It's been another packed week of technology news, and TechRadar has been covering all of the stories that matter: the Prime Day deals, the Apple price hikes, new devices from Oura and Sonos, and plenty more besides.

If you haven't been able to check in regularly on our site, this weekly ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up is here to get you up to speed. You can browse through the headlines that matter below, and click the links for the full articles.

Get yourself comfortable and review the past week below, and we'll be back again this time next week for another ICYMI summary.

7. We scoured the Prime Day deals

You may have noticed that it's been Amazon Prime Day this week — it's now spread across multiple days of course — and the TechRadar team has been busy searching across every Amazon category to bring you the best deals: we've found discounts on TVs, laptops, headphones, smartwatches, smart home gadgets, tablets, and plenty more besides.

No matter what you're in need of tech-wise at the moment, our US and UK round-up pages have a variety of deals that will fit, and a lot of these discounts are genuinely substantial — and many are still going. Together with the latest prices and links for each product, we've also included our expert tech advice in each case, so you know exactly why which offers are worth pursuing.

• Read more: We're tracking the best Prime Day tech deals live — 121 biggest discounts on Apple, Samsung, Kindle, Sony, and more

6. We reviewed the Oura Ring 5

The Oura Ring 5 is a substantial step up from its predecessor: it's slimmer, lighter, and more durable, as well as offering extra battery life — and according to our review, you might even forget you're wearing it. Oura has managed to refine the device's appearance so it looks like a normal piece of jewelry, even with the cutting-edge sensors inside it.

"It's easily the most stylish and accurate smart ring around," our review states, though it's not perfect, and there's that usual Oura subscription fee to consider if you want to access most of the tracking features. If you're wondering whether the Oura Ring 5 is the right wearable upgrade for you, then we'll tell you everything you need to know below.

• Read more: Oura Ring 5 review — a luxury smart ring for discreet everyday wellness tracking that's (almost) easy to forget you're wearing

5. Meta revealed its cheaper smart glasses

Meta has treated us to a bumper crop of new smart glasses, starting at $299 / £269 / AU$599 and developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. We've got all the details here, including how they feel to wear, and a rundown of the design and color variations you can pick from — you certainly can't complain that there isn't enough choice in this batch.

We've also got comments from Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, who outlined the company's vision of a smart spec future, and said "it's pretty easy to make glasses that don’t look good, it turns out". That seems to be a humorous dig at some of Meta's rivals in the space, but see what you think of the new Meta Glasses range.

• Read more: 'Our goal is to reach every corner of the market': Meta CTO Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth on the new $299 EssilorLuxottica Meta Glasses

4. We reviewed the latest Sonos speaker

The Sonos Era 100 SL wireless speaker is more affordable than the Era 100 that launched before it, but as our detailed review will tell you, Sonos has been able to pull this off without making too many compromises. Most importantly, the quality of the sound doesn't drop even though the price does, so you still get a top-tier listening experience.

Our review takes you through every aspect of the Era 100 SL speaker, from how easy it is to set up initially, to the sort of performance you can expect from it — with London Grammar and DJ Shadow included in the artists whose music we used for testing — and there's praise for "quality sound", "great connectivity", and "iconic design" along the way.

• Read more: 'A better price for the same performance': I reviewed Sonos' cheaper Era 100 SL wireless speaker, and was shocked at how few concessions were made to make this a bargain

3. The Steam Machine got an official price tag

It's been a long wait for the Steam Machine, but we're nearly there, and now know that the starting price is set at $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609, and we can thank the price inflation driven by the RAM crisis for that. If a Steam Machine is still within your budget, you'll be able to put in an order from June 29, more than seven months after it was first announced.

If you don't think that's good value, then we've put together a guide to building your own Steam Machine alternative below. You get full control over the budget and the specs of the components you choose, and it can be a lot of fun too (as we can say with confidence given the years of PC building experience on the TechRadar team).

• Read more: Disappointed by the Steam Machine’s official price? Build your own mini gaming PC instead with these deals

2. Apple revealed its painful price hikes

Speaking of the RAM crisis, it just hit Apple too: the company has racked up the pricing on many of its products, including iPads, MacBooks, and even the HomePod. The recently launched MacBook Neo, for example, now has a starting price of $699 rather than $599 in the US — a not inconsiderable rise of $100 or 17% in a single jump.

We've got all the details of how much more expensive each Apple gadget is now, with these price increases effective immediately on the official Apple Store. We've also got some ideas about where you can still find these Apple products at their original prices from third-party retailers — though you'll have to move fast to grab them.

• Read more: Apple just delivered the worst kind of news: price hikes across many of its major products (even the Neo) — and yes, RAM prices are to blame

1. GTA 6 pre-orders finally went live

After two substantial delays, GTA 6 is finally going to go on sale on November 19, and you can get your pre-orders in now for the PS5, the Xbox Series X, or the Xbox Series S. You've got a $79.99 / £69.99 Standard Edition and a $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition to choose between, and we've got links for you to all the top US and UK retailers right here.

We're also going to keep an eye out for any bundles that these stores are offering, meaning you can pick up the game and a console at the same time — so check back often if you're interested. It's exciting that pre-orders are now live for what could be the video game of the decade, and we only have five more months to count down until launch day.

• Read more: GTA 6 pre-orders live — bundles arrive, while almost all major US and UK retailers have stock

Sonos Era 100 SL: two-minute review

The Sonos Era 100 SL is a wireless speaker that features nearly all the strengths of 2023’s original Sonos Era 100, but at a cheaper price. While it isn't a surprise that there have been some trade-offs to get that cost down, I doubt they'll be a dealbreaker for most people.

Sonically speaking, there aren’t many sacrifices at all. In the mid-range, the Era 100 SL is capable of impressive detail. When I played I Want You by Moloko, I was impressed by how well its funky guitar noises, strings and acidy synth line cut through the mix, without interfering with the wonderfully polished vocals.

However, I found the high end a little more cluttered on occasion: listening to The Gloaming by Radiohead, I did feel that the rhythmic pulsing static was a bit too forward, treading on the toes of the granular synth. It sounds great for the price, but you do get a finer presentation if you pay more.

Bass was always the original Era 100’s achilles heel. It often tipped into being brash, slightly swamping the rest of the mix. When I played Six Days (Machinedrum remix) by DJ Shadow on the SL, the low-end appeared slightly more dynamic when compared to the original Era 100, leading me to wonder if a software tweak to rein in bass was responsible, or whether it's part of the re-engineering inside that Sonos CEO Tom Conrad told us the company had done, to hit the lower price.

Either way, it still isn't great with sub, though: it falls away just when it hits the drop, that swelling bassline feeling nowhere near as substantial as it sounds on the best wireless speakers that are pricier.

Generally, though, the SL offers a spacious presentation, especially when fed high-quality recordings. Playing Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar from Tidal’s hi-res tier, I was struck by the airiness of the mix, which allowed the silvery vocals to stand apart from the piano and drums.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite extend to the speaker’s stereo field — as with its predecessor, I found it hard to differentiate a clear stereo separation unless I was very close. As such, you’re unlikely to get a clear sense of left and right from halfway across the room — but then, at this price, you could actually buy two happily.

So the Era 100 SL is as easy on the ear as its predecessor, albeit with some of the same drawbacks. But how does it look?

Given it’s largely decked out in the same getup as the Era 100, there really are few surprises here. It’s the same dimensions and has the same wraparound grille and matte-plastic top surface. The touch-capacitive control scheme is also largely identical — with the voice control button being the only real omission, because Sonos removed that feature. Otherwise, Sonos has stuck with what works for the SL, and I’d say that was the right instinct.

In fact, probably the only area where the SL makes a real departure from its namesake is in its feature set. Connectivity remains solid, offering Wi-Fi 6, AirPlay 2 and a whole host of built-in streaming services — although the only wired input you’ll get is if you splash extra cash on its USB-C to 3.5mm analog converter. EQ options are identical to those on the Era 100, offering just the option to boost or duck bass or treble.

But there are two significant differences. First off, as I alluded to above, voice control has been stripped out of the SL. This feels like a reasonable sacrifice to lower that price — and I’d rather that than weaker sound quality.

Slightly more an issue for me is the omission of Trueplay room correction for Android users (which is a consequence of dropping the microphones, since the Android solution relies on them). Those with an iPhone can still tailor the SL’s sound to their space using their device to track calibration sound as they walk around the room. Given how well this feature polishes its sound, it is a shame that you'll miss out if you're on an Android device.

Despite this though, the Sonos Era 100 SL is well worth it. You get the quality sound plus classic design of Sonos’s pricier speaker, for the reduced price of $189 / £169 / AU$289. That’s a pretty great bargain and ameliorates our biggest hesitation with its pricier predecessor. Yes, it's a shame that Android users miss out on a great feature but it's still the best home speaker you'll get for this price.

Sonos Era 100 SL review: specs

Sonos Era 100 SL review: price & availability

• Launched on March 31, 2026
• Costs $189 / £169 / AU$289
• Available in black or white

Having launched on March 31, 2026, the Sonos Era 100 SL is available now, at a cheaper price than its predecessor, the Era 100.

The SL comes in at $189 / £169 / AU$289, compared to the Era 100’s now-reduced price of $219 / £199 / AU$319. While not a huge gulf, it still amounts to a decent saving, especially given the near-identical specs.

And, as is usually the case with Sonos gear, for that price you have the option to pick up the speaker in white or black.

Sonos Era 100 SL review: features

• Good connectivity options and streaming service support
• Room correction only compatible with iPhone
• No voice control of any kind

So how does the Sonos Era 100 SL’s featureset differ from its spendier stablemate? Well, on paper, it’s very similar to the Era 100, with only a couple of key differences.

Let’s start with its drivers. The SL offers the same setup as as the Era 100, with a mid-woofer to handle both mid-range frequencies and bass, while two angled tweeters take care of the treble and help form its stereo field. These are all driven by the speaker’s three class D amplifiers, meaning you get decent volume and low-end heft.

Setting up Sonos products has always been a breeze, and the Era 100 SL is no exception. Simply plug it in, download the Sonos app, and select the system you want to add it to. Tap on your speaker when it appears, and it will play an audio pin to connect it to your system. After installing an update via the app, I was good to go.

The last (optional) step is to set up the SL’s Trueplay room-calibration tuning, which is designed to get you the best possible sound from the speaker, and that works much the same as it did on the Era 100.

Essentially, you point your iPhone’s mic toward the speaker, then walk around the room while whirling it around in slow circles with one arm, like a lopsided propeller.

Following calibration, the sound definitely seemed free of obvious acoustic issues — there wasn’t any boom back from the bass, nor any unfortunate reverberations off the surfaces or walls — so Sonos’ room correction seems as effective as ever.

Unfortunately, there’s a pretty major caveat here: unlike on the Era 100, the SL’s Trueplay tuning is only compatible with iOS. And that is a real shame, given it does help unlock the SL's best sound. However, it still offers great performance for Android users, even if the lack of Trueplay does add an asterisk there.

Trueplay for Android users isn’t the only feature removed to help reduce the SL’s price. The voice control offered by the full Era 100 has been omitted, too, saving you the price of the mic module and controls. Personally, it takes me far longer to horsewhip my thoughts into a spoken command than it does to simply pull out my phone, so I’m not all that bothered about the lack of voice assistant. But if you are, you’ll probably prefer the Era 100.

While I’ve mentioned how much I rate the Era 100 SL’s room-correction tech, I can’t really say the same for its EQ options. The Sonos app only offers the ability to boost or duck the treble or bass by up to 10 levels. While I do think Sonos’s speakers sound a lot better than some wireless speakers out of the box, plenty of rivals now offer nine-band or even parametric EQ — which makes the SL’s bass and treble sliders feel like old hat.

As far as connectivity options are concerned, the Era 100 SL offers a decent range. Using Wi-Fi 6, you can stream tunes directly from your devices using AirPlay 2, or from the speaker using built-in apps including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Soundcloud, Spotify, Tidal and a whole heap more. Meanwhile, Bluetooth 5.3 will allow you to hook up all your non-Apple devices, although there’s no support for higher-res formats such as aptX HD.

Sadly, the Era 100 SL is less well equipped when it comes to physical connections. Its USB-C port is only for plugging in adapters, so banish any thoughts of hooking up wired digital audio. So while it does allow you the option for plugging in either a 3.5mm jack for analog audio or an Ethernet cable, each of these requires you to buy a separate adapter. It’s a world away from the wealth of ports that a speaker such as the Bluesound Pulse Flex offers.

• Features score: 4 / 5

Sonos Era 100 SL review: sound quality

• Impressive detail
• Rich mids, and bass feels slightly less muddy
• Relatively weak stereo field

My big worry when preparing to test the Sonos Era 100 SL was that in trying to hit the cheaper price point, there would have been a negative impact on the quality of its sound. Fortunately, I’m pleased to reveal this isn't the case — the Era 100 SL happily holds its own against its predecessor and, in some areas, I actually wonder if software tweaks have reined in some of the Era 100’s worst impulses.

First, let’s start with the mid-range. When listening to Venera by George Fitzgerald, I was impressed with how much presence and detail the SL could squeeze out of the track’s vocal, pad washes and synth lines, making them sound like a richly textured whole. Admittedly, some of the percussion felt a little less punchy than I’m used to, but that was more than made up for by how well it balanced the saturated, arpeggiated synth and organic organic woodwind sounds that close out the track.

The original Era 100 came unstuck mainly in the bass — like an overexcitable puppy, it was both enthusiastic and yet lacking in discipline. Here, it sounds like the SL’s software has been tweaked slightly to rein this in.

Comparing Listen by Pola & Bryson and Goddard on both speakers, sustained bass notes sound less reverberant and flabby on the SL, while snarling distorted bass synths seem more tightly expressed. However, not that if you’re expecting super-low bass from either device, you’ll be left wanting: there’s very little in the way of sub from either.

I tested the SL’s treble by playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac — an exam it easily passed, even if it didn’t quite ace it. There wasn’t any unpleasant distortion or oversaturation to it, while the snare and toms had a delicious punch that kept everything moving forward. However, my one reservation was that the rhythmic punch and the polished vocals slightly outshone the twangy rhythm guitar — for me, they’re part of what makes the track so iconic, so it was a shame they didn't get to share as much of the limelight.

Given the Era 100 SL doesn’t exactly sit at the premium end of the market, it also does a good job of separating different instruments in the mix. Playing a hi-res stream of Clair de Lune by Kamasi Washington straight from Tidal, I was impressed by the clarity of timbre of each instrument, especially during the solos. The trumpet beautifully conveys the instrument’s rich harmonics, while the sliding strings of the double bass as the player launches into their solo are brilliantly expressed.

Like its predecessor, the SL is only capable of so-so stereo. Unlike some more premium speakers, it still largely feels like the sound is issuing from a single point. And when I played Manchild by Eels, I could appreciate the stereo separation between elements — with the guitars clearly panned to the right and the vocals to the left — but only when I was sat within a few feet of the device. At least listening angles are pretty consistent, with only a very slight drop off in the treble as you travel toward the speaker’s back.

All in all, my biggest worries going into this were ill-founded. Despite the cheaper price of the Sonos Era 100 SL, it doesn’t demonstrate any significant sonic sacrifices compared to its full-fat sibling. And there may have even been a few software tweaks behind the scenes to slightly rein in the wilder tendencies of the older speaker. Either way, it’s a very decent-sounding speaker for the price.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Era 100 SL review: design

• Almost identical to the Era 100
• Solid, tactile build
• Effective touch-capacitive controls

When it comes to looks, the Sonos Era 100 SL remains almost identical to its older sibling. They share the same cylindrical ellipse shape, are wrapped in the same metallic grille, and arrive in the same black or white colorway. If you’ve ever gawked at the older Era 100, you’ll know exactly what you’re getting here.

All in all, the Era 100 SL is decently stylish, feels solidly built, and the matte plastic of its top surface is pleasingly tactile. While I’ve poured scorn on quite a few wireless speakers lately for defaulting to this same basic format, I’ll give Sonos a pass here. First off, it was largely the brand that coined this look in the first place — and, more importantly, the Era 100 SL is principally a cheaper speaker wearing its spendier brother’s clothing, meaning it was never going to break the mould of existing speakers.

In light of this, so not surprisingly, the Sonos Era 100 SL is the same size as its full-fat sibling, measuring 7.19 x 4.72 x 5.14 inches / 182.5 x 120 x 130.5mm. However, it's ever so slightly lighter — presumably thanks to its shedding of voice control mics — weighing in at 4.3lbs / 1.95kg compared to its predecessor’s 4.45lbs / 2.02kg. That makes it a pretty average size in the grand scheme of things, neither Lilliputian like the 0.96lbs / 0.44kg Sonos Roam 2, nor Brobdingnagian like the hulking, 3 lbs / 14.5kg Cambridge Audio Evo One.

With one notable exception, the erstwhile voice control button, the buttons on the Era 100 SL are the same. And that’s very much a plus: there’s no need to fix the Era 100’s control scheme since it definitely isn't broke. Its touch-capacitive controls are easy to activate, allowing you to play, pause and skip tracks, while swiping its touch bar lets you tweak its volume. Sure, it could offer light-up symbols for use in darker rooms or customizable shortcut keys, but it covers the core functions well.

Fundamentally, the Era 100 SL is the spitting image of the Era 100 before it. So if you were a fan of the older model, you can be sure you’ll like its younger sibling.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Sonos Era 100 SL review: value

In our review, one of our criticisms of the original Sonos Era 100 was its increased cost. Its initial list price of $249 / £249 / AU$399 presented a chunky markup on the Sonos One at $219 / £199 / AU$319 , but even more so when compared to the Sonos One SL's $199 / £179 / AU$289. Even though the Era 100 has now come down in price to $219 / £199 / AU$319, that’s still only roughly comparable to the Sonos One.

Conversely, the Era 100 SL has a list price of $189 / £169 / AU$289, making it the same price or even cheaper than the Sonos One SL but with many of the same features and the exact same sound quality as the Era 100. That’s not to be sneered at.

In fact, if you’re an iPhone user, the only real thing you’re losing here is voice control, something I’m personally happy to sacrifice for a bit of a bargain. And even if you’re an Android user, this price is still well worth it as you're unlikely to get much better performance by investing your spend elsewhere. Access to Trueplay is a definite bonus but that shouldn't detract from the fact the SL still offers great sound for its price.

• Value score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Sonos Era 100 SL?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Sonos Era 100 SL review: also consider

How I tested the Sonos Era 100 SL

• Tested it over four weeks
• Compared it to the Era 100 using a wide range of tracks
• Have decades of experience using audio hardware

I tested the Sonos Era 100 SL over the course of about a month. I made sure to utilize many of its key features, including room-tuning and EQ, and tried connecting to it through a range of options from direct streaming on the device through to connecting discrete devices using AirPlay 2.

To assess its sound quality, I played a wide variety of music, from classic rock to liquid drum & bass. I also compared the sound, side by side, with the Era 100 to see whether I could perceive any significant differences between their sound signatures. In addition, I compared each version’s stereo field and angle drop-off to see whether either revealed any issues with their soundstage.

As well as spending at least the past six years reviewing wireless speakers for tech publications, I have decades of experience using audio hardware in my home environment, including a range of wired and wireless speakers and headphones. I’ve also spent 20 years producing music from home, which has given me a firm understanding of how to assess the balance of frequencies and stereo elements.

• First reviewed: June 2026
• Read more about how we test

Amazon’s Prime Day sale kicks off on June 23 — and it might be the last time we see big discounts on many tech products for a while, if some in the tech world are to be believed.

This includes Tim Cook who this week warned of price increases for Apple’s tech, as, he says, it’s now impossible for Apple to absorb the cost of the ongoing component crisis.

To catch up on Cook’s warning, and brighter news such as Commodore’s flip phone filling us with nostalgia, scroll down for our recap of the week’s biggest tech news.

7. Commodore’s flip phone took us back to 2004

Feeling nostalgic for flip phones and a simpler, pre-doomscrolling age? Commodore (yes, the latest incarnation of the classic computing giant) feels your pain, so it’s made a clamshell phone that’ll meet your retro needs while freeing your brain from smartphone addiction. Or that’s the idea, at least.

The Commodore Callback sits somewhere between a dumb phone and a modern Android flagship. It doesn’t work with social media apps, and has no touchscreen or web browser. But it does run most Android apps and has a 48MP rear camera, plus other flourishes like an “audiophile grade" DAC. Will it start a revolution? We’re not sure, but it’s definitely one of the most interesting phones of the year.

• Read more: ‘A speed bump for your mind’: Commodore’s retro-inspired flip phone could be the perfect way to break your smartphone addiction

6. GTA 6 got a trailer

This week Rockstar unveiled a new teaser for Grand Theft Auto 6 — and while we weren’t lucky enough to see new gameplay, we weren’t left wanting.

To an underscore of 80s synth and guitar we saw the game’s cover art come together. The vignette collage, similar to GTA 5’s art, is full of pink and purple hues which perfectly capture the Vice City vibes.

Rockstar also announced that preorders will go live on June 25, ahead of its release on November 19, 2026.

• Read more: New GTA 6 teaser officially reveals cover art — and it looks pretty slick

5. Microsoft dropped new Surface laptops

Not content to let Computex hog the computing announcement limelight, Microsoft debuted new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processor.

The new Surface Laptop offers what Microsoft claims is up to 58% faster graphics performance over the previous generation of its notebook, and solid battery life of 20 hours for the smaller models, and 19 for the larger.

Meanwhile the Surface Pro 13-inch boasts a 53% graphics performance leap over its predecessor, with up to 15.5 hours of battery life, based on Microsoft's internal testing.

• Read more: Microsoft reveals new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with big graphics upgrades from Snapdragon X2 CPUs

4. Sonos updated its app

A few months ago, we interviewed Sonos CEO Tom Conrad about the company’s app woes in its 2024 update, and he said that while they’d worked hard on fixing its technical issues, he still had big problems with its design and usability that he wanted to get to. This week, he announced the first changes coming to the app to improve its layout.

They include all kinds of things fans have been asking for since the 2024 redesign, including easier volume-changing options, the ability to customize your list of products, and options being organised using tabs the mirror standard iPhone and Android app design cues. The update is rolling out in a beta first, to make sure it all works before everyone else gets it…

• Read more: The Sonos app is finally getting its long-awaited improvements to volume control, player listings and content organization

3. The UK government had bad news for kids

Depending on your point of view, it perhaps wasn’t a great week for young social media fans in the UK — Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that, like Australia, the country would be banning apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat for under-16s from next year.

It won’t just be social media apps that are affected either — livestreaming for under-16s is also going to be banned, across all platforms. The government says the move will “give kids their childhood back”, but UK teens naturally aren’t very impressed, and neither are fans of the open internet. Expect this to be a piping hot topic for the rest of 2026.

• Read more: How will the UK's social media ban actually work? Here's the full list of affected apps — and 5 things you need to know

2. Android 17 rolled out

Android 17 began rolling out to compatible Pixel phones this week, and while Google’s flashy new Gemini Intelligence software isn’t among the available features just yet, there are plenty of neat new tools to try if you own a Google Pixel 6 or newer.

Chief among the new UI features are Bubbles, which lets you turn any app into a floating bubble that stays on top of other apps (useful for multitasking on large-screen devices), and Screen Reactions, which lets you capture your phone’s display and record yourself with the front-facing camera simultaneously.

My favourite Android 17 feature is foldable Gaming Mode, which adds a dynamic gamepad to one side of your foldable phone (so you can play it like a Nintendo DS — yes, really!); unfortunately, this one isn’t dropping until later in the year.

• Read more: 7 of the best Android 17 features available now — from Bubbles to Screen Reactions

1. Tim Cook warned of Apple price hikes

Against the backdrop of the RAM crisis and other component price hikes brought about by AI hype and supply chain disruptions, the affordable MacBook Neo was a breath of fresh air when it debuted — but outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook had some bad news for anyone hoping the good times might last a little longer.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal Cook said: "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

We don’t know when we'll see said price hikes, or how significant they'll be, but if you have your eye on Apple tech you might want to think about buying sooner rather than later — especially with Prime Day kicking off next week.

• Read more: Tim Cook just warned that 'price increases are unavoidable' for Apple products

• Major changes to navigation and volume control
• Available in a new beta this week
• Opt-in rather than enabled by default

Sonos has announced a suite of new changes to the Sonos app, and you'll be able to try the new version this week as a beta — if you want to.

Posting on Reddit, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad says that after "hundreds of hours watching real customers use the Sonos app" his team has identified lots of irritants and sticking points. "We've learned a lot about what hangs people up, what's confusing when you're new to the system, and what slows you down when you're just trying to change the darn volume."

In response, Sonos is making lots of changes to the app, including how you turn the volume up and down.

The post has so far generated a lot of positive responses, including the current top comment by Daveintausend: "Never thought I'd say this but I'm hyped for a better volume control."

What changes are coming to the Sonos app?

A new beta will be released this week, with significant changes to the interface. As Conrad put it: "What kept showing up was this: a lot of friction came from proprietary patterns we built that made the app harder to learn and use than it needed to be. Stacks on stacks on stacks of content cards. Swipe-up gestures to switch speaker orientation. Close boxes where any other app on your phone would have a back button. Custom interface elements that never quite felt like part of iOS or Android."

The plan is to change all of that, and Conrad has highlighted three key areas: better tabbed navigation, a "totally new" volume interface, and more control over how your players are listed and displayed.

He also promises "dozens of smaller quality-of-life fixes everywhere" including swipe to delete in playlists, new views on iPad, and a refresh to the Now Playing screen.

The main interface will be divided into three tabs: Home, System and Search, which will be styled in a way that's native to your phone's operating system, and that replace "the hidden gestures and content cards".

And the volume control will have "a core mechanism that is easier to grab and fine tune, buttons to tap up and down if that’s your thing and a new way to synchronize a across group of rooms."

The changes aren't rolling out to the main app just yet, and they're actually not even mandatory in this week's beta either — but if you install the new beta you'll be able to see the changes by enabling "Enable Improved Navigation" in Settings. It will remain an opt-in toggle post-beta, with Sonos soliciting feedback "until it's fully polished up."

The beta program is here, if you want sign up and try the changes out, but bear in mind that using beta software always comes with the risk of bugs or other problems.

I think it's fair to say that Sonos is doing things very differently since Tom Conrad took the helm in early 2025, and he was up-front about the app debacle when my colleague Matt Bolton interviewed him earlier this year.

In that conversation he told us that "In the aftermath of [the problems], you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through". It's great to see him delivering on that promise.

• Redditor creates own smart home controller, tied into Sonos systems
• Cost just $20 / £16 (or around AU$30), for a small display
• It's like the Sonos Controller, but in 2026

Back in Ye Olden Days (the noughties), Sonos used to sell dedicated music controllers and they look wonderfully retro now. These fell by the wayside when smartphones got good enough to do the exact same thing. But given the current penchant for nostalgia tech, cassette players and digital detoxing, these music controllers are seemingly making a comeback.

No, Sonos isn't re-releasing its beloved CR100. And while a new Google Nest Hub is on its way, it's apparently going to focus more on AI chatbots than music controls. So to manage your Sonos, we have to turn to Redditors.

Over on the r/sonos subreddit, a user appropriately called hometechgeek has shared a small, simple smart display they created. Using software shared in the post (and screens bought for cheap online), they have fashioned a home assistant controller which you can use to change lighting, check sensors and, yes, control your music.

Cover art and smart room control using a £16 touch screen from r/sonos

Screens show a play/pause button, volume controls and track skips, and a default screen shows the song you're playing — perfect, in other words, to manage your Sonos devices from one controller. Some commenters have compared it to the Windows Phone's old software, and more widely to Windows' noughties and 2010s boxy look, and honestly they're not wrong.

Can you make it at home?

Making a controller like this doesn't sound expensive. The 4-inch screen hometechgeek used cost £16 (about $20 / AU$30), bought cheap from AliExpress, and they list plenty of other models that'd work. The internet is, as it turns out, rife with little screens you can buy and use for your own ends.

The software is free too, and it sounds like plenty of people on the r/sonos subreddit have already got their hands stuck in by trying it out, reporting any bugs they've found and suggesting tweaks.

If you're a technophile you'll likely find it really easy to make at home, then. However, as some commenters point out, not everyone will find it feasible. You'll need a little technical know-how to set up the screen, and to use Github for the code.

Obtaining that technical knowledge shouldn't be too hard, with a few YouTube tutorials sure to get the job done, but it might not be worth it for everyone. This kind of kit will be useful to people with a smart home full of gadgets, but if you've just got a single speaker or soundbar, it likely won't be worth your time.

There's a reason the smartphone killed the Sonos controller: a dedicated screen to control your music just isn't necessary for most of us (because it's already at our disposal with zero effort, in our phone).

We’re now days away from WWDC 2026 — Apple’s major software showcase of the year. There we expect to (finally) see the new and improved Siri alongside some major software upgrades, stretching from iOS to macOS.

But this week was arguably just as momentous in the world of tech. Scroll down and you’ll see we’ve rounded up the seven most important tech stories of the past seven days, from Sony’s State of Play showcase to everything we saw at Taiwan's Computex, the world's biggest computing show.

Before you catch up with this week’s tech news, why not test yourself on last week’s eight biggest tech stories to see how good your memory is? Take the quiz below, or scroll on for the biggest tech news of the week...

7. Sony's State of Play lit our gaming fires

Gaming’s nouveau-E3, aka Summer Games Fest, has had various festivities this week ahead of the main showcase. One of which was Sony’s latest State of Play.

Thanks to Sony we got a better look at Marvel’s Wolverine in all of its goryness, a new trailer and a demo for incredible sword fight (and potential GOTY) Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and to top it all off a sneak peek at the next God of War title: Laufey.

We’re writing this up ahead of Summer Game Fest’s main event (it was last night if you’re reading this Saturday morning) but be sure to check out our SGF coverage over on TRG.

6. Lego’s new Pokémon sets left us thunder-shocked

This week Lego’s Smart Play sets evolved with 12 new Pokémon builds that we instantly fell in love with. The biggest win here — besides the incredibly well designed ‘mons (there’s 20 in all) — is that these sets don’t feel like they need the Smart Brick.

Sure Pikachu’s treehouse has several awesome Smart brick integrations that allow you to catch, train, feed and rest your critter as if the electric mouse were alive, but the physical play features enable all of this while the Smart brick just enhances things.

The same is true for each of the other builds, and they feel like a serious improvement over what came from the Star Wars Smart Play sets just a handful of months ago.

• Read the full story: I spent 3 hours with Lego’s new Pokémon Smart Play sets — they solve the Smart Brick’s biggest problems

5. Polaroid launched the 'world's smallest' instant camera

There's been a big trend in miniature cameras recently, and following in their slipstream is the latest version of the Polaroid Go — an instant camera that's designed for anyone who wants a big hit of nostalgia from a small, affordable snapper.

The Go 3 doesn't reinvent the series, adding a stronger flash, sharper lens and even smaller dimensions (Polaroid claims it's the 'world's smallest' instant model). But it might just be the ultimate summer festival camera, coming in a range of bold colors (white, black, teal blue, ice blue or purple) and costing $89.99 / £79.99 (around AU$150).

Just remember to leave some spare change for extra 'Go' film — the little 2.6 x 2.1-inch prints cost around $21.99 / £18.99 / AU$40 per 16-shot roll, so use them wisely.

• Read the full story: Polaroid just launched the ‘world’s smallest instant camera’

4. The Sonos Beam got a new rival

WiiM has been quietly positing itself as the answer to “What would happen if we built a Sonos ecosystem but without the app that made fans turn their backs?” for quite some time now. The remarkable WiiM Sound wireless speaker launched last year, and now the firm has released its first soundbar.

The new WiiM Bar (for that is its name) is essentially a direct rival to the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen) in terms of pricing and how the company wants you to use it, but it's bigger, beefier and has real upfiring drivers for Dolby Atmos — which Sonos' Beam lacks.

It also features automatic room correction, multi-room grouping, support for over 20 streaming services and, unusually, a glass-covered 2.1-inch touch display on the front. An odd choice when the last thing you want is an illuminated visual distraction right near your TV screen when settling down for movie night?

We spoke to WiiM's CEO, Dr Lifeng Zhao, about it all (good news! You can turn it off while watching movies or shows) and he's confident users will find it valuable for music streaming when not watching TV — which is how a lot of people use their soundbar, you know…

• Read the full story: WiiM's first soundbar is the same price as the Sonos Beam, but it's bigger, beefier and has real upfiring drivers

3. Android fans got a big June upgrade

iPhone fans are patiently waiting for the software gifts that’ll be revealed at WWDC 2026 on Monday, but Android owners got some new toys to unwrap this week — courtesy of a generous June feature drop.

