The Sonos Move has been one of my most used portable speakers of all-time. I use it around the house on the dock, in the front and back gardens when gardening, and it comes with me to almost any social gathering.
The reason why it’s stayed a staple in my everyday life, when so many other portable speakers have failed to do so is the fact that it seamlessly integrates into my Sonos system through Wi-FI when in the house, and easily switches over to Bluetooth when out of the house.
I was super excited when the Sonos Move 2 was announced, and even more excited to get my hands on it, with it being very clear that many of the improvements in the Era 100 and 300 that I reviewed earlier this year, making their way to the Sonos Move 2.
From the outside, you’d struggle to tell the difference between the original Move and the Move 2. A subtle change that I noticed instantly is that the Sonos logo on the front is now black, so it blends in nicely and makes it look a little more high-end, but outside of that, everything down to size and finish is near identical.
Just like the Era 100 and 300, there’s a new touch sensitive control scheme that splits out the volume controls and the track controls which is super helpful. Privacy is also at the forefront with a button to deactivate voice assistant as well as another switch at the back to totally turn the microphones off.
There’s also a brand new charging dock which feels a lot more sturdy, doesn’t seem to slip anywhere near as much as the original, and also comes with a power cord that can be detached from the power brick that is also a lot smaller than its predecessor.
Just like the Era 100/300, there’s also USB-C line-in to connect the likes of a turntable, but something that Sonos has cleverly added is the ability to now charge devices such a your phone through the Sonos Move 2 USB-C port, which is pretty useful, when you think about how you might be using this speaker out and about.
It’s also paired with a battery life that is more than double the size of the last model, which was already decent at 11 hours, but now you’re getting 24 hours of playback, which is great for camping, or obviously getting a bit of charge out of your speaker into the device that might be sending the audio.
The Sonos Move already had great sounding audio, but the Move 2 really ups the game here as well. Instead of a single tweeter, you now have two for stereo audio. I wouldn’t say the change is as prominent as it was going from a Sonos One to a Sonos Era 100, but it just makes the speaker sound a lot fuller, with that wider soundstage really giving a bit more colour to the audio that you’re listening to.
It goes without saying that this absolutely still is the best portable speaker that you can get for audio quality, and it will equally impress when it’s in your house pairing with the rest of your Sonos family. It’s still worth mentioning that there is no Google Assistant as with other Sonos devices that released this year, so if that’s important to you, that might be make or break.
Whilst these improvements are all much welcome, it’s worth mentioning that the Move 2 is $100 more than the original, taking it to $799 AUD. I’d absolutely recommend spending the $100 more if you’re getting a Move, and I still think it’s fantastic value if you’re somebody that spends a lot of time in the garden or wants to move the speaker around.
The fact that you can easily tune the speakers with Automatic Trueplay, or send music with AirPlay 2, or use the Sonos app when it’s in your house, just goes far beyond the usability of any other portable speaker on the market, and you’re paying a premium for that, but it just works, no matter what situation that you’re in.