The Sonos Move 2 Portable Speaker Offers Better Sound and Battery Life

On September 20, the Move 2 will be available with stereo sound, touch controls, and double the battery life of the first Move.

With the aptly called Move, Sonos first portable speaker, which had a $400 price tag, was released in 2019. It had a lot going for it. The Move 2 is now available with a few minor design improvements, much longer battery life (up to 24 hours), and a new dual-tweeter acoustic architecture, which, according to Sonos, enables the speaker to offer “wide, spacious stereo sound, a first for a Sonos portable speaker.” It costs $449 (£449, AU$799) when it ships on September 20 in black, olive, or white with a wireless charging port, which is $50 more than the original.

The Move 2 has the same new touch control mechanism as Sonos’ new wired Era 100 and Era 300 speakers, which were released this past June. To play, pause, or skip a track, use the touch controls. To change the volume levels, slide your finger along the volume slider. As previously, you may control the speaker with your voice using Sonos Voice Control or Amazon Alexa; Google Voice Assistant is not supported. When calibrating the speaker’s sound with Sonos’ TruePlay sound calibration technology, which adjusts the sound for a specific environment, whether it be indoors or out, the built-in microphone array is also employed.

. When you’re indoors and not connected to your home WiFi network, you can use the Move or Roam as Bluetooth speakers, and when you’re at home, you can incorporate them into your Sonos multiroom system. However, switching from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth could be a little challenging. Sonos seems to have fixed this problem with the Move 2, but we’ll have to try it out. Apple users can utilise AirPlay 2 to wirelessly stream audio from their devices to the speaker as well.

Since you can wirelessly connect two Move 2s to form a true stereo pair, I suppose it goes without saying that I’m most interested in how it sounds and whether it can actually produce stereo sound. Typically, it’s challenging to get any stereo separation in a single speaker because the drivers are so close to one another. Sound on the original Move was mono.

Users of Sonos were drawn to the original Move because it resembled an indoor speaker and aesthetically blended in with your other Sonos wired speakers. However, it was also surprisingly durable and held up nicely outside.

The Move 2 has the same IP56 rating as the original, making it both water- and dust-resistant (but not waterproof). It is rather simple to transport from one area to another thanks to its 6.61 pound (3 kg) weight, removable battery, and handle-like depression near the top.

Like I indicated, the battery life is the other significant improvement. Sonos claims that the speaker may now be used at moderate volume levels for up to 24 hours. This is an improvement over the 11-hour battery life of the first Move.

The speaker has a wireless charging dock, but you can also use the USB-C port, which also serves as a charge-out port for your devices, to power it. Additionally, Sonos confirmed that the Line-In Adapter adapter, which it separately sells for $19, can be used to perform audio via the USB-C connection.

Here is a brief summary of the speaker’s main specifications.

Key specifications for the Sonos Move 2, per Sonos