The biggest upgrade is arguably Fake Call Detection for foiling pesky scammers. The downside is that it’s limited to Pixels (and select non-Pixel devices), but there were new features for most other Android phones, too.

These include wider AirDrop support and Google Photos Wardrobe, a new way to track your clothes and combine them into outfits. We’ll try not to take that as a dig at our fashion sense thanks, Google.

• Read more: 7 new Android features coming to your phone in June — including fake call detection and Google Photos wardrobe

2. We picked our favorite tech from Computex

Each year the Computex computing show highlights some incredible computers, and that was no different this year.

The biggest news camera from Nvidia (see below), but there’s so much else to talk about. Dell revived the XPS line with the latest Dell XPS 13 model being billed as a direct competitor to the MacBook Neo. Acer was also chasing the Neo’s popularity, while MSI showcased a beautiful, but not overly affordable MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Draco Epic that was a sight to behold.

Though but doesn’t hold a candle to the creative builds we also saw — which included PCs made to look like Matrix robots, a miniature science lab, and a giant mechanized arm.

• Read our full Computex coverage

1. Nvidia’s RTX Spark took on Apple’s M5

Computex 2026 was full of several huge announcements for PC users, but none was bigger than Nvidia's introduction of the new RTX Spark. This is an Arm-based chip packed with 20 CPU cores and 6,144 CUDA cores based on Blackwell architecture — and an integrated GPU that is said to be equivalent to an RTX 5070 GPU, which is great for gaming.

It’s best suited for, well, Arm-based laptops, which are known for their exceptional battery life, and Team Green has effectively green-lit its rivalry with Apple and its successful M-series chips (which are also Arm-based).

Nvidia, Microsoft, and Arm all lauded the RTX Spark as a ‘new era of computing’, and while that is the case for laptops, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has also made it clear that the chip won’t be used for handhelds — which will undoubtedly disappoint some gaming enthusiasts. Still, this is undoubtedly destined to be one of the biggest computing moments of 2026.

• Read the full story: Nvidia just unveiled its RTX Spark Arm 'superchip'

• WiiM launches its first soundbar for $479 / £449 (about AU$840)
• 8-driver array with dedicated upfiring drivers
• 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 with WiiM wireless speakers

WiiM has been building out its rival ecosystem to Sonos for a while now. The impressive WiiM Sound wireless speaker launched last year, and now the firm has unveiled its first soundbar. Based on its pricing, the new WiiM Bar is being positioned as a direct rival to the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen)... but on paper seems to beat it in a few key areas.

The WiiM Bar is a 3.0.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar with an eight-driver array, including upfiring height speakers, which the Sonos Beam lacks. It features automatic room correction, multi-room grouping and support for over 20 streaming services, and you can expand it to a full surround system with WiiM's other speakers and its subwoofer.

Unusually, there's a glass-covered 2.1-inch touch display on the front. That's an interesting choice when many people don't want any extra illumination near their TV screen.

We spoke to WiiM's CEO, Dr Lifeng Zhao, about the soundbar, and he told us that the screen is primarily there for people playing music through the soundbar — it'll display album art, like other WiiM devices do — and you can turn it off for watching movies or shows. He's confident some people will find it valuable anyway.

"We actually debated a lot internally," Dr Zhao says. "So actually we are saying two things. One is that if you don't really need the screen; you can turn it off. Another thing is that we really want instant feedback. If you only have a LED light right there, with so many input/outputs and functionality, how do you know the status of the device? It's really confusing, even for me. We want to give people a simple and intuitive control, plus the instant feedback."

WiiM Bar: key features and pricing

The eight-driver array features four passive radiators and a mix of front mid-woofers, front tweeters and the aforementioned full-range up-firing height drivers.

It's 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 channels with surround speakers and a subwoofer — and possibly more channels in the future. When we asked about supporting more satellite speakers or subwoofers, Dr Zhao told us that "potentially with a software update we can expand more," and that Dolby Atmos FlexConnect support is "on our radar". He was clear that we shouldn't expect either upgrade in the short term, though.

The WiiM Bar supports Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X audio (DTS being another benefit over the Sonos Beam, on top of the upfiring drivers), and it features RoomFit room correction. There are two extra audio modes: AI-powered dialog enhancement, and a night mode to help you stay friendly with your neighbors.

Streaming support includes nearly all the big names: Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Google Cast and Roon, and streaming via the WiiM app takes the number of supported streaming services past 20.

However, as with other recent WiiM releases, this doesn't include Apple Music or AirPlay 2. We'll cover this more later, but we asked Dr Zhao why WiiM hasn't included AirPlay, and his answer — which we're not entirely convinced by — implies that it's about AirPlay's compression of audio.

"If you're using Spotify, we want you to use Spotify Lossless instead of a compressed [stream], right? So we are seeing a lot of confusion in people using Spotify Connect versus other options you just mentioned [AirPlay 2]," he said, referencing the fact that AirPlay 2 is still limited to compressed streaming through official support.

Spotify Lossless has existed for less time than WiiM been avoiding AirPlay support, so the timeline doesn't really work for this specific explanation, and WiiM offers Bluetooth and its compressed audio happily enough — but this is all the answer we're going to get officially.

The WiiM Bar has HDMI eARC, but no passthrough port, so you'll have give up the use of one of your HDMI ports for it. "We think that people will connect most of their devices through the TV because you have multiple HDMI ports in the TV," says Dr Zhao. Passthrough was considered, but the decision was made to keep things focused on "simplicity" — which is Sonos' claimed reason for not offering passthrough too, but has never really convinced our team (having to swap HDMI cables in the back of your TV because you've run out of ports does not aid simplicity).

This may be the firm's first soundbar, but Dr Zhao he doesn't consider it to be WiiM's first home theater product: the firm's amplifiers can be used as an HDMI-ready sound system, albeit in 2.1 channels. The soundbar is intended as a standalone device for people who, like Zhao, want big sound without lots of separates taking up space.

"We don't want to make a legacy AVR. People want one powerful all-in-one device in their living room." Those people include Dr Zhao: "I want something simple to use, I really like Dolby Atmos and I want it to fulfill both my music and my TV experience," he says. "So it's both for our own use as well as a request from our community."

It's an impressive specification, and the price is decent too: the official price is $479 / £449 (about AU$840). The WiiM Bar will be released in July, with pre-orders starting from 3 June 2026. It'll be really interesting to see how it compares with the equivalent Sonos when we get it in for testing.

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Sonos has offered the ability to add wireless rear speakers to its soundbars, creating an effective compact surround-sound system, for well over a decade. But this setup really hasn't changed much from the Playbar to the Sonos Arc Ultra — you can still have the soundbar with two rear speakers, and one or two subwoofers.

For years now, Sonos superfans have been begging the company to expand these options with the ability to use its wireless speakers as true front left and right channels for a home theater setup.

The frustration is width: elite soundbars like the Arc Ultra have angled drivers so that the audio sounds much wider than the soundbar itself, but there are diminishing returns with 'virtualized' width compared to the real width of just having speakers on either side of your TV, the way you would in a five-channel surround sound system made from separate speakers. And we just had a reminder from a Dolby exec about how important width is in recreating Dolby Atmos mixes.

People love the simplicity of a wireless Sonos setup compared to building out a wired separates system, and many are enamored with Sonos' sound profile. But as time goes on, the failure to innovate in the kinds of setups available starts to look stubborn at best.

Imagine that you have a Sonos Beam 2nd Gen connected to your TV over HDMI, and it receives the Dolby Atmos sound and then streams it out to a Sonos Era 300 to the left of your TV and one to the right of your TV.

These would deliver real width, especially since the Era 300 has left and right drivers, as well as forward-facing. The Beam serves as the center channel for clear dialogue, and the Era 300s deliver powerful side channels and height channels. And, of course, you could combine with wireless rear speakers, as Sonos does already.

People are choosing to buy bigger and bigger TVs, which need wider and wider sound to match their scale. We can't keep making soundbars bigger to compensate (well, we can, but I'm not sure it'll really please anyone).

Sonos has been in the perfect position to capitalize on this, and yet somehow Sony beat it to the punch by announcing the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio, an 'LCR' (left, center, right) wireless system that's more or less exactly the setup I described above, but with Sony speakers.

Here's what really galls the Sonos superfans: the tech already exists, unofficially, to do this, and many have tried it. There is a whole subreddit dedicated to a third-party app called Sonosequencr, and the developer makes it clear that they're not hacking the speakers to make this possible: they're tapping into tech already dormant in Sonos' system, that Sonos has never fully enabled.

Using Sonosequencr comes with tradeoffs, with the main one being that you can't use Trueplay to correct the sound for your room, so in some cases it's possible you're better off sticking with a regular Sonos setup that compensates for your room's reflections, especially if you have a smaller space — but in some large setups, the addition of real speakers might be the better option. Sonos could also break the third-party app at any time, since it's all unofficial.)

There were leaks that Sonos was planning to enable this kind of setup using its canceled streaming box as the centerpiece, but this obviously never came to fruition (but the tech that Sonosequencr taps into might be the vestigial remains of it, or an earlier version of it).

I wrote at the time that I hoped it would retain the exact feature I'm talking about today, but there's been no sign of it since then. That's probably partly because Sonos spent a year just trying to fix its app's problems and getting things ready for multiple launches this year (which started with the Sonos Play).

Maybe Sonos is getting ready to unleash a new world of home theater flexibility on us — when I interviewed CEO Tom Conrad, I asked him about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect and its ability to work with really flexible speaker placement, he said: "We're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap."

In response to a question about TV makers launching their own wireless speaker tech and pushing Sonos out, Conrad said: "We're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters."

So it definitely sounds like Sonos has something planned for home theater this year, and I really hope it takes the chance to finally unleash extra speaker positions. The fact that Sony got there first really surprised me, but Sonos has a key advantage: price.

Sony's system costs £2000 (about $2,690 / AU$3,750) for the front three speakers. The closest Sonos setup in terms of Dolby Atmos performance would be the Beam 2nd Gen and two Era 300 speakers, as I mentioned above. At the time of writing, that costs $1,127 / £1,077 / AU$2,297 — but you could swap the Era 300s for a pair of Era 100 SL speakers, and the price would drop to $707 / £657 / AU$1,377.

When I think about the scale of performance you could get from that setup for that price… well, like I said, the whole thing

• Sonos' new app update enables you to turn SonosNet mesh networking off
• The feature may cause clashes with "more complex" home networks
• Available on iOS and Android, but not every will get it at the same time

Sonos has release an update to its app for both iOS and Android that may solve a weird networking issue for some users. The update, which is rolling out from today, adds a toggle for SonosNet that enables you to turn the feature off.

According to Liz from Sonos, who posted details of the update to the r/sonos subreddit, turning off SonosNet may "help resolve connectivity issues on more complex home network setups."

This is a relatively small update – the last one in mid-May delivered multiple changes including additional Music Library grouping options, layout improvements in iOS and for US users, changes to advertising personalization. But if you've been getting weird Wi-Fi issues it may be just what you've been waiting for.

What is SonosNet and why should you fear it?

SonosNet is designed to connect your Sonos speakers to each other, and it was created when home Wi-Fi wasn't always up to the task of smoothly streaming to your Sonos gear.

Sonos's solution was to create a Sonos-specific private Wi-Fi mesh network (before mesh routers were common) that your speakers would share, with an Ethernet-cabled Sonos device acting as the hub for everything else.

That's good, but as Liz from Sonos explains: "For most modern, high-speed routers, disabling SonosNet can actually help things run smoother. Newer routers use Wi-Fi technology that can sometimes conflict with SonosNet's mesh, so turning it off lets your system lean fully on your home network instead."

Sonos has also added the ability to see what's connected via SonosNet, which again might help with diagnosing speaker-specific weirdness.

However, it's worth noting that this tech is on by default for a reason — this option might be exactly what many people need, but I wouldn't try it until you've looked into other possible causes if you're having Sonos connection issues.

The update is a rolling update, meaning not all devices will receive it at once — so even though the new software is live today, your app might not show the option yet.

Once it's available to you, you can turn off SonosNet in System Settings > Networks > Disable SonosNet. Of course if you aren't experiencing network problems then there's no need to do this – and if you haven't done so already, it's worth trying a different SonosNet channel first to see if that solves your problem without having to take SonosNet offline.

Sony has just announced the Bravia Theatre Trio, which is a new Dolby Atmos wireless system that splits the difference between a proper surround system and a soundbar, and is particularly designed with huge TVs in mind, to make sure the soundscape is wider than the TV itself — but will be tempting to anyone who wants a physically more separated sound than the best soundbars alone can deliver.

It can also be expanded into a fuller wireless surround setup, and I got to hear this full-force system in action. But first, let's go over the basics.

The Sony Bravia Theatre Trio is, as the name implies, three wireless speakers in a package. It's what home theater fans call an 'LCR' system — meaning left, center, and right channels.

There's a center speaker that's like a mini soundbar, which connects to your TV over HDMI eARC. And there are left and right speakers that look like little pillars with a flat section added to the back, so they can be wall-mounted.

The center speaker has two woofers and a tweeter, while each of the the side speakers each has a woofer and tweeter facing forward, and then an 8cm upfiring driver for Dolby Atmos height channels.

In the simplest terms, this is a 3.0.2-channel system, though Sony says that the system is built heavily around virtualization of more in-depth speaker setups. This initial three-speaker system can apparently mimic 24 phantom channels.

Sony says that it's done some smart stuff with its virtualization tech in the Bravia Theatre Trio, including rethinking how those phantom channels work: they're now designed not just to mimic the placement of a more elaborate speaker setup, but also to mimic the "indirect sound sources" of a cinema room's acoustic signature, including reflections.

So yes, for those keeping track of how psychoacoustic virtualization works, it may be the case that this system is using the reflections of your room to create the sense of an entirely different set of reflections…

To help the system do this as well as possible, it comes with a USB-C microphone that you can use for room calibration. Just plug it into your phone or tablet, fire up Sony's app, and follow the instructions so it can do its best work.

As I mentioned above, this three-speaker core setup can be expanded with add-on rear speakers or a subwoofer as well.

You have two choices of subwoofer: the new Sub 8 is a mid-range option, while the Sub 9 is an absolute massive beast of a sub by lifestyle tech standards. It looks like two Sub 8 units glued together with a vent in the middle, and while Sony didn't confirm the specs, I wouldn't be surprised if that's not far from the truth.

You also have two choices of rear speaker: there's the existing Bravia Rear 8 or the new Bravia Rear 9, which are more or less the same speakers as the front left and right (woofer, tweeter and upfirer combo — in the same design).

Of course, these add-ons will cost you — and the core Bravia Theatre Trio package isn't cheap either. Here's the breakdown of all those options (Sony was only able to provide UK pricing pre-launch and Australian info for the Theatre Trio only, but we'll update with other pricing as we get it):

Sony eats Sonos' lunch

Before I get to my experience of the performance of these speakers, something that immediately struck me is that this kind of setup is what Sonos' users have been begging to company to do for years.

Given that Sonos' whole thing is wireless satellite speakers, its users have asked many, many times (directly and on the r/sonos subreddit) for the ability to use separate front left and right speakers in an LCR setup with its soundbars.

There's even a third-party app that enables this called SonoSequencr, which is quite popular among Sonos home theater enthusiasts.

It seems wild that Sony has offered this before Sonos, and with a better spec list than Sonos can offer, because the Bravia Theatre Trio offers both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support (Sonos lacks DTS), and has an HDMI passthrough port (supporting 4K 120Hz) so you don't lose an HDMI port by using it.

Of course, if Sonos did end up offering a setup to compete with this, it could have a major price advantage. You can get a Sonos Beam Gen 2 (as the center channel) and two Sonos Era 300 speakers (as spatial audio side speakers) for £1,077 at the time of writing, compared to £2,000 for the Sony system.

And there's also the small issue that in my demo of the Sony system I found it to be quite hit and miss…

Mixing it up

I didn't get to hear just the Bravia Theatre Trio core setup on its own at Sony's event; instead I heard the fullest setup, with the original trio, two Rear 9 speakers, and two Sub 9 subwoofers (though, somewhat oddly, these were placed next to each other rather than spaced for even bass distribution).

In terms of pure physical channels, this is a 7.2.4 setup, but Sony was unable to confirm exactly what the virtualized channel setup it creates using the phantom channels would be — though Sony confirmed that you get 24 phantom channels regardless of how many physical speakers are involved.

First up we watched the big music performance in Sinners at the juke joint. What jumped out straight away is that the system provides a really powerful and warm sound, which is really well suited to the pounding of drums and making the tonality of guitars feel solid and electric.

However, I wasn't that impressed with separation of different elements in the mix, despite all the Dolby Atmos power going on — and in particular I felt that the vocals were more subdued than I'd expect, especially for a system with an actual separate center speaker.

Moving onto the car shoot-out in No Time to Die, the surround and positioning effects got a particular chance to shine. The rear effects were solid, but the side effects were especially impressive considering there are no real speakers there.

Building on that, I thought the way sound moved from the front, around the sides, and to the back was especially impressive — it felt like the sound moved smoothly the whole way, and didn't jump from the front to the back, which is how it can feel in some simple five-channel systems.

But this demo also showed the same apparent weakness with vocals, with dialogue feeling soft and a little muddy even in the quieter moments — and even some of the mid-frequency effects seemed to not pop quite as strongly as they should (I have seen this scene a lot in demos).

The final demo was the first racing scene in Ready Player One, and the system produced a lot of sound and fury all around me here… but I thought there was a slight softness to the fine details that held it back — the very sudden sounds didn't seem quite as dramatically sudden as they should, which robbed them a little of impact, scale and spectacle.

That last point wasn't helped by the fact that in all three demos I noticed that the sound and visuals weren't quite in sync. This isn't uncommon in HDMI ARC-based systems at all, but I don't normally notice it as strongly as I did here — and I think it made a difference when experiencing the crunching crashes of Ready Player One if you see the impacts before you hear them.

Of course, this is far from a review — and I'm really interested to see how just the core Bravia Theatre Trio set performs on its own. But at this early stage, I'm kind of torn: I love the overall concept and the design, but I'm concerned about the high price based on the performance I heard so far.

• The Sonos app is not currently available in the Apple App Store
• No change to Google Play: it's still there
• Sonos has acknowledged the issue and is "working on a solution"

Update 2: The Sonos app is back on the App Store now. Normal service resumes. The original article and update will remain as published below.

If you're looking for the Sonos app for iOS, iPadOS or Mac, you'll need to wait: it's not there. The app is temporarily unavailable in Apple's App Store for all three platforms.

Sonos is aware of the problem: in a status update it says that "We have identified a problem with the Sonos App availability in the iOS / Mac App Stores and are working on a solution."

So far the app has been unavailable for a few hours and we don't yet know when it'll return.

Update 1: Sonos provided the following comment to TechRadar: "The Sonos app is temporarily unavailable for new downloads and updates from the Apple App Store while we complete a routine administrative update with Apple. Existing installations on customers' devices are unaffected and the Sonos app and service are operating normally. We expect the issue to be resolved soon. For the latest status, please visit https://status.sonos.com/."

What's wrong with the Sonos app?

The Sonos status page shows a clear sheet for almost everything bar the Sonos Account, which is currently labelled with a red X to indicate a major outage.

Sonos says that in addition to the app not being available to download, you might not be able to update it if it's already installed on your system.

It strongly seems like this is some kind of administrative problem, as hinted by Sonos in its statement to us — some online have speculated that it could be as basic as Sonos' developer accounts expiring, or a similar paperwork requirement not being met. If that's the case, we'd expect it to reappear and for Sonos to never speak of it again…

Having said that, at some point Sonos' Mac app will disappear permanently anyway — it's not built for Apple Silicon, and Sonos says it has no plans to adapt it, and instead is moving all desktop users to its web interface anyway.

When I first saw the Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones — the company's new higher-end cans designed to offer a more spacious and natural sound with better comfort compared to the Sony WH-1000XM6 — I had an immediate thought, and I wasn't alone among the audio journalists I was with: these look a lot like the Sonos Ace.

Both headphones go for a super-clean look, internal mechanisms for the headband arms, slim-profile earcups, chrome-finish detailing, and a mottled faux leather material.

So I had an idea: I took them to our photography studio and got some close-up photos taken of both headphones, and I made a quiz. I pixelated the photo of them at the top to avoid giving anything away, but if you to see the headphones before you play (Easy Mode, if you like), then I'll put the original image of them side-by-side after the quiz.

Are you enough of a headphone aficionado to tell two of the best noise-cancelling headphones apart? I'll admit, I built the damn quiz, then only scored 9/10 when testing it…

Scroll a little further if you're looking for that side-by-side image — I didn't want accidental spoilers.

Let us know in the comments how you did — the first two players on the TechRadar team (other than me) scored 3/10 and 8/10 respectively, so we've had a range of scores even among tech experts (though not necessarily headphones experts).

If you want to read more about Sony's new headphones, you can read our full 1000X The Collexion review, or you can read in-depth about the five key upgrades and three unexpected downgrades in The Collexion compared to the XM6 headphones, including Sony explanation of why there are compromises.

Still have questions? I’ll be answering everything you want to know about Sony’s most expensive wireless headphones ever in a live Q&A tomorrow (May 20) at 12pm ET / 5pm BST, alongside Harry Padoan, who tested them.

Now, here's that image of them together:

• Jamo launches new portable speakers
• Flex and Flow are portable models designed for outdoors
• Reflect is a bedroom and alarm clock speaker

I feel like I was last writing about new Jamo speakers only yesterday. In fact it was actually a week ago, when the Scandi audio brand came back from the dead to reveal seven new loudspeakers, and I suppose it's now back-er from the dead, with three brand-new portable models.

Jamo has unveiled the HYG family of portable Bluetooth speakers, consisting of three different devices: two outdoor models, one indoor one.

The name comes from hygge, one of the few Swedish words non-speakers know; it's one of those beloved untranslatable phrases that refers to a feeling of cosiness and warmth. And the speakers certainly lean in for that Scandi-chic look.

Before you get over-excited for these speakers, bear in mind you can't buy them yet. They're due to go on sale in July.

Here You Go (HYG)

The outlier of the new trio is the HYG Reflect, which is due to cost $149 / £129 (about AU$260).

This has been designed as a speaker for your bedside cabinet. It functions as an alarm clock, wireless charging pad and, yes, speaker, with dual two-inch drivers and two passive radiators.

Next up, and pictured at the top of this article, is the HYG Flow. It's due to sell for $279 / £239 (about AU$480), which a tempting price when you consider its audio setup is so similar to the far-more-expensive Sonos Move 2.

It boasts twin one-inch tweeters angled away from each other, plus a five-inch woofer — that's the same arrangement as the Sonos, though the actual driver will obviously be different. It's compatible with both Bluetooth 6.0 or an aux cord. It can play with other Jamo Auracast speakers but, unlike the Sonos, there's no Wi-Fi play support, so that's what you get for paying more for the Sonos.

It's ostensibly a portable speaker, weighing 3kg and supporting up to 15 hours of playback, but it only has an IPX2 rating — again, that's weaker than the Sonos.

Finally, there's the HYG Flow, which is the cheapest member of the bunch at $129 / £109 (about AU$220). It's long, thin and light, weighing under a kilogram, and comes in six different hues, about three of which I'm obsessed with.

This offers two 1.5-inch full-range drivers and two passive radiators, connecting in much the same way as the Flow but with a 27-hour battery life. Its IP rating is also IPX7: fine for splashes by the pool, but not for use on a sandy beach.

Prior to the HYG, Jamo didn't have any wireless Bluetooth speakers in its line-up, so it remains to be seen just how well it marries its audio prowess with this functional form factor. July will tell.

• New Sony The Collexion headphone renders arrive
• They show product very similar to WH-1000XM6
• A few premium design changes, and two colors

We've been reporting tirelessly on new top-end headphones from Sony that are set to bear the name The Collexion. We've seen them spotted on the head of a Hollywood star and leaked on Sony website listing pages, with a May 19 release looking likely.

But I'd been so caught up in the flurry of leaks, that I'd missed something obvious — and newly-leaked renders courtesy of Android Headlines have highlighted: these headphones look incredibly familiar.

Coming in white and black hues, the Sony The Collexion headphones appear to be gentle evolutions of the Sony WH-1000XM6 and XM5, especially in the looks of the speaker cups.

In fact, squint and these basically are the WH-1000XM6. It's clear that Sony isn't straying far from past designs with its new cans, which might surprise people hoping for top-end blasters that match the rumored $600-ish price tag — but there are difference in the shiny metallic elements that are really reminiscent of the Sonos Ace.

What's new here?

Let's run through the differences I can see between these rendered headphones and the XM6 cans.

Most comfortably, the headband seems to be made from a different material, with leaks pointing to it being vegan leather rather than plastic as in the XM6. This material is also said to be used for the ear pads.

A new hinge mechanism is at play too, although to see still images, it's hard to tell how it works. At the very least, Sony's attempts to play around with this design element suggests The Collexion could have a sturdier build.

Renders show a USB-C port, but no 3.5mm headphone jack. That's not a surprise, though, because the space where this audio port would be, is obscured in the pictures.

Naturally, under the hood there are probably loads of hardware changes that make these an audible step up from the XM6 — these won't literally be the same headphones (at least, I hope).

But given the high price point mooted for the new headphones, you'd be forgiven for hoping for a more inventive design. The best headphones for audiophiles show their colors with unique designs, flashy patterns or mechanical flair, and if you've paid top dollar for expensive cans, you want to feel it.

Given all the leaks and teases, I'm expecting us to learn more officially pretty soon.

The 2026 World Cup starts on June 11, and while a lot of people will be thinking about a new TV, there's still one crucial component that can make or break the whole experience: audio.

A new soundbar can really add another dimension to the World Cup viewing experience, delivering clearer commentary and a more immersive atmosphere by capturing the roar of the crowds. Let's face it, even the best TVs have average built-in audio, and it'd be a shame to miss out on the full World Cup feeling.

Below, I've picked four of the best soundbars you can buy right now that will be more than up to the task of delivering the atmosphere of the World Cup, whatever your budget.

Best overall: Samsung HW-Q800F

Currently sitting at the top of our best soundbars list is the five-star-rated Samsung HW-Q800F. One of the brand's mid-range 2025 soundbars, the Q800F really does cover all the bases.

The Q800F is a soundbar-and-sub combo that delivers everything you could need. We found in our testing that the bass delivered by the new, compact subwoofer was still suitably powerful and sizeable, accurately delivering the ignition of the Darkstar jet in Top Gun: Maverick.

It also demonstrated excellent precision with surprisingly effective Dolby Atmos height effects in movies such as The Mask, accurately capturing the chaotic nature of the titular character as he tears around Edge City. Expect it to accurately deliver the ball's movements around the field during the World Cup.

Dialogue was crystal clear throughout our testing as well, which is a good sign that a commentary track during the World Cup should be delivered with real clarity.

The Q800F is brilliant value too. You can expect to pay around $799 / £599 / AU$849, which is a great price for this soundbar. Expect prices to drop in the lead-up to the World Cup, too.

Best premium: Samsung HW-Q990F

For those looking for a complete soundbar system, it doesn't get much better than the Samsung HW-Q990F, the brand's 2025 flagship model. This 11.1.4 channel soundbar is a beast, composed of four separate units and really delivers the full surround sound experience.

I personally tested the Q990F and was blown away by its performance. The new compact subwoofer delivers room-filling bass that is mighty, but also well controlled. The rumble of the Batmobile's engine in The Batman was room-shaking but dynamic and precise, with the subwoofer accurately delivering the chunky gear changes.

The Q990F boasts a wide soundstage that's not only great for big musical numbers from movies like Wicked, but also action-packed scenes such as the Death Star attack in Star Wars: A New Hope. The sound is expansive with pinpoint placement, such as the TIE Fighter's screeching flight path in Star Wars. The stadium atmosphere in the World Cup will sound sensational through this system.

Speech was perfectly clear throughout my testing, whether it was hushed conversation in The Batman or the loud, soaring vocals of 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. Expect the same with commentary in the World Cup.

The Q990F is at the more premium end of the market, costing $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599, but this mammoth soundbar system will cover you for sports, movies, and gaming, and do a superb job with all of them.

Best budget US: Sonos Beam

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be compact, but don't let that fool you. It delivers a beefy sound that you wouldn't expect from a soundbar this size and is easily one of the best models for music on the market.

The Beam (Gen 2) has been around for a while now, but it still consistently delivers a satisfying sound that works for a diverse range of genres. I tested it alongside the Sony HT-S2000 and Denon Home 550, two compact rivals, and I was always pleased with the Beam's performance.

The bass it delivers for a small unit is tightly controlled and punchy, as it accurately delivered the roar of jet engines in Top Gun: Maverick. Its soundstage was also spacious, giving effects room to breathe with a great balance overall. As The Mask tornadoes around his bedroom in The Mask, the Beam did an excellent job mapping the direction of the whirlwind, connecting the sound accurately to the picture.

Dialogue is nice and clear despite its smaller stature, so commentary should be nice and clear for the World Cup. It also has a diverse sound profile that makes it great for music.

Sonos' soundbars often get some nice discounts throughout the year, but even at the full $499 / £449 / AU$799 price, it's a superb soundbar that's real value for money.

Best budget UK: Hisense AX5125H

The Hisense AX5125H is one of the most impressive budget soundbars I've ever used. Not only are you getting a great 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos system, but you're getting it for a ridiculously low price.

Using the Death Star attack from Star Wars: A New Hope, I was seriously impressed with the AX5125H's clarity and control. It accurately delivered the whirring engines of the X-Wings and did a solid job with height channels, recreating the screech of the TIE Fighters as they flew overhead.

The AX5125H also has a wide soundstage, which helped pick up subtleties in The Batman's opening crime scene, with camera clicks, mumbled conversations, and the sparse, scratchy strings of the score all presented clearly. This should do a great job picking out the dynamics during the World Cup, from a travelling ball to the crowd noise.

Speech was also clear throughout testing, coming through loud and clear during both quieter conversations and action-packed scenes. This will have no problem delivering clear commentary in a packed stadium atmosphere.

The AX5125H's real highlight is its low price. A 5.1.2 channel system for £249 is ridiculous. This would have been my pick for the US budget option, but sadly, it's out of stock. For UK readers, this one is a no-brainer if you're on a budget.

• Bose launches premium soundbar, smart speaker and wireless sub
• The Ultra Lifestyle Soundbar is the new Bose flagship at $1,099 / £999 / AU$1,800
• The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has Dolby Atmos for $299 / £299 / AU$549

Bose's new Lifestyle Collection is likely to cause some frowny faces at Sonos HQ: it's a set of three premium pieces of audio gear designed for every room in your home, offering excellent flexibility including multi-room audio, and promising a typically luxurious Bose audio experience.

The three speakers are the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer. And in addition to working with each other, they also promise to work in groups with speakers from other manufacturers too.

Bose says that its app delivers "one of the simplest setup experiences in home audio", and if the collection sounds as good as it looks then Bose may well have a home audio hit on their hands.

Bose Lifestyle Collection: key features, pricing and availability

The Bose Ultra Lifestyle Speaker is a cylindrical speaker with three drivers, two of which fire outwards and one of which fires upwards. Bose says that's enough to create room-filling spatial audio from a single speaker, and it has Bose's CleanBass system and QuietPort acoustic opening to deliver low-end that's clean and punchy.

It also has Bose's TrueSpatial spatial audio processing, which is platform-agnostic, meaning it'll create spatial sound from any source. You can run it solo, in a stereo pair, in a multi-room setup, or as part of a surround-sound system with the Ultra Lifestyle Soundbar and Subwoofer.

The Soundbar is Bose's new flagship and comes with a fresh new design and an entirely new acoustic architecture; it's the first major soundbar redesign that Bose has developed in more than a decade.

There are six full-range drivers — four facing forwards and two pointing up for height channels — plus a center tweeter and two of Bose's PhaseGuide drivers that are design to provide extra virtual width for an immersive Atmos experience.

PhaseGuide is a system that widens the soundstage by using strategically placed transducers and waveguides to make audio appear to be coming from places where there aren't any speakers.

There's also TrueSpatial processing for anything that isn't in Dolby Atmos, SpeechClarity to enhance dialog, CleanBass and QuietPort for deep, controlled bass and the newly renamed CustomTune room calibration system (previously known as ADAPTiQ), which uses your phone as the room calibration mic — what do you know, that's just like Sonos!

Bose says that the system delivers the lowest frequencies of any Bose soundbar to date just from the soundbar alone, while also improving the highs and delivering better audio element separation.

However, for those who want even deeper bass, the third speaker is the powerful Lifestyle Subwoofer, which once again comes with CleanBass and QuietPort. It's built around a 10.5-inch driver, and connects wirelessly to the soundbar.

