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Thank goodness for the Wayback Machine. I wanted to go back to my old review of the original Sonos Move to compare my thoughts on it against its sequel, and it looks like my previous employer has removed it.
When I think back on my review of that original Sonos Move, it was the company’s first portable speaker. It was trying to deliver sound quality on par with its existing in-home speakers, yet introduce some level of portability.
It succeeded, but the portability was questionable given the speaker’s heft and battery life.
The Sonos Move 2 is the same compromise, but it has arrived in a much different context. For a start, the Sonos Roam delivers on the premise of a truly portable Bluetooth speaker, so the Move 2 isn’t trying to fit that particular niche.
This isn’t a speaker for popping into a suitcase to take on holiday. It’s better served as a device you can move around your home to enjoy high-quality audio wherever you go.
It is still very much on the expensive side, and for that reason, will be much better suited to homes that already have an ecosystem of Sonos speakers installed.
Sonos Move 2 review: Design
The second generation of a product is a good indication of how well the first generation worked.
The Move 2 hasn’t reinvented the first generation of Move speaker from a design perspective, but it has added subtle improvements.
The newer speaker measures in at 241 × 160 × 127 mm, which is remarkably similar to the original Move’s 240 × 160 × 126 mm. Both speakers weigh 3 kg and both are rated as IP56 for water resistance.
Visually, the most striking difference is the volume slider on the top of the Move 2. This indented strip near the front of the Move 2 makes it much easier to quickly adjust the volume, while making it clear when you’re changing tracks.
Around the back there is still the recessed design that lets you easily pick up the speaker to move it around your home. The buttons have been rearranged, though, with the setup button on the original Move being replaced with a microphone switch.
The Move 2 comes with a wireless charging base, which will also work with the original Move if you’re upgrading. If you aren’t moving the speaker around the home, it’s worth setting it up somewhere you’ll use the speaker often and leaving it to charge.
Internal improvements
While the outside of the Move 2 hasn’t seen a massive overhaul, the internals have.
For a start, the Move 2 supports Bluetooth 5.0 vs Bluetooth 4.1 of the original Move, and can connect to Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks as well.
Then there’s the battery, which has roughly doubled to 24 hours of playback from the 11 hours or so of the original Move.
That extra juice also allows you to use the speaker to reverse-charge devices when you need it, making it not just a great speaker, but also a quasi-portable charger.
But the most significant change comes in the form of the Move 2’s speaker array. Sonos has replaced the Move’s single tweeter with two in the newer model, which allows for a stereo soundstage from the speaker.
Combined with the precision-tuned woofer, you get nice, clear audio.
Sonos Move 2 review: Performance
Sonos has been making Wi-Fi speakers for a long time now, so it has had plenty of time to refine every aspect of the process, from setup to playback.
The Sonos app is still best in class for managing a whole home full of speakers. Connecting the Move 2 via the app was painless, though it’s important to flag that unlike dedicated Bluetooth speakers, you will need to activate the Move 2 via the Sonos app before you can pair it via Bluetooth.
Once setup, though, switching between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is as easy as pressing the button on the back of the speaker.
Audio quality is impressive. Sonos manages to deliver a full sound from the Move 2 in a wide range of environments and, in my opinion, sounds better the louder it goes.
Listening to John Butler Trio’s Revolution, you get a huge amount of clarity as the song starts, combining the deep strums of the guitar, with Butler’s vocals coming through crystal clear. The Move 2 does an impressive job building with the song, with a full-bodied sound when the song hits its chorus.
It’s equally well-balanced across genres, with everything from Rage Against the Machine to Taylor Swift sounding robust, regardless of where you place the speaker.
One of the secrets to that particular trick is Sonos’ auto Trueplay function. And while it’s not exactly new, it’s a welcome addition to the Move 2 as well.
Effectively, the Move 2 uses its integrated microphones to adjust output based on the way the audio reflects off a room’s walls and ceiling, or lack thereof if you take the speaker outside.
The difference can be incredible, or subtle, depending on the room. When I took the Move 2 into the bathroom to test how well it handled the sound reverberating off the floor to ceiling tiles, it toned down the vocals of Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz during Perfect Blue Buildings to better balance the music.
In my much more open dining area, the vocals weren’t reverberating, and so weren’t as noticeably balanced by the Auto Trueplay function.
Battery life and voice assistants
The battery life is strong. I can’t say I tested the Move 2 non-stop for a day, but I did have it off the charger for a couple of consecutive days, and played music while I worked.
It managed to get through two and a bit days before needing to charge, which seems on par with Sonos’ 24 hours claim.
I also wanted to spend a bit of time discussing the voice assistant situation. While Sonos first launched Sonos Voice Control back in 2022, this is the first time I’ve actually tested it at length.
As a quick summary, Sonos launched its own on-device voice assistant specifically for controlling music. You need to set it up in the Sonos app, but once done, you can use it to control your whole Sonos system.
Using voice commands can group speakers, move playback to different rooms and adjust volume. You can also use it to check on battery life of the Move 2.
The catch is that you can’t use it to control anything else in a smart home, like you can with a device like the Amazon Echo Hub, for example.
You can set up Alexa as your voice control service, though Google Assistant is no longer available. But you can only have one service active.
When it comes to the Sonos voice control service, I’ve developed a bit of a love/hate relationship. It works really well for controlling music that’s already playing, grouping speakers for whole-house playback and more.
But it’s not great at getting specific songs or albums or playlists right. I asked to listen to Revolution by John Butler Trio four times, and got four different things. I had more luck with just choosing an artist, but trying to get any of my “Made for you” Apple Music playlists to work was impossible.
On the upside, Sonos has recorded Giancarlo Esposito’s voice for the audio feedback, and it is brilliant to hear Moff Gideon tell me what music I’m listening to.
Sonos Move 2 review: Verdict
The second version of a product is always a risk. While companies try to fix the negative feedback from the first generation, sometimes they go too far, making changes that detract from what made the original a success in the first place.
Sonos has managed to create a worthy successor to the original Move portable speaker. With its improved battery life, exceptional sound and subtle design changes that make control easier, it’s a clear win.
The biggest catch with the Move 2 is where it fits into your home. At $799 RRP, it is not a cheap speaker, and while it has a certain versatility by being portable, in many homes the Era 300, or even the Era 100, would be a better alternative.
Buy the Sonos Move 2 online
Sonos supplied the product for this review
