At TechRadar this weekend we've got one eye on the best Labor Day sales that you can pick up — with big discounts on offer on tech and so much more — and another eye on the week that just finished, which was as hectic as most weeks in technology tend to be.

We had a host of new products on show at the IFA 2026 tech event in Berlin, OpenAI dropping its best ChatGPT model yet and declaring the age of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and Dyson bringing out its first toothbrush. Oh, and we also made time to review the Pixel 11 Pro and have an exclusive chat with Sonos CEO Tom Conrad.

You'll find all that and more in our ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up below — our pick of the best tech headlines on our pages over the past week. Enjoy catching up!

7. The 'Lake America' saga hit Google and Apple

The Trump administration has decided that Lake Ontario on the US-Canada border should be called Lake America, after some 400 years or so (and a few trade spats with Canada). Google Maps and eventually Apple Maps went along with the change, stressing that it was just their policy to use government data — but MapQuest has been standing firm so far.

While Canadians still see 'Lake Ontario' on their maps, and international maps users see both names together, the acquiescence of the mapping companies hasn't gone down well with commenters online. "Beyond ridiculous" and "braindead" are just a couple of the comments left in a Reddit thread on the name change rolled out in Google Maps.

• Read the full story: 'Beyond ridiculous': if you're seeing Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on Google Maps, here's why

6. IKEA revealed its first smart radiator thermostat

IKEA has made a concerted effort to push out simple, affordable, reliable smart home gear in recent months, and the Liljebagge is the latest in the series to appear. It fastens to your radiator and can be used to control its temperature independently, either through a connected phone app or via the buttons placed on the actual thermostat itself.

With Matter and Thread support, this looks like another appealing gadget from IKEA, though we don't yet know about international availability and pricing. Hopefully this device goes on sale worldwide before too long — and we'd like to see IKEA continue to compete with the big names in tech when it comes to sensibly priced smart home kit.

• Read the full story: IKEA launches its first smart radiator thermostat, with Matter support and an impressively affordable price

5. We reviewed the Google Pixel 11 Pro

TechRadar's Jason Cipriani has spent a week testing out the new Pixel 11 Pro from Google, and he's ready to share his thoughts: his in-depth review covers the core specs and pricing of the phone, and its design, display quality, performance, software, cameras, and battery life. You'll be hard pushed to find a more thorough review anywhere else on the web.

You'll have to click through to get the final verdict, but phrases like "enticing to potential iPhone converts" and "truly magical" (in regard to one specific AI feature) give you an idea of the way the review leans. It's now been a decade since Google switched the Nexus branding for the Pixel branding, and all of that experience is starting to really show.

• Read the full story: I spent a week with the Google Pixel 11 Pro, and I think Google has perfected the Pixel formula

4. Sonos exclusively talked to us about its new Ultra products

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad is the man in charge of trying to turn the company's fortunes around after the software debacles of the last couple of years, and he was kind enough to give his time to TechRadar for an exclusive chat about new hardware and a new AI-infused 'operating system' that runs seamlessly across all the products in the Sonos portfolio.

There are new Ace Ultra headphones and a new Beam Ultra soundbar to talk about, and based on early impressions, it seems as though Sonos is getting back to what it does best — making high-end audio equipment that's as good as anything else you'll find on the premium market. Find out what Conrad has to say about his first year in charge below.

• Read the full story: Exclusive: Sonos CEO Tom Conrad explains why the new Sonos Ace Ultra headphones can achieve what fans wanted the first Ace to do, why its new Ultra soundbar is small, and the AI features of the company's new 'operating system'

3. We reviewed Dyson’s 'game-changing' toothbrush

Dyson just entered the smart toothbrush category, and it's not messing about: the Dyson CameraJet offers deep teeth cleaning, liquid flossing, and oral hygiene guidance in a complete package. There's even a camera on board this toothbrush, so you can get feedback on how well (or otherwise) you're managing to clear the grime from your mouth.

We've already given the Dyson CameraJet toothbrush the in-depth TechRadar review treatment, so we can tell you honestly whether it's worth your while picking up this (rather expensive) gadget and sticking it in your mouth — read on to find out why we described it as a "a unique and effective solution" for keeping your precious teeth in top shape.

• Read the full story: Dyson CameraJet review: This game-changing toothbrush offers liquid flossing, precision-brushing and a camera that doubles as a dental endoscope — I tried it for a week

2. We went to IFA 2026 and picked our favorite gadgets

There's always so much great tech to see at the IFA 2026 tech show that takes place every year in Berlin. To help cut through the thousands of brands and products being exhibited to the very best gadgets, we've put together a list of our favorite reveals. You'll find projectors, exoskeletons, e-readers, AI recorders, laptops, tablets, and more listed here.

While a lot of these listed products won't be available to buy for a month or three, they give us plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year, and act as indicators of where the technology industry is going next. In summary, everything is getting smarter, thinner, and lighter, and there's never been a better time to be a fan of cutting-edge technology.

• Read the full story: IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards: our 25 favorite reveals at the Berlin tech expo, from somersaulting robots to modular solar batteries for renters

1. OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra and said 'welcome to the AGI era'

OpenAI has announced the new GPT-6 Astra model for ChatGPT, and it comes with a lot of hype attached. According to the company, this is a "significant step forward" for AI, which is now reaching an "extremely capable" stage that apparently can't be fully understood. At the same time, OpenAI's president Greg Brockman is saying "welcome to the AGI era".

AGI is a reference to Artificial General Intelligence, a point at which AI gets smarter than humans and can do just about everything better than we can — although there's plenty of debate around the definition. Our take? We perhaps need to be more cautious about developing these AI models if it means a high risk of them escaping our control.

• Read the full story: GPT-6 is here, but what if we just said 'no thanks' to Astra, a model so powerful that we may never fully understand it

Sonos recently announced that it's launching a new soundbar to fill the gap between the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the Sonos Arc Ultra — it's called (perhaps predictably) the Sonos Beam Ultra. It's launching on September 29th 2026, and it costs $699 / £699 / AU$1,099.

It's small, like the regular Beam, but it features nine drivers to deliver 7.1.2 channels of Dolby Atmos, including upfiring drivers (which the Beam doesn't have).

Sonos' promise is that it's a bigger, more expansive, and meatier home theater experience than the regular Beam, and I got a chance to listen to a demo — though we'll have a full and in-depth review later when we can test more thoroughly.

But my time with the Beam Ultra was enough to really impress me. We started by listening to some music in Dolby Atmos, and the soundbar was extremely good at separating the sound from the hardware — the audio felt spaced across the whole room in front of me, rather than feeling like it was emitting from a compact soundbar.

Bass dispersion was really impressive, as was a feeling of 'airiness', in a good way, to vocals and positional instrument effects. Every element felt like it was able to float in the room very naturally and individually.

Switching to something bass-heavy, which is an area Sonos says it specifically wanted to improve, what stood out to me was the weight of the mid-bass. Often, in smaller speakers, this is where things fall off — they might be tuned to give good punch at their lowest point, but can't always maintain good strength as they move towards the mid-range.

There was no problem with that here: bass felt really solid throughout the range. Being a small soundbar, it's not like it can hit hard on really low-end frequencies, but there's loads of presence across the bass, so it feels satisfying.

Switching to movies and TV, we watched a clip from the Apple TV+ show Widow's Bay, emphasizing the improvement to the clarity of the center channel — dialogue came through clear over background noise.

But the real test was watching Sinners, in the big music scene of I Lied to You, which has become a common demo scene for companies to use. I was so impressed by the positional Dolby Atmos effects of elements that were way off to the side — the width was far better than other small soundbars, and was better than most big soundbars I've tested.

There's a real sense of instruments being positioned right in the far forward corners of the room, a good six feet beyond the edges of the TV we were watching, let alone beyond the edges of the small soundbar.

However, when we get it in to review, I want to test the height channels more deliberately. I wasn't feeling a lot of height effect from the demo — which might have been for a few reasons, so I can't cast judgment against the Beam Ultra for it yet. We'll be keeping an ear out for it, though.

I also got to try the same scene using the Sonos system's new ability to add some portable speakers as rear satellite speakers for surround sound. Two Sonos Play speakers were brought in and placed just behind me, and they instantly connected to the soundbar without needing the app at all.

A little tone emitted from the Beam Ultra to indicate that the Plays had connected themselves, but all the detection and connection is done invisibly by the system, and it seemed really slick.

The Plays made for a really good set of rear speakers in the demo, too — I got really clear positional effects from them, and they have a great dynamic range for movies.

Sonos confirmed that with the Plays (or a pair of Sonos Move 2 speakers, or static rear options such as the Sonos Era 100) connected, it can describe the system as a 7.1.4-channel setup, though the extra two height channels will be virtualized.

I was surprised that Sonos went with the small size of the Beam for a soundbar to sit below the Arc Ultra in its range, because I assumed that would mean a compromise on how expansive it would be — that's definitely not a concern for me anymore, and I'm really looking forward to hearing how it handles our movie library in our test rooms.

Sonos, a name synonymous with effortless home audio, has had a somewhat spotty track record in recent years. The audio quality has been unfailingly excellent, but Sonos software efforts have been an enervating mix of doing too much and too little, leaving customers not just cold but actively frustrated. Its latest updates and innovations are quite different: The introduction of a unifying platform, Sonos 27, and the threads that can pull it all together in something unironically called Sonos Fabric, which Sonos says is a name for a unifying subsystem that has long existed, though not with all of these capabilities.

I reached this conclusion on Tuesday as I sat in a darkened space and watched relatively new company CEO Tom Conrad dash from one demo living space setup to another, carrying a pair of Sonos Play speakers. He placed the pair of them on a credenza opposite the new Sonos Beam Ultra and then, without touching the Sonos app or even fiddling with the speakers, transformed the three audio sources into a unified surround sound system. And when he was done integrating the small speakers into the larger sound system, Conrad simply picked up the Sonos Play speakers and returned them to their original space. The speakers then reconnected to the standard Sonos Wi-fi network and resumed their regular roles.

This is Sonos 27 and Fabric at work, where Sonos products know when they're being lifted and moved and then can communicate ultrasonically with the Beam Ultra, which then makes a small mesh network connection to build a super-low-latency surround system.

It looked and sounded like magic and is exactly the kind of dream audio scenario I imagined when buying disparate speakers. Sonos, which has always allowed its speakers to communicate and create stereo sound systems, has long held the promise of this kind of automation, but it was never possible before Fabric.

It's a hardware and software feature that could excite existing customers and even inspire a legion of new ones.

Doing what makes sense

Where Sonos' software development once seemed sort of aimless and disconnected from consumer demands, Conrad's Sonos appears to be hyper-focused on doing only what makes sense for its customers.

Take its Sonos 27Voice, which manages to up the intelligence of the Sonos voice system while staying firmly in the audio lane.

Read our exclusive interview with Sonos CEO Tom Conrad

Instead of trying to transform your Sonos speaker into a voice-activated hub for all your smart home needs, Sonos decided to keep the 27Voice fixated on Sonos capabilities, but with a bit of a twist that I think people will appreciate. In Conrad's demo, he asked a sort of rambling question about a musician, and 27Voice quickly connected him to his desired music. Time and again, Conrad's vague queries resulted in sonic pleasure.

Sonos' other strategic gem, though, is openness. So, if you want to ask your Sonos tougher questions, like how to properly cook tenderloin, it'll happily pass only the prompt to another AI of your choice.

This open approach also carries through in reverse, with AI models like Claude, ChatGPT and, yes, Siri, able — via something Sonos calls Sopnos MCP — to control Sonos speakers through the new Sonos platform.

Sonos is also fixing past missteps by, for instance, making sure that new products joining the mix are complete and fully integrated members of the Sonos family.

Music to my ears

The new Ace Ultra ($449 / AU$699), which Conrad at one point wore around his neck as he presented the new products, platforms, and strategies, is a far more complete member of the Sonos family than the original Sonos Ace headphones. Those high-end headphones only connected to the Sonos Arc soundbar. The new Ace Ultra, which includes Sonos's Headphone Engine 2, uses Sonos Fabric and, with a press of a button, can pick up the audio from the Beam Ultra or any other member of the current Sonos audio family. I saw this in action, and it really is a one-button operation.

What has remained consistent in 25 years of operation is Sonos's audio quality (I have an aging pair of Play:1 speakers that I love and use to this day), and even in my brief time with the Beam Ultra soundbar and Ace Ultra headphones, I found impressive audio chops.

The Ace Ultra headphones, which promise 35 hours of battery life (3 hours on a 3-minute charge), feature a new driver and updated adaptive EQ that adjusts each time you put the headphones on. The headphones delivered a wide range of sonic experiences to my ears, which I selected from the new Sonos iPad app. I heard deep bass, sharp highs, and warm mids. I never wore the original Sonos Ace headset, but I can report that these are not only comfortable to wear, but the updated ear foams and greater yoke range and flexibility provide a near-perfect fit and seal.

The button placement, which was new to me, took a bit of getting used to, but I found I liked the volume slider that also doubles as a push-to-pause button. There's also a button that you can push to quickly sync up with the Beam Ultra. Onboard ANC also managed to cut out the thrum of a very noisy demo space.

Similarly, the Sonos Beam Ultra is a relatively compact soundbar capable of producing some very rich sound. There are now 9 drivers, including a pair of upfiring ones dedicated to bouncing dialogue off the walls and ceiling. Sonos says it provides 7.1.2 surround sound, and in my experience, it was loud, clear, and exciting. During the demo, they were playing Godzilla vs Kong, and I immediately wanted to grab some popcorn and park myself in front of the 4K TV and white Beam Ultra soundbar.

Overall, the $699 / AU$1,099 speaker bar seems well equipped to transform any audio-challenged TV.

Both the Ace Ultra and Beam Ultra are on pre-order now and start shipping on September 29.

Sonos appears to be taking some care with the rollouts, with some arriving as soon as next week and others more slowly as previews and early access builds. I'm sure Sonos would love to avoid another calamity where everyone's Sonos app changes at once, and they suddenly lose features or even gain ones that confuse them. I'd argue, however, that these alterations — Sonos 27, Fabric, and 27Voice — are some of the most thoughtful updates the company has produced in a generation, and could turn your disparate collection of Sonos hardware into a cohesive, useful, and sonically pleasing whole.

Sonos has just made three new announcements: it's launching a new pair of headphones called the Sonos Ace Ultra; it's launching a new soundbar called the Sonos Beam Ultra; and it's rebranding its software side as an "operating system" that it's calling Sonos 27 — and is adding a new AI-enabled voice assistant, new AI agent integration, and smarter ways for its speakers to work together.

I spoke to Sonos' CEO Tom Conrad about the new launches — especially the new software, since any new software changes that Sonos makes will be met with caution from the community, as Conrad and I discussed last time we spoke.

First, here's a rundown of the details of what Sonos is launching, starting with the Ace Ultra. These new headphones will launch at $449 / £399 / AU$699, and bring a new 40mm driver promising improved sound — but more interestingly they're powered by a new chip called the Headphone Engine 2 that means they'll be able to do what people expected the original Sonos Ace to do: they'll be able to work as a standard part of the Sonos ecosystem.

The Beam Ultra, meanwhile, sits between the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) and the Sonos Arc Ultra — it's a compact soundbar, but it delivers 7.1.2 channels of Dolby Atmos sound, using nine drivers (including two upfiring drivers, which is a first for the Beam range). It launches at $699 / £699 / AU$1,099.

Both of the new products are available to pre-order on September 1, 2026, and will launch on September 29, 2026.

When it comes to software, Sonos has given its platform a name for the first time: Sonos 27. Part of the launch of Sonos 27 is the reveal of Sonos Fabric, which is the name Sonos has given to "the system capability that enables Sonos products to sense each other and adapt to the moment" — and immediately, Fabric is being used to enable smart music switching on the Ace Ultra, and the ability to have portable surround speakers in Sonos home theater setups. Conrad will explain both of those in our interview.

There are two other new elements to Sonos 27, though. Sonos 27voice is a new voice assistant that's based on AI tech, and Sonos 27mcp is a new way for AI agents to connect to Sonos systems and control them.

In our conversation, Conrad dug into why the company is doing all of this and what the company is offering for AI skeptics — so let's get into it, starting with Conrad's explanation of why they wanted to give the software a name at last.

Tom Conrad: When I got the nod to become permanent CEO about a year ago, one of my observations about the company's recent history was that while we had started as a system company, we had spent the last almost decade being really focused on getting great at shipping individual products, filling out the product line with every shape and form that our customers were interested in. Small, medium, and large soundbars; a couple sizes of subwoofer; big amplifiers, small amplifiers; portables… you get the point. And Patrick [Spence, former Sonos CEO] and the team became a really well-oiled machine with respect to hardware execution.

But in doing that, I think the unintended consequence was that at times we took our eye off the ball [regarding] what it meant to bring those products together into a cohesive whole. And someone shortly after I arrived said that the thing about Sonos is it's really 100% hardware and 100% software. And I love that framing, because it's so right. We have these two really hard problems to solve, and if either one of them doesn't get complete dedicated focus from exactly the right people, we don't deliver what our customers expect.

And so, we've done all kinds of things to elevate the software expertise in the company over the course of the last year. And at the same time, we've really invested in the idea that the software is what makes the system. And as you look at how we've taken our products to market through the years, we've always given the hardware a name — Arc and Ace and Beam and Move — but the software has never had a name.

So one of the big announcements this week is that we're giving the software a name. And what we make is really an operating system for audio experiences in the home — and ‘OS’ has always been there in our name! And so we're simply calling the software Sonos 27 because, really, it is that ‘systemness’ that the software provides that makes Sonos. And we're attaching the year moniker to it, because Sonos does get better year after year. There'll be a Sonos28 and a Sonos29 and so on.

Matt Bolton: As soon as I saw the name, my first thought was whether this means we're talking about a planned update cadence, and that feels like it would probably be a different approach than Sonos would have necessarily taken in the past?

Tom Conrad: Yeah, I think one of the things about the company for the last many years is that because we only talked about the hardware, anything we wanted to do in software had to kind of ‘ride along’ on the hardware itself. And so we'd add Atmos, or we'd add voice assistants, or we'd add new surround experiences, but they would always be tied to the fact that we're making a new soundbar, so we can work on home theater experiences. We're making a product with a microphone so we can work on voice products. By separating out the idea of the operating system, we're giving it its own identity, its own road map, its own cadence of release, which we think is a really exciting change for the company.

And our customers can expect that the software doesn't get better only when we release new hardware. And it doesn't even get better just once a year. It gets better all the time through the year, which I think fits a new, modern way that people talk about their software platforms.

Matt Bolton: What we've been seeing more recently is you guys rolling out improvements and features on a pretty regular basis. The question I have as a user is: does this mean that I'm going to be waiting for a once-a-year Sonos 27 update to get new features?

Tom Conrad: I understand that feeling. But I think if you look at even what Apple does now, they once a year talk about their new operating system, and then the features roll out through the year, some of which they've sort of talked about in their big moments and some of which are a surprise and delight along the way, and our model will be exactly the same.

Matt Bolton: I assume this means that you've got a road map already in mind that covers Sonos 28 and Sonos 29. How far in advance are you thinking?

Tom Conrad: We do, for sure. Certainly, the list of things that I want to accomplish in software runs to many years. But one of the unique opportunities in software — unlike hardware, where you have to make these bets that go out, two or three years after you start programs — is that in software, even a big program might be six months of effort.

And so, while I like to have a two- or three-year road map for software, I like to be constantly replanning so that we can react to what's happening in our customers' lives. If you think back three years ago, for example, we hadn’t even had the ChatGPT moment yet. And so, to have a locked three-year roadmap and be resolutely dedicated to that path, not understanding how the world has changed in the last three years, would be foolish. And so we have a plan, but also the wisdom to be constantly reevaluating and reprioritizing as our customers' needs evolve.

Matt Bolton: How far ahead do you plan to communicate to customers what is coming? Like you say, Apple will announce at WWDC things it doesn't expect to necessarily launch until quite a bit later in the year.