The three speakers all have Wi-Fi connectivity and support Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, and they can be grouped via Apple AirPlay or Google Home. There's also Bluetooth to stream directly from devices such as your phone and other audio sources.

The Bose app promises to walk you through the whole setup process whether that's a single speaker or a full surround system, and it then enables you to control the volume, source, equalization, surround and height levels. There's also built-in Alexa+ for voice control.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has an official price of $299 / £299 / AU$549; the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is $1,099 / £999 / AU$1,800; and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer is $899 / £899 / AU$1,300. All three are available to pre-order now, and will be fully released on May 15th 2026.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

• Pro-Ject announces two wireless upgrades for classic hi-fi gear based on WiiM OS
• Stream Box E upgrades your amp with streaming skills
• Wireless Box E turns any passive speakers wireless by connecting to the binding posts

Beloved hi-fi brand Pro-Ject hasn’t slowed down at all in 2026. After announcing a premium turntable in January and record cleaner last month, it has two more pieces of gear coming soon.

The brand has announced the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E, as part of its growing hi-fi ecosystem. They cost £159 (about $200, AU$300) and £199 (around $270, AU$400) respectively.

The Stream Box E is a wireless network streamer and digital pre-amp that can upgrade your wired audio system to allow for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz. It can be connected to an amplifier, or directly to active speakers.

Then there’s the Wireless Box E, which also gives a tidy tech upgrade to existing gear. This time, it upgrades your passive loudspeakers, acting as a wireless receiver for them, meaning you can position them anywhere without needing to worry about running cable to them, giving you more flexibility over where you put them, or perhaps where you put the rest of your hi-fi setup.

You'll need one per speaker, of course, and each needs to be connected to a power outlet.

A WiiMsical choice

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the news, is that the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E will both run on WiiM OS. This is a platform primarily designed for the brand’s own tech like such as the WiiM Sound, but is also available to other brands, bringing their tech into the burgeoning WiiM ecosystem.

We’ve compared Sonos vs WiiM in the past to help you understand the differences, but the gesture is clear: this is part of a growing alternative to Sonos, and is clearly one that wants to be as flexible as possible based on these launches.

However, there's a big catch here for Apple users, which is not exactly a small portion of the world. WiiM has some kind of on-going issue with Apple that means that many of its products don't include Apple AirPlay 2 as an easy streaming options, and it's the same with these.

While support for the likes of Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect might mean you're actually fine with this, it also means these boxes are basically no good if you're an Apple Music user, or if you want to be able to use AirPlay's platform-neutral multi-room skills.

In this instance, Sonos absolutely still has the edge — it not only supports AirPlay fully, it's the only brand with a streaming amp that has native Apple Music support in its app for lossless listening.

The fast pace with which Pro-Ject is releasing gears shows that it’s only getting bigger and bigger in the home hi-fi game, especially with affordable options like these. Perhaps it’s found an ideal partner in the equally ambitious WiiM — we can't wait to see how well these work in practice.

We’re not exactly short of options when it comes to choosing a wireless speaker to blast tunes out of either at home or on the go. But how often have you chosen what you believe to be a perfect speaker, only to eventually discover it doesn’t quite meet your evolving needs?

Perhaps you have a large, powerful speaker to use at home, but then you want something you can take on the road with you. Or vice versa, you have a portable speaker that’s easy to throw into a bag, but the sound quality is disappointing. You've been forced to juggle multiple speakers to cover your life — until now.

The Sonos Play laughs in the face of that compromise. One speaker. Every scenario. Done.

Having used it at home, it really does cover all bases. Its impactful audio delivery means it can comfortably be used as a home speaker, as it has little trouble filling a room. And it’s small enough to go into a bag, and you can stream over Bluetooth when you’re away from home.

Throw in a long-lasting battery with up to 24 hours of play time, and you really do have what I would consider to be the only speaker you need.

Not convinced? Allow me to explain.

Filling a gap

Looking at Sonos’ speaker lineup, it would seem like a fair statement to say the brand has a model for every person and every scenario. There are home speakers including the Era 100 and Era 300, then you have the Move 2, which is ‘portable’ speaker but is too large to truly carry around, and finally the Roam 2, that’s about as portable as you can get but not as good as a standalone speaker like its bigger brethren.

That left a little gap between the Move and the Roam that needed filling.

The Sonos Play perfectly slots into the gap, while also crossing over into home speaker territory, sitting above the Era 100 in terms of price, but backing it up with extra features. Tom Conrad has claimed it to be a true ‘Goldilocks’ speaker — I couldn’t agree with him more, and I'm amazed it didn’t already exist.

The joy of music

The Play’s superb sound quality and its versatile design has had an unexpected knock-on effect for me — it’s got me listening to music even more. With multiple Sonos speakers dotted around my apartment, including a stereo pair of One SLs in the kitchen that I use when working from home, I didn’t think I’d have a real need for the Play, yet I’ve found myself using it the most since it arrived.

It’s been great to be able to have it right next to me on the table where I work, then take it into the bedroom where I have a Sonos Arc and another pair of One speakers already set up. But since the Play is already, well, playing, I’ve not seen the need to swap over to that bigger system.

A good reason for not needing to swap over is because the Sonos Play delivers a huge sound that gets better the more you crank up the volume. You can read more about the sound quality in our full in-depth Sonos Play review, but take it from me as someone who not only has other Sonos speakers but also a dedicated hi-fi listening room, the Play sounds tremendous.

If you’ve never owned a Sonos speaker before, I think the Play is the perfect entry point to the brand. It offers excellent sound quality and usability from the get go, while also having the capability to open up a wider multi-room audio system thanks to its Wi-Fi support.

And given Sonos found its footing in multi-room audio, I love the fact the Play makes joining that ecosystem ridiculously easy.

More than just a pretty face

I’ve always been a fan of Sonos’ aesthetic, so much so that my home is filled with its speakers and soundbars, while the Ace headphones were the first over-ear headphones I truly fell in love with. Every product is lovely to look at and to touch, and the Play continues that trend.

Yes, the buttons on the top panel could be a bit more defined to save you from needing to actually look at which one you’re pressing, but otherwise I can’t find any faults with what the Play offers physically.

There’s great cohesion across the lineup too. For example, Sonos has used the same green color for the Play’s small carry handle and its charging base that’s been used for the interior of the Ace’s case. It’s a subtle nod, but one that’s very effective and I, for one, truly appreciate.

Regaining trust

I’m fully aware of the tumultuous couple of years Sonos has had recently. While the launch of the much-anticipated Arc Ultra soundbar at the end of 2024 could be deemed a genuine success — it’s maintained a spot in our guide to the best soundbars ever since we reviewed it — the disastrous app update fiasco certainly would have soured relationships between the company and its millions of users.

Throw in a number of competitor brands — such as WiiM, Audio Pro and Denon — also offering a seamless gateway to multi-room audio, and Sonos’ position as a leader in its field was in serious jeopardy.

While many of the issues that plagued the app have been fixed and with CEO Tom Conrad confirming the company has plans to improve it further, Sonos still needed something to say to customers ‘we’re back and we’re better than ever’ — and in the Sonos Play, it’s well and truly proved it.

This week, we saw major decisions that could rock the tech world, as social media was called addictive in a landmark trial, and the US banned foreign Wi-Fi routers.

To catch up on this, as well as the latest reviews and other essential tech news stories, scroll down for our full ICYMI recap of the week.

When you’re done here, be sure also to read our experts’ picks for the seven new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend.

1. Social media declared addictive

On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google are liable for designing products that are deliberately addictive, a case that could change social media forever. The plaintiff, a woman known only as KGM, testified that "she became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine", leading to body image issues and self-harm.

KGM's lawyers, in their closing remarks, said: “How do you make a child never put down the phone? That’s called the engineering of addiction." We pinpointed three persuasive tricks social media companies use to keep users glued to their screens, and exactly how the infinite-scroll loop hijacks children's still-developing brains — all according to the latest scientific research.

• Read the full story: 'The 'engineering of addiction' explained

2. We heard the Sonos Play in all of its glory

We’ve spent a few weeks testing the Sonos Play speaker, and it’s a real return to form for Sonos. Not because it’s the best-sounding speaker in the world (though it’s really impressive for something that size) or because it has every feature imaginable (though it offers more options than basically anything else in its price range) — but because it gets back to what Sonos was known for: speakers so convenient that you’ll listen to more music than ever.

It’s a battery-powered portable speaker that’s compact and light enough to grab and take around with you, but that’s also powerful and high-quality enough to use as your main home wireless speaker in a room. That means it’s always grabbable at a moment's notice, so we found ourselves using it more often, in more places, than with other portable speakers.

The great, durable design with a charging cradle is what helps cement this as maybe the ideal do-anything wireless speaker for the home, though it’s not cheap.

• Read the full story: I spent 3 weeks testing the Sonos Play, and I love it

3. We flew the DJI 360 drone

We’ve tested the DJI Avata 360, and our verdict is in: it’s the 360 drone to beat. It’s more agile and versatile than the previous frontrunner, the Antigravity A1, and boasts excellent 10-bit image quality — did we mention it’s more affordable too?

Yes, other DJI drones offer better pure image quality, and 360 footage requires post-production editing. Still, as an all-rounder that's both a capable 360 camera and a thrilling FPV flyer, the Avata 360 delivers brilliantly.

• Read the full review: I had an absolute blast flying the DJI Avata 360

4. US banned non-American routers

In this week’s rendition of what weird tech law the Trump administration will dump on us, it just banned new non-US-made Wi-Fi routers — meaning they’ll be banned unless they’re made in the States.

According to the FCC, routers manufactured outside the US represent both a "supply chain vulnerability" and a "severe cybersecurity risk". Essentially, they fear these foreign routers could be used to spy on US citizens.

While this isn’t the most illogical move, the big trouble is that finding American-made routers isn’t easy, and all of the best we’ve tested are made outside the country — meaning a new router you ‘upgrade’ to could in fact be a downgrade.

• Read the full story: The US just banned new routers that aren't made in America

5. OpenAI killed Sora

Sora, we barely knew ya. Just six months after launching what might be the world’s first social AI app and just 18 months after launching the Sora generative video model into the world, OpenAI pulled the plug.

Sora, as a platform and app, seems to be no more.

OpenAI announced the news in a social post and has since offered little explanation. We have some guesses, like the skyrocketing costs of supporting all that video generation, the shrinking interest in the app, or maybe OpenAI’s preparation for going public. It’s something they might need to do since Disney also just pulled out of a $1B deal with the AI company.

• Read the full story: Is this the start of a mini AI bubble collapse?

6. iOS 26.4 sparked a controversy

iOS updates usually deliver fun new treats for iPhone fans, but this week, iOS 26.4 came with a less welcome gift — age verification checks for UK users.

When you install the update, you have to prove you’re over 18, and that’s caused problems for many who don’t have a driving license or a credit card to scan. The buggy process and concerns around the security of age verification checks have also doused this already hot topic with extra gasoline.

If you’re having iOS 26.4 issues, we’ve outlined some potential fixes in our guide below. This controversy is likely only just getting started, but maybe WWDC 2026 (also announced this week for June 8) will help give us some answers.

Still, to put this is furore in context, it isn't quite on the scale of the Apple's biggest tech crimes — check out our new, definitive list of the worst Apple gadgets ever, voted for you by you.

• Read the full story: iOS 26.4 age verification is proving a disaster for some users

7. Netflix hiked prices

It’s that time of year again! We’re not talking about the changing of the seasons, no, of course, it’s Netflix hiking prices. Yippee…

The world's biggest streaming service has quietly announced that the Standard with ads tier is going up by $1 to $8.99, while both ad-free tiers, Standard and Premium, are going up by $2 to $19.99 and $26.99, respectively.

What’s more, Netflix’s extra member fee will rise from $7.99 to $9.99 — yikes!

It’s not clear if this change will launch outside the US anytime soon, but you can always count on three things in life: death, taxes, and Netflix price hikes.

• Read more: The cost of Netflix has just gone up in the US again

Sonos Play: two-minute review

The Sonos Play is one of the few products I've tested recently that really converted me to its cause over time. It's a product that Sonos pitches as a home speaker that's also portable — the one speaker you can use everywhere.

I started off thinking that the Sonos Play was struggling for value, because it's more expensive than Sonos' small purely home speaker, the Sonos Era 100, but doesn't sound quite as good. And it costs a lot more than most of the best Bluetooth speaker options, such as the excellent JBL Charge 6.

But over time, I realized that the Sonos Play excels in subtlety. Despite Sonos' claim, I don't think of it as a home speaker first and a portable speaker second. I see it as a portable speaker that's good enough to justify a place out on your furniture all the time, rather than being relegated to a drawer when you're not using it. And as a result, I started using it as both a home speaker for the room its in, and I started grabbing it to take with me to other rooms simply because I could, and it sounds good.

The charging cradle is vital to this. With no cable to fiddle with, you can just grab the Sonos Play and go without pausing your stride. It lasts for ages once it's away from the cradle (24 hours, and it turns itself off when not in use to keep going over days), so you don't need to be precious about returning it for a charge. It's solidly waterproof so you can use it anywhere without fear — It's a great shower karaoke companion.

And the Sonos Play does sound good — better than most portable speakers of its size. It's really well-rounded, with solid mids, clear treble and plenty of bass. It lacks some dynamic edge (though improves as the volume goes louder), but is still a really enjoyable listen.

It's become my speaker buddy — the one I'm using most, because it's so versatile. It's ready to go anywhere, to play in the house on Wi-Fi or out of the house on Bluetooth. You can achieve everything it does from other speakers, and arguably in a way that's better value — but not with this efficiency.

Sonos said it wanted to make a speaker that could be the one you need — powerful enough to fill nearly any room, and easily portable to take to nearly any room — and I think it nailed it.

Sonos Play review: price and availability

• Released on March 31st, 2026
• $299 / £299 / AU$499

The Sonos Play's $299 / £299 / AU$499 price is a fine balance. When it comes to Sonos' portable speakers, it sits neatly between the Sonos Roam 2's $179 / £179 / AU$239 and the Sonos Move 2's $449 / £449 / AU$799.

When it comes to Sonos' home speakers, it sits neatly between the $219 / £199 / AU$289 price of the Sonos Era 100, and the $449 / £449 / AU$749 price of the Era 300.

The difference, of course, is that the Play's performance sits correctly between the two portable speakers, while it doesn't perform any better than the Era 100 — what you get instead is a smaller design and a battery.

There are tons of competing speakers at this size, but few that offer the combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and battery portability. Portable competition includes the Bluetooth-only Marshall Middleton II, which is similar in price at $329.99 / £259 / AU$499, or the JBL Charge 5, which costs $199 / £169 / AU$229.

On the non-portable side, there's the JBL Authentics 200, which is $349 / £299 / AU$449 officially (but can be found for a lot less these days) or the BlueSound Pulse Flex for around $349 / £279.

Sonos Play review: specs

Sonos Play review: features

• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C line-in connectivity, 24-hour battery life
• Charging cradle included, but no power adapter
• Stereo pairing option, or share over Bluetooth with other Sonos speakers even when not on Wi-Fi

The Sonos Play is the company's most versatile speaker to date. It works as a normal Sonos home speaker, complete with Wi-Fi connectivity and support for Sonos' network and app, which support Hi-Res Audio playback from compatible services. You can play to it directly over Apple AirPlay 2 or Sonos Connect as well.

There's also Bluetooth support to play from any other device, and the USB-C port on the back can be connected to an adapter to offer a line-in port for a turntable or other audio source, which then becomes available to all your other Sonos speakers on the network.

Sonos also has a new feature that enables you to group portable Sonos speakers when you're out of the house, so you connect to one of them over Bluetooth, and the sound is shared with the other speakers. There's no Auracast support, though.

The speaker setup consists of two angled tweeters facing slightly left and right, a single midwoofer facing forward, and then two force-opposed bass radiators on the left and right.

You can use a Sonos Play on its own, or you can put two into a stereo pair. You can also use a pair as rear speakers in a Sonos home theater setup.

But it also has a built-in battery, which can last up for up to 24 hours, and the speaker can still play over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when it's running from battery power alone. The Sonos Play comes with a little battery charging cradle, which you just slot it onto to charge, and you can grab it straight off at a moment's notice without fiddling to unplug.

It's a small thing, but I think it makes a difference to its perceived versatility compared to it being plugged in to charge — I'll dig into that more in the Design section.

Be warned, though, that the cable just has a USB-C connector on the end, and no plug to connect to an outlet. Any USB-C port with 20W of charging power should work, so it could be connected to a device like a computer, or to a power adapter.

The Sonos Play can also be charged using its USB-C port, so you don't need the cable if you take it away for a weekend. You can also charge another device from the USB-C port, if you like, so it can work as a power bank for your phone.

The exact battery figure you get will depend on how you use it (Wi-Fi is more battery-consuming than Bluetooth), but I think Sonos' estimate is about right. I took it off its cradle for three days, using the speaker on Wi-Fi by my desk while I worked during the day for intermittent periods, without charging it at all. At the end of that time, it had 21% battery left.

You can get better battery life from the Marshall Middleton II (30 hours), but only over Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi. I think Sonos has found a good balance of longevity compared to size here.

The one thing about portable use that annoyed me a little was that it turns itself off a little faster than I would like, despite me making sure that the option in the settings to turn off faster to preserve battery life was off. To turn it back on, you need to use the on-off button on the back, and it takes a moment — I'd much prefer a button on top to make this feel less like a hassle.

There can also be times when the flexibility of the speaker conflicts with itself. For example, I put my two units into a stereo pair to test the sound, planning to live with the setup for a few days. But once they're in a pair, the Sonos app (and AirPlay) only want to treat them as a pair, meaning that the idea of grabbing one to take into another room on a whim no longer works. Take them both, or don't bother.

I ended up doing a more intensive stereo audio test, and then switching them back to individual speakers because I was enjoying them more in their most flexible form.

I'll finish this section by touching briefly on the Sonos app. It remains one of the best when it comes to streaming service support, and I've had no problems when it comes to reliability testing either these speakers, or with my current Sonos soundbar/home theater setups.

Setting the speakers up was absolutely seamless, and it was then easy to activate Automatic TruePlay tuning, in which the Sonos Play speaker listens to its own sound output and adjust the sound to better fit the space it's placed in.

The Sonos app can be a bit slow to load new music or screens, though, and there are some design issues that seem needlessly confusing. Sonos CEO Tom Conrad identified some that he plans to fix in an interview with me ahead of the launch of the speakers, though my own gripes are that it's silly that if you tap the cog icon in the top corner to be taken to the Settings screen, the cog icon stays in the corner, meaning it's possible to open the app, tap that because you want to go to the Settings screen, and nothing happens because you don't realize you're already in part of the Settings screen.

I also hate Sonos' design for its on/off switches. They go from black with a white dot, to white with a black dot, depending on whether they're on or off. But which is on and which is off? It's a terrible piece of user communication, you have to play to figure it out. (Black with a white dot is on.)

Now, a lot of other streaming device apps are equally flawed — some have better interfaces, but worse streaming support, for example — so at this point I find the app far from a dealbreaker, but I'm looking forward to seeing it get better. I actually nearly always use AirPlay for playing music anyway, so after setup, I don't interact with it much.

For those who don't want to use an app at all, the Sonos Play support Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control options — but its mic can also be disabled using a switch on the back (which also disables Automatic TruePlay, since it fully disconnects the mic from the system).

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: sound quality

• Bass is powerful, but a little heavy handed
• Very well-rounded sound, but best with the volume over 40%
• About as good as speakers of this size sound

The Sonos Play sits in a slightly odd position when it comes to judging its sound quality, because it's a hybrid home and portable speaker. I'm going to mostly judge it based on comparisons with other portable speakers, rather than home speakers, because the design constraints of being portable affect what sound quality you can reasonably expect from it — but I will also compare it to the Sonos Era 100.

As is standard from Sonos, there's a really well-rounded sound with a fair amount of heft across the whole frequency range. The thing that immediately jumps out is the amount of bass depth there is for something pretty small, thanks to its dual passive radiators.

Much like the Era 100, the bass is controlled a little more loosely — a little more heavy-handedly — than I'd like. As with a lot of passive radiator-based speakers, it can feel boomy depending on what surface you place it on, too, but that's situational. It's a trade off in exchange for the punch it provides, and I'm quite happy with it on balance.

The second thing that jumps out is the overall power, which the bass only helps emphasize. This speaker can fill any room in my house without coming close to breaking a sweat or over-stretching itself — in fact, as I'll come back to, it's at its best once you dial up to a certain volume.

The two angled tweeters serve up high frequencies that sound clear and well elevated out of the rest of the mix, with this likely aided by the use of two angled tweeters pointing left and right.

Sonos has also claimed that this set enables stereo sound from a single speaker, but this is, alas, a fantasy. Firing up Crooked by Smilk, the opening of which is basically ‘Now That’s What I Call Stereo Imaging’, reveals only the most minimal stereo effect even from a song that really push separation to the max.

The mid-range is able to find a good amount of detail and solidity in different elements, so that even complex mixes still feel like that have all their constituent parts, rather than getting mushed together in the way that some portable speakers are prone to.

The mid-range and treble are both relatively tame and a little softer on dynamic attack than larger and more expensive portable speakers, or non-portable home speakers. That's a compromise here compared to the Sonos Era 100, for sure — that speaker just has the extra edge in enough areas of sound reproduction to feel like a slightly more robust, more gripping, more revealing listen.

However, compared to the JBL Charge 6, the Sonos Play is a significant step up in the overall reproduction of a song, with the mid-range the clear area of difference. On the JBL Charge 6, it's simple way too thin, lacking in expression, presence within the sound balance, and really limited in range — in particular, the Charge 6 really struggles to ramp from mid-range down through to bass, compared to the Sonos Play.

Young Blood by The Naked & Famous relies on a foundation of lower-mid synth in its verses, and without this, the song is unbalanced. The JBL Charge 6 just doesn't have this balance in its register, but the Sonos Play is able to add the weight.

The Charge 6 also has less deep bass reach than the Sonos Play — it handles its bass well, but there's just less lower-frequency grunt going on.

I should note here that we have highly rated the JBL Charge 6 for its sound reproduction compared to other portable speakers — this is just what spending the extra on the Sonos Play gets you.

That said, the JBL Charge 6 has a slightly more dynamic treble than the Play, though, with a little better handling of transients (ie, handling the sudden start of a sound) that make it feel more detail-rich. I still prefer the Sonos Play overall, for sure.

However, I mentioned above that going above a certain volume opens things up for the Sonos Play. Pushing past the 40% mark leaves the bass working in the same way that it was before, but suddenly the upper-mids and treble get a boost — a subtle but clear change in profile when ticking up.

This adds to the expansiveness of the sound, and where certain songs that should be thrilling could feel tame at times at lower volumes, they all really wake up past 40%. The Sonos Era 300 had this trait as well, when I tested it.

The only question is whether you want the Sonos Play that loud all the time — in my bedroom, 25% was the volume where I mostly wanted to use it, for example. But again, I still think the sound is very good for a portable speaker even at the lower volumes. It's just that when you can let it off its leash, it improves further.

Speaking of letting it off its leash, I also tried the sound in a stereo pair. As is often the case, it gives the speakers room to do a little more by sharing the burden, and in particular I noticed that the bass felt like it was able to be a little more controlled at the same level of power, but the mids came across weightier, again improving on the lower-mids particularly.

I don't think it opened up more detail in the treble or anything like that, but two of these are really good at filling even a large room with well-rounded, well-dispersed sound, without pushing themselves hard in a way that can affect the sound quality. You'd rarely need to push them even as far as the 40% volume mark — a pair of Plays is such a powerful system consider how small they are.

For my last sound comparison, I broke out the Sonos Roam 2. This comparison actually made the Sonos Roam 2 look impressive, because it's remarkable how close its sound signature comes to the Play. But the Play's audio is much bigger, much deeper, and more refined in all areas.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: design

• Home-friendly design, but still IP67-rated and drop-proof
• Great size, weight and charging design to grab quickly
• Buttons aren’t as clear as they could be

The design of the Sonos Play sits very much in line with other Sonos speakers. It has a hard dotted grille like most of its designs, with a rubbery top and bottom, like the Sonos Roam 2. The rubberized portion has a hefty lip at the top where it overlaps with the hard grille, and this makes me thing more of older Sonos speakers (like the Sonos One) than the Era 100, in a fond way.

I like the size of the Sonos Play a lot. I can grab it easily in one hand from the side, thanks in part to a smart concave groove on the back that's also rubberized, giving you a little grip aid.

It's weighty, but not too heavy to happily grab and carry around. It's about a third heavier than the JBL Charge 6, but is nearly a third lighter than the Marshall Middleton II, so finds itself in a good balance.

It has a flexible hook on the top of the back, which can use to carry it around or to hang on a bathroom door or something. This feels nice and sturdy.

It's IP67-rated, so should be able to handle all but the worst of water-related accidents. It should be able to handle complete immersion for a short time, so it's no risk for baths or for pool parties.

The charging cable is a little oval of plastic with a lip, and there's not much to it, but it holds on surfaces well enough when you're removing or replacing the speaker, and the charging points always line up perfectly.

I really think Sonos has nailed it with the core physical design here, and not just in a physical sense. Yes, it's durable, it's got a hook, and perhaps most importantly it looks nice — you'll happily have this thing out on a shelf, whereas a lot of people would choose to hide the JBL Charge 6 in a drawer.

But the design also make a different to my mentality, I've found. It's about how its size, weight and charging cradle lodge into my mind that this is a speaker that I not only can grab to take with me for a music blast, but that I should grab because it's so easy. There's no downside.

The Sonos Move 2 has an identical setup — durable, powerful, portable, easy charging cradle — but it's too large and heavy. You have to reach around to carry it from the back using its carry handle. If I'm taking that anywhere else, it's because I'm committing to being there for a while. I plan ahead.

And I have small portable speakers already in my house (shout out to by beloved B&O A1) that I could grab and take anywhere with me easily — but they're stored in a drawer upstairs, because I don't have them out most of the time.

But the Sonos Play has become my new kitchen speaker, so it's always out on the side, ready to grab. And it's so grabbable because it's about the thickness of a drink can, and I don't need to fiddle to unplug it because it uses a charging cradle, so I can just swipe it one-handed as I walk past. And it's already turned on and ready to play, assuming it's not already playing, because it's the main speaker in that room.

These are small, subtle design elements that add up to me feeling quite differently about the Sonos Play than almost any other speaker I've had, from the many Wi-Fi options to many portable Bluetooth speakers. As the weather where I am improves, the Sonos Play has quickly become my buddy that I take with me more; I grab the one from my kitchen to take outdoors when I sit out there, and I grab the one from my bedroom to take to the bathroom to blast tunes while I shave.

There must be a 'however', though, and it's the controls. I already mentioned that the on/off button is on the back, and while it's large and easy to find, I would prefer that you could get it to turn back on just by pressing something on top.

But the top buttons are also annoyingly disguised. They're distinguished only by symbols, not any kind of actual raised button element. And 'distinguished' is far too strong a word, because they're the same color and matte material as the rest of the top, so they're genuinely hard to see in some lighting conditions.

They also don't feel super distinct under the fingers. You get used to it, because you've only got four controls — volume down, play/pause (which also skips tracks with a multi-press), volume up, and voice assistant activation — but they just seem unnecessarily disguised.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: value

• It's pricey for a portable speaker…
• But few things are as versatile for the same cost
• It's priced in line with competitors at the same audio level

The Sonos Play is not cheap. For only a little more than the Sonos Play, you can get both a Sonos Era 100 SL and the JBL Charge 6, providing you with the core versatility of the Sonos Play — a powerful home speaker and robust portable speaker. But that's two devices, and part of the draw here is one device that can do both — simpler and more efficient.

But the price is also right in line with other powerful speakers at a similar level of audio quality, like the Marshall Middleton II — and it does things the Marshall doesn't. The JBL Charge 6 is a five-star portable speaker that's nearly half the price, so if the portable side is your priority, it makes sense to get that and save so much money… but the Sonos does sound better, offers more versatility, and looks way nicer to have as a home speaker.

When I look at other options at the same price, is anything ticking as many boxes as the Play? Pricey, yes, but more than justified. I'm not sure I'd buy a stereo pair over other wireless options you can get for $600 / £600 though, such as the Kanto Ren, since you lose some of the versatility in a pair.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Sonos Play?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Sonos Play review: also consider

How I tested the Sonos Play

• Tested over three weeks at home
• Compared with other Sonos speakers, and options from other brands

I had two Sonos Play units at home to test, over the course of three weeks. They were updated with the same software that the products will launch with, including all the various features.

I tested over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and using the Sonos app and Apple AirPlay 2. I mainly listened to music on Apple Music.

I've been reviewing speakers for 15 years, and I test audio products of all kinds, from Bluetooth speakers to floorstanding passive speakers.

• First reviewed: March 2026
• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee

• The man in charge of Sonos has more to share
• He says Sonos is committed to the headphones category
• In-car audio is not a main priority right now, however

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has been busy speaking to outlets including TechRadar about his plans for the high-end audio company going forward, and in a new interview he confirms Sonos's continued commitment to one product category — while dampening down expectations in another.

Conrad spoke to Chris Welch at Bloomberg about how Sonos intends to follow up on the Sonos Ace headphones that launched in June 2024, and the CEO emphasized that his company remains "really excited" about new pairs of headphones in the future.

It sounds as though the Sonos Ace 2 headphones might not be too far off then, but Conrad did express some regret about how the original pair were positioned on the market — and suggests selling them to existing Sonos customers first may have been a better strategy.

"I think the thesis for Ace at launch was it's a $5 billion or $6 billion category, we can make a pair of headphones that is as good or better than anything else on the market, and the opportunity is to go out there and do hand-to-hand combat with Sony and Bose and Apple and win," says Conrad.

'Strategic power'

While it seems likely that more headphones are on the way, don't expect any kind of in-car audio solution from Sonos in the near future. Sonos already has a partnership with Audi, but at the moment we're not going to see much more than that — certainly nothing along the lines of Cadillac's AKG Dolby Atmos system, for example.

"As soon as you're in the car, there are a bunch of new gatekeepers," says Conrad. "I look for venues where we have some strategic power, and it feels to me like in the car, it's a little hard to make the case that we have a ton of strategic power."

However, there is still a "small team" working on potential Sonos products for the car. "I would characterize what we're doing in automotive as a hobby," explains the CEO. "Let's see what happens there."

As well as future speculation, there are actual new products from Sonos on the market you can go out and buy right now, which fall under the company's core focus on wireless speakers: there's a refreshed Play speaker with added portability, as well as a cheaper version of the Era 100 — we've got all the details here.

When is a quiet week in tech not a quiet week in tech? How about right now. Because while this week lacked the huge launches of the previous one, it was still packed with big stories and impressive new tech.

For starters, we delivered our expert verdicts on the Apple devices that were revealed last week, and the MacBook Neo in particular blew us away. We also sat down for a long chat with Sonos' CEO as the audio giant launched two new speakers, and delivered our Google Pixel 10a review.

In fact, so much happened this week that we didn't even have space to include the two massive Gemini-powered features coming to Google Maps, so scroll down for your full catch-up and when you’re finished here be sure to read our picks for the seven new movies and TV shows you need to watch this weekend.

7. DJI prepared the Avata 360 for liftoff

DJI's first 360-degree drone has long been rumored, and this week it finally broke cover. And though we don't know everything about it yet, we do know its name, launch date, and one core spec.

The Avata 360, as it will be known, will be equipped with 8K video recording and will launch on March 26. Further specs, and the price, are yet to be revealed, but we're already getting pretty excited about it.

It will compete against the excellent Antigravity A1, which debuted last year as the world’s first true 360-degree flying camera, but the Avata 360 will have an advantage over that rival in that it will settle into an already formidable DJI drone ecosystem. Watch this space for more info ahead of that launch date.

• Read more: DJI’s Avata 360 will land this month — here’s what we know about DJI’s first 360 drone, and 3 reasons I’m psyched for its arrival

6. HBO started its global password crackdown

HBO Max’s password crackdown is going global according to the company's CEO and president of global streaming, JB Perrette.

That means you may no longer be able to share an account with another HBO max user, unless you pay an extra member fee — though that option is currently only available in the US.

However, how much longer will HBO Max even be around? HBO Max's future currently depends on whether regulators approve the acquisition of its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, by Paramount Skydance. According to at least one prominent media analyst, if that goes ahead then HBO Max could be shut down by the end of 2027.

• Read the full story: HBO Max is launching a global password-sharing crackdown

5. Apple prepared its 50th anniversary celebrations

Apple will turn 50 in a couple of weeks, and Tim Cook has been teasing what the tech giant has planned to celebrate the occasion.

