Back in 2019, Sonos launched its first portable speaker, the aptly named Move, which had a lot to like about it, notwithstanding its somewhat high $400 price. Now the sequel is here with some modest design upgrades, much improved battery life (up to 24 hours) and a new dual-tweeter acoustic architecture that Sonos says allows the Move 2 to deliver “wide, spacious stereo sound, a first for a Sonos portable speaker.” It ships on Sept. 20 in black, olive or white with a wireless charging dock for $449 (£449, AU$799), or $50 more than the original.
Like Sonos’ new wired Era 100 and Era 300 speakers that were released this past June, the Move 2 features the same new touch control system on top of the speaker. You can use the touch controls to play, pause or skip a track, and swipe your finger along the volume slider to adjust the volume levels. As before, you can control the speaker with your voice, with both Amazon Alexa or Sonos Voice Control supported, though not Google Voice Assistant. The built-in microphone array is also used when calibrating the speaker’s sound with Sonos’ TruePlay sound calibration system that customizes the sound for a particular space, whether it’s indoors or outside.
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Move 2 in the garden.
For Sonos users, the appeal of the original Move was that it looked like an indoor speaker and fit in well from an aesthetic standpoint with your existing Sonos wired speakers. But it was also deceptively rugged and held up well outdoors.
Like the original, the Move 2 has an IP56 rating, which makes it both water- and dust-resistant (it’s not waterproof, however). It weighs 6.61 pounds (3 kg) including its battery, which is replaceable, and has an indentation near its top that serves as a handle, making it fairly easy to carry from location to location.