Tom Conrad: I think it's likely that we'll do a couple of events or moments a year where we talk about what's coming and what's newly available. And so I think you can expect, in many years, there'll be kind of a fall event, like this one, where we talk about our big plans for the year, and then there'll be kind of a midyear check-in where we'll add to the story.

Matt Bolton: So let’s talk about AI integration. Generally, people have gotten to the point where they're now pretty skeptical of AI features being added to everything, but it sounds like you're taking a practical approach. So how do you assess what you should build and integrate — what you can do with, as you say, the three years of the ChatGPT ‘moment’?

Tom Conrad: I guess we'll start with what we do for skeptics. The things that we do with conversational AI are completely opt-in experiences, to the point that our speakers all have a hard microphone button on them, so you press it, and it literally breaks the electrical connection between the microphone and the rest of the device. So for those who are uninterested in this moment, we provide a platform that I think has incredible utility, even absent modern AI-powered capabilities.

But I think in some ways, the more exciting dimension of what we're doing is that we're really not starting from, ‘Oh, there is this incredible new technology in large language model, generative conversational AI infrastructure, what can we build with that?’ Instead, we're starting from really spending time with our customers and understanding what they might want to do with voice in the context of Sonos in their home. And we have the room to do that because we've been shipping voice assistants on Sonos for nearly a decade, including our own.

And when I talk to customers, they say, ‘I love the idea that I can engage with the Sonos system in my home without taking my phone out of my pocket. It takes a long time for me to get to the app, my partner looks at me sideways. Like, why are you on your phone when we're having a conversation?’ I mean, I think broadly you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who's like, ‘I wish that the people I share my home with were on their phone more.’ Instead, they're looking for ways to put the phones in a drawer and enjoy being together.

I think voice is intuitively a great way to solve that, and that's why Sonos One, our first product that had a voice assistant, was such a smash hit 10 years ago. I think people understood that this is a great way to engage. But, unfortunately, the [voice] agents themselves really didn't meet the expectations of the customer.

When I go out and talk to people, the first thing they say is not crazily complex scenarios about how to control my smart home in nine different ways — all this stuff that you hear about from other players in the industry. They say, ‘I just want to be able to talk to the assistant about what I want the same way I would talk to a human being.’ I wanna be able to say, ‘Play that album that I loved in college, with the one with the singer from the Cocteau Twins. I think the band did the theme song to that Fox show. What's it called? It's about a doctor who's really grumpy all the time. Oh, yeah. It's called House.’

And, certainly, with first-generation voice assistants, even if they knew the name of the song, they would have to remember that you have to say ‘Play this song by this artist’ and not say the album and not say the artist first — and [we had to] guess what the agent is thinking. So job one, two, three, four, five, and six is: speak to this thing naturally.

The second thing that they say is they don't really care about all of these seemingly made-up examples of things that tech companies seem to think that we want to do. ‘I looked at your calendar and noticed that you have people coming for brunch tomorrow, and the refrigerator says you're out of eggs. So I'm gonna text your wife to tell her that you've gone to the store to get-’… I mean, no one wants the system in your walls to do that stuff in the real world, I don't think.

But they do want to be able to quickly control ‘atmosphere’, I would call it — which means music, means a soundtrack, and often means lighting. And yeah, they wanna be able to set timers. They wanna be able to ask about the weather. Everything else is really far down the list from there.

So we built [Sonos 27voice] to do exactly those things. It's really fast. It's really reliable. It's really resilient to anything you throw at it linguistically. And I think people are gonna be really delighted with just the fact that it just works. One benefit to narrowing the problem domain to exactly what customers are asking for is that we're also able to deliver this with modern infrastructure that is affordable to run, which means that we can make it a standard part of the Sonos system without having a secondary subscription on top — which is another dimension that people, I think, really want. They don't want another line item on their credit card just to be able to control the ambiance in their home.

Matt Bolton: What is the technology in the background? Are you using a particular language model? Are you running on your own servers or tying into someone else's systems?

Tom Conrad: Let me give you the one last piece of the puzzle that we hear from customers, because it will help me explain the architecture. They do also say that they want access to comprehensive world knowledge. I'm in the kitchen. I'm cooking a pork tenderloin. I wanna know what the temperature should be for it to be safe to eat. My wife and I are having a debate about the name of the actor from Ted Lasso. And people want the voice assistants to be able to talk to them about the world.

So you need something that is everything that I described, but also has the wisdom to reach out to a more sophisticated general-purpose model when the query is outside of the domain of ambiance and timers and weather and the stuff that makes up 95% of what people ask. So we've built our own core model that is a purpose-built, fine-tuned, kind of mid-scale large language model, if you like, that we run on our own infrastructure and answers that 95%, and then reliably routes to an external frontier model for the general knowledge or complex questions.

And we'll even do fun things, like if the frontier model can help in the task of figuring out the music, it will do that too. So you can say things like, ‘Find some music that's breaking through on TikTok and filter it through that shoegaze music that I liked when I was in college in the nineties and make a playlist for me.’ And it will use the frontier model to understand what's being talked about on TikTok. It'll use our infrastructure to understand my musical taste, and then it'll build a playlist and go. So that's what we're doing with Sonos 27voice.

Matt Bolton: I assume the frontier model will change over time, but which one are you using for launch?

Tom Conrad: We're not talking about the infrastructure at launch, but you're right to assume that part of the flexibility here is to be able to trade in and out frontier models to optimize costs, et cetera.

Matt Bolton: The other side of the AI features you announced that I'm really interested in is the MCP integration. Sonos has this long history of being relatively developer-friendly and open, which you guys emphasized a lot in the announcement of this OS. So the MCP integration feels like you’re re-embracing the element of wanting people to be making stuff that works with your system.

Tom Conrad: I think one of the exciting things that's happened in the last, not even two years, but in the last six months, is that suddenly we see ordinary people are able to make software, right? And I know we see it all over the company, and we see it all around the world with our customers. Already, unofficial hacked API access to Sonos is a very common, vibe-coded use case, and you hear people, lots of very high-profile people, talking about controlling their system. And then I meet customers all the time who are experimenting with these things.

And so, we're launching Sonos 27mcp, which makes a supported, full surface-area set of actions in the Sonos system available to our customers, to interact with music through any agent that they choose. Sonos will show up in the Claude connector directory — and the ChatGPT connector directory, and the Grok connector directory, and the Gemini connector directory — alongside Slack and Calendar and Figma, all the other things that you might interact with in Claude on any given day.

And you can do pedestrian things like turn the music down in Claude or whatever you’re using on your phone, in their app, in their desktop app, in a web browser. It will have enough context to understand that the music is on your Sonos system, and it will find the music that's playing and turn it down.

And it will also chain tools together, so you could say things like, ‘Look at my calendar and see the party that's coming up, look at who's coming, help me figure out what would be a great set of music to play based on what we know about these people from my email history with them.’ It's a terrible made-up example. But it's really good at chaining together a bunch of tools and its own native inference and doing these things.

And then as you point out, in the sort of hobbyist community, there's this tremendous opportunity to make bespoke control experiences, both software and hardware, using this infrastructure to integrate Sonos into the emerging agentic frameworks like OpenClaw and Hermes. There's going to be dozens of these things that take over, over the course of the next year, and we'll be able to participate in that.

I think it's just gonna be really fun to see what our customers do with this. And I think it's a really unique capability, because to do it well, you have to have both the technical infrastructure — which is to say access to the nouns and verbs of your system through the internet — which very few people have.

And then you also have to have the, like, philosophical perspective that says openness is good, and allowing integration and access from these third-party systems doesn't disintermediate us. It elevates us, and not every company — maybe no other company — has that perspective.

Matt Bolton: It feels like it must be part of building a future-proof system as well, because MCP seems like quite an agnostic approach, and it means that if, say, Apple adds good MCP support to Siri, you don't have to do anything to support it. But at the same time, does it make it any harder for you to develop on your end knowing that you're going to have this really open-ended way for agents to come in and interact with the system? Does that complicate building and planning features in any way?

Tom Conrad: First, just as a footnote, I should say that it may turn out that Apple's answer to all of this integration is not MCP, but what they call App Intents. And we're also, in this moment, shipping App Intent support on Apple's platform, so we have that piece as well. It's kind of a semantically one-to-one mapping — where the connector lives is different, but what you can do with it is very similar.

How do I say this… Maybe the worst of all worlds is to have all of the third-party engagement with your product be done through hacks and unsupported APIs… I have a friend who has a newborn, and he gets up early to work. He wants to be notified when his wife wakes up, so that he could put the coffee on. And so he basically just set [Claude] Fable about the task of, like, ‘Figure out when my wife wakes up’. And so the agent hacked his smart bed. And then he's like, ‘And start the coffee maker [at that point]’. And it hacked the API for his coffee maker.

I don't know that I wanna be on the receiving end of that universe, because now when I change an implementation detail, it breaks these experiences. And I think the customer blames the coffee maker company and the smart bed brand. They don't blame the fact that they essentially had hacked themselves on top of some infrastructure that was never meant to be built upon.

And so I think the new world sort of demands a certain amount of willingness to participate in this, and I'm really excited at the idea that the MCP infrastructure gives us a really nice structured way to not just do it once and have it applied to multiple platforms, but to do it in a way that allows for a layer of compatibility as we evolve the back-end services.

Matt Bolton: The other thing I wanted to ask regarding so much talk of this being an open platform is just how open are we talking? Would we see Sonos 27 on other devices, on non-Sonos hardware?

Tom Conrad: I think, for now, the magic of Sonos really is the marrying up of what we do in hardware and then what we do with software. And so you'd never say never, but at least as it relates to the core audio business that we're in, I think we're focused on making our own exceptional experiences for the home.

I will put a tiny asterisk on that. We have a great partnership with Peloton that started with us tuning the audio experience in their newest equipment, but is extending over time to allow the Sonos system in their customers' homes to become the audio destination for [their products’ audio output]. It's not quite us bringing the operating system into other people's audio hardware, but it’s a good example of continuing the work that we've all already done to integrate everywhere where our customers wanna be.

Matt Bolton: In the Sonos Ace Ultra, obviously the big headline hook for the hardcore Sonos fans is going to be the Sonos system connectivity that people had hoped the first Ace would have. Why is the new Headphone Engine 2 hardware necessary to make that happen?

Tom Conrad: There were two pieces to unlocking the headphone connectivity for the system. The first is that we needed Wi-Fi performance and secure storage transport of [security] credentials, which is deeply embedded into the actual silicon that goes into the headphone. Unfortunately, Ace doesn't have that platform, so we couldn't responsibly bring the feature to Ace without putting your Wi-Fi password, for example, at risk on an open network during configuration. And without the improved Wi-Fi capability of the headset itself, we couldn't get the kind of ‘walk around your home’ networking performance that we wanted for the product.

But to your point, I'm really proud of the original Ace. They're super comfortable. They've got great battery life. They've got best-in-class noise cancellation performance. They're great headphones.

But it is the best example of how, in that chapter, the company had forgotten how important it is to make sure that the products we make are really part of the system, and not just an exceptional pair of headphones. Because let's be honest, there are lots of exceptional headphones in the world.

And so from the jump on Ace Ultra, we knew that we had to do the thing that our customers most wanted, which was to make the headphones an intuitive part of the [Sonos] system.

There are two mechanisms for engaging with this feature. The first is really kind of magical: you can walk up to any speaker that's playing in your home, press a button on the headset, and the music just jumps from the speaker into the headphone. You can then walk to some other part of your house, press the button again as you stand in front of [another speaker], and the music or content jumps from the headphone to the speaker. No app, no delay, no Bluetooth; it's really just the Sonos ‘Fabric’ tech facilitating this effortless, seamless experience around the home.

I said there were two things that unlock this capability. The first is the hardware that lives in the new headphones. The second is something that happens in the operating system itself, which is that — with the launch of Amp Multi — we built a virtualization technology that allows a single instance of the Sonos OS to host multiple instances of the runtime. And what that's for in Amp Multi is that you’ve got one box running four rooms.

We've taken that capability and extended it to the whole modern speaker family, so that this Sonos Play that's sitting on my desk with me can run more than one instance of the runtime. And so the headphones, which don’t have the CPU horsepower to run the full Sonos stack, doesn't have to — because it can nominate a speaker on your network to be its proxy.

And so when you when the music jumps from the speaker [to the headphones], we spin up a virtual instance of Sonos [software] in one of the speakers — it might be the one you're standing in front of, it might be another one that's less utilized — and send audio over the network as a stream to the headphones, rather than running the full stack in the headset.

And what's cool about this is whatever speaker is doing that work still has the performance overhead to run as a speaker to play music for someone else in the home. So it's a deceptively simple feature that has a lot...underneath it.

Sonos Fabric is the moniker that we've given to the fundamental technology of Sonos that bonds, and groups, and links headphones. And the other exciting thing that we're doing with Fabric in this release is that we're enabling what we call portable surrounds, which is the ability to take a Sonos Play or a Move and to use them as surrounds in a home theater setup.

So the idea is you've got Sonos Play or a couple of Moves in the kitchen, the backyard, whatever — for movie night, you can bring them in, set them down [behind you], and use them for the surround Atmos experience in your family room. And then when you're done, put them back to work in other places in your house.

What's so cool about this technologically is that the way a speaker becomes part of your home theater is fundamentally technically different than the way that a speaker joins the grouping architecture of Sonos [for multi-room], because the latency requirements between the soundbar and the surround speakers are much higher.

So when a speaker joins a home theater configuration, it actually, from a networking standpoint, connects directly to the soundbar. It doesn't go through your home network. And so when you take a speaker that was in the kitchen as part of the grouping architecture, and move it into a [home theater] satellite position, a whole bunch of magic stuff has to happen.

First of all, the soundbar and the speaker have to recognize one another. And so we use the accelerometer in the portable speaker to understand that it's been picked up and set down. And when it's set down, we send an ultrasonic signal. If there's a soundbar in the room that can hear it, it sends a signal back, and they do a handshake to figure out left-to-right distance, to automatically tune, and spin up to the home theater networking connection — all without you doing anything. No app involved at all.

It’s another one you kinda have to experience to really appreciate, but I’m super excited to begin to ship these much more flexible home theater configurations. It's unlike anything that the rest of the industry is delivering today.

Matt Bolton: Can you tell me about the new driver design in the Ace Ultra? What did you want to change compared to the previous one?

Tom Conrad: We have just some of the most sophisticated audio engineers in the world working on these products, and they wanted to deliver deeper bass, clearer details, and a clearer soundstage with less distortion. We had the opportunity to go in and build a custom driver for Ace Ultra to tune it in the studio with some of the best, and award-winning audio engineers in the world.

You have to hear it and compare it side by side with Ace, but I think you'll find that it has a deeper bass response, clearer detail, [better] balance across the audio spectrum.

Matt Bolton: I thought it was really interesting that the Beam Ultra comes in kind of as a replacement for where the original Arc ended up in the product range following the launch of the Amp Ultra. Why did you go down the route of squeezing more channels into the smaller Beam body, instead of sticking with the bigger and more flexible Arc shape to fill that role?

Tom Conrad: Our goal was to deliver truly the best midsize soundbar in the world. There are still plenty of people around the world that want a smaller form factor. They want something that can tuck underneath the television when it's sitting on a credenza, or for a smaller television. Or, frankly, they just want an object that doesn't call as much attention to itself as a larger soundbar.

And yet they want full true 7.1.2 Dolby Atmos. They want a height experience that puts them really inside the action. And so with Beam Ultra, we built a system that has nine drivers, including two upfiring drivers, that bounce audio off the ceiling and the walls to create that immersion.

If you spend time with any home theater customer, you understand that they really want a pristine dialogue experience where the dialogue always cuts through the busy scenes. And so the center soundstage of Beam Ultra is dramatically improved.

They also want bass that lands with a tremendous weight without having to put a subwoofer into the room. They want music that's expansive and has a clear soundstage. And the creators want products that recreate their intention in the family room with great accuracy.

It's so hard to talk about these products that deliver these sound experiences before people have the chance to experience them in person. But everyone we're sharing Beam Ultra with just can't believe the amount of sound experience and presence you get out of such a small soundbar.

Matt Bolton: So was it the case that when you were speaking to customers, you figured out that if people are buying at this kind of midrange price, they more often want the smaller size rather than the bigger size — even if that adds complication on your end?

Tom Conrad: That's right. I mean, we already have the best-in-the-world large soundbar in Arc Ultra. And so the question really was for the rest of the market: what can we do to make a huge generational leap in capability here? And that's the place that Beam Ultra comes from.

Matt Bolton: It feels like you could have gone with 5.1.2 channels on the Beam Ultra, and that probably would have made people happy if delivered with higher quality. What was there in the development that meant that you settled on 7.1.2 as necessary, or the right option?

Tom Conrad: Well, I think part of it is that we deliver in Beam itself such an exceptional experience around the 5.1.2 experience. We really wanted to find a way to expand the product portfolio rather than just refreshing Beam. And so, in this moment, Beam will stay in the market as our solution for the customer that is more price-conscious and who wants that 5.1.2 experience, and Beam Ultra sits above it to deliver a more immersive Atmos surround experience.

• App update delivers tab navigation, speaker/room sorting, and Dynamic Volume slider for iOS
• Phased rollout so it won't reach everyone simultaneously
• May take up to two weeks to arrive

Sonos users may not need to keep creating alternative apps for their systems: the official app is getting a significant update that's rolling out now. It's a phased rollout, so not everyone will get it at once, but it should reach everyone's devices within the next fortnight — though it's also optional, so you need to manually turn the changes on (for now).

Posting on Reddit, Sonos said: "We have a new Sonos App update and it's a big one." In addition to the usual bug fixes, there are significant interface improvements and, on iOS, a new volume interface too.

According to ShaunFromSonos, you shouldn't have to wait more than two weeks for the update on iOS or Android, and the timescale is "likely sooner". Provided you have Automatic Updates enabled, you'll get it as soon as it's rolled out to your device — however, once you have version 87 of the app, you need to turn on "Enable Improved Navigation" in Settings.

Sonos says that it's not making it the default until it's been tested en masse, outside of a limited beta environment. If people use it, love it and don't encounter major technical issues, then it could become the default later in the year.

Sonos app update in July 2026: what's new?

The update is coming to the Sonos app and Player and delivers clear tabbed navigation that follows the standard design conventions of Android and iOS respectively, with buttons to clearly show what's been selected and more prominent Home, System, and Search options.

The app will also now let you reorder speakers and rooms directly. You can sort alphabetically, by frequency of use, and by which speakers are currently playing audio. You can also pin your favorite speakers for fast access. As with the interface changes, this is opt-in and requires you to enable the improved navigation.

On iOS, there's a new volume slider that gets bigger when you interact with it, and it displays the number within the slider so you can see exactly what volume level you've selected.

Initial responses seem pretty positive so far, with one poster noting that the search function seems much faster on Android. Sonos are actively seeking feedback here, so if you've got the update already they'd like to know what you think on the app update Reddit thread.

Sonos also says that Lock Screen playback controls are coming to iOS soon, a long-awaited feature that's already available on Android.

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Sony's social media team are having a rough week: anything they post is getting piled on by angry gamers who are outraged by Sony's plans to stop the production of game discs.

Many PlayStation owners are vowing to boycott the PlayStation Store, cancel their PlayStation Plus membership and never buy PlayStation products again.

It's a PR nightmare for sure, with pretty much any online PlayStation content becoming a place for gamers to protest, derailing any attempt to talk about anything else.

It reminds me of the response to Sonos' introduction of a new and hugely flawed app, which Sonos now admits was badly done.

Sonos' PR nightmare lasted for around 18 months, there is now optimism and rebuilt trust around the new changes it's bringing to improve the app. Could Sony learn from Sonos' experience and its attempts to rebuild customer trust?

I think the answer is: yes it could, but no it won't.

What Sonos got right and Sony probably won't

Speaking to TechRadar earlier this year, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad set out his views on how to try and make angry customers happy again. "You just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through."

