Yesterday marked four years since Sonos unveiled its long-awaited portable, Move. The $399 speaker got mostly good marks as the company’s first swipe at the category. There were, of course, some critiques for things like pricing, actual portability and battery.
With today’s Move 2 news, Sonos is tackling some of those points, while delivering additional features. Pricing, unfortunately, is not one of them — the new speaker runs $449 retail, while its predecessor sticks around at its original MSRP. The news is much better around battery, however. The new addition more than double’s the original Move’s stated 11-hour life up to a full 24 hours.
Other enticing features include the jump from mono to stereo playback, the addition of new touch controls and a USB-C port that delivers both line-in (something speakers like the HomePod currently lack) and external device charging, so you can use that big, replaceable battery to top up your smartphone. Line-in requires an adapter, along with an aux cable, neither of which are included.
Image Credits: Sonos
Like its predecessor, the Move 2 is IP56 water resistant and features a built-in mic array for Trueplay automatic audio tuning, as well as voice control (there’s a physical switch to turn that off for privacy’s sake). While the device has built-in stereo playback, you can also pair it with another Move 2 (but not the original) for a richer stereo effect.
The Move 2 is arriving in 32 regions on September 20, including the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia. It will be arriving in India, Japan and China as well, at an unspecified date.
If you’re looking for a cheaper and more portable option in the ecosystem, Sonos is still selling the $169 Roam. That system is significantly more compact and in line with designs from companies like JBL.