonos has additionally in-built Trueplay, which makes use of the speaker’s microphones to robotically calibrate sound based mostly on the room. Earlier variations of this function required waving your telephone across the area to tune the audio — an ungainly workaround that may have made little sense on a transportable speaker. The brand new implementation handles it robotically.

Sonos has had well-publicized struggles with its app — disappearing audio system, glitchy quantity controls — and whereas the corporate has made significant enhancements, just a few tough edges stay. Sync between the Play and my MacBook was sometimes laggy, for instance, and enjoying or pausing audio on YouTube typically produced a noticeable delay earlier than the speaker responded.

Switching audio between audio system labored reliably by AirPlay however failed repeatedly within the Sonos app till I put in the Apple Music integration — and even then, the method is extra cumbersome than it needs to be.

The “Apply” button within the Sonos app, required to verify speaker adjustments, appears like an pointless additional step. AirPlay handles the identical motion with a single faucet.

Pocket Casts integration has a resuming bug: podcasts restart from the start fairly than selecting up the place you left off.

Total, the Sonos Play is a stable speaker that largely delivers on its premise. The app points are actual however not dealbreakers, and Sonos has proven it’s prepared to iterate. If portability isn’t a precedence, the Period 100 ($219) or Period 100 SL ($189) supply extra quantity for much less cash. If you need one thing extra rugged and actually transportable, the Sonos Roam 2 or JBL Cost 6 are value contemplating. However if you would like a speaker that works equally nicely on a desk and a again porch, the Play makes a convincing case for itself.