So far, Sony isn't doing that: rather than respond to gamers' concerns, it's battening down the hatches and staying silent about its move to digital-only. And that's a shame, because there are genuine reasons for gamers to worry about Sony's decision.

There are three key concerns about digital-only. The first, and I think the most important, is cost. The PlayStation Store is ludicrously expensive: for example Spider-Man 2, a three-year-old game, is £69.99 digital today in the UK, where I'm based. Competition between retailers means it's around £37 on disc.

The second is second-hand gaming. I buy many games second-hand, and many gamers like to sell their games after they've completed them or got annoyed by them, so that they can spend what they recoup on more new games (a win for the industry overall). So I can buy Returnal for about £20 on eBay. I can't buy the digital edition second-hand, so if I want the digital version it's… you guessed it, £69.99.

To be fair, you can get both games, and others, on PlayStation Plus Extra. But not everyone wants or can sustain yet another subscription, and we know that all subscription services go up in price — often dramatically so, as we saw with Xbox Game Pass last year.

And the third is ownership. Sony's disc announcement came just days after it deleted customers' purchased copies of over 500 movies, making it clear that purchasing doesn't mean owning forever. And those movies cost a lot less than £69.99.

Sony may have to eat humble pie for a while in order to mimic Sonos here, seeking out customer views to talk about those concerns, and maybe thinking about how to address them — so for example it could tell us that digital codes would still be sold through multiple retailers, like Nintendo does with its key cards, or that we'd be able to resell our digital-only games (even if it hasn't developed the mechanism for this yet).

However, the reality is that for a firm the size of Sony, even a significant customer backlash such as 246,586 signatures on a petition represents a microscopic proportion of its 125 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, let alone the many more PlayStation owners — and it can afford to ignore them.

That's something of a gamble. Just ask Microsoft, whose Game Pass price hike scared off far more customers than expected — according to reports, it lost 4 million out of 34 million Game Pass subscribers when it was expecting huge growth instead, forcing a partial reversal.

But Sony's gaming business is far bigger, and that means it can still upset a lot of customers without feeling much pain.

I suspect Sony is going to take a different lesson from the Sonos situation: even at the height of customer anger, Sonos still sold lots of speakers, soundbars and subs.

Then again, maybe Sony is more rattled than it's currently letting on. Two days after the digital-only announcement, with customers raging online, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki sold more than half of his Sony stock and Sony's chief strategy officer unloaded a bunch of Sony shares too.

• The Google Home Speaker supports wireless connectivity to the Google TV Streamer
• This gives a simple way to curate your own home theater setup
• You can connect your Google Home Speaker through your Google TV device, or via the Google Home app

Google’s new Home Speaker comes with a slew of much-needed upgrades, but its support for wireless connectivity with the Google TV Streamer is a tool users have been pining for since the company started making smart hubs.

As well as its Gemini-powered smarts and 360-degree audio redesign, Google now lets you to wirelessly pair the Home Speaker with your Google TV device, allowing you to ditch your TV’s built-in speakers and set up a home theater system. Pairing just one Google Home Speaker works, but you’ll get the most out of your setup if you have two.

The company announced its initial plans to develop the feature in 2020 when it unveiled the Nest Audio, its first smart speaker, but the functionality never arrived. “Google Home Speaker now works together with your Google TV Streamer. You can pair up to two speakers with a Google TV Streamer to turn your living room into a mini home theater with spatial surround sound,” the company detailed in a blog post.

Surround-sound systems are integral to most entertainment fanatic’s setups, but they don’t always have to feature a multitude of different types of speakers — some people simply rely on the best sound bars to boost their audio. Though the Google Home Speaker isn’t necessarily suited to seasoned audiophiles, it gives novices an inexpensive and hassle-free way to enhance their streaming experience.

It hasn’t been impossible to hook up wireless speakers to the Google TV Streamer, however, as the option to use the best Bluetooth speakers has always been there. However, because the Google Home Speaker’s function relies on Wi-Fi, the bandwidth is much bigger. This means it also supports Dolby Atmos which, for a cost-effective home theater setup, is quite a fair perk.

Audio champions such as Sonos and Bose have offered wireless connectivity with third-party streaming devices for years, so the Google Home Speaker’s functionality is far from new. That said, it’s only recently that TV manufacturers have decided to jump on the bandwagon and sell speakers of their own.

Over the last 18 months or so, brands including Amazon, LG and Samsung have released their own speakers to allow wireless connectivity with their range of TVs — so Google is playing catch-up here.

How to pair your Google Home Speaker with your Google TV Streamer

Once you’ve set up your Google Home Speaker for regular use, you can pair it with your Google TV device right from the home screen.

Using your Google TV Streamer remote, click the home button and head to ‘Quick Settings’ at the top of the screen. From there, select ‘Audio output’ from the options, click ‘Connect another device’, then select ‘Google speakers’ and click ‘Getting started’.

After this stage, you should see a list of Google Home Speakers connected to your account in a separate window, and you’ll want to select the ones you wish to pair with your Google TV Streamer. Once you’ve done this, tap ‘Next’ and it should complete your setup.

You can also do this from the Google Home app, as Google details on its support page.

• People continue to build alternative Sonos apps with features Sonos hasn't offered
• Recent creations include customizable room correction that works with front surrounds
• Most aren't widely available, and are being shown in invite-only betas

In the last few months, Sonos has finally moved on from fixing its app's tech issues to improving it with new navigation and adding some useful new techy features, such as a key new network troubleshooting option.

But many Sonos users are just tired of waiting for long-requested features — such as the ability to add front surround speakers — so they're building their own alternatives instead.

We covered some user-created apps to improve the Sonos ecosystem not too long ago, and the list of available options continues to grow.

More Sonos apps than you can shake a soundbar at

First up there's "the app Sonos should have made" according to its creator: Somos InControl. It's an iOS remote for Sonos home theater products with custom EQ, saveable sound presets, surround height levels and music features too.

The big draws here are that it supports adding front left and right surround speakers, and the ability to save EQ options for different use cases — the example screen shot has slightly tweaked sound for 5.1 surround versus Dolby Atmos versus music listening that you instantly switch between. It's an Apple TestFlight work in progress so availability is limited, but it looks very impressive.

Moosic is a self-hosted music server app that offers an alternative to Trueplay's room tuning, with the always-welcome ability to display charts of the room correction, plus more customization options for the tuning.

It also enables you to switch your Sonos configuration — such as switching a pair of Era 300s from working as rear speakers to working as stereo music speakers — but to keep separate room-tuning profiles for each configuration, which again is something Trueplay doesn't offer.

If you're wondering why not just use TruePlay, creator AffectionateFox5907 explains: "Sonos does not provide a way to switch between home theatre and music setup seamlessly. My app does, but as part of that I lose Trueplay. When you unbond and rebond a speaker, each time it will lose its Trueplay configuration. My app basically builds a better Sonos app that adds features I've been wanting for a while without having to have a bunch of different apps. This now works with multiple subs and should work with fronts added as well."

One of the big downsides of using third-party apps that add front surrounds is that it disables Trueplay, so this is a win for people coloring outside the usual Sonos surround lines.

It also looks ideal for anyone who's found using their home theater for music to be a bit of a pain, and there are plenty of people who do: there's a whole Reddit thread asking for a simple switch between movie mode and music mode without having to reconfigure your system every time you do it.

Last but not least, MajorAtmosphere has created Kyuu (pronounced "queue"), an iOS Sonos controller that enables you to use UPnP for local files, which the Sonos app doesn't support.

As they explain: "Kyuu runs a lightweight local server that handles speaker discovery via SSDP, polls playback state, and sends commands directly to your speakers. The iOS app talks to that server over your LAN — no cloud, no Sonos account, no external dependencies."

It's been another packed week of technology news, and TechRadar has been covering all of the stories that matter: the Prime Day deals, the Apple price hikes, new devices from Oura and Sonos, and plenty more besides.

If you haven't been able to check in regularly on our site, this weekly ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up is here to get you up to speed. You can browse through the headlines that matter below, and click the links for the full articles.

Get yourself comfortable and review the past week below, and we'll be back again this time next week for another ICYMI summary.

7. We scoured the Prime Day deals

You may have noticed that it's been Amazon Prime Day this week — it's now spread across multiple days of course — and the TechRadar team has been busy searching across every Amazon category to bring you the best deals: we've found discounts on TVs, laptops, headphones, smartwatches, smart home gadgets, tablets, and plenty more besides.

No matter what you're in need of tech-wise at the moment, our US and UK round-up pages have a variety of deals that will fit, and a lot of these discounts are genuinely substantial — and many are still going. Together with the latest prices and links for each product, we've also included our expert tech advice in each case, so you know exactly why which offers are worth pursuing.

• Read more: We're tracking the best Prime Day tech deals live — 121 biggest discounts on Apple, Samsung, Kindle, Sony, and more

6. We reviewed the Oura Ring 5

The Oura Ring 5 is a substantial step up from its predecessor: it's slimmer, lighter, and more durable, as well as offering extra battery life — and according to our review, you might even forget you're wearing it. Oura has managed to refine the device's appearance so it looks like a normal piece of jewelry, even with the cutting-edge sensors inside it.

"It's easily the most stylish and accurate smart ring around," our review states, though it's not perfect, and there's that usual Oura subscription fee to consider if you want to access most of the tracking features. If you're wondering whether the Oura Ring 5 is the right wearable upgrade for you, then we'll tell you everything you need to know below.

• Read more: Oura Ring 5 review — a luxury smart ring for discreet everyday wellness tracking that's (almost) easy to forget you're wearing

5. Meta revealed its cheaper smart glasses

Meta has treated us to a bumper crop of new smart glasses, starting at $299 / £269 / AU$599 and developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. We've got all the details here, including how they feel to wear, and a rundown of the design and color variations you can pick from — you certainly can't complain that there isn't enough choice in this batch.

We've also got comments from Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, who outlined the company's vision of a smart spec future, and said "it's pretty easy to make glasses that don’t look good, it turns out". That seems to be a humorous dig at some of Meta's rivals in the space, but see what you think of the new Meta Glasses range.

• Read more: 'Our goal is to reach every corner of the market': Meta CTO Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth on the new $299 EssilorLuxottica Meta Glasses

4. We reviewed the latest Sonos speaker

The Sonos Era 100 SL wireless speaker is more affordable than the Era 100 that launched before it, but as our detailed review will tell you, Sonos has been able to pull this off without making too many compromises. Most importantly, the quality of the sound doesn't drop even though the price does, so you still get a top-tier listening experience.

Our review takes you through every aspect of the Era 100 SL speaker, from how easy it is to set up initially, to the sort of performance you can expect from it — with London Grammar and DJ Shadow included in the artists whose music we used for testing — and there's praise for "quality sound", "great connectivity", and "iconic design" along the way.

• Read more: 'A better price for the same performance': I reviewed Sonos' cheaper Era 100 SL wireless speaker, and was shocked at how few concessions were made to make this a bargain

3. The Steam Machine got an official price tag

It's been a long wait for the Steam Machine, but we're nearly there, and now know that the starting price is set at $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609, and we can thank the price inflation driven by the RAM crisis for that. If a Steam Machine is still within your budget, you'll be able to put in an order from June 29, more than seven months after it was first announced.

If you don't think that's good value, then we've put together a guide to building your own Steam Machine alternative below. You get full control over the budget and the specs of the components you choose, and it can be a lot of fun too (as we can say with confidence given the years of PC building experience on the TechRadar team).

• Read more: Disappointed by the Steam Machine’s official price? Build your own mini gaming PC instead with these deals

2. Apple revealed its painful price hikes

Speaking of the RAM crisis, it just hit Apple too: the company has racked up the pricing on many of its products, including iPads, MacBooks, and even the HomePod. The recently launched MacBook Neo, for example, now has a starting price of $699 rather than $599 in the US — a not inconsiderable rise of $100 or 17% in a single jump.

We've got all the details of how much more expensive each Apple gadget is now, with these price increases effective immediately on the official Apple Store. We've also got some ideas about where you can still find these Apple products at their original prices from third-party retailers — though you'll have to move fast to grab them.

• Read more: Apple just delivered the worst kind of news: price hikes across many of its major products (even the Neo) — and yes, RAM prices are to blame

1. GTA 6 pre-orders finally went live

After two substantial delays, GTA 6 is finally going to go on sale on November 19, and you can get your pre-orders in now for the PS5, the Xbox Series X, or the Xbox Series S. You've got a $79.99 / £69.99 Standard Edition and a $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition to choose between, and we've got links for you to all the top US and UK retailers right here.

We're also going to keep an eye out for any bundles that these stores are offering, meaning you can pick up the game and a console at the same time — so check back often if you're interested. It's exciting that pre-orders are now live for what could be the video game of the decade, and we only have five more months to count down until launch day.

• Read more: GTA 6 pre-orders live — bundles arrive, while almost all major US and UK retailers have stock

Amazon’s Prime Day sale kicks off on June 23 — and it might be the last time we see big discounts on many tech products for a while, if some in the tech world are to be believed.

This includes Tim Cook who this week warned of price increases for Apple’s tech, as, he says, it’s now impossible for Apple to absorb the cost of the ongoing component crisis.

To catch up on Cook’s warning, and brighter news such as Commodore’s flip phone filling us with nostalgia, scroll down for our recap of the week’s biggest tech news.

7. Commodore’s flip phone took us back to 2004

Feeling nostalgic for flip phones and a simpler, pre-doomscrolling age? Commodore (yes, the latest incarnation of the classic computing giant) feels your pain, so it’s made a clamshell phone that’ll meet your retro needs while freeing your brain from smartphone addiction. Or that’s the idea, at least.

The Commodore Callback sits somewhere between a dumb phone and a modern Android flagship. It doesn’t work with social media apps, and has no touchscreen or web browser. But it does run most Android apps and has a 48MP rear camera, plus other flourishes like an “audiophile grade" DAC. Will it start a revolution? We’re not sure, but it’s definitely one of the most interesting phones of the year.

• Read more: ‘A speed bump for your mind’: Commodore’s retro-inspired flip phone could be the perfect way to break your smartphone addiction

6. GTA 6 got a trailer

This week Rockstar unveiled a new teaser for Grand Theft Auto 6 — and while we weren’t lucky enough to see new gameplay, we weren’t left wanting.

To an underscore of 80s synth and guitar we saw the game’s cover art come together. The vignette collage, similar to GTA 5’s art, is full of pink and purple hues which perfectly capture the Vice City vibes.

Rockstar also announced that preorders will go live on June 25, ahead of its release on November 19, 2026.

• Read more: New GTA 6 teaser officially reveals cover art — and it looks pretty slick

5. Microsoft dropped new Surface laptops

Not content to let Computex hog the computing announcement limelight, Microsoft debuted new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processor.

The new Surface Laptop offers what Microsoft claims is up to 58% faster graphics performance over the previous generation of its notebook, and solid battery life of 20 hours for the smaller models, and 19 for the larger.

Meanwhile the Surface Pro 13-inch boasts a 53% graphics performance leap over its predecessor, with up to 15.5 hours of battery life, based on Microsoft's internal testing.

• Read more: Microsoft reveals new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with big graphics upgrades from Snapdragon X2 CPUs

4. Sonos updated its app

A few months ago, we interviewed Sonos CEO Tom Conrad about the company’s app woes in its 2024 update, and he said that while they’d worked hard on fixing its technical issues, he still had big problems with its design and usability that he wanted to get to. This week, he announced the first changes coming to the app to improve its layout.

They include all kinds of things fans have been asking for since the 2024 redesign, including easier volume-changing options, the ability to customize your list of products, and options being organised using tabs the mirror standard iPhone and Android app design cues. The update is rolling out in a beta first, to make sure it all works before everyone else gets it…

• Read more: The Sonos app is finally getting its long-awaited improvements to volume control, player listings and content organization

3. The UK government had bad news for kids

Depending on your point of view, it perhaps wasn’t a great week for young social media fans in the UK — Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that, like Australia, the country would be banning apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat for under-16s from next year.

It won’t just be social media apps that are affected either — livestreaming for under-16s is also going to be banned, across all platforms. The government says the move will “give kids their childhood back”, but UK teens naturally aren’t very impressed, and neither are fans of the open internet. Expect this to be a piping hot topic for the rest of 2026.

• Read more: How will the UK's social media ban actually work? Here's the full list of affected apps — and 5 things you need to know

2. Android 17 rolled out

Android 17 began rolling out to compatible Pixel phones this week, and while Google’s flashy new Gemini Intelligence software isn’t among the available features just yet, there are plenty of neat new tools to try if you own a Google Pixel 6 or newer.

Chief among the new UI features are Bubbles, which lets you turn any app into a floating bubble that stays on top of other apps (useful for multitasking on large-screen devices), and Screen Reactions, which lets you capture your phone’s display and record yourself with the front-facing camera simultaneously.

My favourite Android 17 feature is foldable Gaming Mode, which adds a dynamic gamepad to one side of your foldable phone (so you can play it like a Nintendo DS — yes, really!); unfortunately, this one isn’t dropping until later in the year.

• Read more: 7 of the best Android 17 features available now — from Bubbles to Screen Reactions

1. Tim Cook warned of Apple price hikes

Against the backdrop of the RAM crisis and other component price hikes brought about by AI hype and supply chain disruptions, the affordable MacBook Neo was a breath of fresh air when it debuted — but outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook had some bad news for anyone hoping the good times might last a little longer.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal Cook said: "Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We're doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we've been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

We don’t know when we'll see said price hikes, or how significant they'll be, but if you have your eye on Apple tech you might want to think about buying sooner rather than later — especially with Prime Day kicking off next week.

• Read more: Tim Cook just warned that 'price increases are unavoidable' for Apple products

• Major changes to navigation and volume control
• Available in a new beta this week
• Opt-in rather than enabled by default

Sonos has announced a suite of new changes to the Sonos app, and you'll be able to try the new version this week as a beta — if you want to.

Posting on Reddit, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad says that after "hundreds of hours watching real customers use the Sonos app" his team has identified lots of irritants and sticking points. "We've learned a lot about what hangs people up, what's confusing when you're new to the system, and what slows you down when you're just trying to change the darn volume."

In response, Sonos is making lots of changes to the app, including how you turn the volume up and down.

The post has so far generated a lot of positive responses, including the current top comment by Daveintausend: "Never thought I'd say this but I'm hyped for a better volume control."

What changes are coming to the Sonos app?

A new beta will be released this week, with significant changes to the interface. As Conrad put it: "What kept showing up was this: a lot of friction came from proprietary patterns we built that made the app harder to learn and use than it needed to be. Stacks on stacks on stacks of content cards. Swipe-up gestures to switch speaker orientation. Close boxes where any other app on your phone would have a back button. Custom interface elements that never quite felt like part of iOS or Android."

The plan is to change all of that, and Conrad has highlighted three key areas: better tabbed navigation, a "totally new" volume interface, and more control over how your players are listed and displayed.

He also promises "dozens of smaller quality-of-life fixes everywhere" including swipe to delete in playlists, new views on iPad, and a refresh to the Now Playing screen.

The main interface will be divided into three tabs: Home, System and Search, which will be styled in a way that's native to your phone's operating system, and that replace "the hidden gestures and content cards".

And the volume control will have "a core mechanism that is easier to grab and fine tune, buttons to tap up and down if that’s your thing and a new way to synchronize a across group of rooms."

The changes aren't rolling out to the main app just yet, and they're actually not even mandatory in this week's beta either — but if you install the new beta you'll be able to see the changes by enabling "Enable Improved Navigation" in Settings. It will remain an opt-in toggle post-beta, with Sonos soliciting feedback "until it's fully polished up."

The beta program is here, if you want sign up and try the changes out, but bear in mind that using beta software always comes with the risk of bugs or other problems.

I think it's fair to say that Sonos is doing things very differently since Tom Conrad took the helm in early 2025, and he was up-front about the app debacle when my colleague Matt Bolton interviewed him earlier this year.

In that conversation he told us that "In the aftermath of [the problems], you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through". It's great to see him delivering on that promise.