"In the coming weeks, Apple and its global community will celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, recognizing the creativity, innovation, and impact that people around the world have made possible with Apple technology," said Cook, before ending with a note to fans that "If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

So, does that mean we should prepare for a crazy launch? The new MacBook Neo was impressive (see more on that below), but perhaps the company has something folded up its sleeve for April 1?

• Read the full story: Apple announces major anniversary celebrations

4. We tested Google's budget Pixel

Even amongst the flashiest, most expensive tech there's a place for a budget champion, and in the Android world the Google Pixel 10a is a strong contender for that title.

Our Managing Editor Jacob Krol put it through its paces over the past week or so, and as his review states, "it proves you don’t need big upgrades to make a great phone."

So, while it doesn’t get a new processor or upgraded camera hardware this year — instead sticking with the Tensor G4 and the same dual-camera system as the Pixel 9a — it nails the basics: a comfortable design, strong battery life, bright display, and a dependable camera, all for a low price of $499 / £499 / AU$849.

• Read more: Google’s Pixel 10a review: still one of the best budget options

3. And we tested Apple’s iPhone 17e too

Sticking in the world of budget smartphones, we also reviewed Apple’s iPhone 17e, and it too proved its worth as an affordable winner.

No, it doesn’t reinvent Apple’s budget iPhone approach, but it does bring some meaningful refinements to the iPhone 16e thanks to its A19 chip, double the starting storage at 256GB, and the long-awaited addition of MagSafe — all for the same starting price as the previous model.

The single rear camera will be a let down if you love taking snaps, and the display isn’t as crisp as the iPhone 17’s, but if you’re after an affordable iPhone there isn’t a better option based on our tests.

• Read the full review: I tested the iPhone 17e, and it's an even better budget iPhone

2. The MacBook Neo blew us away

The Apple MacBook Neo doesn’t sound like it should work. It runs on an iPhone chip, boasts just 8GB of unified memory, and includes ancient USB 2.0 technology. Yet the Neo manages to deliver an excellent MacBook experience — there’s zero macOS compromises, and it’s a far more capable machine than its budget counterparts running Windows 11 and ChromeOS.

Why? Well for a start the performance is solid. Yes, you’ll want to stick to Apple’s own apps over third-party alternatives and keep multi-tasking to a low level, but you can get a good level of utility out of this machine.

Then there’s the design, which is simply beautiful, with the Neo’s color being showcased across its aluminum shell, Magic keyboard, and even in macOS elements — plus the display is stunning.

And then there's the price. At $599 / £599 / AU$899 it stretches the definition of budget a little, but compared to other MacBooks — or the Windows competition — it's a steal.

• Read more: Apple MacBook Neo review: the best budget laptop you can buy

1. Sonos gave us two new speakers — and some explanations

Sonos has not had a great time of it of late, with its disastrous and well-documented app relaunch leading to much criticism and, eventually, the replacement of its CEO in January 2025.

That was then and this is now, though, and this week Sonos released not one but two new speakers in the form of the Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL. And, its current CEO Tom Conrad was eager to sit down with us and explain what went wrong in 2024, what its strategy is for the future, and why we should be excited about the new devices.

You can read our Managing Editor of Home Tech Matt Bolton's full interview with Conrad here, and also check out Conrad's insights into what went wrong with the Sonos app upgrade. But for now, let's focus on the speakers.

The Sonos Era 100 SL is a new, more affordable version of the existing Era 100, but without microphones; so, it lacks the smart home functions of the original, but comes at a much cheaper price.

More interesting still, though, is the Sonos Play. This new portable speaker sits between the Roam and Move models in terms of price and characteristics, and Conrad thinks it might be the “Goldilocks” speaker. And we think he might just be right.

• Read the full story: Sonos launches a new portable Play speaker and a cheaper Era 100

In the build up to the launch of the new Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL speakers, I had the chance to speak to Sonos CEO Tom Conrad not just about these speakers, but about the many changes he's made to the company since taking over in January 2025, and other changes happening in the industry at the moment.

Below is our full conversation, covering every topic — but you can read just our conversation about the app disaster and how the company is changing as a result (and what Conrad still doesn't like about it) here, or just our discussion of wireless soundbars and Dolby Atmos FlexConnect here, or just our talk about what the music streaming services can do better here.

Conrad has been a part of Sonos as a board member for eight years, and became the boss when former CEO Patrick Spence left following a disastrous app update in 2024 that changed the company's perception drastically. It seems like an appropriate position for a man who had a tattoo of the Sonos Ace headphones on his arm even before he got this job.

After our initial introductions, Conrad wasted no time in jumping into his pitch for the direction of the company, and how that informed the launch of these new products.

Tom Conrad: One of the first things that I said to the team when I took the job as CEO was that I think we really make just one product, which is a sound system for the home. Any individual device is just a way into the system or to deepen your attachment to it. The system of Sonos really is the product.

Now, of course, we sell speakers and soundbars and headphones and components. But what has always made Sonos special is that the experience gets better every time you add another room, a stereo pair, surround sound in the living room, music moving with you from the kitchen to a road trip — really a system where the whole is genuinely greater than the sum of the parts.

And I think that really sets Sonos apart from every other audio company on the planet. And so I think that's the context to understand [Sonos Play]. We're not launching a new speaker, but we're really opening a new front door to the system.

13 years ago, Play:1 introduced millions of people to this idea. Actually we sold more than 10 million of them, and remarkably, nine out of 10 are still in use today.

And Play:1 didn't just introduce an audience to whole-home audio, it really invented the category and defined what internet-connected home audio could be.

When we started this project [the Sonos Play], we asked a simple question: If we were designing the perfect fundamental building block for the Sonos system today, knowing everything we've learned over the last two decades, what would it look like?

And as an intentional callback to the speaker that started it all, we're calling this new product Sonos Play.

And when you put Sonos Play next to the Play:1, you can see how much has changed. Play:1 was a mono single tweeter speaker with a midwoofer. Sonos Play is true stereo with dual tweeters, a dedicated midwoofer and, frankly, a soundstage that just absolutely fills the room.

The bass is deeper, the amplification architecture is three generations ahead of where we were with Play:1. It has automatic TruePlay that continuously adapts the sound to wherever the speaker happens to be sitting, and then there's just all of the technological stuff that didn't exist in 2013 — Wi Fi 6, microphone arrays for AI conversation.

Matt Bolton: I also feel like there's a couple of design elements in the Play that look more like the Play:1 and the Sonos One than the Era 300. It's got this bigger like white lip at the top and some elements of the slightly more old-school Sonos design aesthetic.

TC: That's right, it is a callback in a bunch of ways. I mean, it looks really nice next to a 300, certainly from the same family.

As beautiful as the, as the Play:1 was in its day, and you still see them all over the world, we have moved dramatically beyond the design language of that product, from that era. So [the Play is] just aesthetically, it's a great step forward.

The last exciting thing about Play is that while Play:1 was designed to sit kind of permanently on a shelf in your home, Sonos Play comes with a charging cradle and has a full-day battery in it.

So in addition to being the perfect speaker for your kitchen or for a stereo pair for your office, it's also the best speaker for you to take with you, whether it's into the backyard for a dinner party or to throw in your bag to take on vacation.

It's beautifully between the audio characteristics of Sonos Roam and Sonos Move. it's a pretty remarkable Goldilocks speaker, if I do say so myself. We're really, really excited about it.

MB: I feel like the fact that you're talking about fresh front door products is an indication in itself that, after 15 months of being quiet, you've had to go through some kind of reset. So can you you talk through what you guys have been changing internally?

TC: If you think about the history of the company, we had a decade under the stewardship of John McFarlane, the company's founder. His vision was really all driven by the idea of filling every home with music on the backs of this emergent streaming moment, that he predicted so accurately.

But if you were to critique his decade, it might only be that we didn't ship that much hardware — a couple of amplifiers, a controller, you know, the initial Play:5.

It wasn't until Patrick became CEO, in our second decade, that the company really found its footing with respect to reliably shipping a couple of new products every single year. In fact, his stated goal for the company was to turn it into kind of a new product introduction machine. And, I mean, I'm the incredible beneficiary of that work!

But if you were to critique his chapter, I think the unintended consequence of that laser-like focus on new products was the company lost some of its connection to the idea that the product is actually Sonos. That the individual product launches are meant to extend the idea of what the system can be in a home and in the world.

The shift in my chapter, in some ways, is to marry the best of both of those worlds, to return to the idea that Sonos is a comprehensive system for audio in the home that you need in the same way that you need lighting and plumbing and Wi Fi; you need a sound system for your home. But to also build on our capability around new product introduction.

For my first year at the company, we had to pour so much of our energy into righting the ship with respect to the software platform that underpins all of the system experiences, that we purposefully paused our new hardware introductions to get back to par on that front.

And so it is an exciting moment to be able to say, OK, we're back, and we're launching new products again, and we'll have more in the back half of the year, because, you know, I like to say that Sonos is a company that's 100% software and 100% hardware, and so it's nice to get the 100% back that's hardware.

MB: It's interesting you mentioned that moment, because with something like the Era 100 SL, it's not like it requires a huge amount of new R&D to develop it, so it's clearly a decision you've made to wait for this time to release it. So what is it about the stage you've reached with the platform or the other work you've been doing that made now the right time?

TC: Then you look at where we were when I came in the door, we were in the middle of trying to recover from our missteps in the spring of 2024 with the launch of the new app and software platform.

Candidly, the real story there is that we just changed too much too fast, and made a bunch of tactical errors along the way of rolling it out to our customers, and then paid a very dear price. As did our customers.

I've been a customer for nearly 20 years. I've been a partner to the company for 15 or something, going back to the integrations we did between Pandora and Sonos in my days building Pandora. I've been on the board for eight years. I love this company

And Sonos in my own home is a huge part of, you know, the daily delight and satisfaction and ambiance I enjoy when I'm at home. As much as anything, I took the job to fix the product and, and get the company back to a place where we're just reliably delighting tens of millions of customers around the world again.

A lot of that was on the back of getting the software right. And so I wanted the company to be just laser focused on that return.

And with respect to the timing on Era 100 SL, our goal with Era 100 SL, frankly, was really to anchor the product line in an attainable price point for our customers. There's a lot of work that went into Era 100 SL to get us to a point where we could offer it at this entry-level price point while not compromising on audio quality at all.

So while it might look like this is as simple as removing some microphones, there's a comprehensive look at the cost of the product from top to bottom to get it to this new entry-level price.

MB: So there's an amount of re-engineering inside to to help you get it there?

TC: That's right.

MB: The other outcome of everything you guys have been through with the app is that it now means that any further updates you make to the app are automatically a huge deal, whether they deserve to be or not. Does that affect how you're approaching it or how you communicate about it?

TC: I think that when you make software that people use every day, and it's a big part of their life, it's always a big deal when you make changes. It's certainly true that there's additional scrutiny on Sonos, but as a software creator, I've always felt a keen responsibility to move my audience along with the changes and updates that we're making, in a really thoughtful and methodical way.

And so, as an example of that playing out at Sonos, you know, I'd say there were kind of three things that we had to improve upon after the disastrous launch in 2024. We had to fix performance and reliability — we had to restore baseline functionality that had been dropped from the product in its initial release. And we had to improve the user experience of the offering as well.

And it's really the third thing that we're only just now able to tackle [now]. If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming app, for example.

I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way — cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional.

So when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality. There's a funny kind of search blindness — the interface that we chose for search actually takes up more pixels on the screen than a typical search interface, but people don't even see it. They're like, 'I can't find search' because it's presented in such an unconventional way.

And so, we're now at the place where we can update the app to return it to more conventional choices. But it is, as you point out, another set of changes for our customers.

We're handling this opportunity in a really different way. I've been on Reddit, for example, describing the changes and asking our customers there to give us feedback back about their own experience learning to use Sonos and living with it every day. We will roll changes out to our beta channel and even there, our users will be able to opt into the experience.

And then when we take it to production, we'll similarly have opt-in experiences and a gradual roll out and iteration. We've already learned a lot from the perspective of our customers on Reddit after my invitation to them [recently] to share their thoughts.

None of this is a surprising way to operate a scale consumer software product, but it's certainly the set of best practices and, frankly, one of the missteps of the company in 2024 is that we didn't more closely adhere to these norms.

MB: There was a real sense that your competitors could smell blood in the water in 2024, and they really went hard on their own products going for, going for the switchers. Do you think you can win back people who did switch to WiiM or other platforms? Or do you think it's more about using these new "front door" products to go after an expanded market?

TC: Certainly, anyone that was frustrated with Sonos in the last couple of years, I hope will consider us again. When I wear my business hat, there was a cost of goodwill with our customers from this chapter, I think it really most impacted advocacy and repurchases. I don't think it was a huge driver of people fully leaving Sonos and going to other platforms.

So my my hope is that all of the people who had a bad experience in 2024 are having good experiences today, and are starting to feel better about Sonos, and can be excited about a product like Sonos Play or Era 100 SL to extend their experience in their own home, or to evangelize it to their friends and family as something that they have to have in their homes.

I think that was the real cost, it was sort of a cost of advocacy and evangelism more than it was people switching to one of the the smaller players who purports to do the same kinds of things we do.

MB: You guys certainly were one of the most recognizable brands in tech — I mean, still are, no doubt — but that must have been a real eye-opening moment that momentum and past performance only takes you so far, right?

TC: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it certainly was a moment that changed my life.

In the aftermath of that, you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through.

MB: I believe you restructured the company. How is that changing how you're working and helping to make improvements?

TC: When I came in in January of 2025, I quickly made a bunch of changes. I moved us from a business-unit orientation, where we had a home theater team, and a portables team, and a professional team, a headphones team — to a functional [organization], where we have a hardware organization and a software organization, and a product design organization.

And the benefit there is that it really allows you to get the company thinking about what we do as a system and not a collection of categories.

In the process of doing that, we also eliminated a bunch of management layers, which were standing in the way of execution. So yeah, we're definitely functioning differently today than we were a year ago.

MB: How would you say that change in function manifested in designing and launching these two products?

TC: It allowed us to really think holistically about how the product fits into the lineup. I think under the old guard, a product like Play might have been principally conceptualized alongside the various other kinds of mid-tier portable speakers, and would have been scrutinized internally and marketed on [technical specs] around battery life and portability and so forth.

We've really focused on how we make this a really great part of the Sonos system — the 'Goldilocks' perfect speaker, if you like.

MB: It's interesting you say that because I remember when the Move 2 came out, one of the things that occurred very quickly to me is that it has, if not the exact same speaker configuration, an extremely similar speaker configuration to the Era 100. Are you saying that with the Play, you're just working on the Play, you're not looking at what technology you have elsewhere that you can borrow?

TC: Well, no, in some ways the opposite, particularly as it relates to software. We're thinking more fundamentally about: How does this fit into the overall offering? How does it make the the system of Sonos more comprehensive?

With Play, I really do think it's kind of the ideal building block. I mean, when my friends and family ask me about Sonos, I'm going to start telling them they should put a Sonos Play in every room, or a stereo pair in their family room.

It's a phenomenal-sounding speaker and just has so much utility relative to anything that we've ever done before

MB: We've talked a lot about the Sonos system in particular as it pertains to the music side. I wanted to ask about home theater as well, because we're on the cusp of a major change in that sector with wireless connectivity, particularly from the TV to the soundbar. LG and Samsung are exploring proprietary options that lock out companies like Sonos, and push people to buy the same soundbar brand as their TV. Is this a trend you are concerned about?

TC: As you know, we're by far the most successful player in home theater, and consistently taking more and more market share from the companies that you're talking about

It's a huge part of our business, and we're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters.

MB: What do you think of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect? Is that something you would support?

So FlexConnect is interesting. There are really three things that have to happen in a FlexConnect-style implementation. You've got to get the bits from the media to the speaker, whether that's through the television or through the set-top box or through the soundbar, something has to get the bits into the air.

And then you have to position the speakers in the room, understand where they are and what their orientation is.

And then the last piece is that, understanding the speakers' position and the bits from the device, you have to render the bits appropriately for that position and orientation.

Dolby has done a great job of telling the story of FlexConnect as encompassing all three dimensions, but the technology of FlexConnect is actually just that last bit. It's taking the positional information [of the speakers] and the bits [from the media] once they're on the speaker, and rendering it.

And, the other two dimensions — positioning, and the transmittal of the bits actually from the source to the speakers — is sort of left as an exercise for the student, which is why the LG solution is proprietary to LG and the TCL solution is proprietary to TCL.

And you can imagine that — even as much as Dolby wants to talk about the universal character of FlexConnect in the same way they talk about Atmos — the LGs and TCLs of the world might not be that motivated to create a system whereby you can mix and match speakers [from other brands] with their televisions.

I guess I could just say that we're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap.

MB: The old Sonos was a really leaky ship when it came to product launches before your time. Is that something you want to change? I've got to say, I yearn for us to go back to the days when companies showed us tech six months, eight months, before it launched — to get a feel for how people responded to it. Could you imagine the company operating in that way?

TC: You know, the funny thing about the period where Sonos was sort of a leaky ship is that it was a period where the company, I think, was trying to be at its most secretive. In some ways, I think that Sonos culturally, internally, fashioned itself like a mini Apple, and really tried to hold its cards close to its vest.

As much as I've been a little evasive about some of the things you've asked about our roadmap, I'm conscious that we're not Apple, and that I think we can talk a little bit more about where we're going and the future that we see without being so concerned about the secrecy of it all.

I sort of love that since I've gotten here, the leaks have dried up from that standpoint, and I think it suggests that the people inside the company are feeling excited and proud of their work, and not wanting to see it out in the world in advance of when the company decides to reveal it.

Where my head is, is somewhere between where Apple sits and what you would like for us to do. So stay tuned, we should keep talking!

MB: I want to ask about the largely rumored but semi-confirmed set-top box and smart software that seemed to be developed in partnership with another company. Are you willing to talk about how far it got, or what your relationship to it was?

Without getting into specifics of that project, if it exists, I will say that part of what I had to do when I came in the door was to make some hard decisions about where we were going to focus. The company was, demonstrably, spread too thin, was trying to do too many things, and was struggling to execute with excellence across all of them.

So I tried to focus our energies on the programs that I thought that were most aligned with our differentiating power in the market. I remain really confident that the things that we chose to focus on are the things that are going to have the most impact on Sonos, in the near term.

MB: Given your background at Pandora, what do you think of music-streaming services today and how they integrate into the Sonos app? Do you, from the Sonos side, have any frustrations with them, and then personally what do you think?

TC: One of the things I'm really excited about in terms of our software roadmap is working more closely with our music service partners. All I really care about with with respect to listening to music on Sonos is getting the customer as quickly and seamlessly as possible to their outcome.

If that means AirPlay or Bluetooth or Spotify Connect or experiences inside of Spotify versus experiences inside of our app… I don't care. I just want it to work every time, and have it be completely seamless. I feel like we have a better relationship with Apple, Amazon, Spotify than we have in years, and I'm really excited about the work we're driving together.

I think the only thing I will say about the state of streaming music is that, you know, the iPod invented the core conventions of modern digital music, and then in 2004, Pandora and Last FM, I suppose, kind of invented the modern conventions around personalized streaming audio. And it's been 20 years, and it's surprising to me how little has changed in that experience.

We've gone from a world where you had access to just the CDs you bought to a world where you have access to hundreds of millions of songs in your pocket, and yet the user interface of it all is kind of just some hierarchical browsing, and then a fullscreen audio player with skip buttons and things.

I guess quietly, at night, I sort of imagine a future where there's more innovation and [questioning] what does it mean to navigate the whole entire world of music with something that wasn't designed for 1,000 songs in your pocket.

MB: Do you think that the physically small size of phone screens is holding us back in that regard?

TC: You know what I think is mostly holding us back in that regard? Apple is motivated by selling hardware, and Spotify is motivated by reducing licensing costs, and no one is motivated by: let's make a great and innovative music discovery experience for the consumer.

I spoke to Sonos CEO Tom Conrad recently, to discuss the launch of the company's new Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL speakers, and how the company's big changes under his leadership influenced their development.

Naturally, we also discussed what really went wrong with the Sonos app disaster and how he's directing the team the fix it, and I also asked Conrad whether the launch of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a danger or an opportunity for Sonos.

But given the fact that Conrad's history includes 10 years at Pandora in the early days of music streaming — he was Chief Technology Officer when he left in 2024 — and that Sonos is so deeply connected to the music-streaming services, I wanted to ask what he thought about these services today, both in terms of working with them now on the Sonos app, and personally as a streaming pioneer.

"One of the things I'm really excited about in terms of our software roadmap is working more closely with our music service partners," he begins. "All I really care about with with respect to listening to music on Sonos is getting the customer as quickly and seamlessly as possible to their outcome.

"If that means AirPlay or Bluetooth or Spotify Connect or experiences inside of Spotify versus experiences inside of our app… I don't care. I just want it to work every time, and have it be completely seamless. I feel like we have a better relationship with Apple, Amazon, Spotify than we have in years, and I'm really excited about the work we're driving together."

I expect those who use the Sonos app instead of AirPlay or other direct streaming tech will be pleased with the idea of being able to get into music quicker and more easily, but it's the more personal insights I'm more interesting in, and Conrad shared some of those too.

"You know, the iPod invented the core conventions of modern digital music, and then in 2004, Pandora and Last FM, I suppose, kind of invented the modern conventions around personalized streaming audio," he told me. "And it's been 20 years, and it's surprising to me how little has changed in that experience.

"We've gone from a world where you had access to just the CDs you bought to a world where you have access to hundreds of millions of songs in your pocket, and yet the user interface of it all is kind of just some hierarchical browsing, and then a fullscreen audio player with skip buttons and things.

"I guess quietly, at night, I sort of imagine a future where there's more innovation and [questioning] what does it mean to navigate the whole entire world of music with something that wasn't designed for 1,000 songs in your pocket."

Motivational speaker

I asked if Conrad thinks the physically small size of phone screens is a restrictive element that holds us back from developing new ways of interacting with music.

"You know what I think is mostly holding us back in that regard? Apple is motivated by selling hardware, and Spotify is motivated by reducing licensing costs, and no one is motivated by: let's make a great and innovative music discovery experience for the consumer."

I point out that Qobuz and Tidal are more focused on music discovery, but don't have the bottomless resources that Spotify and Apple do, which Conrad agrees with — but overall, I agree with him.

I always say that the vinyl revival and the popularity of the best turntables here in the 2020s is in no small part because people want music to feel special, with the thrill of discovery. Physical media gives people the excitement of successfully finding something they didn't have before when they're looking through a record store's boxes — the power of a surprise.

Obviously, it would be foolish to replicate the scarcity element of physical media in a streaming app, but Conrad's suggestion of new ways to navigate and discover music seems like a way to scratch that same itch of making music apps exciting by providing more ways for you to find something you've never heard before, and to then explore that artist or genre.

The discovery features of music streaming services feel so narrow — they either replace radio or throw a pipeline of music at you without context, and with only the foggiest sense of why you'd be interested in it.

I'd like it to feel interactive, like by opening the correct door, searching in the correct box, or asking the correct source, I can find something new to experience. I hope we'll see more innovative interfaces to create the experience of being a smart record hunter in the future.

Sonos is synonymous with wireless multi-room audio and home theatre, and has long been known for making some of the best wireless speakers and best soundbars. The company has also recently introduced the Sonos Play and Era 100 SL speakers, which both have their sights set firmly on music playback.

While those two new models are now available to pre-order ahead of their launches at the end of this month, Sonos is hoping to ignite a multi-room, home theatre passion in all Australians and New Zealanders with a ‘March Madness’ sale that is seeing up to 25% off a range of speakers and soundbars.

As a Sonos aficionado myself, who has a complete Sonos home theatre setup and music speakers dotted further around my apartment, I can’t recommend the company’s devices enough for anyone wanting effective Dolby Atmos surround sound experiences or easy room-filling sound.

The Sonos March Madness sale covers a wide gamut of speakers, from the Arc Ultra soundbar through to the portable Roam 2 Bluetooth speaker.

What’s more, Sonos offers what it calls ‘Sets’ that combine various speakers and soundbars to help make your buying decisions easier. The prices of these Sets have also been discounted in line with the individual discounts, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to buy items individually.

How come? Well, if you buy a set, you commit to just one colour choice for all speakers and components. When buying individually, you’re free to choose whether you want white or black. In my case, I have a black Arc Ultra to help blend in with my dark TV unit and white Era 300s and Sub to blend in with my white sofa and lighter room decor.

The final decision is yours of course, I just wanted to add my two cents.

The full list of discounts available at Sonos AU is as follows:

• Sonos Arc Ultra: was AU$1,799 now AU$1,499
• Sonos Beam (Gen 2): was AU$799 now AU$599
• Sonos Sub 4: was AU$1,299 now AU$1,049
• Sonos Era 300: was AU$749 now AU$599
• Sonos Era 100: was AU$319 now AU$289
• Sonos Sub Mini: was AU$699 now AU$559
• Sonos Roam 2: was AU$299 now AU$239
• Sonos Move 2: was AU$799 now AU$639
• Sonos Ace (Black only): was AU$599 now AU$449

You’ll want to be quick though, as this rare sale is only running until March 31.

I’ve highlighted my favourite deals below, but be sure to head to the Sonos AU or Sonos NZ website for the full selection of deals and discounts. I’ve seen The Good Guys beating the price on these by a small margin in some instances, so if you're after the absolute cheapest deal then check out the full Sonos range and the Good Guys site.

The Sonos Arc Ultra is available in a variety of ‘Sets’, which pair it with anything from just a Sub 4 subwoofer, to a complete surround sound package with two Era 300 Atmos-enabled rear speakers. You can view the full range of sets in the table below.

Speaker sets that include the Beam (Gen 2) are also available, and are as follows.

Ahead of Sonos' recent launch of its new Sonos Play and Era 100 SL speakers, I got to speak to CEO Tom Conrad about what the company has been up to since its last big launch, the Sonos Arc Ultra in 2024.

We talked about the new speakers, and then we spent a long time talking about what went wrong with the company's big app disaster that same year, what's still wrong with it, and how the company has changed to fix it — and Conrad was very candid in that talk, so I'd definitely recommend reading it if you've taken an interest in Sonos at all.

But one of the other big things that's happened in the time Sonos has been working on itself is the launch of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect. This is technology that lets you get a great home theater experience without needing speakers that sit in traditional front left, front right, rear left, rear right positions — you put the speakers wherever you like, even if they're unbalanced or the speakers don't match, and the system figures out how to provide the best surround sound automatically.

TCL was the first to launch Dolby Atmos FlexConnect support in its TVs and in a speaker called the Z100. And this year, LG followed with support in its newer TVs, and a speaker, subwoofer, and soundbar range called LG Sound Suite. You can read our full LG Sound Suite Immersive Suite 7 Pro review for more on that.

One of the big features of these systems is that you can have wireless speakers connected directly to a TV, with no HDMI cable — wireless sound, configured simply using an app, and you don't lose an HDMI port.

This strikes me as a huge change, because it's very desirable and convenient, but it means TV companies are pushing people to buy their own products — TCL and LG's FlexConnect systems only work with their own speakers. And even non-Dolby versions of this tech — Samsung has an extremely similar technology — also require you to buy the same speakers as your TV.

I asked Conrad if Sonos is concerned about this major trend that effectively locks Sonos' products out of the future of wireless home theater, and he certainly puts on the air of a man who is not concerned.

"As you know, we're by far the most successful player in home theater, and consistently taking more and more market share from the companies that you're talking about," says Conrad.

"It's a huge part of our business, and we're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters."

I asked Conrad what he thinks of the FlexConnect technology. "So FlexConnect is interesting," he begins. "There are really three things that have to happen in a FlexConnect-style implementation. You've got to get the bits from the media to the speaker, whether that's through the television or through the set-top box or through the soundbar, something has to get the bits into the air.

"And then you have to position the speakers in the room, understand where they are and what their orientation is.

"And then the last piece is that, understanding the speakers' position and the bits from the device, you have to render the bits appropriately for that position and orientation.

"Dolby has done a great job of telling the story of FlexConnect as encompassing all three dimensions, but the technology of FlexConnect is actually just that last bit. It's taking the positional information [of the speakers] and the bits [from the media] once they're on the speaker, and rendering it.

"And, the other two dimensions — positioning, and the transmittal of the bits actually from the source to the speakers — is sort of left as an exercise for the student, which is why the LG solution is proprietary to LG and the TCL solution is proprietary to TCL.

And you can imagine that — even as much as Dolby wants to talk about the universal character of FlexConnect in the same way they talk about Atmos — the LGs and TCLs of the world might not be that motivated to create a system whereby you can mix and match speakers [from other brands] with their televisions."

So, is it something Sonos would support in the future? (Standard Dolby Atmos has been available on Sonos products for years, and support is included in the current Sonos Beam 2nd Gen, Sonos Arc Ultra, and Sonos Era 300.)

"I guess I could just say that we're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap."

As much as the insight into Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is interesting, Conrad is obviously very vague about future plans — but we can do some reading between the lines here.

Of the three questions Conrad asked at the end, we know a bit about Sonos' technology in that area already.

"How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space?" Sonos' TruePlay tech has never been pitched as mapping your speakers' positions, but rather compensates for your position in the room, and the reflections of your walls relative to the speakers.

But reading that statement, you're probably thinking 'Hang on, that sounds a lot like mapping the position of the speakers' — and we'll come back to that shortly.

But more directly, the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect systems from TCL and LG both use audio alone to detect the positions of the speakers, playing sounds and listening to them with microphones on the devices, with remarkable accuracy in 2D. This is how Sonos' own TruePlay Quick Tuning works, so even if the current TruePlay algorithm isn't exactly suitable, the knowledge seems to exist within the company.

When it comes to rendering the 3D sound, Conrad himself said that the FlexConnect system handles that — though again, Sonos has knowledge in this area of its own. Psychoacoustics tricks such as using reflections and time-of-flight manipulation are common in virtual Dolby Atmos devices, and the Sonos Beam is one of those. TruePlay again involves adjusting reflections for width and height channels.

But more than that, Sonos introduced the idea of a new kind of 3D sound processing for the Sonos Ace headphones and the TV Swap feature, tracking your head inside its own recreation of an Atmos-like 3D soundscape.

The 3D soundscape of the Sonos Ace can even be made to mimic the sound profile you get from your main Sonos speaker system, based on where the speakers are positioned compared to your usual seating position. It uses TruePlay data to do this — and so now we know Sonos has a product capable of creating a unique 3D sound environment based on the position of your speakers compared to your seating position.

So it seems evident that Sonos finds the same kind of tech as FlexConnect interesting, even if it hasn't added the freedom of speaker positioning to its home theater setups yet.

But none of this tackles the first question: "How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers?"

This is where Sonos is truly at risk, in my opinion. HDMI is an open standard that has enabled any kind of soundbar to work with any kind of TV. A similar attempt at a wireless standard, WiSA, has never taken off.

That's left TV companies free to use this part as a method of lock-in. Samsung, TCL, Sony, and LG all offer some kind of wireless speaker option that works directly with your TV, enabled by the TV software itself.

Sonos has no power over TV software, which leaves it with two options: partner with smart TV software makers to build in support, or offer some kind of HDMI dongle attachment.

The latter is relatively easy, but still uses up an HDMI port, and part of the attractiveness of these wireless systems is not having to deal with a port for your sound at all.

When it comes to partnering with smart TV makers, it's tough. LG and Samsung make their own software. Google TV is huge, but Sonos and Google famously have not had a good relationship.

That's a lot of TVs sold covered just in that group, especially high-end options. But there are still interesting options. Amazon Fire TV and Roku might be open to a partnership, and Fire TV support could also mean support from Fire TV Sticks, which can be attached to other TVs, of course.

And then there's the Apple TV 4K, which is rare among streaming boxes because it can take audio from anything connected to the TV, as well as generate its own audio from streaming apps. Apple and Sonos have long had a cosy relationship, including the Sonos Amp being the only streaming amp with native Apple Music support, even today.

The Apple TV 4K is popular with home theater enthusiasts, so perhaps Sonos could arrange with Apple to provide a flexible, 3D wireless sound option support at the OS level.

Whatever Sonos' plans are, I hope it's able to roll them out soon — the wireless soundbar revolution is arriving at speed, and Sonos doesn't want to be left behind.

• Sonos brings back notification and lock screen controls on Android
• Work is still ongoing to support these controls on iOS
• You can also access these options from your wrist via Wear OS

After some well-publicized tribulations over the last couple of years, Sonos is on the comeback trail. Not only did the company launch new speakers earlier this week, it's also now fixed a major source of frustration for users of its Android app.

