It’s been a couple of yr since Sonos launched the Roam, the corporate’s smallest and least costly speaker but. As with most trendy Sonos audio system, the Roam has a built-in microphone that allows you to use the speaker with Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant. Today, Sonos is releasing a variant of the Roam that omits that microphone, the Roam SL.

Aside from eradicating the microphone, the $159 Roam SL is similar to the unique Roam, which prices $20 extra. It’s a small speaker that may connect with your WiFi community and be a part of a Sonos multi-room audio system. But it additionally has a built-in battery and Bluetooth capabilities, so you’ll be able to take it with you and use it away from a WiFi connection. It’s additionally waterproof and dust-resistant (IP67 rated), and the battery is rated for about 10 hours. 

Aside from dropping voice assistant functionality, dropping the microphone takes away one other characteristic from the Roam SL. The authentic Roam options Auto Trueplay, which makes use of the microphone to tune the speaker to sound higher wherever you place it. With no microphone, the Roam SL will not have the ability to do that, and Sonos confirmed that you just will not have the ability to manually tune the speaker with an iPhone as you are able to do with many of the firm’s different audio system. It’s not an enormous shock, because the Roam SL is supposed to be moved, so a guide tuning course of is not one thing that’ll make sense for most individuals, however it’s nonetheless value realizing in the event you’re selecting between the Roam and the Roam SL. 

The Roam’s battery life is not pretty much as good as different audio system in its class, however it sounds nice and is a comparatively cheap option to see how the Sonos expertise works. As such, we think about the Roam SL will even be value trying out for individuals who do not need a microphone on their speaker. Sonos has tried this earlier than, with the One SL, a mic-less model of the Sonos One, so it is not an enormous shock to see the corporate supply the Roam with no mic as effectively. You can pre-order the Roam SL now on the Sonos web site, and it will be accessible on March fifteenth.