• Redditor creates own smart home controller, tied into Sonos systems
• Cost just $20 / £16 (or around AU$30), for a small display
• It's like the Sonos Controller, but in 2026

Back in Ye Olden Days (the noughties), Sonos used to sell dedicated music controllers and they look wonderfully retro now. These fell by the wayside when smartphones got good enough to do the exact same thing. But given the current penchant for nostalgia tech, cassette players and digital detoxing, these music controllers are seemingly making a comeback.

No, Sonos isn't re-releasing its beloved CR100. And while a new Google Nest Hub is on its way, it's apparently going to focus more on AI chatbots than music controls. So to manage your Sonos, we have to turn to Redditors.

Over on the r/sonos subreddit, a user appropriately called hometechgeek has shared a small, simple smart display they created. Using software shared in the post (and screens bought for cheap online), they have fashioned a home assistant controller which you can use to change lighting, check sensors and, yes, control your music.

Screens show a play/pause button, volume controls and track skips, and a default screen shows the song you're playing — perfect, in other words, to manage your Sonos devices from one controller. Some commenters have compared it to the Windows Phone's old software, and more widely to Windows' noughties and 2010s boxy look, and honestly they're not wrong.

Can you make it at home?

Making a controller like this doesn't sound expensive. The 4-inch screen hometechgeek used cost £16 (about $20 / AU$30), bought cheap from AliExpress, and they list plenty of other models that'd work. The internet is, as it turns out, rife with little screens you can buy and use for your own ends.

The software is free too, and it sounds like plenty of people on the r/sonos subreddit have already got their hands stuck in by trying it out, reporting any bugs they've found and suggesting tweaks.

If you're a technophile you'll likely find it really easy to make at home, then. However, as some commenters point out, not everyone will find it feasible. You'll need a little technical know-how to set up the screen, and to use Github for the code.

Obtaining that technical knowledge shouldn't be too hard, with a few YouTube tutorials sure to get the job done, but it might not be worth it for everyone. This kind of kit will be useful to people with a smart home full of gadgets, but if you've just got a single speaker or soundbar, it likely won't be worth your time.

There's a reason the smartphone killed the Sonos controller: a dedicated screen to control your music just isn't necessary for most of us (because it's already at our disposal with zero effort, in our phone).

We’re now days away from WWDC 2026 — Apple’s major software showcase of the year. There we expect to (finally) see the new and improved Siri alongside some major software upgrades, stretching from iOS to macOS.

But this week was arguably just as momentous in the world of tech. Scroll down and you’ll see we’ve rounded up the seven most important tech stories of the past seven days, from Sony’s State of Play showcase to everything we saw at Taiwan's Computex, the world's biggest computing show.

Before you catch up with this week’s tech news, why not test yourself on last week’s eight biggest tech stories to see how good your memory is? Take the quiz below, or scroll on for the biggest tech news of the week...

7. Sony's State of Play lit our gaming fires

Gaming’s nouveau-E3, aka Summer Games Fest, has had various festivities this week ahead of the main showcase. One of which was Sony’s latest State of Play.

Thanks to Sony we got a better look at Marvel’s Wolverine in all of its goryness, a new trailer and a demo for incredible sword fight (and potential GOTY) Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and to top it all off a sneak peek at the next God of War title: Laufey.

We’re writing this up ahead of Summer Game Fest’s main event (it was last night if you’re reading this Saturday morning) but be sure to check out our SGF coverage over on TRG.

6. Lego’s new Pokémon sets left us thunder-shocked

This week Lego’s Smart Play sets evolved with 12 new Pokémon builds that we instantly fell in love with. The biggest win here — besides the incredibly well designed ‘mons (there’s 20 in all) — is that these sets don’t feel like they need the Smart Brick.

Sure Pikachu’s treehouse has several awesome Smart brick integrations that allow you to catch, train, feed and rest your critter as if the electric mouse were alive, but the physical play features enable all of this while the Smart brick just enhances things.

The same is true for each of the other builds, and they feel like a serious improvement over what came from the Star Wars Smart Play sets just a handful of months ago.

• Read the full story: I spent 3 hours with Lego’s new Pokémon Smart Play sets — they solve the Smart Brick’s biggest problems

5. Polaroid launched the 'world's smallest' instant camera

There's been a big trend in miniature cameras recently, and following in their slipstream is the latest version of the Polaroid Go — an instant camera that's designed for anyone who wants a big hit of nostalgia from a small, affordable snapper.

The Go 3 doesn't reinvent the series, adding a stronger flash, sharper lens and even smaller dimensions (Polaroid claims it's the 'world's smallest' instant model). But it might just be the ultimate summer festival camera, coming in a range of bold colors (white, black, teal blue, ice blue or purple) and costing $89.99 / £79.99 (around AU$150).

Just remember to leave some spare change for extra 'Go' film — the little 2.6 x 2.1-inch prints cost around $21.99 / £18.99 / AU$40 per 16-shot roll, so use them wisely.

• Read the full story: Polaroid just launched the ‘world’s smallest instant camera’

4. The Sonos Beam got a new rival

WiiM has been quietly positing itself as the answer to “What would happen if we built a Sonos ecosystem but without the app that made fans turn their backs?” for quite some time now. The remarkable WiiM Sound wireless speaker launched last year, and now the firm has released its first soundbar.

The new WiiM Bar (for that is its name) is essentially a direct rival to the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen) in terms of pricing and how the company wants you to use it, but it's bigger, beefier and has real upfiring drivers for Dolby Atmos — which Sonos' Beam lacks.

It also features automatic room correction, multi-room grouping, support for over 20 streaming services and, unusually, a glass-covered 2.1-inch touch display on the front. An odd choice when the last thing you want is an illuminated visual distraction right near your TV screen when settling down for movie night?

We spoke to WiiM's CEO, Dr Lifeng Zhao, about it all (good news! You can turn it off while watching movies or shows) and he's confident users will find it valuable for music streaming when not watching TV — which is how a lot of people use their soundbar, you know…

• Read the full story: WiiM's first soundbar is the same price as the Sonos Beam, but it's bigger, beefier and has real upfiring drivers

3. Android fans got a big June upgrade

iPhone fans are patiently waiting for the software gifts that’ll be revealed at WWDC 2026 on Monday, but Android owners got some new toys to unwrap this week — courtesy of a generous June feature drop.

The biggest upgrade is arguably Fake Call Detection for foiling pesky scammers. The downside is that it’s limited to Pixels (and select non-Pixel devices), but there were new features for most other Android phones, too.

These include wider AirDrop support and Google Photos Wardrobe, a new way to track your clothes and combine them into outfits. We’ll try not to take that as a dig at our fashion sense thanks, Google.

• Read more: 7 new Android features coming to your phone in June — including fake call detection and Google Photos wardrobe

2. We picked our favorite tech from Computex

Each year the Computex computing show highlights some incredible computers, and that was no different this year.

The biggest news camera from Nvidia (see below), but there’s so much else to talk about. Dell revived the XPS line with the latest Dell XPS 13 model being billed as a direct competitor to the MacBook Neo. Acer was also chasing the Neo’s popularity, while MSI showcased a beautiful, but not overly affordable MSI Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Draco Epic that was a sight to behold.

Though but doesn’t hold a candle to the creative builds we also saw — which included PCs made to look like Matrix robots, a miniature science lab, and a giant mechanized arm.

• Read our full Computex coverage

1. Nvidia’s RTX Spark took on Apple’s M5

Computex 2026 was full of several huge announcements for PC users, but none was bigger than Nvidia's introduction of the new RTX Spark. This is an Arm-based chip packed with 20 CPU cores and 6,144 CUDA cores based on Blackwell architecture — and an integrated GPU that is said to be equivalent to an RTX 5070 GPU, which is great for gaming.

It’s best suited for, well, Arm-based laptops, which are known for their exceptional battery life, and Team Green has effectively green-lit its rivalry with Apple and its successful M-series chips (which are also Arm-based).

Nvidia, Microsoft, and Arm all lauded the RTX Spark as a ‘new era of computing’, and while that is the case for laptops, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has also made it clear that the chip won’t be used for handhelds — which will undoubtedly disappoint some gaming enthusiasts. Still, this is undoubtedly destined to be one of the biggest computing moments of 2026.

• Read the full story: Nvidia just unveiled its RTX Spark Arm 'superchip'

• WiiM launches its first soundbar for $479 / £449 (about AU$840)
• 8-driver array with dedicated upfiring drivers
• 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 with WiiM wireless speakers

WiiM has been building out its rival ecosystem to Sonos for a while now. The impressive WiiM Sound wireless speaker launched last year, and now the firm has unveiled its first soundbar. Based on its pricing, the new WiiM Bar is being positioned as a direct rival to the Sonos Beam (2nd Gen)... but on paper seems to beat it in a few key areas.

The WiiM Bar is a 3.0.2 Dolby Atmos soundbar with an eight-driver array, including upfiring height speakers, which the Sonos Beam lacks. It features automatic room correction, multi-room grouping and support for over 20 streaming services, and you can expand it to a full surround system with WiiM's other speakers and its subwoofer.

Unusually, there's a glass-covered 2.1-inch touch display on the front. That's an interesting choice when many people don't want any extra illumination near their TV screen.

We spoke to WiiM's CEO, Dr Lifeng Zhao, about the soundbar, and he told us that the screen is primarily there for people playing music through the soundbar — it'll display album art, like other WiiM devices do — and you can turn it off for watching movies or shows. He's confident some people will find it valuable anyway.

"We actually debated a lot internally," Dr Zhao says. "So actually we are saying two things. One is that if you don't really need the screen; you can turn it off. Another thing is that we really want instant feedback. If you only have a LED light right there, with so many input/outputs and functionality, how do you know the status of the device? It's really confusing, even for me. We want to give people a simple and intuitive control, plus the instant feedback."

WiiM Bar: key features and pricing

The eight-driver array features four passive radiators and a mix of front mid-woofers, front tweeters and the aforementioned full-range up-firing height drivers.

It's 3.0.2 channels, expandable to 5.1.2 channels with surround speakers and a subwoofer — and possibly more channels in the future. When we asked about supporting more satellite speakers or subwoofers, Dr Zhao told us that "potentially with a software update we can expand more," and that Dolby Atmos FlexConnect support is "on our radar". He was clear that we shouldn't expect either upgrade in the short term, though.

The WiiM Bar supports Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X audio (DTS being another benefit over the Sonos Beam, on top of the upfiring drivers), and it features RoomFit room correction. There are two extra audio modes: AI-powered dialog enhancement, and a night mode to help you stay friendly with your neighbors.

Streaming support includes nearly all the big names: Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz Connect, Google Cast and Roon, and streaming via the WiiM app takes the number of supported streaming services past 20.

However, as with other recent WiiM releases, this doesn't include Apple Music or AirPlay 2. We'll cover this more later, but we asked Dr Zhao why WiiM hasn't included AirPlay, and his answer — which we're not entirely convinced by — implies that it's about AirPlay's compression of audio.

"If you're using Spotify, we want you to use Spotify Lossless instead of a compressed [stream], right? So we are seeing a lot of confusion in people using Spotify Connect versus other options you just mentioned [AirPlay 2]," he said, referencing the fact that AirPlay 2 is still limited to compressed streaming through official support.

Spotify Lossless has existed for less time than WiiM been avoiding AirPlay support, so the timeline doesn't really work for this specific explanation, and WiiM offers Bluetooth and its compressed audio happily enough — but this is all the answer we're going to get officially.

The WiiM Bar has HDMI eARC, but no passthrough port, so you'll have give up the use of one of your HDMI ports for it. "We think that people will connect most of their devices through the TV because you have multiple HDMI ports in the TV," says Dr Zhao. Passthrough was considered, but the decision was made to keep things focused on "simplicity" — which is Sonos' claimed reason for not offering passthrough too, but has never really convinced our team (having to swap HDMI cables in the back of your TV because you've run out of ports does not aid simplicity).

This may be the firm's first soundbar, but Dr Zhao he doesn't consider it to be WiiM's first home theater product: the firm's amplifiers can be used as an HDMI-ready sound system, albeit in 2.1 channels. The soundbar is intended as a standalone device for people who, like Zhao, want big sound without lots of separates taking up space.

"We don't want to make a legacy AVR. People want one powerful all-in-one device in their living room." Those people include Dr Zhao: "I want something simple to use, I really like Dolby Atmos and I want it to fulfill both my music and my TV experience," he says. "So it's both for our own use as well as a request from our community."

It's an impressive specification, and the price is decent too: the official price is $479 / £449 (about AU$840). The WiiM Bar will be released in July, with pre-orders starting from 3 June 2026. It'll be really interesting to see how it compares with the equivalent Sonos when we get it in for testing.

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Sonos has offered the ability to add wireless rear speakers to its soundbars, creating an effective compact surround-sound system, for well over a decade. But this setup really hasn't changed much from the Playbar to the Sonos Arc Ultra — you can still have the soundbar with two rear speakers, and one or two subwoofers.

For years now, Sonos superfans have been begging the company to expand these options with the ability to use its wireless speakers as true front left and right channels for a home theater setup.

The frustration is width: elite soundbars like the Arc Ultra have angled drivers so that the audio sounds much wider than the soundbar itself, but there are diminishing returns with 'virtualized' width compared to the real width of just having speakers on either side of your TV, the way you would in a five-channel surround sound system made from separate speakers. And we just had a reminder from a Dolby exec about how important width is in recreating Dolby Atmos mixes.

People love the simplicity of a wireless Sonos setup compared to building out a wired separates system, and many are enamored with Sonos' sound profile. But as time goes on, the failure to innovate in the kinds of setups available starts to look stubborn at best.

Imagine that you have a Sonos Beam 2nd Gen connected to your TV over HDMI, and it receives the Dolby Atmos sound and then streams it out to a Sonos Era 300 to the left of your TV and one to the right of your TV.

These would deliver real width, especially since the Era 300 has left and right drivers, as well as forward-facing. The Beam serves as the center channel for clear dialogue, and the Era 300s deliver powerful side channels and height channels. And, of course, you could combine with wireless rear speakers, as Sonos does already.

People are choosing to buy bigger and bigger TVs, which need wider and wider sound to match their scale. We can't keep making soundbars bigger to compensate (well, we can, but I'm not sure it'll really please anyone).

Sonos has been in the perfect position to capitalize on this, and yet somehow Sony beat it to the punch by announcing the Sony Bravia Theatre Trio, an 'LCR' (left, center, right) wireless system that's more or less exactly the setup I described above, but with Sony speakers.

Here's what really galls the Sonos superfans: the tech already exists, unofficially, to do this, and many have tried it. There is a whole subreddit dedicated to a third-party app called Sonosequencr, and the developer makes it clear that they're not hacking the speakers to make this possible: they're tapping into tech already dormant in Sonos' system, that Sonos has never fully enabled.

Using Sonosequencr comes with tradeoffs, with the main one being that you can't use Trueplay to correct the sound for your room, so in some cases it's possible you're better off sticking with a regular Sonos setup that compensates for your room's reflections, especially if you have a smaller space — but in some large setups, the addition of real speakers might be the better option. Sonos could also break the third-party app at any time, since it's all unofficial.)

There were leaks that Sonos was planning to enable this kind of setup using its canceled streaming box as the centerpiece, but this obviously never came to fruition (but the tech that Sonosequencr taps into might be the vestigial remains of it, or an earlier version of it).

I wrote at the time that I hoped it would retain the exact feature I'm talking about today, but there's been no sign of it since then. That's probably partly because Sonos spent a year just trying to fix its app's problems and getting things ready for multiple launches this year (which started with the Sonos Play).

Maybe Sonos is getting ready to unleash a new world of home theater flexibility on us — when I interviewed CEO Tom Conrad, I asked him about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect and its ability to work with really flexible speaker placement, he said: "We're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap."

In response to a question about TV makers launching their own wireless speaker tech and pushing Sonos out, Conrad said: "We're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters."

So it definitely sounds like Sonos has something planned for home theater this year, and I really hope it takes the chance to finally unleash extra speaker positions. The fact that Sony got there first really surprised me, but Sonos has a key advantage: price.

Sony's system costs £2000 (about $2,690 / AU$3,750) for the front three speakers. The closest Sonos setup in terms of Dolby Atmos performance would be the Beam 2nd Gen and two Era 300 speakers, as I mentioned above. At the time of writing, that costs $1,127 / £1,077 / AU$2,297 — but you could swap the Era 300s for a pair of Era 100 SL speakers, and the price would drop to $707 / £657 / AU$1,377.

When I think about the scale of performance you could get from that setup for that price… well, like I said, the whole thing

• Sonos' new app update enables you to turn SonosNet mesh networking off
• The feature may cause clashes with "more complex" home networks
• Available on iOS and Android, but not every will get it at the same time

Sonos has release an update to its app for both iOS and Android that may solve a weird networking issue for some users. The update, which is rolling out from today, adds a toggle for SonosNet that enables you to turn the feature off.

According to Liz from Sonos, who posted details of the update to the r/sonos subreddit, turning off SonosNet may "help resolve connectivity issues on more complex home network setups."

This is a relatively small update – the last one in mid-May delivered multiple changes including additional Music Library grouping options, layout improvements in iOS and for US users, changes to advertising personalization. But if you've been getting weird Wi-Fi issues it may be just what you've been waiting for.

What is SonosNet and why should you fear it?

SonosNet is designed to connect your Sonos speakers to each other, and it was created when home Wi-Fi wasn't always up to the task of smoothly streaming to your Sonos gear.

Sonos's solution was to create a Sonos-specific private Wi-Fi mesh network (before mesh routers were common) that your speakers would share, with an Ethernet-cabled Sonos device acting as the hub for everything else.

That's good, but as Liz from Sonos explains: "For most modern, high-speed routers, disabling SonosNet can actually help things run smoother. Newer routers use Wi-Fi technology that can sometimes conflict with SonosNet's mesh, so turning it off lets your system lean fully on your home network instead."

Sonos has also added the ability to see what's connected via SonosNet, which again might help with diagnosing speaker-specific weirdness.

However, it's worth noting that this tech is on by default for a reason — this option might be exactly what many people need, but I wouldn't try it until you've looked into other possible causes if you're having Sonos connection issues.

The update is a rolling update, meaning not all devices will receive it at once — so even though the new software is live today, your app might not show the option yet.

Once it's available to you, you can turn off SonosNet in System Settings > Networks > Disable SonosNet. Of course if you aren't experiencing network problems then there's no need to do this – and if you haven't done so already, it's worth trying a different SonosNet channel first to see if that solves your problem without having to take SonosNet offline.

Sony has just announced the Bravia Theatre Trio, which is a new Dolby Atmos wireless system that splits the difference between a proper surround system and a soundbar, and is particularly designed with huge TVs in mind, to make sure the soundscape is wider than the TV itself — but will be tempting to anyone who wants a physically more separated sound than the best soundbars alone can deliver.

It can also be expanded into a fuller wireless surround setup, and I got to hear this full-force system in action. But first, let's go over the basics.

The Sony Bravia Theatre Trio is, as the name implies, three wireless speakers in a package. It's what home theater fans call an 'LCR' system — meaning left, center, and right channels.

There's a center speaker that's like a mini soundbar, which connects to your TV over HDMI eARC. And there are left and right speakers that look like little pillars with a flat section added to the back, so they can be wall-mounted.

The center speaker has two woofers and a tweeter, while each of the the side speakers each has a woofer and tweeter facing forward, and then an 8cm upfiring driver for Dolby Atmos height channels.

In the simplest terms, this is a 3.0.2-channel system, though Sony says that the system is built heavily around virtualization of more in-depth speaker setups. This initial three-speaker system can apparently mimic 24 phantom channels.

Sony says that it's done some smart stuff with its virtualization tech in the Bravia Theatre Trio, including rethinking how those phantom channels work: they're now designed not just to mimic the placement of a more elaborate speaker setup, but also to mimic the "indirect sound sources" of a cinema room's acoustic signature, including reflections.

So yes, for those keeping track of how psychoacoustic virtualization works, it may be the case that this system is using the reflections of your room to create the sense of an entirely different set of reflections…

To help the system do this as well as possible, it comes with a USB-C microphone that you can use for room calibration. Just plug it into your phone or tablet, fire up Sony's app, and follow the instructions so it can do its best work.