As posted by u/edfosho1 on Reddit (via 9to5Google), the ability to control playback and volume from the Android notification shade and the lock screen has returned. Previously, users had to go into the actual Sonos app for these controls.

Understandably, users are pretty happy with the return of the more convenient widget controls — one user describes the fix as a "game changer" while also welcoming the returning support for scrobbling on the Last.fm service.

There's also a sense of annoyance over the amount of time that it's taken for Sonos to get around to bringing back this functionality. "It's 2026, what took them so long," reads one comment in the Reddit thread.

We can fix it

Finally, Android notification for playback from r/sonos

The playback controls are also going to be available if you're using a Wear OS smartwatch, as demonstrated by u/wizewiz on Reddit. However, as yet there's no such widget control on iOS from the lock screen or the Dynamic Island — though it's believed to be on the way.

As per the official Sonos update, the app may take up to two weeks to reach everyone, so don't panic if you're not seeing it immediately. You're looking for version 82.01.9 on Android and version 82.01.12 on iOS in your app store of choice.

The refreshed app is part of an ongoing effort by Sonos to win back user trust. Speaking to TechRadar, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has admitted mistakes have been made in software and hardware development, but that he's also now busy righting the ship.

There are also now two new Sonos speakers to enjoy, the first from the company since 2024: there's a new and portable version of the Sonos Play (for $299 / £299 / AU$499), amd the Sonos Era 100 SL ($189 / £169 / AU$289).

It’s well-known that most TVs nowadays don’t generally have the built-in sound to match the picture quality — especially the more mid-range or cheaper models. This is where one of the best soundbars comes to the rescue, but not everyone has the space or budget for one of the really big and immersive systems.

The humble, all-in-one, compact soundbar is what you need, then — and we had three of the best available in our testing lab: the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), the Denon Home 550 and the Sony HT-S2000, the latter of which has been our best budget recommendation for a while now.

So, I decided to pick a few of my go-to audio testing scenes from our back catalogue of 4K Blu-rays to see which soundbar reigns supreme. A quick note: the Sony HT-S2000 is difficult to get hold of (with some stock left in the UK), but I thought it would be a good benchmark soundbar since we've recommended it for so long.

We have a system in our testing rooms to pipe sound and visuals to multiple TVs at once, so I was able to line all the soundbars alongside each other – all attached to LG TVs, for a bit of consistency – and switch between their sound instantly to compare.

The Batman

My go-to testing scene for soundbars and TV audio, the Batmobile chase scene from The Batman is a perfect test for all audio elements: sound mapping, bass, speech, Dolby Atmos and surround effects. It’s easily one of my favorite Atmos scenes.

The first thing I noticed was how effective all three soundbars delivered the rumble of the Batmobile’s engine. The Denon had a lot of up-front bass that was well controlled, but the Sonos’ felt that little bit more refined with good space between the low-end of the engine and other elements. While the Sony’s bass was thinner than the other two, it was still decent.

The Denon delivered a surprisingly wide soundstage with plenty of room-filling power. Its virtual Dolby Atmos processing created a dome-like effect despite its compact size. The Sonos also had a wide soundstage with plenty of depth, but it wasn’t quite as convincing as the Denon. The Sony delivered decent Atmos but again felt a bit thinner in the sound overall.

All three soundbars had great accuracy, mapping effects — such as the bullet spray from Penguin’s weapon, swerving tyres and blaring car horns — accurately between the soundbar and the action on screen. Again the Denon was more precise, but the Sonos was a close second. The Sony also sounded accurate, particularly with the flame of the Batmobile’s engine on ignition.

While the Denon mostly shone in this scene, I did find that various sound effects could get cluttered at times, with the score being lost in the explosions whereas the Sonos was able to give each sound element more room to breathe. The Sony had good detail, but felt narrower than the other two, meaning some elements weren’t as clear.

The Mask

A semi-recent addition to the testing lineup, The Mask has excellent sound design with one area in particular standing out: placement and direction of sound. All of The Mask’s zany cartoonish sound effects, especially his tornado, are a brilliant audio test.

Again, all three soundbars demonstrated impressive sound placement, accurately delivering the movement of The Mask’s tornado around his bedroom with real precision. The Denon and Sonos had the edge when it comes to the power of the sound, which made the tornado effect more engaging, but the Sony did a good job in its own right.

While the Denon was bolder and more direct in the scene, the Sonos had a nice width that was perfect for giving more of a sense of space as the Mask careens around the room. This was also evident later as ricocheting gunfire again had more space on the Sonos, but had more impact through the Denon. The Sony again didn't have the impact of the other two soundbars, but its accuracy can’t be denied — it just wasn't as exciting.

Wicked

Not just a regular disc for me when testing TV picture quality, Wicked is, of course, great for testing audio, as it’s a musical with plenty of elements to put a sound system through its paces. No song does this better than Defying Gravity, not only with its big score and grand vocals, but also in Elphaba’s movement on the broom.

Elphaba’s vocals are big, bold and powerful, and all three soundbars do her justice. The Sonos had the most clarity in the vocals while the Denon had the out-and-out power, and the Sony actually struck a nice balance between the two.

One thing I was surprised by was how the Sonos handled the rest of the soundtrack — the score itself, the sound of the wind as Elphaba flies on the broom — because these were pushed to the back of the Sonos’ soundstage, with the vocals receiving most of the power. This took away from the soaring, impactful nature of the scene.

The Denon, on the other hand, managed to strike a fine balance between every element, as did the Sony (it just sounded thinner than the Denon).

In terms of the expansiveness of the sound, the Sonos proved to have the most width. The Denon went for a direct approach which meant it didn’t sound as wide in places. The Sony again delivered a broad sound with good space, but not as much as the others.

Oppenheimer

While there are a ton of scenes you could use from Oppenheimer to show off your home theater, both video and audio, it’s actually the scene where Strauss gives Oppenheimer a tour of the University that I used, to test dialogue.

All three soundbars delivered crystal clear speech throughout the scene, even without any speech enhancement features activated. I did find that the Sonos and Sony had the most authentic sound, and by this I mean they accurately delivered the echo-y voices of Strauss and Oppenheimer as they’re in the office. The Denon sounded much cleaner and fuller, but this isn’t really the most film-accurate.

Again, all three soundbars showed excellent tracking as they were able to replicate the voices accurately, whether from behind, off to the side or when both characters were at a distance. I tested all three soundbar’s voice enhancements too, and while they were effective, they limited other aspects of the sound. Frankly, none of them needed these enhancements.

Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick is another reference testing disc with a load of scenes to really let your home theater flex its muscles. A common one I use (and is often used in tech demos by companies) is the Darkstar test flight at the start of the movie, because it’s a perfect Dolby Atmos height scene.

What I really wanted to test on these three soundbars was their virtual Dolby Atmos processing, as none of them have up-firing speakers. I had glimpses in The Batman and Wicked, but really it’s the moment in this scene where Maverick flies over Admiral Cain that will make or break height channels.

Honestly, all three did well considering their compact size and lack of up-firing speakers. They all demonstrated pretty convincing Atmos, providing some sense of the flight path of the Darkstar traveling overhead. While it didn’t fill the room or completely go over my head like I’d had on the Samsung HW-Q990F or the Sonos Arc Ultra, it was a valiant effort.

The Sonos had the greatest sense of space, giving the Atmos room to breathe, while the Denon again had that hit of power which felt the most authentic to the jet. The Sony was arguably the most impressive however, as its virtual Atmos positioning was more effective and convincing than I thought it would be.

Which to buy?

For their size and price, all three of these soundbars impressed me. While the Sony had a bit of an uphill battle, it’s still a seriously good soundbar for the money. When it comes to price, these soundbars have all been somewhere in the region of $399-$499 / £399-£499 / AU$799-AU$899 before. However, the Denon is generally the priciest in the US, sometimes hitting $699 and as much as I liked it, that’s a big jump over the other two models.

With the Sony tough to get hold of and the Denon that much pricier, the Sonos still reigns supreme in the US. Elsewhere, where prices are closer, it comes down to preference.

The Denon and Sonos apps perform similarly and both have ecosystems and extra speakers you can add, while the Sony is an impressive budget option. For me, if the price was right, I’d pick the Denon and its particular blend of power and positioning skills, but I wouldn’t be upset with any of these soundbars.

Sonos has just unveiled its first new music speakers since the Sonos Roam 2 in May 2024, and the first since its infamous app change that shook the whole company and led to the replacement of then-CEO Patrick Spence with current CEO Tom Conrad in January 2025.

For the launch of Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL, I spoke to Conrad about his big structural changes to the company and how they impacted the development of these speakers. So my next questions are about what else Sonos was actually doing during its quiet 2025.

What's the inside story on the app's changes, and how does the company plan to win back the trust it used to have?

"For my first year at the company, we had to pour so much of our energy into righting the ship with respect to the software platform that underpins all of the system experiences, that we purposefully paused our new hardware introductions to get back to par on that front," he explains.

"We were in the middle of trying to recover from our missteps in the spring of 2024 with the launch of the new app and software platform. Candidly, the real story there is that we just changed too much too fast, and made a bunch of tactical errors along the way of rolling it out to our customers, and then paid a very dear price. As did our customers."

Taking stock of history

Conrad is generally in a pretty candid mood for our conversation about the problems with the app, and why people were so frustrated with it — but he's also clearly incredibly proud to be at Sonos, even if he's trying to be clear-eyed about it.

"If you think about the history of the company, we had a decade under the stewardship of John McFarlane, the company's founder. His vision was really all driven by the idea of filling every home with music on the backs of this emergent streaming moment, that he predicted so accurately. But if you were to critique his decade, it might only be that we didn't ship that much hardware — a couple of amplifiers, a controller, you know, the initial Play:5," Conrad says.

"It wasn't until Patrick became CEO, in our second decade, that the company really found its footing with respect to reliably shipping a couple of new products every single year. In fact, his stated goal for the company was to turn it into kind of a new product introduction machine. And, I mean, I'm the incredible beneficiary of that work!

"But if you were to critique his chapter, I think the unintended consequence of that laser-like focus on new products was the company lost some of its connection to the idea that the product is actually Sonos. That the individual product launches are meant to extend the idea of what the system can be in a home and in the world."

Digging into that topic with Conrad, it seems like he's identified a disconnect between how the company treated the software, and how the users treat it.

"In the aftermath of that, you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through," he says.

I mention that any changes the company makes to the app in the future will automatically become a big deal, whether the changes really deserve to be or not.

"I think that when you make software that people use every day, and it's a big part of their life, it's always a big deal when you make changes. It's certainly true that there's additional scrutiny on Sonos, but as a software creator, I've always felt a keen responsibility to move my audience along with the changes and updates that we're making, in a really thoughtful and methodical way."

How are things looking now?

I obviously want to get into the work that Sonos has been doing, and how happy Conrad is with it now, and he's pleasingly open and unsparing with his assessment.

"I'd say there were kind of three things that we had to improve upon after the disastrous launch in 2024. We had to fix performance and reliability — we had to restore baseline functionality that had been dropped from the product in its initial release. And we had to improve the user experience of the offering as well.

"And it's really the third thing that we're only just now able to tackle [now]. If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming app, for example. I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way — cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional.

"So when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality. There's a funny kind of search blindness — the interface that we chose for search actually takes up more pixels on the screen than a typical search interface, but people don't even see it. They're like, 'I can't find search' because it's presented in such an unconventional way.

"And so, we're now at the place where we can update the app to return it to more conventional choices. But it is, as you point out, another set of changes for our customers."

The ill-fated set-top box, and the leaky ship

At the end of 2024, while unhappiness with the app was still strong among the Sonos community, information leaked that Sonos was preparing a streaming box, which would be high-priced and yet supposedly developed using ad-based tech from a software partner called The Trade Desk. Sonos later confirmed this partnership, adding that it was "excited to explore" integration with The Trade Desk's Ventura OS.

And then, after previous CEO Spence left and Conrad took over, reports said that the project had been quietly dropped. I asked Conrad about this, and how it factored into the rethinking and restructuring at Sonos over the last year.

"Without getting into specifics of that project, if it exists," he says, smiling, "I will say that part of what I had to do when I came in the door was to make some hard decisions about where we were going to focus. The company was, demonstrably, spread too thin, was trying to do too many things, and was struggling to execute with excellence across all of them.

"So I tried to focus our energies on the programs that I thought that were most aligned with our differentiating power in the market. I remain really confident that the things that we chose to focus on are the things that are going to have the most impact on Sonos, in the near term."

I pointed out that Sonos has been a very leaky ship in the past, with upcoming product info regularly splashed across the tech press — the Sonos Era 300 leaked in detail nearly a year before its introduction. I asked Conrad if that's something he actually wants to change, because I personally with we could go back a few decades to when tech companies talked openly about products months and months in advance so we could get a feel for them.

"You know, the funny thing about the period where Sonos was sort of a leaky ship is that it was a period where the company, I think, was trying to be at its most secretive. In some ways, I think that Sonos culturally, internally, fashioned itself like a mini Apple, and really tried to hold its cards close to its vest.

"As much as I've been a little evasive about some of the things you've asked about our roadmap, I'm conscious that we're not Apple, and that I think we can talk a little bit more about where we're going and the future that we see without being so concerned about the secrecy of it all.

"I sort of love that since I've gotten here, the leaks have dried up from that standpoint, and I think it suggests that the people inside the company are feeling excited and proud of their work, and not wanting to see it out in the world in advance of when the company decides to reveal it. Where my head is, is somewhere between where Apple sits and, and what you would like for us to do. So stay tuned, we should keep talking!"

Working better with the users

Speaking of keeping talking, I also asked if Sonos' experience with the app update has led it to think differently about communicating with its users, and Conrad says that's something he's tried to change.

"We're handling this opportunity in a really different way. I've been on Reddit, for example, describing the changes and asking our customers there to give us feedback back about their own experience learning to use Sonos and living with it every day. We will roll changes out to our beta channel and even there, our users will be able to opt into the experience.

"And then when we take it to production, we'll similarly have opt-in experiences and a gradual roll out and iteration. We've already learned a lot from the perspective of our customers on Reddit after my invitation to them [recently] to share their thoughts."

He's quick to point out that he know this isn't a revolutionary approach, though: "None of this is a surprising way to operate a large-scale consumer software product, but it's certainly the set of best practices and, frankly, it's one of the, the missteps of the company in 2024 is that we didn't more closely adhere to these norms."

I point out to Conrad that its competitors really sensed blood in the water after the app update, and pushed hard to win people over to their own platforms — with WiiM, for example, launching a direct competitor to the Era 100 with a very similar audio setup — so I asked if he felt that they could win back any 'switchers'.

"Certainly, anyone that was frustrated with Sonos in the last couple of years, I hope will consider us again. When I wear my business hat, there was a cost of goodwill with our customers from this chapter, I think it really most impacted advocacy and repurchases. I don't think it was a huge driver of people fully leaving Sonos and going to other platforms.

"So my my hope is that all of the people who had a bad experience in 2024 are having good experiences today, and are starting to feel better about Sonos, and can be excited about a product like Sonos Play or Era 100 SL to extend their experience in their own home, or to evangelize it to their friends and family as something that they have to have in their homes.

"I think that was the real cost, it was sort of a cost of advocacy and evangelism more than it was people switching to one of the the smaller players who purports to do the same kinds of things we do."

There's more to come

Something that really comes across speaking to Conrad is that he feels a deep affinity for Sonos and the things it actually makes, in a more genuine way than a lot of tech CEOs.

"I've been a customer for nearly 20 years. I've been a partner to the company for 15 or something, going back to the integrations we did between Pandora and Sonos in my days building Pandora. I've been on the board for 8 years. I love this company," says Conrad.

"And Sonos in my own home is a huge part of, you know, the daily delight and satisfaction and ambiance I enjoy when I'm at home. As much as anything, I took the job to fix the product and, and get the company back to a place where we're just reliably delighting tens of millions of customers around the world again.

"A lot of that was on the back getting the software right. And so I wanted the company to be just laser focused on that return."

As Conrad mentioned above, there are things he wants to change further about the app, but he's clearly happy with the changes so far, and says Sonos absolutely isn't done with hardware yet in 2026:

"We're back, and we're launching new products again, and we'll have more in the back half of the year, because, you know, I like to say that Sonos is a company that's 100% software and 100% hardware, and so it's nice to get the 100% back that's hardware. "

• Sonos launches two new speakers: Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL
• Sonos Play is a new portable speaker, costing $299 / £299 / AU$499
• Sonos CEO Tom Conrad tells us it's designed as a "front door" to the Sonos system, like the Play:1 speaker was 13 years ago

Sonos has just unveiled its first new music speakers since May 2024: the Sonos Era 100 SL, and a new portable speaker that sits between the Sonos Roam 2 and Sonos Move in the company's lineup. It's called the Sonos Play, and Sonos CEO Tom Conrad tells me that with the Play, "we're not launching a new speaker, but we're really opening a new front door to the system."

The new Sonos Play's name is "an intentional callback" to the Play:1 as the original introductory Sonos speaker, Conrad says, because the idea here is to create a speaker that is the best of all worlds at once. "It's a phenomenal-sounding speaker and just has so much utility relative to anything that we've ever done before," he promises.

The Sonos Play has a smart audio setup for its compact size: there are two angled tweeters for a little stereo separation, with a mid-woofer for mid-range and bass. This is the same approach used in the Sonos Era 100, but because the drivers need to be smaller than in the Era 100, the Play also has two force-opposed bass radiators to help improve low-end power without adding vibrations. "It's beautifully between the audio characteristics of Sonos Roam and Sonos Move," says Conrad.

The idea is that it can provide enough audio power and quality to fill any room at home, either alone or in a stereo pair, but is small enough to take away with you — the Move 2 is a little hefty to take anywhere, even though it's technically portable, as I said in my Sonos Move 2 review.

The Sonos Play supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and promises up to 24 hours of battery from a single charge, which is impressive compared to even the best portable speakers. It has a USB-C port that can be used as a line-in via an adapter (for one of the best turntables or a similar source) — Sonos really wants this to be able to do anything its other speakers can, as far as possible.

The Sonos Play is IP67-rated, meaning it's pretty dustproof and can be fully immersed in water for a short time without problems. It weighs 2.87lb (1.3kg), and at 4.43 x 7.56 x 3.02 inches (113 x 192 x 77mm), it's small enough to easily take around with you, even if it's not exactly pocketable. It has a little hook on the back for carrying or hanging somewhere.

Obviously, it works as part of the Sonos ecosystem on Wi-Fi (and includes Apple AirPlay 2 support), and comes with a charging base. But it also expands the Sonos system in a new way: multi-speaker support over Bluetooth. You can connect your phone to a Sonos Play over Bluetooth, and then it can transmit the sound to up to three other Play or Move 2 speakers, no matter where you are. It's not as broad a system as Bluetooth Auracast support on some speakers, but that's not available on all phones, and this is a nice upgrade anyway.

The Sonos Play will be released on March 31st, 2026, priced at $299 / £299 / AU$499, so it's definitely not a cheap thing to add to every room. As mid-size Bluetooth speakers go, you're paying a lot more than you would for the five-star JBL Charge 6, for example. But then you wouldn't get the Wi-Fi features that are essential to the best wireless speakers — and, significantly, the Sonos has a much nicer home-friendly design compared to the JBL.

The Era 100 SL looks like a great budget buy

The Sonos Era 100 SL follows the pattern of Sonos' other SL products — it's a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100. It has the same speaker configuration of two angled tweeters to provide some sense of stereo sound, with a single mid-woofer for mid-range and bass.

It still includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus a USB-C port that you can connect an adapter to for line-in audio from a turntable or another source. However, it doesn't include any voice control option at all — the mics have been removed to help lower the price. (This also means it doesn't support TruePlay Quick Tuning for iOS and Android, only the iPhone-only full TruePlay.)

With a launch price of $189 / £169 / AU$289 (available on March 26th), it's the cheapest Sonos speaker you can buy in the UK and Australia, though in the US it costs $10 more than the Sonos Roam 2.

Tom Conrad told me that it wasn't just a case of removing the mics to get the speaker to that price, though, and that the speaker was actually reengineered inside to make it less expensive to produce:

"There's a lot of work that went into Era 100 SL to get us to a point where we could offer it at this entry-level price, while not compromising on audio quality at all. While it might look like this is as simple as removing some microphones, there was a comprehensive look at the cost of the product from top to bottom to get it to this new price."

Refocusing on the system, not the devices

I asked Conrad why these models are the choices to lead Sonos' return to launching music-focused speakers, and he emphasized that the big change in how he's approaching the company is to stop treating individual launches as separate products, but to focus on the whole.

"One of the first things that I said to the team when I took the job as CEO was that I think we really make just one product, which is a sound system for the home. Any individual device is just a way into the system or to deepen your attachment to it. The system of Sonos really is the product."

So when it comes to planning launches, he says, "We're thinking more fundamentally about 'how does this fit into the overall offering?' How does it make the the system of Sonos more comprehensive?"

As I mentioned earlier on, he was very keen to reference the original Play:1 (and showed me that he uses one at his desk even today). The name and even some design elements of the new speaker are a callback to that model (the thicker band of plastic at the top of the Play is reminiscent of the Play:1 or Sonos One, compared to the Era 100), but he says it was also about the philosophy:

"13 years ago, Play:1 introduced millions of people to [the idea of the Sonos system]. Actually we sold more than 10 million of them, and remarkably, nine out of 10 are still in use today.

"When we started this project, we asked a simple question. If we were designing the perfect fundamental building block for the Sonos system today, knowing everything we've learned over the last two decades, what would it look like?"

As part of thinking about Sonos itself as a product, Conrad started to restructure the company quickly after he joined permanently in January 2025.

"I moved us from a business-unit orientation, where we had a home theater team, and a portables team, and a professional team, a headphones team — to a functional [organization], where we have a hardware organization and a software organization, and a product design organization.

"And the benefit there is that it really allows you to get the company thinking about what we do as a system and not a collection of categories."

Conrad says the development of the Sonos Play is an example of how changing the structure of the company changes the products themselves.

"It allowed us to really think holistically about how the product fits into the lineup," he says. "I think under the old guard, a product like Play might have been, principally conceptualized alongside the various other kinds of mid-tier portable speakers, and would have been scrutinized internally and marketed on [technical specs] around battery life and portability and so forth. We've really focused on how we make this a really great part of the Sonos system — the 'Goldilocks' perfect speaker, if you like.

"I really do think it's the ideal building block. When my friends and family ask me about Sonos, I'm going to start telling them they should put a Sonos Play in every room, or a stereo pair in their family room."

Of course, any discussion about the direction Sonos is moving in can't ignore the app debacle that led to Sonos' nightmare year in 2024, and Conrad and I discussed that in depth.

You can read Conrad's analysis of what went wrong before he joined, how mistakes were made, what's being improved, and what changes still need to happen in my discussion with him here — but here's a little tidbit:

"If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming apps, for example.

"I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way, cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional. And so when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality."

• A reliable leaker says a Sonos Era 100 SL is coming
• It would be a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100 speaker without mics
• It follows the recent leak of a new Sonos portable speaker and app refresh

It looks like Sonos is planning to launch a new Sonos Era 100 SL speaker, which would essentially be a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100 that cuts out voice control in order to lower costs — at least, that based on previous Sonos 'SL' products, which have all done exactly that.

The leak comes from well-known tech leaker Evan Blass on X, with images of the bottom of the new speakers, in black and white, with the name clearly visible.

When I reviewed the Sonos Era 100 upon its launch, I thought it was a great speaker overall, but the price was a just a little too high. Since then, Sonos has cut the price from $249 / £249 / AU$399 to $219 / £199 / AU$319 (and often further during sales events), which I think is more where it should be.

With the promise of the SL offering an even cheaper option, I think this new model will probably become the default wireless speaker. We've been recommending the JBL Authentics 200 over the Era 100 in our guide to the best wireless speakers, but this could turn things in Sonos's favor.

What price should you expect for this? To be clear, it's not like the Sonos Era 100 SL is likely to be half the price of the current model, but the Sonos One SL was $20 / £20 cheaper than the Sonos One, and the Sonos Roam SL was about the same difference from the Sonos Roam. So I'd expect the same here, with the Era 100 probably launching for the same $199 / £179 / AU$389 price that the Sonos One SL launched for back in its day.

Bearing in mind that Sonos happily takes part in Black Friday and other sales events, you could end up paying under $170 / £150 for this new speaker, and I think it'll be wildly popular at that kind of price, including as a pair. Simple, good-looking, well-made, with nice sound – it's the kind of thing that'll get Sonos's reputation back at the top of the pile.

In the past, the microphones and voice assistant feature have been the only thing that Sonos has cut from the SL models, but it's possible that it will choose to cut more here – for example, it would be a shame to lose the USB-C port that enables you to connect a line-in adapter, but people might be happy to live with it in favor of the savings.

Sonos is back in action

It's been a busy week in the world of Sonos leaks. First was news that the company is planning a new refresh to its app, including some fast-access music controls on iOS, which is something I've wanted for a while.

Then we saw clear leaks that the company is planning to launch a new portable speaker mid-way between the Sonos Roam 2 and the Sonos Move 2 for price and size. (Something that we anticipated in our round-up of what we hoped to see from Sonos, so well done to my colleague James Davidson for nailing that.)

Now we have the Era 100 SL appearing too (pictured along with more images of the Sonos Play portable speaker in that leak). We already knew that Sonos was planning to "ramp up" its launches after releasing nothing in 2025, and it looks like it's going to come racing out of the blocks with two early speakers, any maybe more to follow.

• Best Buy Canada leaked a listing page for the 'Sonos Play' speaker, but it has since been deleted
• It's set to arrive March 31, and costs $399.99
• The new Bluetooth speaker could be Sonos' mid-range option alongside the Roam 2 and Move 2

Apple isn’t the only one with new devices on the way, as leaks of a new Sonos portable Bluetooth speaker hint that the audio giant could be dropping the device imminently — and people already like what they see.

Dubbed ‘Sonos Play’, the speaker was leaked on Best Buy Canada’s site with a full gallery of images and a thorough list of specs, but has since been taken down. Luckily, a user on Reddit managed to snap some images before the listing was removed from Best Buy’s online store (see below).

sonos from r/sonos/comments/1ri2yqr/upcoming_sonos_portable_speaker

According to the listing, the Sonos Play portable speaker will be available in black or white and will cost CAD $399.99 (or around USD $300 / AUD $420), though international prices have yet to be announced. It’s supposedly arriving as soon as March 31, but Sonos hasn’t confirmed or denied the launch date.

At first glance, it seems that the Sonos Play will serve as the mid-range option in Sonos’ lineup of Bluetooth speakers, which consists of the Sonos Roam 2 ($179 / $179 / AU$299) and the significantly larger, higher-end Sonos Move 2 ($499 / £449 / AU$799) — both of which are some of the best Bluetooth speakers we know. But let’s get into the specs.

Bigger than the Roam, smaller than the Move 2

Prior to taking the listing down, Best Buy’s product overview shared the following: “Take quality sound wherever you go with the Sonos Play Bluetooth wireless speaker. Its compact design fits easily in your hand, while automatic Trueplay tuning optimizes audio for any environment. Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth let you stream high‑quality audio from different devices and sources. Up to 24 hours of battery life avoids the need for frequent recharging.”

Design-wise, Sonos keeps it cohesive, and the new Bluetooth speaker doesn’t have any crazy design changes that are out of the ordinary for the brand. Its shape is reminiscent of the UE Epicboom speaker, packing a handy carrying strap, 24-hour battery life, a wireless charging base, an aux port for connecting to other audio devices such as turntables, and a USB-C port, allowing you to use the speaker as a battery pack.

As for dimensions, it’s likely that Best Buy messed up on this one. The screenshots of the listing show the Sonos Play speaker to be W19.23cm, D11.25cm, H7.67cm, which, looking at the product image, is definitely not just under 8cm tall. It’s likely that these have been mixed up (I’d guess that the real dimensions are H19.23cm, W11.25cm, D7.67cm), hinting that someone from Best Buy might have published the listing a bit too promptly.

Despite this mix-up, its size is a perfect starting point for Sonos’ venture into mid-range speakers. Though the Sonos Move 2 is a powerful speaker fit for both indoor and outdoor use, its bulky size contradicts the portability aspect of Bluetooth speakers, while the Sonos Roam is the ideal portable audio companion, but doesn't quite pack a punch on the battery life front.

As well as WiFi connectivity, the Best Buy listing reveals that the Sonos Play will support Apple AirPlay 2 and Alexa, in addition to Spotify and Sonos app compatibility. As per the listing overview, Sonos’ flagship sound-optimizing tool Trueplay is coming to the Play speaker, which tunes the audio based on your surroundings and speaker placement.

Though Best Buy was quick to eradicate all traces of its Sonos Play listing, its first-look images have been well received online, even though it comes in at $400 – though that price level is standard for Sonos. That said, we know that Sonos has other tricks up its sleeve – it’s apparently got another app overhaul in the works — so a new Bluetooth speaker would be highly welcomed alongside a fresh app redesign.

• Bloomberg says a new Sonos app refresh is in the works
• A key feature is extra iOS compatibility
• Anyone else getting déjà vu?

The Sonos calendar may well have skipped 2025 in terms of that 'two new product releases annually' promise, although the company did release a new amplifier at the start of the year – and apparently 2026 will be a much busier year for the brand. So shall we see what shiny new gifts Sonos Clause (sorry) has wrapped up for us in his sack? It’s… an app overhaul. Another one.

According to Bloomberg, the company is planning to rework and refresh its app offering in the next few months, with an early version apparently already working internally. It’s unclear if that means the Sonos app is merely working, or really workable for the many customers still disgruntled over the last update. Apparently, the changes will be optional, and slowly integrated into the app rather than presented as one big push. (Lesson learned there, it seems.)

So what could actually change? Apparently you’ll now be able to control your Sonos device from the iPhone lock screen, using Apple’s recent developments in the area. It's all to do with Apple's Live Activities (the interactive, real-time notifications that appear on the iPhone Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island) which would certainly be a welcome upgrade for iPhone owners.

That presumably won’t be the only change, as it’s something the Android app already offers, but it’s the only one we’ve heard about so far. A company cannot drip-release features if there’s only one, though, so we’ll likely hear about more nearer the time.

Keeping fans 'appy

The word combination of ‘Sonos’ and ‘app’ may give users conniptions given that a bungled May 2024 app change which was only really fixed in 2025 is now what fans think about when they hear those words used together.

The then-new app had laggy volume controls, missing features from the older app, and a more confusing design that took users too long to get their heads around. While it’s mostly fixed now, a brief skim of the Sonos subreddit still yields post after post of complaints about the app and its bugs.

As a baseline, Sonos’ new new app really needs to not to present these issues, or it could signal the end of trust in the brand: fool me once, and all that. The affections of plenty of Sonos fans are on the line, and if the company is planning a gangbusters product launch slate this year, it’s going to need some ardent cheerleaders to help it along — especially with the growing slate of WiiM products hitting the market…

Some of the best soundbars on the market are surround sound systems, with the likes of Samsung, Sonos and JBL serving as notable names in the market. These mean you can get truly immersive Dolby Atmos at home, without relying on virtual Atmos from smaller soundbars or having to resort to dedicated height speakers – the soundbar delivers expansive sound across the front, a subwoofer kicks in the bass, and the rear speaker complete the surround experience.

I recently tested one of these soundbar systems: the Yamaha True X Surround 90A. It's a premium piece of gear, priced at $3,499 / £2,116 / AU$4,499, so I expected mind-blowing performance. And while I got it in some areas, one stuck out as lackluster: the rear speakers – and got us talking on the TechRadar team about how it's often the smaller parts of a package that make the whole thing come together perfectly.

Yamaha surround speakers lack the punch

The Yamaha True X Surround 90A demonstrated truly brilliant sound, especially when it came to power and accuracy. The Batmobile scene from The Batman was spectacular, with the Surround 90A accurately delivering the huge rumble of the Batmobile’s engine. I also found when watching The Mask that the Surround 90A mapped the Mask’s whirlwind sound effects as he tornadoes around a room, plus capturing the cartoon-y sound effects of hammers, clocks and punches.

But it was The Mask that also revealed the Surround 90A’s weakness in its rear speakers. While The Mask got up to his antics, I found that portions of the sound field – more subtle effects and music – were notably muted compared to the Samsung HW-Q990C I’d used for testing the 4K disc as part of my Blu-ray Bounty feature.

Another surprising omission was the Yamaha’s rear speakers' lack of a height speaker. Other flagship brands, such as Samsung and Sonos, have included height channels in their rear speakers, which helps deliver more effective height effects for Dolby Atmos.

