Sonos’ Roam SL drops the mics and cuts its price to $159

last year Sonos Room Arrived as a portable smart speaker option that not only provides high-quality sound that you can take with you, but also access to assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It was At first At $169, but Sonos He cited the global chip shortage as the reason To raise the price to $179 last fall. If you’re interested in the product but want to save a few bucks, Sonos now offers the Roam SL, a mic-less version that costs $159, and mimics the mic similarly. one SL Released two years ago.

According to the FAQ, losing the microphone not only cuts support for any of the voice assistants. This also means no Trueplay automatic volume tuningAnd live without the Sound Swap feature that lets you pass audio from your Roam to a nearby Sonos speaker by holding down the power button.

Photo: Sonos

While the Roam does not support Bluetooth pairing, the Roam SL supports stereo pairing with another Roam SL or the original Roam speaker when you’re streaming music over Wi-Fi. This can come in handy if you don’t just need to talk to a voice assistant while playing music at the beach or poolside this summer, or if you’re buying another speaker to pair with your original one. It’s also still compatible with the optional $49 wireless charger that Sonos sells, or any Qi-certified wireless charging pad.

Everything else seems to be the same for a compact amplifier We had fun despite some limitations when we reviewed it last spring. It still has an 18Wh battery with 10 hours of continuous playback, a 1.4GHz quad-core CPU, IP67 waterproof certification, and Apple AirPlay 2 compatibility. Pre-orders are now available from Sonoswith shipments scheduled to begin March 15.