As I mentioned above, this three-speaker core setup can be expanded with add-on rear speakers or a subwoofer as well.

You have two choices of subwoofer: the new Sub 8 is a mid-range option, while the Sub 9 is an absolute massive beast of a sub by lifestyle tech standards. It looks like two Sub 8 units glued together with a vent in the middle, and while Sony didn't confirm the specs, I wouldn't be surprised if that's not far from the truth.

You also have two choices of rear speaker: there's the existing Bravia Rear 8 or the new Bravia Rear 9, which are more or less the same speakers as the front left and right (woofer, tweeter and upfirer combo — in the same design).

Of course, these add-ons will cost you — and the core Bravia Theatre Trio package isn't cheap either. Here's the breakdown of all those options (Sony was only able to provide UK pricing pre-launch and Australian info for the Theatre Trio only, but we'll update with other pricing as we get it):

Sony eats Sonos' lunch

Before I get to my experience of the performance of these speakers, something that immediately struck me is that this kind of setup is what Sonos' users have been begging to company to do for years.

Given that Sonos' whole thing is wireless satellite speakers, its users have asked many, many times (directly and on the r/sonos subreddit) for the ability to use separate front left and right speakers in an LCR setup with its soundbars.

There's even a third-party app that enables this called SonoSequencr, which is quite popular among Sonos home theater enthusiasts.

It seems wild that Sony has offered this before Sonos, and with a better spec list than Sonos can offer, because the Bravia Theatre Trio offers both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support (Sonos lacks DTS), and has an HDMI passthrough port (supporting 4K 120Hz) so you don't lose an HDMI port by using it.

Of course, if Sonos did end up offering a setup to compete with this, it could have a major price advantage. You can get a Sonos Beam Gen 2 (as the center channel) and two Sonos Era 300 speakers (as spatial audio side speakers) for £1,077 at the time of writing, compared to £2,000 for the Sony system.

And there's also the small issue that in my demo of the Sony system I found it to be quite hit and miss…

Mixing it up

I didn't get to hear just the Bravia Theatre Trio core setup on its own at Sony's event; instead I heard the fullest setup, with the original trio, two Rear 9 speakers, and two Sub 9 subwoofers (though, somewhat oddly, these were placed next to each other rather than spaced for even bass distribution).

In terms of pure physical channels, this is a 7.2.4 setup, but Sony was unable to confirm exactly what the virtualized channel setup it creates using the phantom channels would be — though Sony confirmed that you get 24 phantom channels regardless of how many physical speakers are involved.

First up we watched the big music performance in Sinners at the juke joint. What jumped out straight away is that the system provides a really powerful and warm sound, which is really well suited to the pounding of drums and making the tonality of guitars feel solid and electric.

However, I wasn't that impressed with separation of different elements in the mix, despite all the Dolby Atmos power going on — and in particular I felt that the vocals were more subdued than I'd expect, especially for a system with an actual separate center speaker.

Moving onto the car shoot-out in No Time to Die, the surround and positioning effects got a particular chance to shine. The rear effects were solid, but the side effects were especially impressive considering there are no real speakers there.

Building on that, I thought the way sound moved from the front, around the sides, and to the back was especially impressive — it felt like the sound moved smoothly the whole way, and didn't jump from the front to the back, which is how it can feel in some simple five-channel systems.

But this demo also showed the same apparent weakness with vocals, with dialogue feeling soft and a little muddy even in the quieter moments — and even some of the mid-frequency effects seemed to not pop quite as strongly as they should (I have seen this scene a lot in demos).

The final demo was the first racing scene in Ready Player One, and the system produced a lot of sound and fury all around me here… but I thought there was a slight softness to the fine details that held it back — the very sudden sounds didn't seem quite as dramatically sudden as they should, which robbed them a little of impact, scale and spectacle.

That last point wasn't helped by the fact that in all three demos I noticed that the sound and visuals weren't quite in sync. This isn't uncommon in HDMI ARC-based systems at all, but I don't normally notice it as strongly as I did here — and I think it made a difference when experiencing the crunching crashes of Ready Player One if you see the impacts before you hear them.

Of course, this is far from a review — and I'm really interested to see how just the core Bravia Theatre Trio set performs on its own. But at this early stage, I'm kind of torn: I love the overall concept and the design, but I'm concerned about the high price based on the performance I heard so far.

• The Sonos app is not currently available in the Apple App Store
• No change to Google Play: it's still there
• Sonos has acknowledged the issue and is "working on a solution"

Update 2: The Sonos app is back on the App Store now. Normal service resumes. The original article and update will remain as published below.

If you're looking for the Sonos app for iOS, iPadOS or Mac, you'll need to wait: it's not there. The app is temporarily unavailable in Apple's App Store for all three platforms.

Sonos is aware of the problem: in a status update it says that "We have identified a problem with the Sonos App availability in the iOS / Mac App Stores and are working on a solution."

So far the app has been unavailable for a few hours and we don't yet know when it'll return.

Update 1: Sonos provided the following comment to TechRadar: "The Sonos app is temporarily unavailable for new downloads and updates from the Apple App Store while we complete a routine administrative update with Apple. Existing installations on customers' devices are unaffected and the Sonos app and service are operating normally. We expect the issue to be resolved soon. For the latest status, please visit https://status.sonos.com/."

What's wrong with the Sonos app?

The Sonos status page shows a clear sheet for almost everything bar the Sonos Account, which is currently labelled with a red X to indicate a major outage.

Sonos says that in addition to the app not being available to download, you might not be able to update it if it's already installed on your system.

It strongly seems like this is some kind of administrative problem, as hinted by Sonos in its statement to us — some online have speculated that it could be as basic as Sonos' developer accounts expiring, or a similar paperwork requirement not being met. If that's the case, we'd expect it to reappear and for Sonos to never speak of it again…

Having said that, at some point Sonos' Mac app will disappear permanently anyway — it's not built for Apple Silicon, and Sonos says it has no plans to adapt it, and instead is moving all desktop users to its web interface anyway.

When I first saw the Sony 1000X The Collexion headphones — the company's new higher-end cans designed to offer a more spacious and natural sound with better comfort compared to the Sony WH-1000XM6 — I had an immediate thought, and I wasn't alone among the audio journalists I was with: these look a lot like the Sonos Ace.

Both headphones go for a super-clean look, internal mechanisms for the headband arms, slim-profile earcups, chrome-finish detailing, and a mottled faux leather material.

So I had an idea: I took them to our photography studio and got some close-up photos taken of both headphones, and I made a quiz. I pixelated the photo of them at the top to avoid giving anything away, but if you to see the headphones before you play (Easy Mode, if you like), then I'll put the original image of them side-by-side after the quiz.

Are you enough of a headphone aficionado to tell two of the best noise-cancelling headphones apart? I'll admit, I built the damn quiz, then only scored 9/10 when testing it…

Scroll a little further if you're looking for that side-by-side image — I didn't want accidental spoilers.

Let us know in the comments how you did — the first two players on the TechRadar team (other than me) scored 3/10 and 8/10 respectively, so we've had a range of scores even among tech experts (though not necessarily headphones experts).

If you want to read more about Sony's new headphones, you can read our full 1000X The Collexion review, or you can read in-depth about the five key upgrades and three unexpected downgrades in The Collexion compared to the XM6 headphones, including Sony explanation of why there are compromises.

Still have questions? I’ll be answering everything you want to know about Sony’s most expensive wireless headphones ever in a live Q&A tomorrow (May 20) at 12pm ET / 5pm BST, alongside Harry Padoan, who tested them.

Now, here's that image of them together:

• Jamo launches new portable speakers
• Flex and Flow are portable models designed for outdoors
• Reflect is a bedroom and alarm clock speaker

I feel like I was last writing about new Jamo speakers only yesterday. In fact it was actually a week ago, when the Scandi audio brand came back from the dead to reveal seven new loudspeakers, and I suppose it's now back-er from the dead, with three brand-new portable models.

Jamo has unveiled the HYG family of portable Bluetooth speakers, consisting of three different devices: two outdoor models, one indoor one.

The name comes from hygge, one of the few Swedish words non-speakers know; it's one of those beloved untranslatable phrases that refers to a feeling of cosiness and warmth. And the speakers certainly lean in for that Scandi-chic look.

Before you get over-excited for these speakers, bear in mind you can't buy them yet. They're due to go on sale in July.

Here You Go (HYG)

The outlier of the new trio is the HYG Reflect, which is due to cost $149 / £129 (about AU$260).

This has been designed as a speaker for your bedside cabinet. It functions as an alarm clock, wireless charging pad and, yes, speaker, with dual two-inch drivers and two passive radiators.

Next up, and pictured at the top of this article, is the HYG Flow. It's due to sell for $279 / £239 (about AU$480), which a tempting price when you consider its audio setup is so similar to the far-more-expensive Sonos Move 2.

It boasts twin one-inch tweeters angled away from each other, plus a five-inch woofer — that's the same arrangement as the Sonos, though the actual driver will obviously be different. It's compatible with both Bluetooth 6.0 or an aux cord. It can play with other Jamo Auracast speakers but, unlike the Sonos, there's no Wi-Fi play support, so that's what you get for paying more for the Sonos.

It's ostensibly a portable speaker, weighing 3kg and supporting up to 15 hours of playback, but it only has an IPX2 rating — again, that's weaker than the Sonos.

Finally, there's the HYG Flow, which is the cheapest member of the bunch at $129 / £109 (about AU$220). It's long, thin and light, weighing under a kilogram, and comes in six different hues, about three of which I'm obsessed with.

This offers two 1.5-inch full-range drivers and two passive radiators, connecting in much the same way as the Flow but with a 27-hour battery life. Its IP rating is also IPX7: fine for splashes by the pool, but not for use on a sandy beach.

Prior to the HYG, Jamo didn't have any wireless Bluetooth speakers in its line-up, so it remains to be seen just how well it marries its audio prowess with this functional form factor. July will tell.

• New Sony The Collexion headphone renders arrive
• They show product very similar to WH-1000XM6
• A few premium design changes, and two colors

We've been reporting tirelessly on new top-end headphones from Sony that are set to bear the name The Collexion. We've seen them spotted on the head of a Hollywood star and leaked on Sony website listing pages, with a May 19 release looking likely.

But I'd been so caught up in the flurry of leaks, that I'd missed something obvious — and newly-leaked renders courtesy of Android Headlines have highlighted: these headphones look incredibly familiar.

Coming in white and black hues, the Sony The Collexion headphones appear to be gentle evolutions of the Sony WH-1000XM6 and XM5, especially in the looks of the speaker cups.

In fact, squint and these basically are the WH-1000XM6. It's clear that Sony isn't straying far from past designs with its new cans, which might surprise people hoping for top-end blasters that match the rumored $600-ish price tag — but there are difference in the shiny metallic elements that are really reminiscent of the Sonos Ace.

What's new here?

Let's run through the differences I can see between these rendered headphones and the XM6 cans.

Most comfortably, the headband seems to be made from a different material, with leaks pointing to it being vegan leather rather than plastic as in the XM6. This material is also said to be used for the ear pads.

A new hinge mechanism is at play too, although to see still images, it's hard to tell how it works. At the very least, Sony's attempts to play around with this design element suggests The Collexion could have a sturdier build.

Renders show a USB-C port, but no 3.5mm headphone jack. That's not a surprise, though, because the space where this audio port would be, is obscured in the pictures.

Naturally, under the hood there are probably loads of hardware changes that make these an audible step up from the XM6 — these won't literally be the same headphones (at least, I hope).

But given the high price point mooted for the new headphones, you'd be forgiven for hoping for a more inventive design. The best headphones for audiophiles show their colors with unique designs, flashy patterns or mechanical flair, and if you've paid top dollar for expensive cans, you want to feel it.

Given all the leaks and teases, I'm expecting us to learn more officially pretty soon.

The 2026 World Cup starts on June 11, and while a lot of people will be thinking about a new TV, there's still one crucial component that can make or break the whole experience: audio.

A new soundbar can really add another dimension to the World Cup viewing experience, delivering clearer commentary and a more immersive atmosphere by capturing the roar of the crowds. Let's face it, even the best TVs have average built-in audio, and it'd be a shame to miss out on the full World Cup feeling.

Below, I've picked four of the best soundbars you can buy right now that will be more than up to the task of delivering the atmosphere of the World Cup, whatever your budget.

Best overall: Samsung HW-Q800F

Currently sitting at the top of our best soundbars list is the five-star-rated Samsung HW-Q800F. One of the brand's mid-range 2025 soundbars, the Q800F really does cover all the bases.

The Q800F is a soundbar-and-sub combo that delivers everything you could need. We found in our testing that the bass delivered by the new, compact subwoofer was still suitably powerful and sizeable, accurately delivering the ignition of the Darkstar jet in Top Gun: Maverick.

It also demonstrated excellent precision with surprisingly effective Dolby Atmos height effects in movies such as The Mask, accurately capturing the chaotic nature of the titular character as he tears around Edge City. Expect it to accurately deliver the ball's movements around the field during the World Cup.

Dialogue was crystal clear throughout our testing as well, which is a good sign that a commentary track during the World Cup should be delivered with real clarity.

The Q800F is brilliant value too. You can expect to pay around $799 / £599 / AU$849, which is a great price for this soundbar. Expect prices to drop in the lead-up to the World Cup, too.

Best premium: Samsung HW-Q990F

For those looking for a complete soundbar system, it doesn't get much better than the Samsung HW-Q990F, the brand's 2025 flagship model. This 11.1.4 channel soundbar is a beast, composed of four separate units and really delivers the full surround sound experience.

I personally tested the Q990F and was blown away by its performance. The new compact subwoofer delivers room-filling bass that is mighty, but also well controlled. The rumble of the Batmobile's engine in The Batman was room-shaking but dynamic and precise, with the subwoofer accurately delivering the chunky gear changes.

The Q990F boasts a wide soundstage that's not only great for big musical numbers from movies like Wicked, but also action-packed scenes such as the Death Star attack in Star Wars: A New Hope. The sound is expansive with pinpoint placement, such as the TIE Fighter's screeching flight path in Star Wars. The stadium atmosphere in the World Cup will sound sensational through this system.

Speech was perfectly clear throughout my testing, whether it was hushed conversation in The Batman or the loud, soaring vocals of 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. Expect the same with commentary in the World Cup.

The Q990F is at the more premium end of the market, costing $1,599 / £999 / AU$1,599, but this mammoth soundbar system will cover you for sports, movies, and gaming, and do a superb job with all of them.

Best budget US: Sonos Beam

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) may be compact, but don't let that fool you. It delivers a beefy sound that you wouldn't expect from a soundbar this size and is easily one of the best models for music on the market.

The Beam (Gen 2) has been around for a while now, but it still consistently delivers a satisfying sound that works for a diverse range of genres. I tested it alongside the Sony HT-S2000 and Denon Home 550, two compact rivals, and I was always pleased with the Beam's performance.

The bass it delivers for a small unit is tightly controlled and punchy, as it accurately delivered the roar of jet engines in Top Gun: Maverick. Its soundstage was also spacious, giving effects room to breathe with a great balance overall. As The Mask tornadoes around his bedroom in The Mask, the Beam did an excellent job mapping the direction of the whirlwind, connecting the sound accurately to the picture.

Dialogue is nice and clear despite its smaller stature, so commentary should be nice and clear for the World Cup. It also has a diverse sound profile that makes it great for music.

Sonos' soundbars often get some nice discounts throughout the year, but even at the full $499 / £449 / AU$799 price, it's a superb soundbar that's real value for money.

Best budget UK: Hisense AX5125H

The Hisense AX5125H is one of the most impressive budget soundbars I've ever used. Not only are you getting a great 5.1.2 channel Dolby Atmos system, but you're getting it for a ridiculously low price.

Using the Death Star attack from Star Wars: A New Hope, I was seriously impressed with the AX5125H's clarity and control. It accurately delivered the whirring engines of the X-Wings and did a solid job with height channels, recreating the screech of the TIE Fighters as they flew overhead.

The AX5125H also has a wide soundstage, which helped pick up subtleties in The Batman's opening crime scene, with camera clicks, mumbled conversations, and the sparse, scratchy strings of the score all presented clearly. This should do a great job picking out the dynamics during the World Cup, from a travelling ball to the crowd noise.

Speech was also clear throughout testing, coming through loud and clear during both quieter conversations and action-packed scenes. This will have no problem delivering clear commentary in a packed stadium atmosphere.

The AX5125H's real highlight is its low price. A 5.1.2 channel system for £249 is ridiculous. This would have been my pick for the US budget option, but sadly, it's out of stock. For UK readers, this one is a no-brainer if you're on a budget.

• Bose launches premium soundbar, smart speaker and wireless sub
• The Ultra Lifestyle Soundbar is the new Bose flagship at $1,099 / £999 / AU$1,800
• The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has Dolby Atmos for $299 / £299 / AU$549

Bose's new Lifestyle Collection is likely to cause some frowny faces at Sonos HQ: it's a set of three premium pieces of audio gear designed for every room in your home, offering excellent flexibility including multi-room audio, and promising a typically luxurious Bose audio experience.

The three speakers are the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer. And in addition to working with each other, they also promise to work in groups with speakers from other manufacturers too.

Bose says that its app delivers "one of the simplest setup experiences in home audio", and if the collection sounds as good as it looks then Bose may well have a home audio hit on their hands.

Bose Lifestyle Collection: key features, pricing and availability

The Bose Ultra Lifestyle Speaker is a cylindrical speaker with three drivers, two of which fire outwards and one of which fires upwards. Bose says that's enough to create room-filling spatial audio from a single speaker, and it has Bose's CleanBass system and QuietPort acoustic opening to deliver low-end that's clean and punchy.

It also has Bose's TrueSpatial spatial audio processing, which is platform-agnostic, meaning it'll create spatial sound from any source. You can run it solo, in a stereo pair, in a multi-room setup, or as part of a surround-sound system with the Ultra Lifestyle Soundbar and Subwoofer.

The Soundbar is Bose's new flagship and comes with a fresh new design and an entirely new acoustic architecture; it's the first major soundbar redesign that Bose has developed in more than a decade.

There are six full-range drivers — four facing forwards and two pointing up for height channels — plus a center tweeter and two of Bose's PhaseGuide drivers that are design to provide extra virtual width for an immersive Atmos experience.

PhaseGuide is a system that widens the soundstage by using strategically placed transducers and waveguides to make audio appear to be coming from places where there aren't any speakers.

There's also TrueSpatial processing for anything that isn't in Dolby Atmos, SpeechClarity to enhance dialog, CleanBass and QuietPort for deep, controlled bass and the newly renamed CustomTune room calibration system (previously known as ADAPTiQ), which uses your phone as the room calibration mic — what do you know, that's just like Sonos!

Bose says that the system delivers the lowest frequencies of any Bose soundbar to date just from the soundbar alone, while also improving the highs and delivering better audio element separation.

However, for those who want even deeper bass, the third speaker is the powerful Lifestyle Subwoofer, which once again comes with CleanBass and QuietPort. It's built around a 10.5-inch driver, and connects wirelessly to the soundbar.

The three speakers all have Wi-Fi connectivity and support Google Cast, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, and they can be grouped via Apple AirPlay or Google Home. There's also Bluetooth to stream directly from devices such as your phone and other audio sources.

The Bose app promises to walk you through the whole setup process whether that's a single speaker or a full surround system, and it then enables you to control the volume, source, equalization, surround and height levels. There's also built-in Alexa+ for voice control.

The Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker has an official price of $299 / £299 / AU$549; the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar is $1,099 / £999 / AU$1,800; and the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer is $899 / £899 / AU$1,300. All three are available to pre-order now, and will be fully released on May 15th 2026.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

• Pro-Ject announces two wireless upgrades for classic hi-fi gear based on WiiM OS
• Stream Box E upgrades your amp with streaming skills
• Wireless Box E turns any passive speakers wireless by connecting to the binding posts

Beloved hi-fi brand Pro-Ject hasn’t slowed down at all in 2026. After announcing a premium turntable in January and record cleaner last month, it has two more pieces of gear coming soon.