Rear speakers – the unsung heroes

While rear speakers may be the smallest component of a lot of surround sound systems, they are pivotal – and it's a let-down if they don't match the rest of the system.

While the front channels may handle major sound effects relating to what's on-screen and speech and the subwoofer handles bass, the rear channels will handle more subtle sound effects, some dramatic circular or front-to-back motion, and sometimes the score depending on the soundtrack’s mix: all extremely important for creating the immersive sound.

One major example where I found this was during my testing of Chungking Express as part of the Blu-ray Bounty. The movie’s 5.1 DTS-HD mix sounded fantastic through our reference Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar system in our setup and I noticed just how much one market scene relied on the rear speakers.

The clanking of plates, ringing bells and shouting stall owners all came through the rear speakers, and these sound effects are what made the scene feel so alive.

Another scene I have used for testing soundbars is the Death Star attack run from Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Again, the rear speakers were crucial for delivering a balanced, immersive experience by handling the pursuing TIE Fighter’s infamous groans, laser fire and even John William’s iconic score. If these elements are lost in the mix, the scene doesn’t have the same thrilling impact.

Rear speakers that succeed

Some of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars come from some of the big names I’ve mentioned already: Samsung, Sonos and JBL. These are just three examples of brands whose big, flagship soundbar systems deliver on all areas, including the rear channels.

Samsung’s flagship soundbar, most recently of which is the Samsung HW-Q990F, have delivered strong, immersive sound for years and the Q990F is no different. Big power, excellent control and of course, detailed and punchy rear speakers. As these rear speakers also include a height speaker, you really get the full surround sound experience, great for movies like Top Gun: Maverick that have a lot of different sound effects.

Sonos takes its rear speaker setup approach differently. As speakers can be grouped and added and removed as users want to, there are a couple of different options, namely the Sonos Era 300 and the Sonos Era 100. The Era 300 is the beefier, more dynamic sounding of the two, with upfiring speakers. Pairing the Era 300 with the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Sub Gen 4 will give you a mighty surround sound system where the rear speakers really feel like a crucial part of the impressive sound signature.

The JBL Bar 1300MK2 is a flagship soundbar that adds a twist on the rear speakers: they're battery powered, and can be stored on the front soundbar itself for charging. This means space-saving without having the effort. They performed well during our testing as well, again demonstrating excellent clarity and impact without overshadowing other elements in the mix. The Mask once again served as an excellent tool for showing what the rears could do.

Being pricier doesn't automatically mean better

At $3,499 / £2,116 / AU$4,499, the Yamaha Surround 90A is a premium soundbar. Some of its rivals I mentioned are cheaper: the Samsung HW-Q990F ($1,699 / £1,499 / AU$1,099) and JBL Bar 1300MK2 ($1,699 / £1,299 / AU$2,299.95). Even a full Sonos surround system with its top-tier products is significantly cheaper in the US, priced at $2,399. It’s pricier in the UK at £2,499, but it’s a more powerful system than the Yamaha overall. In Australia, it'll set you back roughly the same money as AU$4,596.

While the Yamaha thrived in so many areas, it’s such a shame that Yamaha overlooked the depth needed for this crucial component. It’s made me appreciate rear speakers more, and is a reminder – whether you're building a soundbar system or a dedicated home theater setup with separates – that you can't take any element for granted.

Don't spend all your money on big front speakers and thing cutting corners on the rears is a good investment if you're buying individual speakers at home; and the exact same advice goes if you work for a soundbar company.

Sonos had a quiet 2025. After the company got a new CEO, having fired the one who oversaw the app update debacle that turned the brand's most ardent fans against it, it's been licking its wounds. It canceled an ill-fated streaming TV device, and didn't announce any new hardware at all last year – its last consumer product was the Sonos Arc Ultra.

But now it appears that Sonos is ready to get back to business, and reportedly "hardware launches will ramp up in the second half of its fiscal 2026" – which in Sonos' case, means between April and September.

Sonos has already started by unveiling the Amp Multi, which is a niche music amp designed for custom-install needs, capable of powering lots of speakers in multiple Sonos zones from a single box.

There haven't been many leaks on what to expect for more mainstream releases (which is maybe a sign things are changing for Sonos on its own; it used to leak like a particularly structurally compromised sieve ), but here's what I'm hoping to see.

1. A 'Sonos Era 500' hi-fi focused speaker

The Sonos Five has been around for a long time, and is surely due for its retirement. The Sonos Era 300 isn't quite the same kind of thing – its focus on spatial audio means that's impressively expansive, but it doesn't have the pure focus on detail and depth that a real hi-fi speaker offers.

Sonos' Sound Motion bass speaker is the cool addition I hope to see as the foundation here. It debuted in the Sonos Arc Ultra, and is basically an ingeniously small dual-diaphragm low-end speaker with a force-opposing design, so it can move a lot of air in a small space, without shaking the unit.

I'd love to see this used with a traditional forward-facing driver system, rather than the angle speakers of the Era 300. Allowing this driver to handle the low end would leave the other drivers to handle mid-range without also needing to wade into the low-end, hopefully allowing for really strong mid detail reproduction, but with a bigger dynamic range overall.

And I'd be happy for this speaker to borrow the compression driver and horn system used in the Era 100. This is the kind of system used in studio monitors, so would be a great fit for a hi-fi focused speaker.

Naturally, I hope that instead of needing a dongle to connect a turntable or other wired input (as the Era 100 and 300 do), this would just have a range of inputs on it, like the Sonos Five does.

2. A Sonos Beam Gen 3 soundbar with Sound Motion and upfiring speaker

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is still a great soundbar that we highly recommend, following its price drops. It produces impressively full sound from its small frame, but it's a shame its Dolby Atmos support is totally virtual, when the Bose Smart Soundbar is able to fit in real upfiring speakers for a better 'dome' of sound effect.

I hope a new Beam could use the Sound Motion bass driver again to add even richer bass, but in a small space that hopefully leaves Sonos free to add upfiring speakers, and to make even better use of its forward speakers.

I'd personally also love if Sonos would finally start adding HDMI passthrough ports to its soundbars, but that seems like a distant dream, alas. I'll settle for the audio upgrades.

3. A wireless home theater HDMI dongle

Speaking of soundbars, for the last few years, they've slowly but surely been going wireless. Samsung and LG both offer wireless connections from their TVs to their soundbars, and LG in particular has gone to the next level by offering Dolby Atmos FlexConnect in its new soundbar and speakers. TCL is also on board with Dolby Atmos FlexConnect's wireless speaker skills. You can get wireless surround speaker system from both Sony and Hisense.

Sonos clearly should have been the leader in fully wireless home theater (sort of its raison d'être, you know?), but lacking the ability to transmit from the TV to its soundbars/speakers means it hasn't made progress. All it needs to start is a little HDMI attachment, so I'm hoping we'll see one soon.

I'd also love for this attachment to offer the ability to have wireless surround sound using satellite speakers only, no soundbar – and this apparently was on the cards with the canceled streaming box, and I said at the time that the company shouldn't abandon this feature.

4. A portable speaker between the Roam and Move

Sonos has two portable speakers: the Sonos Roam 2 and the Sonos Move 2. The former is pretty small and costs $179 / £179 / AU$299, while the latter is large and costs $449 / £449 / AU$799. So there's a big gap in terms of both size and price for something else – something closer to the JBL Charge 6.

Maybe this is a good size to include a mini version of the Sound Motion speaker, which Sonos told me it's exploring: "We're exploring all kinds of applications, whether it's more bass, more compact form factors, more energy efficiency."

One of the nice things about the Roam and Move is that they can work as a home speaker most of the time, and then you just grab them to go out. There's definitely scope for something with a meatier sound than the Roam but a lower price than the Move that could fill the bedroom, office or kitchen of most people.

5. An Era 100 with a screen

The WiiM Sound is a direct competitor to the Sonos Era 100, with a nearly identical speaker setup and multi-room skills – but with the addition of a touchscreen on the front to add some personality and easy control options to the whole package. And we really liked it!

It made it notably more expensive than the Era 100, so we still preferred Sonos' option for value. However, just as WiiM then followed that up with the Sound Lite, which omits the screen and competes with the Era on price, we'd love to see Sonos go the other way and offer an Era 100 with a touchscreen.

The screen doesn't need to function like a full Sonos app, but the Sonos app already has a 'Favorites' bar, so it could replicate that part only on the touchscreen, so you can easily find your favorite streaming stations, playlists or artists – and control which speakers the music is playing on.

6. A big party speaker

The Sonos Move 2 is a very powerful portable speaker, but I've been told by many audio companies that huge party speakers are getting more and more popular – the kind of thing that sometimes comes with wheels, and is for mid-size events (parties in a hall, weddings, and big outdoor parties) more than home listening. The likes of JBL, Anker Soundcore, LG and many more make these.

It'd be great for Sonos to get in on the action too – waterproof, beefy, great sound quality, and perhaps a classier design than most of these have. It could be another good fit for Sound Motion – maybe in a bigger guise, or even multiple of them to provide a ton of bass kick – but it'd also be fun to again see Sonos use the pro-like compression drivers used in the Era 300, to bring a touch more 'studio' accuracy to the sound than these big speakers usually strive for.

Those are the picks from me and the TechRadar AV team – we'd love to hear what products you hope Sonos will launch or update in the comments!

• Sonos' new Amp Multi is a sign that app problems "have been resolved"
• Hardware launches will "ramp up" in the second half of 2026 says report
• Sonos wants customers to love it again

Sonos has just announced its first new products since late 2024: new Amp Multi amplifier for professional installations. It isn't just a new Sonos product: it's a new dawn for the company. That's what Sonos insiders are telling Bloomberg, which reports that Sonos believes that its app-related shenanigans have come to an end.

Sonos "believes the majority of bugs and issues that once plagued its mobile app have been resolved", and the launch of the Amp Multi marks the end of "an intentional lull in product launches… Hardware launches will ramp up in the second half of its fiscal 2026".

It's worth noting here that Sonos' fiscal year ends in September, so it looks like the next eight months could be busy for Sonos believers.

What's the story behind Sonos's new hardware plans?

To the best of our knowledge, only one planned product, Sonos's streaming video player, was outright cancelled – but other products had been rumored and failed to appear. And Sonos execs had talked about launching at least two new products per year, and that definitely wasn't the case in 2025.

Sonos' woes stemmed from the ill-fated upgrade to its app, a PR disaster that was still rumbling on in early 2025: the upgrade turned out to be a downgrade for a lot of users and many of Sonos' most vocal advocates were extremely unhappy about it.

Then-CEO Patrick Spence was replaced by new CEO Tom Conrad in January 2025, who said that "we've let far too many people down" and promised "to get us back on track [by] getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonos' incredible history." The Amp Multi is the first new Sonos product on his watch.

The Amp Multi isn't made for people like me – it's a pro-level product for high-end installations – but it does indicate that Sonos is back in the ring, and that's a reason to be optimistic. Conrad has said that his goal is to get Sonos customers to extend their Sonos investments, and in order to do that you need to make those customers happy.

As we reported last year, Sonos used to have the best word of mouth in tech; it does seem that Conrad intends to make that happen again.

With the Sound range, it’s safe to say WiiM has entered the wireless speaker market swinging. Not only has it released the more audiophile-baiting WiiM Sound, but it simultaneously released a cheaper version, the WiiM Sound Lite. Given both are multi-room speakers with an unabashedly mid-market price, it’s pretty clear it’s gunning for Sonos with these devices. I couldn’t resist seeing how they stack up against their closest rival: the Sonos Era 100.

As you may have seen, I’ve already compared the full version of the Lite to Sonos’s speaker in my WiiM Sound vs Sonos Era 100 piece. And while you might think this comparison is going to be more of the same, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Lite is quite a different proposition.

Priced at $229 / £229 / AU$399, the Lite is much closer in cost to the Sonos Era 100’s $219 / £199 / AU$319 than the full WiiM Sound’s $299 / £299 / AU$499 list price. And while it’s had quite a bit of its price slashed, it hasn’t lost a whole lot of functionality to get there, making the Lite a much more nimble opponent for the Era 100 and a credible contender for a spot on our list of the best wireless speakers.

So how did it fare during my testing? Read on to find out.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: features

Just like the WiiM Sound, the Sound Lite packs a 4-inch, 50W woofer for driving bass and a pair of angled, full-range 25W tweeters to broaden its stereo field. Meanwhile, the Sonos Era 100 is similar, containing a mid-woofer for both mid-range and bass and two angled tweeters, only this time with a waveguide frame to disperse sound across 180 degrees per tweeter.

Refreshingly, despite costing less, the Sound Lite offers connectivity as excellent as the full-fat Sound, and that includes its hi-res 24-bit/192kHz playback. It can also connect to WiiM, Google Cast, and Alexa multi-room systems, as well as stream directly from a wide array of services, including Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Plex, SoundCloud, and more. On top of this, it offers a 3.5mm jack input, which is always handy if you’re likely to want to hook it up to external audio kit.

Unfortunately, there is a catch, and if you’re heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem, it may be too big for you to overlook. The Sound Lite doesn’t support Apple Music or AirPlay 2, meaning you won’t be able to connect your iPhone or MacBook to the speaker via Wi-Fi. If you’re an Apple fan, you might find that a speaker like the Sonos Era 100 gives you far more flexibility.

On top of AirPlay 2, the Era 100 offers access to all the streaming services above and throws Apple Music support in for good measure. There are a few trade-offs here, too, though. While the Sonos is capable of lossless playback at 24-bit/48kHz, you won’t get the same super-high-quality as the WiiM, though it’s worth noting there’s debate around how much this extra quality is even discernible. And, regrettably, an analog in is also absent, although you can purchase an additional adapter to convert the Era 100’s USB port into either a 3.5mm jack or an Ethernet port.

Of course, both speakers come with additional functionality packaged into their apps. Each app offers multi-room connectivity and the ability to hook them up as part of a stereo pair.

EQ is handled a little differently by each brand. Sonos offers treble and bass adjustment and automatic loudness correction for increased bass at lower volumes. Conversely, WiiM offers much more granular control: not only does it come with a 10-band EQ, but its parametric EQ lets you create curves to boost or duck frequencies throughout the whole spectrum, which is seriously impressive. I tested it out in a pretty echoey room and was honestly blown away by how easy it was to smooth out errant frequencies this way.

Finally, both speakers offer room correction algorithms. The process of the Era 100’s advanced tuning mode involves pinwheeling your phone with your arm while you walk around the room, but it achieves pretty credible results. Testing it near a wall, I found it brought the high end more into focus and made the overall sound more cohesive. It also did an impressive job of taming the outrageously resonant bass when I placed the speaker in the middle of an acoustically reflective laminate floor.

Although I gave the WiiM Sound a hard time for its room correction, it seems to have been tightened up for the Sound Lite in a recent update. It may not be a sonic silver bullet, but it does seem to go a little further, occasionally boosting weaker frequencies rather than just trimming excessive ones back. Close to a wall, it sheared off some of the wooliness in its lower frequencies, while in the middle of the floor, it helped whip the overly doughy kick into shape. It’s not quite as sophisticated as Sonos’s algorithm, but it at least gives the sound some much-needed spit and polish.

Honestly, with some of the recent improvements to WiiM’s feature set, this isn’t as big a sweep for Sonos as it was when I tested the Sound. Honestly, if you’re an Apple user or room correction is your biggest priority, the Era 100 is your best bet. But that hi-res playback and parametric EQ means that audiophiles might now find the Sound Lite takes the upper hand.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: sound quality

You’re very unlikely to get sound quality that’s utterly unimpeachable. Instead, the WiiM Sound Lite and the Sonos Era 100 each have their individual sonic strengths

When I played Listen by Pola & Bryson & goddard., the Sound Lite made its arpeggiated synth sound utterly gorgeous, and there was more than a hint of bass harmonics. However, switching to the Era 100, it became clear what I was missing – not only did the drop of that D&B bassline sound suitably snarly, but there was something delicious dubby about the way that sub bubbled up every couple of bars.

Unfortunately, like a tragic hero, the Era 100’s strength is also its greatest flaw. While listening to Peace Talk by Maribou State, I found that its bass too often encroached on the mid-range – the heft of the guitar and flabbier low-end sometimes overwhelmed the synth and strings. Conversely, the balance the Sound Lite strikes is far more judicious, allowing these melodic elements more time in the spotlight and giving that gorgeous vocal even more gloss.

Nothing shows up a speaker’s sonic weaknesses faster than poorly controlled treble, so I’m glad that neither of these devices lumbered into that bear trap. Playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, the Sound Lite kept the brightness of its high end carefully in check, with the strumming of the guitars and transient hats and snares never feeling over-exposed. The Sonos Era 100 couldn’t quite strike this balance, though, with the guitar feeling less crisp and the toms focusing on heft rather than bite.

Cumulatively, this sonic profile means the Era 100 seems to offer greater cohesion, but sometimes that comes at the expense of precision. For example, when I tested it on Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar, I noticed some instruments were forced to fight for attention. By contrast, the Sound Lite was a lot more airy – the vocals erupted upward in the mix, with the piano subtly underpinning them. It’s not quite the surgically precise separation of a speaker like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro Edition, but it's definitely decent given its price point.

Perhaps one area where the Era 100 is more balanced than the Sound Lite is listening angles. While neither showed any egregious deadspots in their soundstage, the WiiM’s treble fell off much faster as I moved to the sides of the device, whereas the Sonos was pretty consistent up until I strayed into the bassier area at the rear 90 degrees of the device.

I’d also give the Era 100 the slight edge when it comes to stereo field. Playing The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, I struggled to identify any panning at all on the Sound Lite, with most of the sound seeming to emerge directly from the speaker’s center. By contrast, the Era 100 doesn’t have the widest soundstage I’ve heard, but I could at least perceive a slight spread to the drum and guitar parts, even though there was hardly a gulf between them.

Honestly, it’s hard to pick a clear winner here because the best option for you is going to depend so much on what you personally want out of a wireless speaker. Want spacious mids and considered expression but aren’t offended by milquetoast bass? Then the Sound Lite is absolutely a solid choice. But if your definition of a speaker is something bassy and brassy with omnidirectional sound, then the Era 100 will definitely be more your vibe.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: design

Naturally, when it comes to design, the situation here is not all that different from my WiiM Sound vs Sonos Era 100 piece. Not only is the Era 100 the exact same unit, but the Sound Lite has an almost identical form factor as its more premium stablemate.

The one big departure for the Sound Lite is that it doesn’t have the Sound’s porthole-style display. However, while this was a fun addition that helped the Sound stand out a little more, I wouldn’t say it’s a deal breaker. It’s nice to be able to see album art or photos on your speaker, but the resolution and vibrancy weren’t so eye-wateringly gorgeous that it’s truly unmissable. If your biggest priority is getting the best sonic bang for your buck, the display is probably the easiest thing to let go of.

Elsewhere, the WiiM and the Sonos come from very similar schools of design. Both have a cylindrical build with controls on their top face, and both come in black or white colorways. The Sound Lite has a little more bulk, weighing in at 2.5kg compared to the Era 100’s 2.02kg, and it comes wrapped in fabric rather than the latter’s metal grille. But otherwise, at first glance, they give a similar general impression.

There are some small points of difference in that control scheme, though. Each has the same basic functions laid out on its surface, with touch-capacitive buttons for pausing or playing content, adjusting volume, or skipping back and forth. However, the Sound Lite’s buttons are hidden until it detects your hand nearby, at which point they light up. On top of giving it a slightly classier look when the lights are off, this also means it’s easier to use in darker rooms.

That’s a definite point in the WiiM’s favor. But while its glass top panel gives it a slightly more premium look than the Era 100’s matt black plastic, it also shows up way more marks from your greasy mitts. I only prodded the odd button here and there to test the Sound Lite’s functionality, as I mostly operated it from the connected app, but it quickly resembled a scene from CSI as it got covered in oily fingerprints. Fortunately, it wipes clean pretty easily, but better keep a microfiber cloth handy just in case.

Neither speaker draws the line at physical or app control. The Era 100 comes with built-in voice control via either Sonos Voice Control or Amazon Alexa, which is always an enormous help when you're feeling too lazy to reach for your phone or the device. The Sound Lite doesn’t offer voice control built into the unit itself, but if you buy its separate WiiM Voice Remote 2 Lite, its push-to-talk button lets you control the device via Alexa or Google Assistant.

While I’m a little disappointed the remote isn’t included in the box as it was for the WiiM Sound, I’d argue it’s still a worthy purchase at $39 / £39 / $79. It’s robustly crafted from aluminum and has wonderfully clicky buttons, making it a great choice for anyone who prefers a more tactile way of interacting with their gadgets than yet another phone app.

Personally, when it comes to design, I just about favor the Sound Lite. Light-up controls can help when you’re operating it in darker rooms, and its fabric-and-glass build looks a skosh classier to me. But I recognize that if you prefer to use voice control for your speaker, the Era 100’s on-device mic is far more convenient than having to fork over additional money for a remote.

WiiM Sound Lite VS Sonos Era 100: verdict

When comparing the full WiiM Sound to the Sonos Era 100, I definitely came down in favor of the latter. So it may seem odd that I’ve changed my tune now I’ve swapped in the supposedly ‘Lite’ version. However, I’d argue the Lite is anything but.

It has the same drivers, the same audio quality, and the same features – plus it's had a couple of recent quality-of-life updates. The only thing that’s changed is that the display has disappeared, and, as I pointed out in my intro, the price has dropped from $299 / £299 / AU$499 down to $229 / £229 / AU$399. Getting essentially the same performance for a lower price changes the equation for me and brings both speakers much more in line with each other.

In light of this, I’d say the WiiM Sound Lite and Sonos Era 100 are fairly evenly matched, albeit with different strengths. If you’re an audiophile, you’ll likely find the Sound Lite's hi-res streaming support and more open, expressive sound compelling – not to mention its granular parametric EQ. However, should you be into substantial bass, smarter room correction, or Apple’s ecosystem, I’d say you’ll get a lot more mileage out of the Era 100 instead.

When you’re upgrading your wireless speaker, it can be tempting to focus on finding the most trailblazing features. Spatial Audio. AI-enriched voice assistants. HDMI input for home cinema sound. But sometimes you’ll find it’s the more prosaic features that you’ll miss most if they’re absent.

I’ve tested a lot of wireless speakers over my career, so I’ve got a lot of experience in both feature-packed superstars and no-frills Wi-Fi workhorses. But I’m also heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem – I use an iPhone 16 Pro, MacBook Pro, Apple TV and Apple Music. That’s why there’s one feature that’s an absolute deal breaker for me: AirPlay 2.

So if you’re stepping outside of Sonos’s ecosystem for the first time and, like me, Apple gadgets are your go-to, let me explain why this is still a killer feature when picking up one of the best wireless speakers.

The argument for AirPlay

Peruse the specs of some wireless speakers and you’d be forgiven for thinking AirPlay 2 is a ubiquitous feature these days. But that’s not always the case. For example, Amazon’s Echo range doesn’t support the technology, not even in the lossless Echo Studio. And while carrying out the testing for my recent Sonos Era 100 VS WiiM Sound feature, I was surprised to find out that the latter didn’t have AirPlay 2. So it’s definitely not always a given.

But why does it matter? Well, for several reasons.

First of all, while many wireless speakers allow you to stream lossless and even hi-res audio direct from services like Tidal or Deezer, fewer devices can natively stream from Apple Music. So if you’re not using a HomePod or Sonos multi-room system, AirPlay 2 offers the only way to wireless enjoy lossless quality music from Apple Music.

It’s not just about streaming services though. A far bigger benefit of AirPlay 2 is the fact it allows you to wirelessly stream all kinds of audio from your Apple devices. Tired of your TV outputting insipid audio? With the Apple TV 4K, you can stream sound wirelessly to your multi-room speaker system. Playing Alien: Isolation on your iPad 11-inch (2025)? Then you can enjoy its creepy soundtrack with real depth by connecting to an AirPlay-enabled speaker.

I know first-hand just how flexible AirPlay 2 can be. Not only do I stream music and TV shows on my Apple devices but I often use them to create content too. When I’m producing music on my MacBook Pro 2017, being able to ping my sound to a high-res speaker like my Cambridge Audio Evo One allows me to hear what it sounds like on a different setup without having to faff around with wired connections. That kind of versatility really cannot be beat and the fact I can do this with any audio from my Apple devices really is invaluable to me.

So when you’re shopping for a new wireless speaker, yes, it’s worth looking out for fancy features like Dolby Atmos or automatic room compensation. But if you’re an Apple user, don’t sleep on AirPlay as it’ll add value in all kinds of subtle ways you might not even be able to predict yet.

I’ve tested a whole load of wireless speakers in my time at TechRadar and as a result I’m always excited to see new entrants into the wireless speaker space. That’s why I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the newly released WiiM Sound to see how it stacks up against some of the other speakers I’ve put through our testing process.

Given the WiiM Sound is a mid-range Wi-Fi speaker with multi-room functionality, it was inevitably going to draw comparisons to Sonos’s speakers, as the brand has been delivering some of the best wireless speakers for two decades. That made my decision to test the WiiM side-by-side with one of Sonos’s speakers a total no brainer.

And while the $299 / £299 / AU$499 WiiM is about halfway between the $479 / £449 / AU$749 Sonos Era 300 and the $219 / £199 / AU$319 Sonos Era 100, the latter feels like a more apt comparison. The main reason for this is the Era 300 offers a fancier speaker array designed to deliver Spatial Audio, while the form factor of the Era 100 more closely reflects that of the Sound.

So how did these speakers measure up during my testing? And which will offer you the best bang for your buck?

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: features

Looking under the hood, these wireless speakers offer a fairly similar array of drivers. The WiiM Sound packs in a four-inch, 50W long-throw woofer for handling bass, while a pair of angled, full-range 25W tweeters give it a decent stereo field. Similarly, the Sonos Era 100 rocks a mid-woofer for both mid-range and bass and two angled tweeters, this time with a waveguide frame in front of them to disperse sound across 180 degrees per tweeter.

The WiiM Sound offers excellent connectivity – albeit with one major exception. It’s capable of hi-res streaming at up to 24-bit/192kHz, while you can also connect to over 20 streaming services directly in the WiiM Home app – including Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Plex, SoundCloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more – and analog wired sources via its 3.5mm jack. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer access to Apple Music or AirPlay 2, which is likely to be a deal-breaker for anyone invested in Apple’s ecosystem.

Fortunately, the Sonos Era 100 has you covered if you’re an Apple fan. Not only can you stream over both Wi-Fi 6 and AirPlay 2 but the Sonos Era 100 allows you to stream directly from all the services listed above, plus Apple Music too. In terms of quality, the Era 100 tops out at 24-bit/48kHz but for most practical purposes, you won’t be able to detect a real difference here. Unlike the WiiM Sound, it doesn’t offer a dedicated line in but you can spend extra on an adapter for its USB-C port that will allow you to plug in an ethernet cable or 3.5mm jack.

Perhaps the biggest gulf I noticed between the two speakers is when it comes to room correction. Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound’s AI RoomFit just isn’t as smart as I would hope. Despite showing you a target curve and the raw signal, the actual noise correction it applies goes nowhere near far enough. I tried it four times with the speaker near a wall every time it only actually corrected frequencies above 0 on the magnitude scale, leaving smaller spikes and major gulfs in its frequency profile uncorrected.

In fact, it was only when I repositioned the speaker and ran the room correction again that I was able to get less problematic – albeit not perfect – results. And, fundamentally, if room correction only works in certain parts of the room, it’s not true room correction.

By contrast, the Sonos Era 100’s room correction felt fiddlier but rewarded me with far better results. Once you’ve initiated the process, the Era 100 will play its calibration noise while you walk around the room moving your phone in slow circles so it can calculate the acoustics of the room. My living room is quite awkwardly shaped and it failed on my first attempt because apparently windmilling my fist like an old-timey boxer was ‘too fast’. But once I’d completed my second attempt, the Sonos calibrated really well, not showing a hint of distortion or reverberation.

So, with everything else being largely equal, the Sonos Era 100’s superior room correction means I’ve gotta give it first place when it comes to features.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: sound quality

This has been one of the harder audio comparisons I’ve had to do. On the surface level, the WiiM Sound and the Sonos Era 100 sound very similar. But once you dip beneath the surface and get into the nitty gritty, each of them portrays its own set of sonic idiosyncrasies that stands at odds with the other. And, honestly, I’m not sure either has the balance quite right.

Let’s start with treble. Playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, both speakers had decent control of the high end, with the guitars and drums having plenty of presence without feeling harsh or overdriven. However, the WiiM can occasionally prove to be a little overexcitable – when listening to I Want You by Moloko, I noticed a slight brittle edge creeping in to the sound of the cymbals and snares.

Probably the most polarized these two speakers get is in how they handle bass. Trying them both out with Tensoon by O’Flynn, the WiiM was able to conjure up a decent hint of the bass and a punchy enough kick to drive everything forward, but I was surprised how much of a drop off there is in the lowest frequencies, leaving things feeling a pretty top heavy. Conversely, the cheaper and slighter Sonos did a more impressive job of rendering that low end – it feels more dynamic, with a satisfying pump to each kick and the pulsing bass buoying the whole mix up.

However, as we remarked in our Sonos Era 100 review, the speaker’s approach to low-end can sometimes get a little heavy-handed. When I put on Otherside by Maribou State, the Era 100 made both the bass and syncopated guitar sound wonderfully substantial, yet it left more delicate details like its fuzzy synthline blanching in its shade. By contrast, the WiiM really reserves the limelight for these mid-frequency elements: in particular, it lets those gorgeous vocals fully shine, rather than being eclipsed by the bass.

Fortunately, both speakers’ more extreme edges can be sanded off using their EQ settings, although by varying degrees. Dropping the Sonos’s bass setting by two steps, boosting treble by one and turning off loudness correction goes a long way toward bringing that bloated low-end in line. Results from the WiiM Sound were a bit more equivocal – boosting the lowest three channels and ducking the highest two helped rebalance it somewhat but it didn’t help it regain those lost sub frequencies.

One area I’ll happily hand the WiiM its dues though is when it comes to detail and definition. While it doesn’t have quite as spacious a soundstage as some hi-res Wi-Fi speakers, it definitely squeezes things far less than the Era 100. When playing Clair de Lune by Kamasi Washington, it renders that gorgeous trumpet line in gloriously honeyed tones but without tamping down the double bass and piano. Conversely, the Era 100 smothers the drums and bass, drowning the finer details in mud, which is a real shame.

While I admit I’m a little torn here, I’d say that the Era 100 just about comes out on top in terms of sound quality for me. Yes, its bass is a little doughy and it tends to compress details a lot more than its rival, but the WiiM is lacking enough in the low-end that my favorite tracks just ended up feeling like they were missing something. But your mileage may vary – if you’d rather have poise than low-end presence, you might find the WiiM a better fit.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: design

When it comes to their looks, these speakers aren’t quite two peas in a pod but they certainly share a leguminous likeness. Both sit very much in the mold that many Wi-Fi speakers at this price point occupy. Monochrome? Check. Column-shaped? Check. Wrap-around grille, top-facing controls, metallic lettering spelling out the brand? Check, check, check.

Okay, I’m being slightly unfair here: there are some small variations beyond the aforementioned display. For example, the WiiM features rounded off edges surrounding its top face, while its grille is wrapped in cloth compared to the Sonos’s metal finish. And while lots of speakers echo this form factor, Wiim has at least taken a swing at something different with its porthole-style display.

Overall I’d say the WiiM’s built-in screen is a nice touch. It certainly opens up a lot of options for information, whether that’s picking sources, setting EQ profiles or displaying album artwork. As I’ve occasionally seen with other speaker screens, it doesn’t quite offer the best of modern display tech, lacking a bit of HDR punch and appearing a bit too reflective for my liking. But it’s nice that WiiM is trying to break with convention a little here.

While both devices have gone for similar control functionality – with touch-capacitive buttons that allow you to control the volume, pause or play content and skip backwards and forwards – there are a few slight differences. The WiiM’s controls are hidden most of the time, lighting up when you wave your hand over them, while the Sonos has no lighting at all. That gives the WiiM the edge when using it in darker rooms.

However, there’s a few minor areas the WiiM Sound loses out in my mind. Firstly, as its touch-capacitive panel is glossy rather than the Era 100’s matte, it’s an absolute magnet for fingerprints – I’ve only used the on-device controls for testing purposes and they’re already covered in oily prints. And, unlike the Sonos’s gentle sonic pips, the WiiM doesn’t offer any immediate feedback when you’re tapping, although I’ll admit that’s not a significant deal breaker.

