Sonos Roam revealed: a Bluetooth speaker with fantastic Sonos smarts

Sonos has just revealed its most affordable and smallest speaker yet - the ultra-portable Sonos Roam.

Roam is where the heart is for Sonos, the smart speaker company that is best known for its seamless multi-room setups.

While it's left the house before with the Sonos Move - a bulky portable speaker system - its latest, the Sonos Roam, is a brilliant Bluetooth speaker that can be used as part of your existing Sonos setup or taken on an adventure.

It's been built to withstand what the outdoors throws at it, but is just as comfy in your living room. If you like the sound of that, then read on as we have 5 things you need to know about the Sonos Roam...

1. The Sonos Roam is small and built for war

Well, maybe not war but the Sonos has been given materials that would make Bear Grylls blush. It's dust proof and fully waterproof for a start, thanks to its IP67 rating, and features silicone end caps and physical buttons to protect against any drops. It measures just 168 x 62 x 60mm which means it's really dinky and weighs under a pound (0.43 kg). Despite having things like tactile buttons, looks-wise this is un-mistakingly Sonos and that is a good thing.

2. The Sonos Roam's audio quality is decent

Sonos has made sure that the sound quality coming out of the Sonos Roam's small chassis is as good as it can be, with adjustable EQ, two decent amps, a mid-woofer and tweeter inside. It has automatic TruePlay, too, which means that it will adjust to whether you are outside or inside listening to the thing.

3. The Sonos Roam is Bluetooth AND Sonos ready

This is the clever bit. While the Sonos Roam is very much a portable Bluetooth speaker - with a battery life of 10 hours - when it's stopped galavanting on its adventures, it will connect to your Wi-Fi and, most importantly, and existing Sonos setup. It also has a clever trick up its sleeve...

4. The Sonos Roam can 'Sound Swap'

This is really cool: Sonos will swap its music with any of your other Sonos speakers in a few seconds - all you have to do is hold down the play button. Do this and the nearest speaker will start blaring out whatever music you were listening to outside. Unless it's Ed Sheeran. Like all smart speakers, it's smart enough to never play Sheeran.

5. The Sonos Roam is affordable... like really affordable

Sonos is known for being a premium brand so we were surprised when they announced the price of this thing: it's £159 / $169, which makes it the most affordable speaker Sonos has released. It's also the first Sonos speaker to be able to take a bath in 1 metre of water for 20 minutes without dying. But that's only a USP if you are really clumsy.

The Sonos Roam is available to pre-order now and will be released 20 April.