The brand has announced the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E, as part of its growing hi-fi ecosystem. They cost £159 (about $200, AU$300) and £199 (around $270, AU$400) respectively.

The Stream Box E is a wireless network streamer and digital pre-amp that can upgrade your wired audio system to allow for Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Qobuz. It can be connected to an amplifier, or directly to active speakers.

Then there’s the Wireless Box E, which also gives a tidy tech upgrade to existing gear. This time, it upgrades your passive loudspeakers, acting as a wireless receiver for them, meaning you can position them anywhere without needing to worry about running cable to them, giving you more flexibility over where you put them, or perhaps where you put the rest of your hi-fi setup.

You'll need one per speaker, of course, and each needs to be connected to a power outlet.

A WiiMsical choice

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the news, is that the Stream Box E and Wireless Box E will both run on WiiM OS. This is a platform primarily designed for the brand’s own tech like such as the WiiM Sound, but is also available to other brands, bringing their tech into the burgeoning WiiM ecosystem.

We’ve compared Sonos vs WiiM in the past to help you understand the differences, but the gesture is clear: this is part of a growing alternative to Sonos, and is clearly one that wants to be as flexible as possible based on these launches.

However, there's a big catch here for Apple users, which is not exactly a small portion of the world. WiiM has some kind of on-going issue with Apple that means that many of its products don't include Apple AirPlay 2 as an easy streaming options, and it's the same with these.

While support for the likes of Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect might mean you're actually fine with this, it also means these boxes are basically no good if you're an Apple Music user, or if you want to be able to use AirPlay's platform-neutral multi-room skills.

In this instance, Sonos absolutely still has the edge — it not only supports AirPlay fully, it's the only brand with a streaming amp that has native Apple Music support in its app for lossless listening.

The fast pace with which Pro-Ject is releasing gears shows that it’s only getting bigger and bigger in the home hi-fi game, especially with affordable options like these. Perhaps it’s found an ideal partner in the equally ambitious WiiM — we can't wait to see how well these work in practice.

We’re not exactly short of options when it comes to choosing a wireless speaker to blast tunes out of either at home or on the go. But how often have you chosen what you believe to be a perfect speaker, only to eventually discover it doesn’t quite meet your evolving needs?

Perhaps you have a large, powerful speaker to use at home, but then you want something you can take on the road with you. Or vice versa, you have a portable speaker that’s easy to throw into a bag, but the sound quality is disappointing. You've been forced to juggle multiple speakers to cover your life — until now.

The Sonos Play laughs in the face of that compromise. One speaker. Every scenario. Done.

Having used it at home, it really does cover all bases. Its impactful audio delivery means it can comfortably be used as a home speaker, as it has little trouble filling a room. And it’s small enough to go into a bag, and you can stream over Bluetooth when you’re away from home.

Throw in a long-lasting battery with up to 24 hours of play time, and you really do have what I would consider to be the only speaker you need.

Not convinced? Allow me to explain.

Filling a gap

Looking at Sonos’ speaker lineup, it would seem like a fair statement to say the brand has a model for every person and every scenario. There are home speakers including the Era 100 and Era 300, then you have the Move 2, which is ‘portable’ speaker but is too large to truly carry around, and finally the Roam 2, that’s about as portable as you can get but not as good as a standalone speaker like its bigger brethren.

That left a little gap between the Move and the Roam that needed filling.

The Sonos Play perfectly slots into the gap, while also crossing over into home speaker territory, sitting above the Era 100 in terms of price, but backing it up with extra features. Tom Conrad has claimed it to be a true ‘Goldilocks’ speaker — I couldn’t agree with him more, and I'm amazed it didn’t already exist.

The joy of music

The Play’s superb sound quality and its versatile design has had an unexpected knock-on effect for me — it’s got me listening to music even more. With multiple Sonos speakers dotted around my apartment, including a stereo pair of One SLs in the kitchen that I use when working from home, I didn’t think I’d have a real need for the Play, yet I’ve found myself using it the most since it arrived.

It’s been great to be able to have it right next to me on the table where I work, then take it into the bedroom where I have a Sonos Arc and another pair of One speakers already set up. But since the Play is already, well, playing, I’ve not seen the need to swap over to that bigger system.

A good reason for not needing to swap over is because the Sonos Play delivers a huge sound that gets better the more you crank up the volume. You can read more about the sound quality in our full in-depth Sonos Play review, but take it from me as someone who not only has other Sonos speakers but also a dedicated hi-fi listening room, the Play sounds tremendous.

If you’ve never owned a Sonos speaker before, I think the Play is the perfect entry point to the brand. It offers excellent sound quality and usability from the get go, while also having the capability to open up a wider multi-room audio system thanks to its Wi-Fi support.

And given Sonos found its footing in multi-room audio, I love the fact the Play makes joining that ecosystem ridiculously easy.

More than just a pretty face

I’ve always been a fan of Sonos’ aesthetic, so much so that my home is filled with its speakers and soundbars, while the Ace headphones were the first over-ear headphones I truly fell in love with. Every product is lovely to look at and to touch, and the Play continues that trend.

Yes, the buttons on the top panel could be a bit more defined to save you from needing to actually look at which one you’re pressing, but otherwise I can’t find any faults with what the Play offers physically.

There’s great cohesion across the lineup too. For example, Sonos has used the same green color for the Play’s small carry handle and its charging base that’s been used for the interior of the Ace’s case. It’s a subtle nod, but one that’s very effective and I, for one, truly appreciate.

Regaining trust

I’m fully aware of the tumultuous couple of years Sonos has had recently. While the launch of the much-anticipated Arc Ultra soundbar at the end of 2024 could be deemed a genuine success — it’s maintained a spot in our guide to the best soundbars ever since we reviewed it — the disastrous app update fiasco certainly would have soured relationships between the company and its millions of users.

Throw in a number of competitor brands — such as WiiM, Audio Pro and Denon — also offering a seamless gateway to multi-room audio, and Sonos’ position as a leader in its field was in serious jeopardy.

While many of the issues that plagued the app have been fixed and with CEO Tom Conrad confirming the company has plans to improve it further, Sonos still needed something to say to customers ‘we’re back and we’re better than ever’ — and in the Sonos Play, it’s well and truly proved it.

This week, we saw major decisions that could rock the tech world, as social media was called addictive in a landmark trial, and the US banned foreign Wi-Fi routers.

To catch up on this, as well as the latest reviews and other essential tech news stories, scroll down for our full ICYMI recap of the week.

When you’re done here, be sure also to read our experts’ picks for the seven new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend.

1. Social media declared addictive

On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google are liable for designing products that are deliberately addictive, a case that could change social media forever. The plaintiff, a woman known only as KGM, testified that "she became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine", leading to body image issues and self-harm.

KGM's lawyers, in their closing remarks, said: “How do you make a child never put down the phone? That’s called the engineering of addiction." We pinpointed three persuasive tricks social media companies use to keep users glued to their screens, and exactly how the infinite-scroll loop hijacks children's still-developing brains — all according to the latest scientific research.

• Read the full story: 'The 'engineering of addiction' explained

2. We heard the Sonos Play in all of its glory

We’ve spent a few weeks testing the Sonos Play speaker, and it’s a real return to form for Sonos. Not because it’s the best-sounding speaker in the world (though it’s really impressive for something that size) or because it has every feature imaginable (though it offers more options than basically anything else in its price range) — but because it gets back to what Sonos was known for: speakers so convenient that you’ll listen to more music than ever.

It’s a battery-powered portable speaker that’s compact and light enough to grab and take around with you, but that’s also powerful and high-quality enough to use as your main home wireless speaker in a room. That means it’s always grabbable at a moment's notice, so we found ourselves using it more often, in more places, than with other portable speakers.

The great, durable design with a charging cradle is what helps cement this as maybe the ideal do-anything wireless speaker for the home, though it’s not cheap.

• Read the full story: I spent 3 weeks testing the Sonos Play, and I love it

3. We flew the DJI 360 drone

We’ve tested the DJI Avata 360, and our verdict is in: it’s the 360 drone to beat. It’s more agile and versatile than the previous frontrunner, the Antigravity A1, and boasts excellent 10-bit image quality — did we mention it’s more affordable too?

Yes, other DJI drones offer better pure image quality, and 360 footage requires post-production editing. Still, as an all-rounder that's both a capable 360 camera and a thrilling FPV flyer, the Avata 360 delivers brilliantly.

• Read the full review: I had an absolute blast flying the DJI Avata 360

4. US banned non-American routers

In this week’s rendition of what weird tech law the Trump administration will dump on us, it just banned new non-US-made Wi-Fi routers — meaning they’ll be banned unless they’re made in the States.

According to the FCC, routers manufactured outside the US represent both a "supply chain vulnerability" and a "severe cybersecurity risk". Essentially, they fear these foreign routers could be used to spy on US citizens.

While this isn’t the most illogical move, the big trouble is that finding American-made routers isn’t easy, and all of the best we’ve tested are made outside the country — meaning a new router you ‘upgrade’ to could in fact be a downgrade.

• Read the full story: The US just banned new routers that aren't made in America

5. OpenAI killed Sora

Sora, we barely knew ya. Just six months after launching what might be the world’s first social AI app and just 18 months after launching the Sora generative video model into the world, OpenAI pulled the plug.

Sora, as a platform and app, seems to be no more.

OpenAI announced the news in a social post and has since offered little explanation. We have some guesses, like the skyrocketing costs of supporting all that video generation, the shrinking interest in the app, or maybe OpenAI’s preparation for going public. It’s something they might need to do since Disney also just pulled out of a $1B deal with the AI company.

• Read the full story: Is this the start of a mini AI bubble collapse?

6. iOS 26.4 sparked a controversy

iOS updates usually deliver fun new treats for iPhone fans, but this week, iOS 26.4 came with a less welcome gift — age verification checks for UK users.

When you install the update, you have to prove you’re over 18, and that’s caused problems for many who don’t have a driving license or a credit card to scan. The buggy process and concerns around the security of age verification checks have also doused this already hot topic with extra gasoline.

If you’re having iOS 26.4 issues, we’ve outlined some potential fixes in our guide below. This controversy is likely only just getting started, but maybe WWDC 2026 (also announced this week for June 8) will help give us some answers.

Still, to put this is furore in context, it isn't quite on the scale of the Apple's biggest tech crimes — check out our new, definitive list of the worst Apple gadgets ever, voted for you by you.

• Read the full story: iOS 26.4 age verification is proving a disaster for some users

7. Netflix hiked prices

It’s that time of year again! We’re not talking about the changing of the seasons, no, of course, it’s Netflix hiking prices. Yippee…

The world's biggest streaming service has quietly announced that the Standard with ads tier is going up by $1 to $8.99, while both ad-free tiers, Standard and Premium, are going up by $2 to $19.99 and $26.99, respectively.

What’s more, Netflix’s extra member fee will rise from $7.99 to $9.99 — yikes!

It’s not clear if this change will launch outside the US anytime soon, but you can always count on three things in life: death, taxes, and Netflix price hikes.

• Read more: The cost of Netflix has just gone up in the US again

Sonos Play: two-minute review

The Sonos Play is one of the few products I've tested recently that really converted me to its cause over time. It's a product that Sonos pitches as a home speaker that's also portable — the one speaker you can use everywhere.

I started off thinking that the Sonos Play was struggling for value, because it's more expensive than Sonos' small purely home speaker, the Sonos Era 100, but doesn't sound quite as good. And it costs a lot more than most of the best Bluetooth speaker options, such as the excellent JBL Charge 6.

But over time, I realized that the Sonos Play excels in subtlety. Despite Sonos' claim, I don't think of it as a home speaker first and a portable speaker second. I see it as a portable speaker that's good enough to justify a place out on your furniture all the time, rather than being relegated to a drawer when you're not using it. And as a result, I started using it as both a home speaker for the room its in, and I started grabbing it to take with me to other rooms simply because I could, and it sounds good.

The charging cradle is vital to this. With no cable to fiddle with, you can just grab the Sonos Play and go without pausing your stride. It lasts for ages once it's away from the cradle (24 hours, and it turns itself off when not in use to keep going over days), so you don't need to be precious about returning it for a charge. It's solidly waterproof so you can use it anywhere without fear — It's a great shower karaoke companion.

And the Sonos Play does sound good — better than most portable speakers of its size. It's really well-rounded, with solid mids, clear treble and plenty of bass. It lacks some dynamic edge (though improves as the volume goes louder), but is still a really enjoyable listen.

It's become my speaker buddy — the one I'm using most, because it's so versatile. It's ready to go anywhere, to play in the house on Wi-Fi or out of the house on Bluetooth. You can achieve everything it does from other speakers, and arguably in a way that's better value — but not with this efficiency.

Sonos said it wanted to make a speaker that could be the one you need — powerful enough to fill nearly any room, and easily portable to take to nearly any room — and I think it nailed it.

Sonos Play review: price and availability

• Released on March 31st, 2026
• $299 / £299 / AU$499

The Sonos Play's $299 / £299 / AU$499 price is a fine balance. When it comes to Sonos' portable speakers, it sits neatly between the Sonos Roam 2's $179 / £179 / AU$239 and the Sonos Move 2's $449 / £449 / AU$799.

When it comes to Sonos' home speakers, it sits neatly between the $219 / £199 / AU$289 price of the Sonos Era 100, and the $449 / £449 / AU$749 price of the Era 300.

The difference, of course, is that the Play's performance sits correctly between the two portable speakers, while it doesn't perform any better than the Era 100 — what you get instead is a smaller design and a battery.

There are tons of competing speakers at this size, but few that offer the combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and battery portability. Portable competition includes the Bluetooth-only Marshall Middleton II, which is similar in price at $329.99 / £259 / AU$499, or the JBL Charge 5, which costs $199 / £169 / AU$229.

On the non-portable side, there's the JBL Authentics 200, which is $349 / £299 / AU$449 officially (but can be found for a lot less these days) or the BlueSound Pulse Flex for around $349 / £279.

Sonos Play review: specs

Sonos Play review: features

• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C line-in connectivity, 24-hour battery life
• Charging cradle included, but no power adapter
• Stereo pairing option, or share over Bluetooth with other Sonos speakers even when not on Wi-Fi

The Sonos Play is the company's most versatile speaker to date. It works as a normal Sonos home speaker, complete with Wi-Fi connectivity and support for Sonos' network and app, which support Hi-Res Audio playback from compatible services. You can play to it directly over Apple AirPlay 2 or Sonos Connect as well.

There's also Bluetooth support to play from any other device, and the USB-C port on the back can be connected to an adapter to offer a line-in port for a turntable or other audio source, which then becomes available to all your other Sonos speakers on the network.

Sonos also has a new feature that enables you to group portable Sonos speakers when you're out of the house, so you connect to one of them over Bluetooth, and the sound is shared with the other speakers. There's no Auracast support, though.

The speaker setup consists of two angled tweeters facing slightly left and right, a single midwoofer facing forward, and then two force-opposed bass radiators on the left and right.

You can use a Sonos Play on its own, or you can put two into a stereo pair. You can also use a pair as rear speakers in a Sonos home theater setup.

But it also has a built-in battery, which can last up for up to 24 hours, and the speaker can still play over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth when it's running from battery power alone. The Sonos Play comes with a little battery charging cradle, which you just slot it onto to charge, and you can grab it straight off at a moment's notice without fiddling to unplug.

It's a small thing, but I think it makes a difference to its perceived versatility compared to it being plugged in to charge — I'll dig into that more in the Design section.

Be warned, though, that the cable just has a USB-C connector on the end, and no plug to connect to an outlet. Any USB-C port with 20W of charging power should work, so it could be connected to a device like a computer, or to a power adapter.

The Sonos Play can also be charged using its USB-C port, so you don't need the cable if you take it away for a weekend. You can also charge another device from the USB-C port, if you like, so it can work as a power bank for your phone.

The exact battery figure you get will depend on how you use it (Wi-Fi is more battery-consuming than Bluetooth), but I think Sonos' estimate is about right. I took it off its cradle for three days, using the speaker on Wi-Fi by my desk while I worked during the day for intermittent periods, without charging it at all. At the end of that time, it had 21% battery left.

You can get better battery life from the Marshall Middleton II (30 hours), but only over Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi. I think Sonos has found a good balance of longevity compared to size here.

The one thing about portable use that annoyed me a little was that it turns itself off a little faster than I would like, despite me making sure that the option in the settings to turn off faster to preserve battery life was off. To turn it back on, you need to use the on-off button on the back, and it takes a moment — I'd much prefer a button on top to make this feel less like a hassle.

There can also be times when the flexibility of the speaker conflicts with itself. For example, I put my two units into a stereo pair to test the sound, planning to live with the setup for a few days. But once they're in a pair, the Sonos app (and AirPlay) only want to treat them as a pair, meaning that the idea of grabbing one to take into another room on a whim no longer works. Take them both, or don't bother.

I ended up doing a more intensive stereo audio test, and then switching them back to individual speakers because I was enjoying them more in their most flexible form.

I'll finish this section by touching briefly on the Sonos app. It remains one of the best when it comes to streaming service support, and I've had no problems when it comes to reliability testing either these speakers, or with my current Sonos soundbar/home theater setups.

Setting the speakers up was absolutely seamless, and it was then easy to activate Automatic TruePlay tuning, in which the Sonos Play speaker listens to its own sound output and adjust the sound to better fit the space it's placed in.

The Sonos app can be a bit slow to load new music or screens, though, and there are some design issues that seem needlessly confusing. Sonos CEO Tom Conrad identified some that he plans to fix in an interview with me ahead of the launch of the speakers, though my own gripes are that it's silly that if you tap the cog icon in the top corner to be taken to the Settings screen, the cog icon stays in the corner, meaning it's possible to open the app, tap that because you want to go to the Settings screen, and nothing happens because you don't realize you're already in part of the Settings screen.

I also hate Sonos' design for its on/off switches. They go from black with a white dot, to white with a black dot, depending on whether they're on or off. But which is on and which is off? It's a terrible piece of user communication, you have to play to figure it out. (Black with a white dot is on.)

Now, a lot of other streaming device apps are equally flawed — some have better interfaces, but worse streaming support, for example — so at this point I find the app far from a dealbreaker, but I'm looking forward to seeing it get better. I actually nearly always use AirPlay for playing music anyway, so after setup, I don't interact with it much.

For those who don't want to use an app at all, the Sonos Play support Amazon Alexa and Sonos Voice Control options — but its mic can also be disabled using a switch on the back (which also disables Automatic TruePlay, since it fully disconnects the mic from the system).

• Features score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: sound quality

• Bass is powerful, but a little heavy handed
• Very well-rounded sound, but best with the volume over 40%
• About as good as speakers of this size sound

The Sonos Play sits in a slightly odd position when it comes to judging its sound quality, because it's a hybrid home and portable speaker. I'm going to mostly judge it based on comparisons with other portable speakers, rather than home speakers, because the design constraints of being portable affect what sound quality you can reasonably expect from it — but I will also compare it to the Sonos Era 100.

As is standard from Sonos, there's a really well-rounded sound with a fair amount of heft across the whole frequency range. The thing that immediately jumps out is the amount of bass depth there is for something pretty small, thanks to its dual passive radiators.

Much like the Era 100, the bass is controlled a little more loosely — a little more heavy-handedly — than I'd like. As with a lot of passive radiator-based speakers, it can feel boomy depending on what surface you place it on, too, but that's situational. It's a trade off in exchange for the punch it provides, and I'm quite happy with it on balance.

The second thing that jumps out is the overall power, which the bass only helps emphasize. This speaker can fill any room in my house without coming close to breaking a sweat or over-stretching itself — in fact, as I'll come back to, it's at its best once you dial up to a certain volume.

The two angled tweeters serve up high frequencies that sound clear and well elevated out of the rest of the mix, with this likely aided by the use of two angled tweeters pointing left and right.