Fortunately, you don’t always have to use your greasy hand sausages to control these speakers. Alongside its app, the Sonos Era 100 offers built-in voice control through Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. And while the WiiM Sound doesn’t offer voice control through the speaker itself, it does offer this functionality through its discrete remote – which is also exceedingly well built, with a sturdy aluminum body and satisfyingly clicky buttons.

All in all, despite my gripes about greasy marks, I’ll happily give WiiM the win when it comes to design. That screen and well-engineered remote edge out the Era 100 in my eyes.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: verdict

Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound and Sonos Era 100 are hardly poles apart. They’re aimed at a similar slice of the market, have similar looks and driver arrays and share a lot of features. They also both have solid sound that exhibits a few imperfections.

But while the WiiM Sound takes a few more bold steps with its design, it also offers more flawed room correction features and its lack of low-end clout can make its sound feel somewhat neutered at points. When you factor in its higher price, coming in at $299 / £299 / AU$499 compared to the Sonos Era 100’s $219 / £199 / AU$319, I think you’re more likely to feel the latter has given you your money’s worth.

We know Ultimea well for its super-affordable soundbars, which bring improved audio and even solid surround sound for super-cheap prices. We rate the Ultimea Poseidon D50 among the best soundbars on a budget, for example.

But the company also leans towards the high-end sometimes, and I got very interested by the unusual new soundbar system it teased for CES 2026, so I tracked it down at the show.

The Skywave X100 Dual is a 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos system, which is a very unusual system to get in a single home solution – and it's doubly unusual because the setup uses four satellite speakers with a soundbar at the front to deliver all these channels, plus two beefy subwoofers. The main competitor in this way is the Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6.

Ultimea's booth at CES was playing Top Gun: Maverick's bombing and air defense scene on the system, which was perfect for me – we regularly use this exact scene for testing surround sound, and I've highlighted it as being one of the best Dolby Atmos movies to see what your system at home can do.

So I sat on a sofa, with two speakers at the sides behind me, two immediately to my left and right, and the soundbar and subs in front by the TV – and the surround effects are easily the most convincing I've ever heard for a soundbar system.

Elite soundbar setups like the Samsung HW-Q990F do a fantastic job of bouncing sound around the room to simulate side speakers, but there is no substitute for having an actual speaker firing directly to the side.

The connection between the front and rear speakers is immediately clearly better than my elaborate home Sonos surround system – missiles blast from the screen, snake right past my ear, and then whip behind me.

And the impact of the dual subs is obviously massive as well – non-directional bass just fills the space, gripping your ribcage when it wants your attention.

My only area of concern based on this demo is the soundbar at the front. I wasn't getting the same scale of width from it during my time there, but I think that may be partly just due to how the booth was set up. The sofa was quite far from the soundbar, but with the surround speakers right next to the sofa, the soundbar may have been interfered with more by sounds from the rest of the expo.

And at the same time, there was a solid wall to my left that the soundbar could use to bounce audio off, but nothing to my right at all. It's not really the environment it's designed to operate in, so I'll reserve judgment on that aspect.

What I can say for sure is that, as someone who's used to a four-box soundbar system (soundbar, rears, sub), switching to this seven-box system has me absolutely hooked and wanting to try it out more with more movies.

And one of the best parts of this system is that I could have it at home, even in my small living room. No big home theater space is needed – the satellite speakers are all super-slim, and the soundbar is just regular-sized.

It supports DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, has 2,000 watts of total power, and has 4K 120Hz HDMI passthrough for good measure. This could be THE home theater setup for those of us desperate for real surround sound in a small space.

Now, the Skywave X100 Dual doesn't come anywhere near as cheap as the company's other soundbars… and yet, it's still kind of a bargain in the grand scheme of things.

It will cost $2,200 full price when it hits retail, which I think is pretty reasonable for something with this many speaker boxes, and it'll probably get discounts during Black Friday.

However, it's actually going to launch with huge discounts too. It will launch on Kickstarter on March 12th, 2026, and will be available for just $899 at an 'Insider Price', or for $999 as a 'Super Early Bird Price'. We never recommend products when they're in the Kickstarter phase only, and obviously, I'm FAR from giving this a full review, but if you, like me, are a home theater nut with limited space, I think it's worth keeping a close eye on this.

TechRadar is extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI. You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

• SoundTouch speakers will lose cloud services in May 2026
• Bose has published an API for third party app developers
• Spotify Connect and AirPlay will continue to work

Bose's SoundTouch speakers are positively ancient in tech terms: they were introduced in 2013, and after a successful 13-year-run Bose has decided to turn off the cloud services: "we’re no longer able to sustain the development and support of the cloud infrastructure that powers this older generation of products."

Rather than "brick" existing customers' speakers, which is what tends to happen when the cloud stuff gets turned off, Bose has provided extensive information on how to keep using them with Bluetooth and AirPlay – and they've published an API so third party app developers can add SoundTouch features to their apps.

Just take a look at the Bose SoundTouch 20 above. Now imagine it obsolete and unworkable. Isn't it great that if you bought one of these multi-room wireless speakers (for around $399 / £350 / AU$549, upon their release at least) that doesn't have to happen?

A smarter way to work with smart speaker obsolescence

As Bose explains, the speakers themselves will remain perfectly functional – so standalone SoundTouch speakers with Bluetooth and Aux connections will continue to work, and home theater products will continue to connect over HDMI or optical connections. Features such as SoundTouch streaming will be going away, but "AirPlay and Spotify Connect should continue to function."

Bose is giving customers lots of notice here. It first announced the server shutdown in October 2025, and in this new January update it's pushed the changes back to May 2026. From then, the app will update "to a version that supports key functions without relying on the cloud."

What does that mean in practice? Bose says:

"With this version of the app, you will be able to control any system that is on the same Wi-Fi network as your phone. You will still be able to set up, configure, remotely control, and group systems through the app. Browsing music services and initiating content from within the SoundTouch app will no longer function. Instead, you may download your favorite music service apps (TuneIn, Pandora, etc.) and send audio to the SoundTouch systems via AirPlay, Bluetooth, or AUX. If you are a Spotify user, stream content to your SoundTouch system using Spotify Connect from within the Spotify app."

I'm really impressed by this. All tech should probably come with a memento mori on it to remind you that connected services won't be available forever, but it's how shutdowns and recommended upgrading is handled that sends a message to customers – so for example Sonos upset a lot of people in 2019 when it initially required customers to "brick" their existing speakers in order to qualify for an upgrade discount, and the complete shutdown of Spotify's Car Thing in 2024 ruffled some feathers too.

As I wrote at the time, "be very wary of buying devices that are tied to a single service or a proprietary platform. As Car Thing demonstrates, some devices are here for a good time, not a long time." But what Bose is saying is the opposite.

What Bose is doing here isn't just sending a message to existing SoundTouch owners. It's sending a wider message about its values to would-be smart speaker buyers. And that's very smart indeed.

So farewell, 2025 – you were frequently exciting, regularly chaotic, occasionally frustrating but always interesting. And that’s how we like it around here.

It was a year in which often fairly iterative improvements to hardware were overshadowed by rapid and significant advances on the computing side of things. I’m talking, of course, about AI, which is now so dominant within the tech world that it’s increasingly hard to find a device that doesn’t have an AI brain.

Not that I’m complaining, because the leaps made in 2025 by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Gemini were truly astonishing; the pace of change is such that it feels like we’re squeezing about a decade’s worth of advances into each year now, and I wouldn’t like to predict what the state of play will be in 12 months’ time. Well, other than to say that we’ll be taking for granted things which seem almost impossible right now – although as our AI Editor Graham Barlow notes below, maybe we’re already doing that.

In comparison, it often looked in 2025 as though things were slowing down on the hardware side. Could Apple really make its already-excellent MacBooks much better? Could Samsung improve much on the superb Galaxy S series? Was there much scope for OLED TVs or wireless headphones or mirrorless cameras to develop?

The answer was yes, yes and yes. Though the upgrades to many models may not have been as big as those on the software side, they were frequently excellent in their own right. The improvements to battery life, screen tech and camera lenses may not be as flashy as those on the AI front, but they can make a real difference to how we use our devices on a daily basis. In many ways, tech fans have never had it so good.

Whether that will continue in 2026 remains to be seen. AI now looks to be having a direct – and negative – effect on component prices, which could make your favorite new phone or laptop more expensive in the coming year. We might also see stock shortages in some areas, which could further inflate those price tags.

It looks like we’re set for another year of exciting, chaotic, frustrating and interesting news, then – and we’ll be here with you every step of the way. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2025, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

I bent reality, but I failed to bend an iPhone

This year was marked by astonishing leaps in AI capabilities, which I tried to not only report on but experience in full. From my first experience with ‘vibe coding’ to wild leaps of fancy with Veo 3 (and later the Sora app) to creating my own digital double, AI’s fast-changing capabilities constantly amazed me.

Never in four decades of covering emerging technologies have I seen anything like it: AI’s rise continues to be a heady mixture of enthusiastic adoption tinged with white-knuckled fear about what it all means for jobs, and for humanity, and nothing we saw in 2025 did much to resolve that anxiety.

However, it was my conversations with those leading the AI and wider innovation charge that stood out. My interviews with Amazon’s Panos Panay about Alexa+ and Google’s Sameer Samat about the future of Android were particularly memorable, as was the moment when one of Apple’s top executives threw his brand-new iPhone Air to me during a video podcast and insisted that I try to bend it.

The rise of humanoid robots was a trend that shocked and pleased me in equal measure, though I’ve tried to temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge that clever marketing and eye-popping videos will only get us so far. We all want the ultimate home robot, but I still don't think many of us are willing to pay $20,000 to get it.

Away from all the AI and robots, I spent much of the year trying new phones, including redesigned iPhones and an incredibly thin folding Samsung phone, along with a wide range of wearable technology that included the Galaxy XR headset, and some very exciting AR glasses from Meta and Google’s Android XR group. Experiencing these felt like peering into our near technological future, which increasingly will be filled with on-demand AI, flexible phones, and maybe those robots.

The year in AI

This was the year we started taking AI for granted 

For all the talk of breakthroughs and hype, 2025 felt less like the year AI changed everything and more like the year it quietly became unavoidable. While the much-hyped arrival of super-powerful artificial general intelligence (AGI), predicted for 2025 by many, simply hasn’t materialized, the year has still been a strong one for companies such as OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Google. That said, there have also been some massive flops; and as for Apple, it feels like yet another year in which it slipped further behind in the AI race.

ChatGPT maintained its vice-like grip as the most popular AI chatbot in the world, though it hasn’t been plain sailing for OpenAI. Legal challenges, particularly the copyright infringement claim brought by The New York Times, have continued to dog the company, and in June its servers crashed for a couple of days, giving the world a brief taste of life without the ubiquitous chatbot.

OpenAI then fumbled the ball with the release of its GPT-5 model, which came across as cold and unemotional compared to the previous GPT-4o. For millions of users who’d come to rely on the chatbot as something closer to a trusted companion it felt like a best friend had undergone a personality transplant overnight, forcing OpenAI to make the legacy 4o model available again.

The company has also lost a little ground to Google’s Gemini in recent months. The arrival of Gemini 3 Pro in November was well received, and on the image front, Gemini’s Nano Banana and Nano Banana Pro proved superior to ChatGPT for image generation. OpenAI responded with a new image-generation model in December.

AI-powered pets and toys also began to appear this year. We took Moflin for a spin, until we accidentally fried its battery. More broadly, the dominant theme of the year was that every product must now have AI built into it in some form, and no company exemplifies this approach better than Microsoft, which has spent the year enthusiastically stuffing Copilot into just about everything it makes.

Finally, the year looks set to end on a high note for Amazon. Alexa+, the AI-powered version of Alexa that Amazon has been promising all year but hasn’t yet managed to fully roll out, may finally be getting a web version, at least in the US.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

Slim pickings for thin phones, and hints of a tri-fold future

2025 was the year of the super-thin phone, writes Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing, with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of the year, and the iPhone Air in the second. These handsets grabbed headlines with their svelte proportions, but so far sales figures have yet to match the hype.

That’s likely due to their relatively high prices in the face of already pretty slim iPhones and Galaxy and Pixel handsets, all of which saw the expected yearly upgrades with the iPhone 17, Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 lines respectively. While the upgrades to the iPhone 17 family appeared incremental at first glance, I'd argue they're a bigger deal when you dig into the details: there was a new design and cooling system for the Pro phones, the standard model finally got a 120Hz display, and Apple's 48MP 'Fusion' camera came to every iPhone in the lineup, including the Air (the Plus model went the way of the dodo).

AI found its way into more phones and more features, with Google’s Pixel phones in particular boasting a whole host of genuinely useful smart tools. Meanwhile, Apple just about managed to distract us from the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence with its flashy Liquid Glass design and the eye-catching Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro.

Some of the most interesting phones came from smaller brands, with the Nothing Phone 3 offering something a little different without scrimping on flagship features. There was the Oppo Find X9 Pro with its strange but useful camera kit, while the OnePlus 15 was the only phone to earn a maximum five-star review from us this year. There were also a clutch of affordable phones from the likes of Motorola and Xiaomi, proving that you don’t have to pay a lot to get a very capable smartphone these days.

We saw further evolution in the folding phone space, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 leading the way, and Samsung also unveiled its first tri-folding phone, with the Galaxy Trifold joining Huawei's Mate XT, and teasing a future of devices that truly blend phones and tablets. We may even see a foldable iPhone in 2026, but don’t hold your breath.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

RAM drama enlivens a year of evolution over revolution

When it came to computing, 2025 didn't start off as the most promising year. While 2024 felt like a year of revolutionary change, with the explosive growth of AI, the fall of Intel, and the rise of Arm-based laptops that were actually worth buying, this year has felt more like we're in a holding pattern, as the innovations of the past few years are iterated on and refined.

The year kicked off with Nvidia launching its latest generation of consumer graphics cards, the RTX 5000 series, at CES 2025, and they encapsulated the ‘evolution, not revolution’ theme, with some great new features that haven't fundamentally shaken up the industry, as the introduction of ray tracing with the RTX 2000 series did. Of course, making a great product even better is no bad thing, and our components editor and GPU expert John Loeffler was suitably impressed, enthusing in his RTX 5090 review that “If you're a gamer, you'll still get impressive gen-on-gen performance improvements over the celebrated RTX 4090, and the Nvidia RTX 5090 is really the first consumer graphics card I've tested that can get you consistent, high-frame-rate 8K gameplay.”

I have an RTX 5090 and I love it, and I've also been impressed by its 8K performance in modern games, but with the majority of PC gamers still playing at 1080p, this high-end GPU might be a bit too expensive to justify. Other releases from AMD and Intel, plus Apple’s latest M5 chip, continued the theme of impressive releases that don’t massively change the computing landscape.

Perhaps the biggest event in 2025 was the continued rise of AI. Recently, the AI boom has led to a global shortage of memory, which has in turn caused an increase in the prices of devices that use it. All of a sudden, PCs, RAM, and GPUs look set to get increasingly expensive, though some, like our computing editor Christian Guyton, aren’t too worried – yet. Personally, the end-of-year drama is making me nostalgic for those early months when 2025 felt rather boring.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The era of giant, cheap TVs is here

This year saw two really interesting developments in TV technology, with the first being the arrival of a whole new kind of ‘Tandem RGB’ OLED TV panel from LG. This appeared in the LG G5, helping it to score the maximum five stars in our review, and in the fantastic Panasonic Z95B, enabling both TVs to hit stunning levels of brightness and color depth, but with reduced power consumption.

However, this new screen technology didn’t win either of those sets our TV of the Year award – that went to the Samsung S95F, which not only earned its own perfect 5-star review, but was also voted the top TV in the most categories by the judges in our flagship OLED TV showdown, which pitted it against the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B, and Sony Bravia 8 II.

The second big tech development was the arrival of RGB mini-LED tech – and, make no mistake, this is the next big thing. It’s more efficient than current mini-LED tech, and is capable of richer colors and less light leakage from bright areas to dark ones, and it could be the tech to finally knock OLED off its perch.

We know that Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense will all launch RGB mini-LED TV ranges in 2026, but the Hisense UX116 was the only TV to use it in 2025 – and it was a mixed bag, with performance issues that disappointed given its eye-wateringly high price. Still, we’re excited to see how this tech develops.

But the biggest thing in TVs this year was the TVs themselves – as in, they got big and they got affordable. TCL and Hisense launched 85-inch and 100-inch TVs that were within the budgets of regular mortals, and 75-inch TVs are becoming positively cheap, while still being good. While new tech is exciting, huge TVs like the Hisense U8N and TCL QM7K becoming more affordable is the change that made the biggest difference for customers.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Android XR arrives to challenge Meta’s dominance

This year XR or 'extended reality' took center stage, thanks in large part to Android XR hardware finally breaking cover in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset. We also tested prototype Android XR glasses ahead of their expected release in the coming year, and they’re impressive (the glasses at least, the headset less so right now). Google, along with its Android partners, looks set to seriously challenge Meta in 2026.

For its part Meta debuted several new smart wearables over the past 12 months, including two pairs of Oakley smart glasses – the stylish HSTNs and the sporty Vanguards, the latter of which are perfect for runners when used with a compatible Garmin watch. We also saw a Gen 2 model of the Meta Ray-Bans, and the company's latest step towards full-on AR specs, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which as you can probably guess feature a display for the specs to relay info visually. We’ve tested them, and they’re everything Google Glass wanted to be, but right now they're not easy to get hold of.

What about VR headsets proper? Valve surprised no one (because the device was so heavily leaked before launch) with its Steam Frame headset announcement. Key details like the price are still a mystery, but it will be landing in 2026 – and when it does, the spec sheet teases a device that could seriously challenge the reigning champion of VR, the Meta Quest 3. Depending on how Valve handles the launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes all other headsets feel obsolete – even the Galaxy XR and Apple Vision Pro.

Talking of Apple's mixed-reality spatial-computing headset, we got a new version with an M5 chip and comfier strap, but while it's a worthwhile upgrade the price still feels too high.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

The year the big dogs bit back

If 2024 was the year niche UK hi-fi brands took over the dance floor amid a hiatus from audio's heavy hitters (see Bowers & Wilkins' fantastic Pi8 earbuds or Cambridge Audio's inaugural, affordable, adorable P100 cans), 2025 was the year the big dogs returned to the party and got their groove back.

We got five major headphones releases in 2025, starting with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds in February. The hotly anticipated update to the 2019 Powerbeats Pro proved that Apple could indeed deliver heart-rate monitoring in its earbuds.

Cut to May and Sony's WH-1000XM6 landed, to finally knock the 2020-issue WH-1000XM4 off the top spot in our best headphones guide. It was a similar story with the June arrival of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), quickly followed by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in September – a two-pronged attack on the market that saw Bose reinstated as the king of ANC.

However, this roundup wouldn't be complete without a nod to the biggest launch of them all: the fall arrival of Apple's AirPods Pro 3. The shape's different, the ANC is twice as good, and yes, like the Powerbeats Pro 2 they also keep tabs on your ticker, in a slightly different way, and with increasing third-party fitness-app support. Still the most popular earbuds in the world? Absolutely.

Elsewhere, Spotify Lossless finally landed, at no cost to Premium subscribers, offering almost-as-good-as-Apple-Music resolution at up to 24-bit/44.1kHz. While Lossless wasn't a huge hit with fans initially, the big green streaming machine's popularity continues to grow, despite concerns over artist payments.

Oh, and if you take note of just one audio brand name this year, let it be WiiM. As Sonos continues to tackle trust issues among its once-loyal fanbase, the plucky multi-room underdog unveiled its WiiM Sound (and now the WiiM Sound Lite) premium hi-res speakers – and the firm would love to help you build your wireless sound system around them.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

A memorable year for glass as well as for cameras

2025 was full of pleasant surprises for photographers. The Sigma BF was truly out of the ordinary, being dubbed ‘the camera Apple would have made’, while the Caira with its Nano Banana AI skills showed us a glimpse of how on-the-go generative editing can work in an actual camera.

Fujifilm and OM System showed us that user experience matters with the quirky X half and retro OM-3 respectively, while Hasselblad and Nikon delivered strong offerings of their own – my favorite stills camera ever, the X2D II, and a new player in the cinema-camera game, the Nikon Zr. A special shoutout goes to Nikon for becoming the best-value camera brand this year, notably for the excellent Z5 II, which is our Camera of the Year, and Z50 II.

It was arguably an even better year for new lenses than cameras, with Sigma, Sony and Viltrox in particular knocking it out the park with world-first and affordable optics. Canon continues to lock out third parties from its full-frame camera lineup, but that decision feels more justified after it launched the affordable and capable 45mm F1.2 STM prime.

A sense of order was restored towards the end of the year when Canon and Sony launched their anticipated mid-range full-frame cameras: the EOS R6 III and A7 V, both of which are integral to their lineups.

The long-threatened US ban on DJI products finally came into effect, and we saw a couple of major product launches from the brand in the build-up to it: the incredible (sort of) sub-250g Mini 5 Pro, and the DJI Osmo 360 – its first foray into 360 cameras, and rival to both the Insta 360 X5 and GoPro’s new Max 2. DJI is also being tipped to launch its first 360 drone soon, but Insta360 got there first with the truly innovative Antigravity A1.

Overall, it’s been a good year for camera fans, with demand seemingly remaining strong in the face of competition from increasingly capable smartphones. I’m predicting that the consumer and cinema camera spaces will continue converging in 2026, and I hope the likes of Viltrox expand our options with new and affordable autofocus zoom lenses.

The year in gaming

The Switch 2 makes waves, and GTA 6 looms over 2026

Gaming in 2025 was largely dominated by the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s a safe improvement on the original Switch, and one that epitomizes the ‘evolution not revolution’ approach to console development.

The specs sheet won’t blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a superb package that cements the Switch's position as the go-to handheld console; and it was so popular in the pre-order and launch phases that it took months for retailers to catch up with demand. It’s been backed up by some excellent games too, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Kirby Air Riders, and Pokémon Legends Z-A.

Sony had its own say in the gaming handheld space, breathing new life into the PlayStation Portal handheld device, which is now capable of excellent cloud streaming. This has elevated the handheld, which we were already big fans of, to impressive new heights.

The PS5’s game library got a bump with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei, as well as titles including Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders and TechRadar Gaming’s Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Elsewhere, indie games ruled, with the likes of Blue Prince, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong proving standouts in a strong year for releases.

It’s been a year to forget for Xbox, however, and its woes only accentuated the aforementioned successes for Nintendo and Sony. For starters, more Xbox games – including Gears of War: Reloaded – arrived on PS5, while others are set to follow, including the symbol of Xbox itself, Halo. Meanwhile studios were shuttered and prospective games cancelled, and to make matters worse the Xbox X/S were outsold by a tiny family console, the Nex Playground, over Black Friday. All in all it’s been tough going for Team Green.

As for 2026, it’s beginning to feel like the pace of progress towards next-gen consoles will quicken, and the game release calendar looks well stocked. However, a titan looms: Grand Theft Auto 6 is now slated for release in November after being originally planned for late 2025, and the whole gaming world is going to revolve around its arrival.

THE YEAR IN FITNESS

Time’s finally up for wasteful wearables, thanks to Google

Last year, I ended my contribution to this round-up by predicting a move away from fitness watches towards screenless trackers, such as a new WHOOP model, writes Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables. Well, we got not one, but two new WHOOPs, and they were… fine. But, as prices rose, I found the ongoing subscription model far too expensive.

However, my prediction that we’d move away from smartwatches hasn’t really been borne out. Wearable tech isn’t changing much in the mainstream, with the highest-profile releases being a slate of new watches from Garmin, Apple, Samsung, Google and OnePlus, and they’ve been as popular as ever.

Look beyond those big releases, however, and interesting new stuff is out there. A subscription-free WHOOP competitor band was launched by Polar, while Core Devices, the resurrected Pebble watch company led by its original founder, unveiled a pair of watches inspired by the original Pebble designs, complete with low-power LCD-style screens, and open-source software that anyone with the know-how can tinker with.

Core Devices also launched a new kind of smart ring with a button and a microphone, which the company says acts as “external memory for the brain”. Elsewhere, the AirPods Pro 3 now have built-in heart rate sensors, and Meta teamed up with Garmin to bring us the Oakley Meta Vanguard sports specs. Cool new wearable innovations are happening, but it all still feels quite fringe.

My innovation of the year, however, came from Google. The Google Pixel Watch 4 is the first properly repairable smartwatch, as you’re able to take it apart and replace the battery and display. This enables you to change individual parts rather than the whole watch, reducing your contribution to e-waste, and saving you money in the long run.

Almost every other piece of wearable tech from every other company is still a sealed unit that will ultimately end up being disposed of, and I hope Google's move could be the catalyst for change that the wasteful wearable tech industry sorely needs.

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming sensations, box-office flops, and merger madness

The biggest story of 2025 broke late in the year, and it concerned off-screen studio machinations rather than on-screen drama. Netflix’s $82.7bn bid for Warner Bros. sent shockwaves through the industry when it was announced in early December, and provoked a counter-bid from Paramount Skydance. There’s still a long way to go before a deal is approved, but should Netflix acquire one of the film world’s most iconic studios it would be a landmark moment for the streaming sector, and would represent a seismic shift for the entertainment industry as a whole.

Turning to the year's big theatrical releases, and numerous new movies flopped at the box office, including some with huge names attached (I’m looking at you, Dwayne Johnson and The Smashing Machine). Heck, with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all underperforming, even the usually reliable Marvel Studios didn’t have a money-spinning hit on its hands. I wonder how many people predicted that animated and live-action/CGI hybrids would rule the theatrical roost, led by multi-billion dollar-spinning flicks like Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia 2, and Ne Zha II…

As for the major streaming services, users endured more of the now-customary annual price hikes, while Max raised eyebrows by rebranding itself – again – to HBO Max. On the screen, unexpected hits such as HBO medical drama The Pitt, plus Netflix's ‘one-shot’ drama Adolescence and pop-culture phenomenon Kpop Demon Hunters, proved that not even the savviest industry exec can really be sure what viewers will latch onto. Add in the return of unmissable shows including Severance and Stranger Things amid the glut of great and not-so-great film and TV releases, and there was plenty to keep our eyeballs engaged. Now, what have you got in store for us, 2026?

The Year in Smart Home

If the subscriptions don't get you, the fridge ads will

It's been a slow but not insignificant year in home technology as legacy brands scramble to keep pace with bigger, already tech-savvy players vying for their spot in our homes – whether that's Breville reinventing the toaster with a proprietary optical sensor, IKEA launching new renewable energy solutions, or Eufy and Dreame duking it out to give us the most effective stair-climbing robot vacuum.

Some brands were less innovative than others though. Dyson left some of us feeling snubbed with its 'new' (read: decade-old) vacuum, while Shark's TurboBlade Cool + Heat failed to impress despite its noble attempt at mimicking other SharkNinja product's viral fame.

Elsewhere we saw big plays from Amazon and Google in the smart home space, with the arrival of their AI-bolstered home assistants. Amazon's Alexa+ and Google's Gemini for Home both entered Early Access beta in the US, and while the early reviews for both have been mixed, it's a promising glimpse into the future of the connected home.

Both of those services are subscription-based offerings, and subscriptions look set to become a major battleground for smart-home brands, and a bone of contention between brands and their customers, as companies attempt to lock users into their ecosystems, as we've already seen with video doorbells. Between that, and brands like Samsung using screen-loaded appliances as advertising billboards around the home, now might be a good time to really think about which brands you want want to invest in as you build your smart home.

For some time, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 has gone relatively unchallenged as the ultimate compact Dolby Atmos soundbar. Its combination of great-sounding audio, solid virtualized Dolby Atmos and a nifty set of features hasn’t faced too much in the way of competition until home theater newcomer Marshall released a rival model of its own fairly recently, and it really does go toe-to-toe with Sonos. The Marshall Heston 60 is a very strong small Dolby Atmos soundbar that wowed me with its expansive audio and luxurious looks.

But can the Heston 60 outdo Sonos’ long-standing compact Atmos king? Or will it just fall short? I tried both models alongside one another in our TV testing space at Future Labs to find out which is the best soundbar. I compared both on their feature set, audio performance, design and ease-of-setup, as well as value for money. Here’s which soundbar came out on top…

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: price and availability

Perhaps unsurprisingly given its age, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 is the cheaper of these two models. It had a launch price of $449 / £449 / AU$699 when it hit the shelves in October 2021, but now you’ll regularly find it going for less in seasonal sales. During Black Friday, for example, I saw it on offer for under $350 / £350.

Meanwhile, the Marshall Heston 60 is likely to cost you a fair bit more. It has a list price of $699.99 / £499.99 / AU$999, and there’s been no sign of a discount yet – which is to be expected, given it only released in September 2025. You can grab the Heston 60 either in Black & Brass or Cream, and the Beam Gen 2 in Black or White.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: specs

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: features

Both models have a good set of features, with plenty of customization options. The Beam Gen 2 connects up to the Sonos app, and can be added to your home ecosystem. That means you can access multi-room audio, and seamlessly connect up to other Sonos speakers – a huge benefit of this model.

On top of that, the app opens up TruePlay – essentially a room-calibration tool that makes use of a built-in mic. There’s also EQ and channel level adjustment options, voice-assistant compatibility, and an audio swap feature that Sonos Ace users may appreciate.

It’s a similar story with the Heston 60. A new Marshall app includes detailed EQ options, channel level control, a variety of sound modes, and a room correction tool. It also supports Auracast, so if you want to broadcast audio to a bunch of modern Marshall speakers – think the Marshall Kilburn III or Marshall Bromley 750 – you can do so. Built-in AirPlay 2 and Google Cast are also nice to have, and you can link internet radio or streaming services to the soundbar’s physical program buttons.

The Heston 60 has a wider set of connectivity options in general. The Beam Gen 2 omits Bluetooth – and by extension Auracast – as well as the RCA mono, USB-C, and 3.5mm ports that you’ll find on the Heston 60. Crucially, though, both support HDMI eARC and Wi-Fi streaming, which are the main options I use day to day.

Outside of this, both soundbars support Dolby Atmos and higher-res music streaming formats, though only the Heston 60 has DTS:X compatibility – so, if you make use of that codec when watching 4K UHD Blu-rays, for example, then you may prefer Marshall’s bar.

All in all, it’s a fairly close race in the features department. If you’re invested in the Sonos ecosystem, the Beam Gen 2 may suit you better. But for most consumers, the Heston 60’s inclusion of more connectivity options and DTS:X support makes it a slightly more enticing pick.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: performance

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a 5.0 channel soundbar, while the Heston 60 is a 5.1 model, and they do have slightly different configurations. The Heston 60 makes use of seven active drivers capable of a 56W maximum power output. On the other hand, the Beam Gen 2 has just five drivers, but has 80W of power.

These differences were reflected in the sound I heard from each bar – the Beam Gen 2 is a little more powerful, and the rumble of low-frequency sounds hit with a little more intent. In The Boy and the Heron, there’s a scene with a deep rumble that runs throughout, and the Beam Gen 2 replicated it with considerable impact, really immersing me in the action.

On the Marshall Heston 60, bass was certainly admirable given the bar’s compact size, but it didn’t quite have the bite of the Beam.

Both soundbars perform very well overall, with punchy low-end output, clear mids, and controlled treble, and will provide a gigantic improvement over basic TV audio.

For example, dialogue in movies and TV shows is fantastically clear from both models – though speech did get a tad more breathing room on the Beam Gen 2 – ideal for more action-packed scenes. A speech enhancement from Sonos and Voice mode from Marshall are on board if you want to focus in on voices too.

One area that I picked up on a fair amount of difference, though, was Dolby Atmos performance. While watching a 4K Blu-ray of The Mask, the cartoonish spinning effects, background noises, and characters dashing around sounded better placed on the Heston 60. As The Mask spun into the backdrop of an open space, there was more depth and width to his movement from Marshall’s compact bar.

The Beam Gen 2 still plated up solid three-dimensional audio effects – they just weren’t as nuanced or convincing as the Heston 60’s. It was a similar story with Top Gun: Maverick. The Sonos bar mapped the movement of Tom Cruise’s Kawasaki motorcycle well, and jets flying across the screen sounded as if they surpassed the confines of the soundbar’s restrictive form.

However, the Heston 60 delivered a touch more finesse overall, even with height elements. For instance, when Cruise flew his jet up and overhead, the vertical extension on offer was more striking from Marshall – the move was replicated decently on the Beam Gen 2, but its height effects didn’t make a big impression on me. In honesty, though, neither of these compact soundbars are top-drawer in this department – a full-size model like the Samsung HW-Q990F or JBL Bar 1300MK2 with dedicated up-firing drivers will be better if you're after peak performance.

