Sonos Play review: a great jack-of-all-trades portable speaker for home or away

Guardian journalism is independent. We earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Quality wifi bookshelf speaker can go mobile with Bluetooth, long battery life and water resistance, in return to form The Play is a new portable wifi and Bluetooth home speaker that packs the best of Sonos into a jack of all trades that is intended to be a reset point in the company’s recovery from its app debacle that lost it faith, favour and a chief executive. It is the first truly new music speaker since Sonos launched its new app in May 2024, which junked fan-favourite features while causing stability and usage problems for new and old customers alike. The company has spent the best part of two years fixing mistakes, bringing back core features and ensuring the system actually works. Now it can get back to doing what it does best: excellent, expansive wifi speakers that can play music from just about any source in just about any place, and that get better when linked with others on the Sonos system. The Play costs £299 (€349/$299/A$499) and certainly isn’t your average portable speaker. Sitting above the can-sized £179 Roam 2 in price and heft, the latest Sonos