“Sonos went back to the drawing board and delivered a truly rewarding hybrid speaker.”

Pros

Clean looks and solid build quality

Packs quite an audio punch

waterproofing is an underrated perk

Good mileage and replaceable battery

Doubles as a power bank

Cons

No power brick in retail box

You can't take calls

Stereo pairing only over Wi-Fi

Limited Bluetooth functionality

Quick Take

Sonos has had a rough couple of years. The 2024 app rollout turned into a disaster that still shows up in the support forums, and the hardware pipeline went quiet for so long that I’d genuinely started to wonder whether the company had decided to take a sabbatical from making new speakers. So when the Sonos Play showed up in the lineup at $299, I was obviously skeptical.

After six weeks of using it as my primary kitchen speaker, my weekend patio speaker, and my impromptu bathroom-radio speaker, I can confirm something I didn’t expect while unboxing this speaker. This one can bring back the irked Sonos fans.…