All in all, this is actually quite a tight contest. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 offers a bit more firepower, with mightier bass and even slightly improved dynamics. But the Marshall Heston 60’s handling of Dolby Atmos is superior, in my view. There are great benefits to picking either bar, so we’ll call it a tie in this category.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: design & setup

I’m a big fan of how both of these soundbars have been designed. Each are highly compact, making them easy to slot into tighter spaces or place in front of smaller TVs. And both can be purchased in a couple of different color options, which is always nice to see.

In terms of looks, the model you prefer will largely come down to the aesthetic you’re going for. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a modern, curved, and sleek soundbar that’s housed in neat plastic casing.

Meanwhile, the Heston 60 really stands out from the crowd, with frets, a faux-leather exterior, and golden details. I personally love the amp-inspired design of Marshall’s compact bar, and think it gives off more of a luxurious feel – but I certainly won’t deny the class of the Beam Gen 2.

Both have practical physical controls too, which are responsive and work well. Neither come with a physical remote, as you can simply use your standard TV remote to alter volume, and the Sonos or Marshall apps to adjust sound modes, channel level, and more. One small thing I really like about the Heston 60, though, is that its control panel is magnetic, so you can flip it for when the soundbar is wall-mounted – a real sign of the care and thought put into its design.

Set-up wise, it's pretty straightforward from Sonos and Marshall. You can just connect either bar up with an HDMI cable and power source, and you’re good to go. Both apps are well laid-out, and open up additional options, like room calibration for the ultimate viewing experiences too.

However, I should mention that I’ve found the new Marshall app to be pretty buggy – registering the Heston 60 sometimes takes a couple of tries, which isn’t a problem I've encountered with the Beam Gen 2.

In the end, it’s a close one again. Setup is pretty easy across both bars, although I do hope Marshall gets its app working a little better. Build quality is impressive from both too, although I do think the Heston 60 has more of a premium feel to it, which gives it a slight edge for me.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: value

Perhaps the most important question, then, is which soundbar is better value for money: the Sonos Beam Gen 2 or the Marshall Heston 60?

Let’s start by talking about price. The newer and luxurious-looking Marshall Heston 60 does, unsurprisingly, have a higher asking price. It will set you back $699.99 / £499.99 / AU$999, and there’s not been a sign of a sale just yet.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 – which was released more than four years ago now – isn’t quite as pricey, typically coming in at $449 / £449 / AU$699. I’ve seen it go on sale a few times over the years, and during big sale events like Black Friday, you can expect to see it dip to around $350 / £350.

Does the Heston 60 do enough to warrant the extra price? I think it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want impressive Atmos in a small package, it’s a very strong candidate. Its premium aesthetic is also a huge selling point, and makes it just as much of a statement piece as it is a soundbar.

But the Beam Gen 2 just feels like such a good buy. Sure, it leaves out DTS:X, and it’s missing the wide connectivity options of the Heston 60, but it delivers plenty of bang for your buck. Surprisingly hard-hitting bass, very good dynamics, crystal-clear dialogue, and the ability to customize sound to your liking… those are some serious positives.

I think the Heston 60 handles Dolby Atmos better, and that’s worth keeping in mind, but for pure value for money, Sonos just about gets the nod from me.

Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Marshall Heston 60: verdict

As you’ll have likely gathered, this is a phenomenally close affair. In fact, I’m not sure if there’s been a tighter battle in any of the tech showdowns I’ve written thus far.

And it’s easy to see why. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is older, and by extension a little cheaper. And it still supplies powerful, high-calibre sound, with Dolby Atmos support and a whole host of smart features.

The Heston 60, though, is an absolute beauty with even better Dolby Atmos performance, bundles of connectivity options, and a stand-out aesthetic. It’s a little pricier, yes, but I think a lot of consumers will consider it worth the spend on looks alone.

I’d happily recommend either soundbar – both are top-class compact picks. But if I had to give the slight edge to one, it would probably be the Sonos Beam Gen 2. I do prefer the design of the Heston 60, but Sonos offers a little more value for money as well as better low-end and dialogue replication, giving it the tiniest of leads.

• Cleer Arc 4 are Hi-Res aptX Lossless open earbuds with THX certification
• Arc 4+ model adds Dolby Atmos with Dolby's own head-tracking
• Arc 4 costs $99.99, Arc 4+ costs $129.99

Cleer Audio has launched the world's first THX-certified open earbuds, the Arc 4 and the Arc 4+. The Arc 4+ is particularly interesting because that model comes with Dolby's own head-tracking for Dolby Atmos, a feature previously reserved for over-ear headphones.

These aren't the first head-tracking earbuds by any means. But rival earbuds use their own tracking setups, whereas these Cleers use the official Dolby version – just like the Sonos Ace headphones, where it works excellently.

Cleer Audio Arc 4 and Arc 4+: key features and pricing

Both sets of earbuds are lighter and thinner than previous Cleer Arc models: 10% lighter and 45% thinner than the Arc 3 series, apparently. Cleer says they sit closer to the ear canal for better clarity and comfort,

The Arc 4 are tuned by THX engineers to align with THX's optimal frequency response curve, and the standard model features Dolby Audio and Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound. They deliver Hi-Res Audio with a frequency range of 65Hz - 40kHz with Cleer's DBE bass enhancement. Bluetooth is 5.4 with aptX Lossless and multipoint connectivity.

The Arc 4+ takes the same specification and adds Atmos with Dolby head tracking, using on-board sensors to adjust the audio experience based on the position of your head. Having tested this feature in the Sonos Ace, we're familiar with how responsive and immersive it is – my colleague Matt Bolton still says the Sonos Ace are the best headphones for movie viewing, because of their spatial audio.

Both sets of earbuds are IPX7 rated so they're great outdoors, and battery life is a promised 32 hours in total, with up to nine hours from the earbuds alone for the Arc 4, and 34 hours in total for the Arc 4+.

The Arc 4 are available now in black or white for a recommended retail price of $99.99 (about £74.50 / €85 / AU$150) while the Arc 4+ will come in black, white or pink for $129.99 (about £97 / €110 / AU$195).

When I review audio gear, the most important thing is sound quality. I know, that seems like the most blindingly obvious statement in the world, but I say it because many of us end up buying speakers, headphones, and soundbars based on promised features or impressive-sounding specs. After all, if you can’t get to a store to hear the product in person, what else do you have to go on?

This tendency gets reinforced when you’re looking at two similarly priced products from two different companies, each with a strong reputation. A great example is the Sonos Arc Ultra ($1,099/ £999 / AU$1,799) and JBL Bar 1000 MK2 ($1,200 / £899 ). Both are high-end Dolby Atmos soundbars, priced within $100 of each other.

Based on specs and features alone, the Bar 1000 MK2 looks like the clear-cut winner. It comes with its own wireless sub and has detachable, rechargeable surround speakers. It has multiple HDMI inputs, comes with a remote and wall-mount hardware, and is compatible with DTS:X and Google Cast. The Sonos Arc Ultra has none of these things. Case closed, right?

Not necessarily.

All-in-one or future expansion?

Setting aside the key question of sound quality for a moment, it’s worth thinking about what you want from a soundbar in the first place. Are you looking for a one-and-done solution, where you open the box, set up the system, and never think about your home theater sound again? Or are you more forward-thinking, and want a great soundbar that you can add to over time as your budget allows and as your needs change over time?

If you’re in the latter category, Sonos is the better option. The Arc Ultra doesn’t include a subwoofer or surround speakers, but it’s compatible with multiple Sonos products that can fill those roles. This lets you pick the right components for your home theater instead of needing to use the ones that came in the box.

This is a more expensive path to a multi-speaker setup, but it’s far more versatile. The Bar 1000 MK2 only works with the sub and surrounds that JBL includes. If you don’t like how they perform, or your needs change, you’re stuck.

How much music?

The main purpose of a soundbar is to get better TV sound. But if you’re going to drop a grand on a speaker, it should do more than make your movies pop – you should expect it to be capable music player too.

Again, sound quality should be the most important factor (I promise I’m getting there), but you should also consider how you want to play music. If you’re a Spotify user, with no personal collection of music sitting on a computer, and no interest in subscribing to any other services, either the Sonos Arc Ultra or the JBL Bar 1000 MK2 will work fine for your needs. You can access both directly from within the Spotify app; easy-peasy.

On the other hand, if you use multiple services and have an extensive personal collection of digital music, the Sonos platform is more powerful and versatile than JBL’s One app. The Sonos app works with virtually every music service natively – even Apple Music and Spotify – letting you search and stream from a variety of sources within a single app. Moreover, you can create multi-source playlists that blend tracks from every service into a single list.

Still, as savvy audiophiles will remind you, Sonos lacks support for Google Cast and Tidal Connect, which means some music services won’t be able to stream at their highest level of quality (e.g., at sample rates above 48kHz). With the Bar 1000 MK2, you can stream up to 96kHz.

And what about the rest of your home? Sonos is a wireless multiroom streaming platform first and foremost. Adding new devices to new rooms in your home takes less than three minutes and each new speaker can be controlled from the Sonos app. Multiroom isn’t JBL’s greatest strength. Getting new JBL Wi-Fi speakers set up is a cinch in the JBL One app, but if you want to control them from a single interface, you’ll need to use Google Home or the Amazon Alexa app – neither of which is as easy to use or as powerful as the Sonos app.

Dolby Atmos Music

One of the more exciting parts of owning a Dolby Atmos soundbar is listening to Dolby Atmos Music. Both the Arc Ultra and Bar 1000 MK2 can play Dolby Atmos Music from streaming devices. They can also access Atmos content directly from music services. However, the Arc Ultra can stream Atmos from Apple Music and Amazon Music, whereas the Bar 1000 MK2 only works with Tidal's Atmos collection.

If you have an Apple Music or Amazon Music account, you can stream Dolby Atmos Music tracks directly to the Arc Ultra via the Sonos app. For Tidal, you still need to use a smart TV or streaming device with the respective version of the Tidal app for that platform

One input to rule them all?

Sonos is heavily focused on simplicity. That’s a mission I can get behind, right up until it limits what I can do with a product. The Arc Ultra’s connections are as simple as it gets: One HDMI ARC/eARC port. That’s it. No HDMI inputs, no analog inputs, and no optical digital inputs (though you can buy an optical-to-HDMI adapter if you need one).

On the one hand, a single connection does make things easy. On the other hand, if your TV only has three or four HDMI ports, you’re now down to two or three ports for all of your HDMI-connected devices.

The Bar 1000 MK2 alleviates this problem and actually increases your number of available ports with its three HDMI inputs. If you’re still rocking an older, non-Dolby Atmos TV, this arrangement has a hidden benefit: by connecting a Dolby Atmos-capable streaming media player to one of these inputs (instead of a TV port), you’re getting the best of both worlds – Dolby Atmos in up to Dolby TrueHD quality, and 4K HDR video with Dolby Vision support. The Arc Ultra can only work with the audio signal it gets from your TV.

It would have been nice if JBL had made the Bar 1000 MK2’s optical input discrete, but sadly, it can only be used as an alternative to the HDMI eARC port.

Sound surprise

With its included subwoofer and detachable surround speakers, it would be reasonable to assume that the JBL Bar 1000 MK2 has better sound quality than the single-speaker Sonos Arc Ultra, but that’s not what I found when I put these two systems head-to-head.

The biggest surprise was the low-frequency sound. I’m not claiming that the Arc Ultra can punch as low or as hard in the bass department as the Bar 1000 MK2’s subwoofer with its massive 10-inch driver, but the Arc Ultra’s Sound Motion dual-membrane, quad-motor, bi-amped woofer is astonishing.

Though it stops short of rattling windows, the Arc Ultra’s low end is truly cinematic, giving action scenes an immersiveness that sucks you in. It’s so powerful, I advise Arc Ultra owners to consider buying surround speakers before investing in a subwoofer.

Speaking of immersion, it’s impossible to overlook the role that two discrete speakers placed on either side of your listening position can have on the movie and TV-watching experience. With the Bar 1000 MK2’s detachable units set to their loudest level, I enjoyed surround sound moments more thoroughly than with the Arc Ultra. That said, the Arc Ultra does an impressive job at virtual surround sound, and its Dolby Atmos height channel effects are better defined than the Bar 1000 MK2.

Where the Arc Ultra scores two unambiguous victories is in dialogue clarity and music rendering. As I noted earlier, a soundbar’s primary mission is to deliver better TV sound. These days, speech intelligibility is a major challenge, especially as streaming services shift us away from traditional two-channel sound to 5.1 or higher surround sound. The Arc Ultra does a stellar job of separating and elevating dialogue from the rest of the soundtrack, making it much easier to hear than competing systems. Not to say that JBL’s dialogue clarity is bad (it’s actually quite good), but it’s not as crystal clear as the Arc Ultra.

If you don’t anticipate doing a lot of music listening with your soundbar, the Bar 1000 MK2 is plenty enjoyable for casual tunes – the kind you might put on in the background while doing other tasks. For dedicated listening, however, it struggles as I noted in my review: it has trouble with its midranges, and the highs have a tendency to get shouty and shrill, particularly at higher volumes.

By contrast, the Arc Ultra is a better music speaker in nearly every respect. On its own, Dolby Atmos Music is a highlight, and it gets even better when you pair it with a set of Sonos Era 300 wireless speakers as surrounds. It’s not perfect – I noted that some Dolby Atmos Music tracks can produce an undesirable level of sibilance in the highs unless you dial down the treble – but overall, the Arc Ultra reproduces two-channel and surround sound music mixes in typical Sonos style: warm tones, good detail and definition, with a nice balance of frequencies.

Getting the right soundbar

Ultimately, the Sonos Arc Ultra and JBL Bar 1000 MK2 are both excellent Dolby Atmos additions to your TV setup. If you’re buying your first soundbar or upgrading from a smaller speaker, these systems will wow with their performance.

But given the Arc Ultra’s advantages in streaming music support, expandability, plus dialogue and music delivery, I recommend it over the Bar 1000 MK2 unless you’re looking for an all-in-one, set-it-and-forget-it option. In that case, the Bar 1000 MK2 fits the bill nicely.

As a veteran of more Black Fridays than I can count, I've learnt that the best way to grab a genuine bargain on something like one of the best soundbars is to plan in advance. That's partly because a bargain on something you didn't really want isn't really a bargain. But it's more because if you choose your shortlist carefully there's a very high likelihood of getting what you want for the price you want to pay.

So how do you do that?

I'd say the first thing to do is to skip the most recent releases: a soundbar that only launched last month is unlikely to get any good discounting (although sometimes there are surprises). Whereas products that have been out for a while are ripe for discounting – and if they're from a big brand with wide appeal, that improves the chances of getting a decent deal. Many retailers like to lure you into their Black Friday events by offering deals on desirable brands in the hope that you'll end up buying more things too.

Don't ignore less well-known brands, though: some of our favorite budget buys already punch way above their price tag, and could get even more affordable during what's become the key pre-holiday shopping event. Here are three soundbars I'd suggest for your shortlist.

Sony HT-2000: A Sonos alternative with a surprisingly big sound

In our Sony HT-2000 soundbar review we gave this excellent soundbar four and a half out of five stars: it's reasonably priced and delivers a surprisingly big sound from its compact chassis. It's particularly good at handling dialog in movies and the bass is much better than many similarly priced rivals.

The headline features here are impressive Dolby Atmos and DTS:X performance thanks to Sony's clever audio processing, and while there are a few limitations – if you want to use it as a streaming speaker you're limited to Bluetooth quality, and there's no voice assistant support – neither of those things would be a deal-breaker for me, because I just want a soundbar that sounds excellent and doesn't cost too much money. And this Sony delivers on both fronts.

I'm pretty certain you'll see Black Friday deals on this model, because they've already started: at the time of writing Amazon UK is listing it for £299, down from £449, and Amazon US is listing it for $298, down from $499.

Sonos Ray: the smallest Sonos soundbar packs a punch

We think that the Sonos Ray is the ideal affordable soundbar for older or smaller TVs: it's a good fit for TVs between 24 and 50 inches. It's an excellent upgrade for those TVs' audio systems, and it's particularly good for movie dialog. With four speaker drivers plus bass ports, it adds the low-end thump as well as overall clarity that so many smaller TVs lack.

In our Sonos Ray review we said it is a "massive, massive upgrade over TV speakers" with decent bass and very clear speech. It's really good for music – we thought it was best-in-class for that in its price bracket – and features "top-tier" wireless streaming over Wi-Fi.

At full price – it launched at £279 / $279 / AU$399 – we felt that it was a very solid buy if not a bargain. But the street price has dropped considerably since then and I'd expect it to go lower this month.

Ultimea Poseidon D50: surround sound for an ultra-low price

I'm seeing multiple discount deals on this ultra-affordable soundbar already, so this is shaping up to be a huge Black Friday bargain: the D50 initially launched at £169 / $219 but the official has since dropped to £149 / $119 (about AU$180) and deals have driven the price down even further.

Even at its original price, this soundbar system was extremely cheap – and cheap in this case doesn't mean nasty. In our Ultimea Poseidon D50 review we gave it four stars and said that it was a refreshing product: it's not particularly bothered about looking pretty or wowing you with a list of features you'll never use; it simply gives you a solid overall package comprising a main soundbar, a subwoofer and two surround satellite speakers.

The D50 doesn't do Dolby Atmos or DTS:X but it's way louder and much more bassy than the speakers in most TVs and makes movies and gaming much more fun. We enjoyed its performance in live sports and liked the whooshing fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick, and it does a decent job in music too. If you'd like to upgrade your TV's audio without breaking the bank, this is one of the most affordable ways to do it.

More Black Friday deals in the US

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe's: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor

More Black Friday deals in the UK

• Amazon: up to 66% off tech & essentials
• AO: up to £500 off Dyson, Bosch & Hisense
• Argos: up to 50% off appliances, tech & toys
• Currys: deals on Ninja, Shark & Lenovo
• Dell: laptops from £279
• Dyson: up to £550 off vacuums
• John Lewis: up to 50% off tech & fashion
• Ninja: up to 30% off air fryers & blenders
• Samsung: deals on appliances & phones
• Shark: up to £130 off vacuums & fans
• Very: up to 40% off tech, toys & fashion

• Sonos’ software has historically been one of its biggest differentiators
• …but Amazon is leading a wave of improved AI in music apps
• Sonos knows change is coming, but may not be able to adapt

Sonos has rightfully been credited with making great speakers, but if you take a historical survey of Sonos reviews, it’s the company’s app that has traditionally been singled out for much of the praise (note the words 'traditionally' and 'historical'). Said companion app is the “face” of Sonos: a one-stop shop that combines the management of your Sonos products with access to all of your music, whether you stream from a service or your personal collection.

Sadly, and much to the chagrin of Sonos owners, in 2024, the company effectively blew up its own face – a wound caused by the release of a poorly conceived and even more poorly executed app redesign.

Today, at the tail end of 2025, most of the bugs have been squashed, users’ favorite features have returned. And while some still wrestle with stability (myself included), the Sonos app is largely usable once again – just in time for it to be threatened with obsolescence by AI.

No, I’m not suggesting ChatGPT is going to replace the Sonos app (though that doesn’t seem so far-fetched, does it?). Instead, Sonos should be casting a wary eye at Amazon, Google, Apple, and even Spotify. These companies are rapidly accelerating what their existing AI assistants can do and integrating them into their respective music services.

The major streaming music platforms have been looking for ways to augment their apps with AI for years. In 2023, Tidal introduced (and then discarded) AI playlists. That same year, Spotify debuted its AI DJ feature and then its own version of AI playlists in 2024. Spotify even partnered with OpenAI to let folks create AI playlists directly within ChatGPT.

This week, Amazon announced that its next-gen AI assistant, Alexa+, is available within its Amazon Music app for all U.S. users on iOS and Android.

This poses a double threat for Sonos. The coming of Music Intelligence (as Amazon dubs it) will make Sonos’ superb universal search seem like a relic from a bygone era, and it may prove better at managing your Sonos speakers than either the Sonos app or the company’s homegrown Sonos Voice Control assistant.

The timing couldn’t be worse: Sonos’ app redesign fiasco sent users scurrying for alternatives. Some simply ditched their Sonos gear in disgust, but those who stayed realized they could accomplish a lot right from their streaming service’s native apps. Spotify and Tidal have robust “Connect” ecosystems of speakers that their apps can control directly, a strategy that Qobuz has recently copied. iPhone users learned that AirPlay was almost as effective as the Sonos app for grouping and controlling newer Sonos speakers. Now that the streaming apps are getting smarter, some of these folks may never go back to the Sonos app.

How intelligent is Alexa+? Very

How smart are we talking? Alexa+ lets you explore Amazon Music’s massive library of songs, albums, and playlists conversationally. Instead of the usual request/response model, where you specify the item you want and hope that your request was understood, you can perform multilayered and even vague inquiries, such as “Can you recommend new music that would make me seem cool to my 13-year-old daughter without trying too hard?” or "Play more songs like this but from different artists and with faster tempos" — the kinds of request that would typically elicit the dreaded, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand” response from the previous generation of voice assistants.

Alexa+ supports variations on these queries, too; everything from advanced playlist creation to questions about artists, lyrics, and even concert lineups.

This capability gets to the heart of what many of us want: to spend less time fussing about with apps and more time listening to music.

In 2022, it looked like Sonos was actually ahead of the AI curve. Its newly launched Sonos Voice Control (SVC), brought to life by modeling actor Giancarlo Esposito’s warm yet authoritative voice, could respond to most of the same music-related requests as Alexa or Google Assistant, plus several Sonos-specific commands like grouping speakers. Some of these commands even work without a cloud connection.

But rather than continuing to improve and expand on SVC, Sonos turned its attention to other projects, like the Sonos Ace headphones, a now-defunct effort at a streaming video device, and the infamous app redesign.

Sonos’ new CEO, Tom Conrad, seems to appreciate the challenges his company faces. “No one wakes up in the morning and says, I want to spend some time in the Sonos app today,” he told me three months into the job.

He’s also not blind to the rapid adoption of AI. “Casting into the future,” he told analysts during the company’s Q4 earnings call, “we see a world where live natural conversations with AI personalities are as commonplace as smartphones are today, and we believe Sonos' expertise in Internet-connected voice-enabled personal hardware products for the home can position us as the center of these interactions.”

Does that mean Sonos will invest in SVC to turn it into an Alexa+ rival, or will the company lean into its almost decade-long strategy of supporting third-party assistants, letting its users decide which one to use?

What’s certain is that the next period will determine if Sonos remains the lead architect of its users’ experiences, or whether its audio products will simply become the appendages of AI-driven music services, like Amazon Music, differentiated only by their physical attributes, and not by the software that once defined the wireless multiroom audio category.

• Bluesound Pulse Flex: all-new version with significant redesign
• WiiM Sound: WiiM's first smart speaker with multiroom capability
• Aggressively priced at £279 / €299 and £299 / €349 respectively

It's a big day for the best wireless speakers with not one but two rather exciting product launches. WiiM is launching the WiiM Sound, its first ever smart speaker which had been previous unveiled but lacked a release date or price. And Bluesound has remade its popular all-in-one, the Pulse Flex.

These are both premium smart speakers with multi-room capabilities, and are priced at an interesting level, sitting between the Sonos Era 100 and the Sonos Era 300.

Bluesound Pulse Flex 2025: key features and pricing

The Bluesound Pulse Flex has been around for a while now – it was launched in 2018 – and this new generation gets a significant redesign that makes it look much sleeker. There are three colors – White Tan, Black Charcoal and White Pebble Gray – and the new design is a vast improvement over the rather boxy original: from above, it's teardrop-shaped, while from the front it's become more vertical than before.

Of course, it's what it sounds like that matters most. It's powered by a SmartDSP amplifier and features a four-inch woofer and three-quarter-inch tweeter, putting out 50W of total power. It supports Hi-Res Audio at up to 24-bit/192kHz and features both MQA decoding and DSD256 playback. And as you'd expect from Bluesound, it runs the BluOS streaming platform with more than 20 included streamers including all the big names.

The new Pulse Flex has dual-band Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth with aptX HD, and it also has multiple wired inputs including USB-C and optical/analog inputs. It can be used standalone, in a stereo pair or as the rear surrounds for a system comprising other Bluesound products. It can also be used as part of a multi-room sound system.

The Pulse Flex will be available from December 16, 2025, with a recommended price of £279 / €299. That's roughly $372 / AU$572.

WiiM Sound: key features and pricing

The WiiM Sound was originally showcased in May 2025, and is launching as planned this month (October 2025). It delivers 100W of power through its 4-inch long-throw woofer and dual tweeters, which are angled slightly left and right (which is the same configuration as the Sonos Era 100, interestingly), and it supports Hi-Res Audio at 24-bit/192kHz.

The WiiM Sound comes in a familiar cylindrical design punctuated by its circular 1.8-inch touchscreen, which enables you to adjust playback, EQ and inputs when you're away from your phone or the included voice remote. And it runs on WiiM's streaming platform which, like BluOS, features all the key streamers.

The WiiM Sound also features automatic room correction, and like the Bluesound Pulse Flex it can be used standalone or in stereo. It can also be used as the center or surround speaker in a Dolby 5.1 setup and in a WiiM multi-room system, which could naturally include WiiM amps and streaming boxes.

Connectivity is impressive and includes Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio, Ethernet and a 3.5mm Aux input.

The WiiM Sound is available from this month, October 2025, with a price tag of £299 / €349 / $299 (about AU$459).

The Sonos Era 100, by comparison, costs $219 / £199 / AU$319 officially, though at the time of writing has some nice discounts – in the UK, it's just £159, which is fantastic value. The more powerful and detailed Sonos Era 300 costs $479 / £449 / AU$749.

Will these Hi-Res-friendly wireless speakers offer more fidelity to the sound to make them worth the higher price than the Sonos Era 100, but without the bulk and expensive of the Era 300? We have big plans to find out and compare them all soon…

• Good news: Spotify Lossless is rolling out to Sonos users
• Early reports say it sounds better, especially at higher volume
• Bad news: the Android Spotify app is crashing and hanging for some

We've got good news and bad news about Spotify today. The good news is that Spotify Lossless is now rolling out to many Sonos users, and they're very pleased with what they're hearing. And the bad is that on Android, the Spotify app is suffering from an ongoing issue that causes it to crash on some Wi-Fi networks.

Let's start with the good news. Redditors are reporting that Lossless is now available in their apps, and they're sharing screenshots to demonstrate it. And the early word is good: as tman2damax11 posted, while they were cynical about the supposed benefits of lossless they're now convinced. "I've been able to listen to music ~20% louder than I normally would without the track getting muddy from compression."

If you've just got music playing in the background there's not really any noticeable difference, but if you're focusing on listening "the higher dynamic range is noticeable", the poster says.

As ever with higher bitrates, there's some debate: some people can hear the difference, and some can't. But the people who can seem very pleased with how it's sounding on the best Sonos speakers, and it might make the likes of the Sonos Era 100 even more tempting to Spotify fans (especially after its permanent price cut not too long ago).

What's wrong with the Spotify Android app?

While Spotify subscribers are discussing lossless audio on Reddit, other users aren't so happy: as 9to5google reports, Sonos has confirmed that there's an ongoing issue with the Android app.

Spotify says:

We’ve received reports from Android users (mainly Samsung and Google Pixel) experiencing issues where the Spotify app becomes unresponsive, freezes, or crashes when connected to certain WiFi networks. The issue doesn’t occur while using mobile data.

At least a temporary fix is obvious if you're having trouble, but it's not ideal if you're somewhere with poor signal (or if you're on a capped phone data plan). Spotify has said that its teams are working on a fix, but so far there's no indication of when that's likely to arrive.

As the report says, the problem isn't universal – but it does appear to be affecting quite a few users, particularly on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones. And some users suspect that the problem may be related to Chromecast, which would perhaps explain why the problem goes away when you drop Wi-Fi. Whatever the reason, here's hoping Spotify finds the issue and fixes it soon.

Here at TechRadar, I’ve been able to test a bunch of Bluetooth speakers, from bass-heavy boomboxes all the way through to swell-sounding stage-style speakers. Today, though, I wanted to focus on the smaller models out there – you know, the ones you can easily throw in your bag, take on your travels, or even bring into the bathroom for some shower karaoke.

As a result, I’ve compiled a list covering four of the best small Bluetooth speakers around, those that despite their small size are perfectly capable of serving up stellar sound. Some of the heaviest hitters in the game can be found here. I’m talking Bose, JBL, Sonos… you get the picture.

Of course, sound was a big reason for each model making the list, but I’ve also considered aspects like smart features, looks, portability, and value for money. After all, there’s a lot of competition in the lightweight division of the best Bluetooth speakers market. Anyway, without further ado, let’s get into my top picks.

1. JBL Clip 5

As much as I’m impressed by every model on this list, the JBL Clip 5 might just be my number one overall recommendation. Why? Well its the ultimate intersection of great audio quality, fantastic design, and a low price.

Yes, you can regularly find this exemplary model on sale for less than $60 / £50 / AU$70 – and that’s not even the lowest I’ve seen it for. When you consider its impressively detailed audio presentation, fun-loving color options, and IP67 waterproof rating, that’s simply phenomenal value for money.

The Clip 5’s name comes from the carabiner clip it uses to attach to your backpack, belt buckle, tent… whatever you want, really. For its size, this model can also get pretty loud, and its 12-hour battery life is sure to keep the good vibes going. With Auracast Bluetooth technology, EQ options, and an ultra-compact build, this really is the full package.

Read our full JBL Clip 5 review.

2. Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Generation

It's safe to say that premium audio brand Bang & Olufsen knocked it out of the park with its Beosound A1 3rd gen model. In fact, we liked it so much that it earned an elusive five-star rating, and we described it as “magic”. Pretty high praise, right?

So what makes this model so good? Well, it's got the caliber of audio you’d expect from B&O – spacious, punchy, controlled – all the qualities you need for an immersive listen in a small package. It’s a real beauty too, coming in a circular polymer and aluminum casing. Oh, you also get up to 24 hours of playtime, a beautifully engineered control app, and a convenient leather strap.

The catch? Well, you probably saw this coming – it’s the price. See, this one’s expensive for a small model, coming in at $349 / £299 / AU$639. But as we mentioned in our review, the premium materials, stunning build quality, and top-drawer sonic capabilities of this model ensure it still provides plenty of Bang for your buck.

Read our full Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Generation review.

3. Bose SoundLink Flex Gen 2

This one’s a real personal pick, as I use the Bose SoundLink Flex Gen 2 pretty much every day to bump my favorite tunes in the shower, while cooking, or just doing the dishes.

Like the Clip 5, it’s IP67-rated, meaning it can be submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. It’s safe to say I’m never worried about a few splashes of water, then! It’s also got a smooth rubber texture, which means water can be brushed straight off, helping it to compete with some of the best waterproof speakers around.

Beyond waterproofing, I love the Bose SoundLink Flex Gen 2 for its crisp, balanced sound quality, gorgeous design, classy color variants, and companion app compatibility. You get a solid 12-hour battery life, multi-point connectivity, and a handy shortcut button too, so it's equally as practical as it is stylish.

It is a little larger than the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2, but we’ve not had a chance to get hands of with that just yet, so I’m sticking the Flex here for the moment. On top of that, I’ve seen the Flex Gen 2 drop to less than $100 / £100 during big sales events, so it can be an absolute steal if you buy when the price is right!

Read our full Bose SoundLink Flex Gen 2 review.

4. Sonos Roam 2

And finally, we have the fantastic Sonos Roam 2. This model brings something to the table that nothing else on this list can offer – Wi-Fi connectivity. That’s right, you can easily play music or podcasts without the need to individually pair to your phone, tablet, or laptop over Bluetooth – just make use of Spotify or Tidal Connect and you’re good to go.

But whether you’re listening over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you’ll still be treated to great sound quality on the Roam 2. It’s got a surprisingly broad soundstage, wonderful balance across the frequencies, and plenty of volume.

Beyond sound, we really liked the minimalist look of Sonos’ handheld speaker, as well as its seamless integration with other speakers in the brand’s ecosystem. It’s lightweight, IP67-rated, and easy to control as well, so there really is a lot to like. At the time of writing, I spotted it for less than $180 / £140, so even though it's not cheap, it’s priced pretty fairly for a great-sounding Wi-Fi enabled speaker.

Read our full Sonos Roam 2 review.

So, those are my personal picks for the four best small-sized Bluetooth speakers. Are there any models you think should’ve made the cut? Or perhaps you own and love one of the models listed above? Whatever the case may be, I’d love to hear from you, so make sure to get talking in the comments!

You may also like

• Want truly room-filling sound? Then head on over to our list of the best party speakers
• Or interested in more models that can play music over Wi-Fi? Then check out our guide to the best wireless speakers