Sonos has also claimed that this set enables stereo sound from a single speaker, but this is, alas, a fantasy. Firing up Crooked by Smilk, the opening of which is basically ‘Now That’s What I Call Stereo Imaging’, reveals only the most minimal stereo effect even from a song that really push separation to the max.

The mid-range is able to find a good amount of detail and solidity in different elements, so that even complex mixes still feel like that have all their constituent parts, rather than getting mushed together in the way that some portable speakers are prone to.

The mid-range and treble are both relatively tame and a little softer on dynamic attack than larger and more expensive portable speakers, or non-portable home speakers. That's a compromise here compared to the Sonos Era 100, for sure — that speaker just has the extra edge in enough areas of sound reproduction to feel like a slightly more robust, more gripping, more revealing listen.

However, compared to the JBL Charge 6, the Sonos Play is a significant step up in the overall reproduction of a song, with the mid-range the clear area of difference. On the JBL Charge 6, it's simple way too thin, lacking in expression, presence within the sound balance, and really limited in range — in particular, the Charge 6 really struggles to ramp from mid-range down through to bass, compared to the Sonos Play.

Young Blood by The Naked & Famous relies on a foundation of lower-mid synth in its verses, and without this, the song is unbalanced. The JBL Charge 6 just doesn't have this balance in its register, but the Sonos Play is able to add the weight.

The Charge 6 also has less deep bass reach than the Sonos Play — it handles its bass well, but there's just less lower-frequency grunt going on.

I should note here that we have highly rated the JBL Charge 6 for its sound reproduction compared to other portable speakers — this is just what spending the extra on the Sonos Play gets you.

That said, the JBL Charge 6 has a slightly more dynamic treble than the Play, though, with a little better handling of transients (ie, handling the sudden start of a sound) that make it feel more detail-rich. I still prefer the Sonos Play overall, for sure.

However, I mentioned above that going above a certain volume opens things up for the Sonos Play. Pushing past the 40% mark leaves the bass working in the same way that it was before, but suddenly the upper-mids and treble get a boost — a subtle but clear change in profile when ticking up.

This adds to the expansiveness of the sound, and where certain songs that should be thrilling could feel tame at times at lower volumes, they all really wake up past 40%. The Sonos Era 300 had this trait as well, when I tested it.

The only question is whether you want the Sonos Play that loud all the time — in my bedroom, 25% was the volume where I mostly wanted to use it, for example. But again, I still think the sound is very good for a portable speaker even at the lower volumes. It's just that when you can let it off its leash, it improves further.

Speaking of letting it off its leash, I also tried the sound in a stereo pair. As is often the case, it gives the speakers room to do a little more by sharing the burden, and in particular I noticed that the bass felt like it was able to be a little more controlled at the same level of power, but the mids came across weightier, again improving on the lower-mids particularly.

I don't think it opened up more detail in the treble or anything like that, but two of these are really good at filling even a large room with well-rounded, well-dispersed sound, without pushing themselves hard in a way that can affect the sound quality. You'd rarely need to push them even as far as the 40% volume mark — a pair of Plays is such a powerful system consider how small they are.

For my last sound comparison, I broke out the Sonos Roam 2. This comparison actually made the Sonos Roam 2 look impressive, because it's remarkable how close its sound signature comes to the Play. But the Play's audio is much bigger, much deeper, and more refined in all areas.

• Sound quality score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: design

• Home-friendly design, but still IP67-rated and drop-proof
• Great size, weight and charging design to grab quickly
• Buttons aren’t as clear as they could be

The design of the Sonos Play sits very much in line with other Sonos speakers. It has a hard dotted grille like most of its designs, with a rubbery top and bottom, like the Sonos Roam 2. The rubberized portion has a hefty lip at the top where it overlaps with the hard grille, and this makes me thing more of older Sonos speakers (like the Sonos One) than the Era 100, in a fond way.

I like the size of the Sonos Play a lot. I can grab it easily in one hand from the side, thanks in part to a smart concave groove on the back that's also rubberized, giving you a little grip aid.

It's weighty, but not too heavy to happily grab and carry around. It's about a third heavier than the JBL Charge 6, but is nearly a third lighter than the Marshall Middleton II, so finds itself in a good balance.

It has a flexible hook on the top of the back, which can use to carry it around or to hang on a bathroom door or something. This feels nice and sturdy.

It's IP67-rated, so should be able to handle all but the worst of water-related accidents. It should be able to handle complete immersion for a short time, so it's no risk for baths or for pool parties.

The charging cable is a little oval of plastic with a lip, and there's not much to it, but it holds on surfaces well enough when you're removing or replacing the speaker, and the charging points always line up perfectly.

I really think Sonos has nailed it with the core physical design here, and not just in a physical sense. Yes, it's durable, it's got a hook, and perhaps most importantly it looks nice — you'll happily have this thing out on a shelf, whereas a lot of people would choose to hide the JBL Charge 6 in a drawer.

But the design also make a different to my mentality, I've found. It's about how its size, weight and charging cradle lodge into my mind that this is a speaker that I not only can grab to take with me for a music blast, but that I should grab because it's so easy. There's no downside.

The Sonos Move 2 has an identical setup — durable, powerful, portable, easy charging cradle — but it's too large and heavy. You have to reach around to carry it from the back using its carry handle. If I'm taking that anywhere else, it's because I'm committing to being there for a while. I plan ahead.

And I have small portable speakers already in my house (shout out to by beloved B&O A1) that I could grab and take anywhere with me easily — but they're stored in a drawer upstairs, because I don't have them out most of the time.

But the Sonos Play has become my new kitchen speaker, so it's always out on the side, ready to grab. And it's so grabbable because it's about the thickness of a drink can, and I don't need to fiddle to unplug it because it uses a charging cradle, so I can just swipe it one-handed as I walk past. And it's already turned on and ready to play, assuming it's not already playing, because it's the main speaker in that room.

These are small, subtle design elements that add up to me feeling quite differently about the Sonos Play than almost any other speaker I've had, from the many Wi-Fi options to many portable Bluetooth speakers. As the weather where I am improves, the Sonos Play has quickly become my buddy that I take with me more; I grab the one from my kitchen to take outdoors when I sit out there, and I grab the one from my bedroom to take to the bathroom to blast tunes while I shave.

There must be a 'however', though, and it's the controls. I already mentioned that the on/off button is on the back, and while it's large and easy to find, I would prefer that you could get it to turn back on just by pressing something on top.

But the top buttons are also annoyingly disguised. They're distinguished only by symbols, not any kind of actual raised button element. And 'distinguished' is far too strong a word, because they're the same color and matte material as the rest of the top, so they're genuinely hard to see in some lighting conditions.

They also don't feel super distinct under the fingers. You get used to it, because you've only got four controls — volume down, play/pause (which also skips tracks with a multi-press), volume up, and voice assistant activation — but they just seem unnecessarily disguised.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Sonos Play review: value

• It's pricey for a portable speaker…
• But few things are as versatile for the same cost
• It's priced in line with competitors at the same audio level

The Sonos Play is not cheap. For only a little more than the Sonos Play, you can get both a Sonos Era 100 SL and the JBL Charge 6, providing you with the core versatility of the Sonos Play — a powerful home speaker and robust portable speaker. But that's two devices, and part of the draw here is one device that can do both — simpler and more efficient.

But the price is also right in line with other powerful speakers at a similar level of audio quality, like the Marshall Middleton II — and it does things the Marshall doesn't. The JBL Charge 6 is a five-star portable speaker that's nearly half the price, so if the portable side is your priority, it makes sense to get that and save so much money… but the Sonos does sound better, offers more versatility, and looks way nicer to have as a home speaker.

When I look at other options at the same price, is anything ticking as many boxes as the Play? Pricey, yes, but more than justified. I'm not sure I'd buy a stereo pair over other wireless options you can get for $600 / £600 though, such as the Kanto Ren, since you lose some of the versatility in a pair.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Sonos Play?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Sonos Play review: also consider

How I tested the Sonos Play

• Tested over three weeks at home
• Compared with other Sonos speakers, and options from other brands

I had two Sonos Play units at home to test, over the course of three weeks. They were updated with the same software that the products will launch with, including all the various features.

I tested over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and using the Sonos app and Apple AirPlay 2. I mainly listened to music on Apple Music.

I've been reviewing speakers for 15 years, and I test audio products of all kinds, from Bluetooth speakers to floorstanding passive speakers.

• First reviewed: March 2026
• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee

• The man in charge of Sonos has more to share
• He says Sonos is committed to the headphones category
• In-car audio is not a main priority right now, however

Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has been busy speaking to outlets including TechRadar about his plans for the high-end audio company going forward, and in a new interview he confirms Sonos's continued commitment to one product category — while dampening down expectations in another.

Conrad spoke to Chris Welch at Bloomberg about how Sonos intends to follow up on the Sonos Ace headphones that launched in June 2024, and the CEO emphasized that his company remains "really excited" about new pairs of headphones in the future.

It sounds as though the Sonos Ace 2 headphones might not be too far off then, but Conrad did express some regret about how the original pair were positioned on the market — and suggests selling them to existing Sonos customers first may have been a better strategy.

"I think the thesis for Ace at launch was it's a $5 billion or $6 billion category, we can make a pair of headphones that is as good or better than anything else on the market, and the opportunity is to go out there and do hand-to-hand combat with Sony and Bose and Apple and win," says Conrad.

'Strategic power'

While it seems likely that more headphones are on the way, don't expect any kind of in-car audio solution from Sonos in the near future. Sonos already has a partnership with Audi, but at the moment we're not going to see much more than that — certainly nothing along the lines of Cadillac's AKG Dolby Atmos system, for example.

"As soon as you're in the car, there are a bunch of new gatekeepers," says Conrad. "I look for venues where we have some strategic power, and it feels to me like in the car, it's a little hard to make the case that we have a ton of strategic power."

However, there is still a "small team" working on potential Sonos products for the car. "I would characterize what we're doing in automotive as a hobby," explains the CEO. "Let's see what happens there."

As well as future speculation, there are actual new products from Sonos on the market you can go out and buy right now, which fall under the company's core focus on wireless speakers: there's a refreshed Play speaker with added portability, as well as a cheaper version of the Era 100 — we've got all the details here.

When is a quiet week in tech not a quiet week in tech? How about right now. Because while this week lacked the huge launches of the previous one, it was still packed with big stories and impressive new tech.

For starters, we delivered our expert verdicts on the Apple devices that were revealed last week, and the MacBook Neo in particular blew us away. We also sat down for a long chat with Sonos' CEO as the audio giant launched two new speakers, and delivered our Google Pixel 10a review.

In fact, so much happened this week that we didn't even have space to include the two massive Gemini-powered features coming to Google Maps, so scroll down for your full catch-up and when you’re finished here be sure to read our picks for the seven new movies and TV shows you need to watch this weekend.

7. DJI prepared the Avata 360 for liftoff

DJI's first 360-degree drone has long been rumored, and this week it finally broke cover. And though we don't know everything about it yet, we do know its name, launch date, and one core spec.

The Avata 360, as it will be known, will be equipped with 8K video recording and will launch on March 26. Further specs, and the price, are yet to be revealed, but we're already getting pretty excited about it.

It will compete against the excellent Antigravity A1, which debuted last year as the world’s first true 360-degree flying camera, but the Avata 360 will have an advantage over that rival in that it will settle into an already formidable DJI drone ecosystem. Watch this space for more info ahead of that launch date.

• Read more: DJI’s Avata 360 will land this month — here’s what we know about DJI’s first 360 drone, and 3 reasons I’m psyched for its arrival

6. HBO started its global password crackdown

HBO Max’s password crackdown is going global according to the company's CEO and president of global streaming, JB Perrette.

That means you may no longer be able to share an account with another HBO max user, unless you pay an extra member fee — though that option is currently only available in the US.

However, how much longer will HBO Max even be around? HBO Max's future currently depends on whether regulators approve the acquisition of its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, by Paramount Skydance. According to at least one prominent media analyst, if that goes ahead then HBO Max could be shut down by the end of 2027.

• Read the full story: HBO Max is launching a global password-sharing crackdown

5. Apple prepared its 50th anniversary celebrations

Apple will turn 50 in a couple of weeks, and Tim Cook has been teasing what the tech giant has planned to celebrate the occasion.

"In the coming weeks, Apple and its global community will celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary, recognizing the creativity, innovation, and impact that people around the world have made possible with Apple technology," said Cook, before ending with a note to fans that "If you’ve taught us anything, it’s that the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

So, does that mean we should prepare for a crazy launch? The new MacBook Neo was impressive (see more on that below), but perhaps the company has something folded up its sleeve for April 1?

• Read the full story: Apple announces major anniversary celebrations

4. We tested Google's budget Pixel

Even amongst the flashiest, most expensive tech there's a place for a budget champion, and in the Android world the Google Pixel 10a is a strong contender for that title.

Our Managing Editor Jacob Krol put it through its paces over the past week or so, and as his review states, "it proves you don’t need big upgrades to make a great phone."

So, while it doesn’t get a new processor or upgraded camera hardware this year — instead sticking with the Tensor G4 and the same dual-camera system as the Pixel 9a — it nails the basics: a comfortable design, strong battery life, bright display, and a dependable camera, all for a low price of $499 / £499 / AU$849.

• Read more: Google’s Pixel 10a review: still one of the best budget options

3. And we tested Apple’s iPhone 17e too

Sticking in the world of budget smartphones, we also reviewed Apple’s iPhone 17e, and it too proved its worth as an affordable winner.

No, it doesn’t reinvent Apple’s budget iPhone approach, but it does bring some meaningful refinements to the iPhone 16e thanks to its A19 chip, double the starting storage at 256GB, and the long-awaited addition of MagSafe — all for the same starting price as the previous model.

The single rear camera will be a let down if you love taking snaps, and the display isn’t as crisp as the iPhone 17’s, but if you’re after an affordable iPhone there isn’t a better option based on our tests.

• Read the full review: I tested the iPhone 17e, and it's an even better budget iPhone

2. The MacBook Neo blew us away

The Apple MacBook Neo doesn’t sound like it should work. It runs on an iPhone chip, boasts just 8GB of unified memory, and includes ancient USB 2.0 technology. Yet the Neo manages to deliver an excellent MacBook experience — there’s zero macOS compromises, and it’s a far more capable machine than its budget counterparts running Windows 11 and ChromeOS.

Why? Well for a start the performance is solid. Yes, you’ll want to stick to Apple’s own apps over third-party alternatives and keep multi-tasking to a low level, but you can get a good level of utility out of this machine.

Then there’s the design, which is simply beautiful, with the Neo’s color being showcased across its aluminum shell, Magic keyboard, and even in macOS elements — plus the display is stunning.

And then there's the price. At $599 / £599 / AU$899 it stretches the definition of budget a little, but compared to other MacBooks — or the Windows competition — it's a steal.

• Read more: Apple MacBook Neo review: the best budget laptop you can buy

1. Sonos gave us two new speakers — and some explanations

Sonos has not had a great time of it of late, with its disastrous and well-documented app relaunch leading to much criticism and, eventually, the replacement of its CEO in January 2025.

That was then and this is now, though, and this week Sonos released not one but two new speakers in the form of the Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL. And, its current CEO Tom Conrad was eager to sit down with us and explain what went wrong in 2024, what its strategy is for the future, and why we should be excited about the new devices.

You can read our Managing Editor of Home Tech Matt Bolton's full interview with Conrad here, and also check out Conrad's insights into what went wrong with the Sonos app upgrade. But for now, let's focus on the speakers.

The Sonos Era 100 SL is a new, more affordable version of the existing Era 100, but without microphones; so, it lacks the smart home functions of the original, but comes at a much cheaper price.

More interesting still, though, is the Sonos Play. This new portable speaker sits between the Roam and Move models in terms of price and characteristics, and Conrad thinks it might be the “Goldilocks” speaker. And we think he might just be right.

• Read the full story: Sonos launches a new portable Play speaker and a cheaper Era 100

In the build up to the launch of the new Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL speakers, I had the chance to speak to Sonos CEO Tom Conrad not just about these speakers, but about the many changes he's made to the company since taking over in January 2025, and other changes happening in the industry at the moment.

Below is our full conversation, covering every topic — but you can read just our conversation about the app disaster and how the company is changing as a result (and what Conrad still doesn't like about it) here, or just our discussion of wireless soundbars and Dolby Atmos FlexConnect here, or just our talk about what the music streaming services can do better here.

Conrad has been a part of Sonos as a board member for eight years, and became the boss when former CEO Patrick Spence left following a disastrous app update in 2024 that changed the company's perception drastically. It seems like an appropriate position for a man who had a tattoo of the Sonos Ace headphones on his arm even before he got this job.

After our initial introductions, Conrad wasted no time in jumping into his pitch for the direction of the company, and how that informed the launch of these new products.

Tom Conrad: One of the first things that I said to the team when I took the job as CEO was that I think we really make just one product, which is a sound system for the home. Any individual device is just a way into the system or to deepen your attachment to it. The system of Sonos really is the product.

Now, of course, we sell speakers and soundbars and headphones and components. But what has always made Sonos special is that the experience gets better every time you add another room, a stereo pair, surround sound in the living room, music moving with you from the kitchen to a road trip — really a system where the whole is genuinely greater than the sum of the parts.

And I think that really sets Sonos apart from every other audio company on the planet. And so I think that's the context to understand [Sonos Play]. We're not launching a new speaker, but we're really opening a new front door to the system.

13 years ago, Play:1 introduced millions of people to this idea. Actually we sold more than 10 million of them, and remarkably, nine out of 10 are still in use today.

And Play:1 didn't just introduce an audience to whole-home audio, it really invented the category and defined what internet-connected home audio could be.

When we started this project [the Sonos Play], we asked a simple question: If we were designing the perfect fundamental building block for the Sonos system today, knowing everything we've learned over the last two decades, what would it look like?

And as an intentional callback to the speaker that started it all, we're calling this new product Sonos Play.

And when you put Sonos Play next to the Play:1, you can see how much has changed. Play:1 was a mono single tweeter speaker with a midwoofer. Sonos Play is true stereo with dual tweeters, a dedicated midwoofer and, frankly, a soundstage that just absolutely fills the room.

The bass is deeper, the amplification architecture is three generations ahead of where we were with Play:1. It has automatic TruePlay that continuously adapts the sound to wherever the speaker happens to be sitting, and then there's just all of the technological stuff that didn't exist in 2013 — Wi Fi 6, microphone arrays for AI conversation.

Matt Bolton: I also feel like there's a couple of design elements in the Play that look more like the Play:1 and the Sonos One than the Era 300. It's got this bigger like white lip at the top and some elements of the slightly more old-school Sonos design aesthetic.

TC: That's right, it is a callback in a bunch of ways. I mean, it looks really nice next to a 300, certainly from the same family.

As beautiful as the, as the Play:1 was in its day, and you still see them all over the world, we have moved dramatically beyond the design language of that product, from that era. So [the Play is] just aesthetically, it's a great step forward.

The last exciting thing about Play is that while Play:1 was designed to sit kind of permanently on a shelf in your home, Sonos Play comes with a charging cradle and has a full-day battery in it.

So in addition to being the perfect speaker for your kitchen or for a stereo pair for your office, it's also the best speaker for you to take with you, whether it's into the backyard for a dinner party or to throw in your bag to take on vacation.

It's beautifully between the audio characteristics of Sonos Roam and Sonos Move. it's a pretty remarkable Goldilocks speaker, if I do say so myself. We're really, really excited about it.

MB: I feel like the fact that you're talking about fresh front door products is an indication in itself that, after 15 months of being quiet, you've had to go through some kind of reset. So can you you talk through what you guys have been changing internally?

TC: If you think about the history of the company, we had a decade under the stewardship of John McFarlane, the company's founder. His vision was really all driven by the idea of filling every home with music on the backs of this emergent streaming moment, that he predicted so accurately.

But if you were to critique his decade, it might only be that we didn't ship that much hardware — a couple of amplifiers, a controller, you know, the initial Play:5.

