Sonos Move 2 Portable Speaker Boasts Twice the Battery Life of Previous Model
Sonos introduced its first portable speaker, the Move, almost exactly four years ago. While the Move was initially a reliable speaker, certain drawbacks such as its below-average battery life made it less desirable over time. However, Sonos has now released the Move 2, a new portable speaker designed for outdoor use during the autumn season. Similar to its predecessor, the Move 2 boasts a large size and powerful sound, making it convenient to carry around. Additionally, it is highly durable and can withstand various conditions including drops, extreme temperatures, rain, and snow.
But unsurprisingly, Sonos has taken inspiration from the recent Era 100 and Era 300 speakers to make improvements. The new top panel touch controls are the same as those on these speakers. There is a volume slider and separate forward and backward buttons. It also has a USB-C line-in port, so you can connect the Move 2 to a turntable or other audio device.
Perhaps most importantly, its internal speaker design is similar to the Era 100, with two angled tweeters that deliver stereo sound, as opposed to the original Move’s mono tweeter. In my testing of the Era 100, I didn’t find that the two tweeters really give you a stereo experience like you would with multiple speakers, but it’s still a definite improvement.
The other most significant change is that Sonos has more than doubled the Move 2’s battery life from around 11 hours to over 24 hours. That’s a huge jump, and should be enough to appease those who were unhappy with the rather pedestrian longevity of the original Move.
And this time a new color, olive green. I wish it also came in the lovely blue and orange shades you get the smaller Sonos Roam in, but alas.
Like the original Move, this new speaker supports audio via Bluetooth as well as Wi-Fi when you’re offline. It’s also a quick way to let friends play music from the speaker, and it has a Bluetooth sharing feature that routes audio received by the Move via Bluetooth to other Sonos speakers. Of course, you can also group and share audio between other Sonos devices using traditional multi-room audio controls as well.
The Move 2 has built-in microphones for automatic speaker tuning using the company’s Trueplay software – which adjusts sound quality based on speaker placement. The microphones also work with the Sonos voice assistant as well as Amazon Alexa, and there is a physical mute switch on the back that turns off the microphones completely. And if you get two Move 2 speakers, you can connect them together in stereo. This should make for an effective audio setup, although you’ll need to re-pair the speakers if you take one with you and remove it from your Wi-Fi network.
Unfortunately, Sonos is raising the price of its equipment again – the Move 2 costs $449, down from the $399 it asked for the original model. For that price, Sonos also includes a handy ring-shaped wireless charger that lets you easily pick up the Move 2 and go. Yes, there are several improvements here, but Sonos can’t keep raising the prices of its products every time it releases a new model, can it? We haven’t had a chance to hear the Move 2 yet, so it’s too early to say if it’s worth the money, but hopefully the improvements here deserve the price premium. The Move 2 will go on sale on September 20.