It wasn't until Patrick became CEO, in our second decade, that the company really found its footing with respect to reliably shipping a couple of new products every single year. In fact, his stated goal for the company was to turn it into kind of a new product introduction machine. And, I mean, I'm the incredible beneficiary of that work!

But if you were to critique his chapter, I think the unintended consequence of that laser-like focus on new products was the company lost some of its connection to the idea that the product is actually Sonos. That the individual product launches are meant to extend the idea of what the system can be in a home and in the world.

The shift in my chapter, in some ways, is to marry the best of both of those worlds, to return to the idea that Sonos is a comprehensive system for audio in the home that you need in the same way that you need lighting and plumbing and Wi Fi; you need a sound system for your home. But to also build on our capability around new product introduction.

For my first year at the company, we had to pour so much of our energy into righting the ship with respect to the software platform that underpins all of the system experiences, that we purposefully paused our new hardware introductions to get back to par on that front.

And so it is an exciting moment to be able to say, OK, we're back, and we're launching new products again, and we'll have more in the back half of the year, because, you know, I like to say that Sonos is a company that's 100% software and 100% hardware, and so it's nice to get the 100% back that's hardware.

MB: It's interesting you mentioned that moment, because with something like the Era 100 SL, it's not like it requires a huge amount of new R&D to develop it, so it's clearly a decision you've made to wait for this time to release it. So what is it about the stage you've reached with the platform or the other work you've been doing that made now the right time?

TC: Then you look at where we were when I came in the door, we were in the middle of trying to recover from our missteps in the spring of 2024 with the launch of the new app and software platform.

Candidly, the real story there is that we just changed too much too fast, and made a bunch of tactical errors along the way of rolling it out to our customers, and then paid a very dear price. As did our customers.

I've been a customer for nearly 20 years. I've been a partner to the company for 15 or something, going back to the integrations we did between Pandora and Sonos in my days building Pandora. I've been on the board for eight years. I love this company

And Sonos in my own home is a huge part of, you know, the daily delight and satisfaction and ambiance I enjoy when I'm at home. As much as anything, I took the job to fix the product and, and get the company back to a place where we're just reliably delighting tens of millions of customers around the world again.

A lot of that was on the back of getting the software right. And so I wanted the company to be just laser focused on that return.

And with respect to the timing on Era 100 SL, our goal with Era 100 SL, frankly, was really to anchor the product line in an attainable price point for our customers. There's a lot of work that went into Era 100 SL to get us to a point where we could offer it at this entry-level price point while not compromising on audio quality at all.

So while it might look like this is as simple as removing some microphones, there's a comprehensive look at the cost of the product from top to bottom to get it to this new entry-level price.

MB: So there's an amount of re-engineering inside to to help you get it there?

TC: That's right.

MB: The other outcome of everything you guys have been through with the app is that it now means that any further updates you make to the app are automatically a huge deal, whether they deserve to be or not. Does that affect how you're approaching it or how you communicate about it?

TC: I think that when you make software that people use every day, and it's a big part of their life, it's always a big deal when you make changes. It's certainly true that there's additional scrutiny on Sonos, but as a software creator, I've always felt a keen responsibility to move my audience along with the changes and updates that we're making, in a really thoughtful and methodical way.

And so, as an example of that playing out at Sonos, you know, I'd say there were kind of three things that we had to improve upon after the disastrous launch in 2024. We had to fix performance and reliability — we had to restore baseline functionality that had been dropped from the product in its initial release. And we had to improve the user experience of the offering as well.

And it's really the third thing that we're only just now able to tackle [now]. If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming app, for example.

I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way — cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional.

So when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality. There's a funny kind of search blindness — the interface that we chose for search actually takes up more pixels on the screen than a typical search interface, but people don't even see it. They're like, 'I can't find search' because it's presented in such an unconventional way.

And so, we're now at the place where we can update the app to return it to more conventional choices. But it is, as you point out, another set of changes for our customers.

We're handling this opportunity in a really different way. I've been on Reddit, for example, describing the changes and asking our customers there to give us feedback back about their own experience learning to use Sonos and living with it every day. We will roll changes out to our beta channel and even there, our users will be able to opt into the experience.

And then when we take it to production, we'll similarly have opt-in experiences and a gradual roll out and iteration. We've already learned a lot from the perspective of our customers on Reddit after my invitation to them [recently] to share their thoughts.

None of this is a surprising way to operate a scale consumer software product, but it's certainly the set of best practices and, frankly, one of the missteps of the company in 2024 is that we didn't more closely adhere to these norms.

MB: There was a real sense that your competitors could smell blood in the water in 2024, and they really went hard on their own products going for, going for the switchers. Do you think you can win back people who did switch to WiiM or other platforms? Or do you think it's more about using these new "front door" products to go after an expanded market?

TC: Certainly, anyone that was frustrated with Sonos in the last couple of years, I hope will consider us again. When I wear my business hat, there was a cost of goodwill with our customers from this chapter, I think it really most impacted advocacy and repurchases. I don't think it was a huge driver of people fully leaving Sonos and going to other platforms.

So my my hope is that all of the people who had a bad experience in 2024 are having good experiences today, and are starting to feel better about Sonos, and can be excited about a product like Sonos Play or Era 100 SL to extend their experience in their own home, or to evangelize it to their friends and family as something that they have to have in their homes.

I think that was the real cost, it was sort of a cost of advocacy and evangelism more than it was people switching to one of the the smaller players who purports to do the same kinds of things we do.

MB: You guys certainly were one of the most recognizable brands in tech — I mean, still are, no doubt — but that must have been a real eye-opening moment that momentum and past performance only takes you so far, right?

TC: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it certainly was a moment that changed my life.

In the aftermath of that, you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through.

MB: I believe you restructured the company. How is that changing how you're working and helping to make improvements?

TC: When I came in in January of 2025, I quickly made a bunch of changes. I moved us from a business-unit orientation, where we had a home theater team, and a portables team, and a professional team, a headphones team — to a functional [organization], where we have a hardware organization and a software organization, and a product design organization.

And the benefit there is that it really allows you to get the company thinking about what we do as a system and not a collection of categories.

In the process of doing that, we also eliminated a bunch of management layers, which were standing in the way of execution. So yeah, we're definitely functioning differently today than we were a year ago.

MB: How would you say that change in function manifested in designing and launching these two products?

TC: It allowed us to really think holistically about how the product fits into the lineup. I think under the old guard, a product like Play might have been principally conceptualized alongside the various other kinds of mid-tier portable speakers, and would have been scrutinized internally and marketed on [technical specs] around battery life and portability and so forth.

We've really focused on how we make this a really great part of the Sonos system — the 'Goldilocks' perfect speaker, if you like.

MB: It's interesting you say that because I remember when the Move 2 came out, one of the things that occurred very quickly to me is that it has, if not the exact same speaker configuration, an extremely similar speaker configuration to the Era 100. Are you saying that with the Play, you're just working on the Play, you're not looking at what technology you have elsewhere that you can borrow?

TC: Well, no, in some ways the opposite, particularly as it relates to software. We're thinking more fundamentally about: How does this fit into the overall offering? How does it make the the system of Sonos more comprehensive?

With Play, I really do think it's kind of the ideal building block. I mean, when my friends and family ask me about Sonos, I'm going to start telling them they should put a Sonos Play in every room, or a stereo pair in their family room.

It's a phenomenal-sounding speaker and just has so much utility relative to anything that we've ever done before

MB: We've talked a lot about the Sonos system in particular as it pertains to the music side. I wanted to ask about home theater as well, because we're on the cusp of a major change in that sector with wireless connectivity, particularly from the TV to the soundbar. LG and Samsung are exploring proprietary options that lock out companies like Sonos, and push people to buy the same soundbar brand as their TV. Is this a trend you are concerned about?

TC: As you know, we're by far the most successful player in home theater, and consistently taking more and more market share from the companies that you're talking about

It's a huge part of our business, and we're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters.

MB: What do you think of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect? Is that something you would support?

So FlexConnect is interesting. There are really three things that have to happen in a FlexConnect-style implementation. You've got to get the bits from the media to the speaker, whether that's through the television or through the set-top box or through the soundbar, something has to get the bits into the air.

And then you have to position the speakers in the room, understand where they are and what their orientation is.

And then the last piece is that, understanding the speakers' position and the bits from the device, you have to render the bits appropriately for that position and orientation.

Dolby has done a great job of telling the story of FlexConnect as encompassing all three dimensions, but the technology of FlexConnect is actually just that last bit. It's taking the positional information [of the speakers] and the bits [from the media] once they're on the speaker, and rendering it.

And, the other two dimensions — positioning, and the transmittal of the bits actually from the source to the speakers — is sort of left as an exercise for the student, which is why the LG solution is proprietary to LG and the TCL solution is proprietary to TCL.

And you can imagine that — even as much as Dolby wants to talk about the universal character of FlexConnect in the same way they talk about Atmos — the LGs and TCLs of the world might not be that motivated to create a system whereby you can mix and match speakers [from other brands] with their televisions.

I guess I could just say that we're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap.

MB: The old Sonos was a really leaky ship when it came to product launches before your time. Is that something you want to change? I've got to say, I yearn for us to go back to the days when companies showed us tech six months, eight months, before it launched — to get a feel for how people responded to it. Could you imagine the company operating in that way?

TC: You know, the funny thing about the period where Sonos was sort of a leaky ship is that it was a period where the company, I think, was trying to be at its most secretive. In some ways, I think that Sonos culturally, internally, fashioned itself like a mini Apple, and really tried to hold its cards close to its vest.

As much as I've been a little evasive about some of the things you've asked about our roadmap, I'm conscious that we're not Apple, and that I think we can talk a little bit more about where we're going and the future that we see without being so concerned about the secrecy of it all.

I sort of love that since I've gotten here, the leaks have dried up from that standpoint, and I think it suggests that the people inside the company are feeling excited and proud of their work, and not wanting to see it out in the world in advance of when the company decides to reveal it.

Where my head is, is somewhere between where Apple sits and what you would like for us to do. So stay tuned, we should keep talking!

MB: I want to ask about the largely rumored but semi-confirmed set-top box and smart software that seemed to be developed in partnership with another company. Are you willing to talk about how far it got, or what your relationship to it was?

Without getting into specifics of that project, if it exists, I will say that part of what I had to do when I came in the door was to make some hard decisions about where we were going to focus. The company was, demonstrably, spread too thin, was trying to do too many things, and was struggling to execute with excellence across all of them.

So I tried to focus our energies on the programs that I thought that were most aligned with our differentiating power in the market. I remain really confident that the things that we chose to focus on are the things that are going to have the most impact on Sonos, in the near term.

MB: Given your background at Pandora, what do you think of music-streaming services today and how they integrate into the Sonos app? Do you, from the Sonos side, have any frustrations with them, and then personally what do you think?

TC: One of the things I'm really excited about in terms of our software roadmap is working more closely with our music service partners. All I really care about with with respect to listening to music on Sonos is getting the customer as quickly and seamlessly as possible to their outcome.

If that means AirPlay or Bluetooth or Spotify Connect or experiences inside of Spotify versus experiences inside of our app… I don't care. I just want it to work every time, and have it be completely seamless. I feel like we have a better relationship with Apple, Amazon, Spotify than we have in years, and I'm really excited about the work we're driving together.

I think the only thing I will say about the state of streaming music is that, you know, the iPod invented the core conventions of modern digital music, and then in 2004, Pandora and Last FM, I suppose, kind of invented the modern conventions around personalized streaming audio. And it's been 20 years, and it's surprising to me how little has changed in that experience.

We've gone from a world where you had access to just the CDs you bought to a world where you have access to hundreds of millions of songs in your pocket, and yet the user interface of it all is kind of just some hierarchical browsing, and then a fullscreen audio player with skip buttons and things.

I guess quietly, at night, I sort of imagine a future where there's more innovation and [questioning] what does it mean to navigate the whole entire world of music with something that wasn't designed for 1,000 songs in your pocket.

MB: Do you think that the physically small size of phone screens is holding us back in that regard?

TC: You know what I think is mostly holding us back in that regard? Apple is motivated by selling hardware, and Spotify is motivated by reducing licensing costs, and no one is motivated by: let's make a great and innovative music discovery experience for the consumer.

I spoke to Sonos CEO Tom Conrad recently, to discuss the launch of the company's new Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL speakers, and how the company's big changes under his leadership influenced their development.

Naturally, we also discussed what really went wrong with the Sonos app disaster and how he's directing the team the fix it, and I also asked Conrad whether the launch of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is a danger or an opportunity for Sonos.

But given the fact that Conrad's history includes 10 years at Pandora in the early days of music streaming — he was Chief Technology Officer when he left in 2024 — and that Sonos is so deeply connected to the music-streaming services, I wanted to ask what he thought about these services today, both in terms of working with them now on the Sonos app, and personally as a streaming pioneer.

"One of the things I'm really excited about in terms of our software roadmap is working more closely with our music service partners," he begins. "All I really care about with with respect to listening to music on Sonos is getting the customer as quickly and seamlessly as possible to their outcome.

"If that means AirPlay or Bluetooth or Spotify Connect or experiences inside of Spotify versus experiences inside of our app… I don't care. I just want it to work every time, and have it be completely seamless. I feel like we have a better relationship with Apple, Amazon, Spotify than we have in years, and I'm really excited about the work we're driving together."

I expect those who use the Sonos app instead of AirPlay or other direct streaming tech will be pleased with the idea of being able to get into music quicker and more easily, but it's the more personal insights I'm more interesting in, and Conrad shared some of those too.

"You know, the iPod invented the core conventions of modern digital music, and then in 2004, Pandora and Last FM, I suppose, kind of invented the modern conventions around personalized streaming audio," he told me. "And it's been 20 years, and it's surprising to me how little has changed in that experience.

"We've gone from a world where you had access to just the CDs you bought to a world where you have access to hundreds of millions of songs in your pocket, and yet the user interface of it all is kind of just some hierarchical browsing, and then a fullscreen audio player with skip buttons and things.

"I guess quietly, at night, I sort of imagine a future where there's more innovation and [questioning] what does it mean to navigate the whole entire world of music with something that wasn't designed for 1,000 songs in your pocket."

Motivational speaker

I asked if Conrad thinks the physically small size of phone screens is a restrictive element that holds us back from developing new ways of interacting with music.

"You know what I think is mostly holding us back in that regard? Apple is motivated by selling hardware, and Spotify is motivated by reducing licensing costs, and no one is motivated by: let's make a great and innovative music discovery experience for the consumer."

I point out that Qobuz and Tidal are more focused on music discovery, but don't have the bottomless resources that Spotify and Apple do, which Conrad agrees with — but overall, I agree with him.

I always say that the vinyl revival and the popularity of the best turntables here in the 2020s is in no small part because people want music to feel special, with the thrill of discovery. Physical media gives people the excitement of successfully finding something they didn't have before when they're looking through a record store's boxes — the power of a surprise.

Obviously, it would be foolish to replicate the scarcity element of physical media in a streaming app, but Conrad's suggestion of new ways to navigate and discover music seems like a way to scratch that same itch of making music apps exciting by providing more ways for you to find something you've never heard before, and to then explore that artist or genre.

The discovery features of music streaming services feel so narrow — they either replace radio or throw a pipeline of music at you without context, and with only the foggiest sense of why you'd be interested in it.

I'd like it to feel interactive, like by opening the correct door, searching in the correct box, or asking the correct source, I can find something new to experience. I hope we'll see more innovative interfaces to create the experience of being a smart record hunter in the future.

Ahead of Sonos' recent launch of its new Sonos Play and Era 100 SL speakers, I got to speak to CEO Tom Conrad about what the company has been up to since its last big launch, the Sonos Arc Ultra in 2024.

We talked about the new speakers, and then we spent a long time talking about what went wrong with the company's big app disaster that same year, what's still wrong with it, and how the company has changed to fix it — and Conrad was very candid in that talk, so I'd definitely recommend reading it if you've taken an interest in Sonos at all.

But one of the other big things that's happened in the time Sonos has been working on itself is the launch of Dolby Atmos FlexConnect. This is technology that lets you get a great home theater experience without needing speakers that sit in traditional front left, front right, rear left, rear right positions — you put the speakers wherever you like, even if they're unbalanced or the speakers don't match, and the system figures out how to provide the best surround sound automatically.

TCL was the first to launch Dolby Atmos FlexConnect support in its TVs and in a speaker called the Z100. And this year, LG followed with support in its newer TVs, and a speaker, subwoofer, and soundbar range called LG Sound Suite. You can read our full LG Sound Suite Immersive Suite 7 Pro review for more on that.

One of the big features of these systems is that you can have wireless speakers connected directly to a TV, with no HDMI cable — wireless sound, configured simply using an app, and you don't lose an HDMI port.

This strikes me as a huge change, because it's very desirable and convenient, but it means TV companies are pushing people to buy their own products — TCL and LG's FlexConnect systems only work with their own speakers. And even non-Dolby versions of this tech — Samsung has an extremely similar technology — also require you to buy the same speakers as your TV.

I asked Conrad if Sonos is concerned about this major trend that effectively locks Sonos' products out of the future of wireless home theater, and he certainly puts on the air of a man who is not concerned.

"As you know, we're by far the most successful player in home theater, and consistently taking more and more market share from the companies that you're talking about," says Conrad.

"It's a huge part of our business, and we're the pioneer in wirelessly distributing audio around the family room, and we'll have our own things to say about how that evolves in the coming quarters."

I asked Conrad what he thinks of the FlexConnect technology. "So FlexConnect is interesting," he begins. "There are really three things that have to happen in a FlexConnect-style implementation. You've got to get the bits from the media to the speaker, whether that's through the television or through the set-top box or through the soundbar, something has to get the bits into the air.

"And then you have to position the speakers in the room, understand where they are and what their orientation is.

"And then the last piece is that, understanding the speakers' position and the bits from the device, you have to render the bits appropriately for that position and orientation.

"Dolby has done a great job of telling the story of FlexConnect as encompassing all three dimensions, but the technology of FlexConnect is actually just that last bit. It's taking the positional information [of the speakers] and the bits [from the media] once they're on the speaker, and rendering it.

"And, the other two dimensions — positioning, and the transmittal of the bits actually from the source to the speakers — is sort of left as an exercise for the student, which is why the LG solution is proprietary to LG and the TCL solution is proprietary to TCL.

And you can imagine that — even as much as Dolby wants to talk about the universal character of FlexConnect in the same way they talk about Atmos — the LGs and TCLs of the world might not be that motivated to create a system whereby you can mix and match speakers [from other brands] with their televisions."

So, is it something Sonos would support in the future? (Standard Dolby Atmos has been available on Sonos products for years, and support is included in the current Sonos Beam 2nd Gen, Sonos Arc Ultra, and Sonos Era 300.)

"I guess I could just say that we're interested in that entire space, the entire domain of: How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers? How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space? And how do you render? We'll continue to work on our roadmap."

As much as the insight into Dolby Atmos FlexConnect is interesting, Conrad is obviously very vague about future plans — but we can do some reading between the lines here.

Of the three questions Conrad asked at the end, we know a bit about Sonos' technology in that area already.

"How do you position the speakers in three-dimensional space?" Sonos' TruePlay tech has never been pitched as mapping your speakers' positions, but rather compensates for your position in the room, and the reflections of your walls relative to the speakers.

But reading that statement, you're probably thinking 'Hang on, that sounds a lot like mapping the position of the speakers' — and we'll come back to that shortly.

But more directly, the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect systems from TCL and LG both use audio alone to detect the positions of the speakers, playing sounds and listening to them with microphones on the devices, with remarkable accuracy in 2D. This is how Sonos' own TruePlay Quick Tuning works, so even if the current TruePlay algorithm isn't exactly suitable, the knowledge seems to exist within the company.

When it comes to rendering the 3D sound, Conrad himself said that the FlexConnect system handles that — though again, Sonos has knowledge in this area of its own. Psychoacoustics tricks such as using reflections and time-of-flight manipulation are common in virtual Dolby Atmos devices, and the Sonos Beam is one of those. TruePlay again involves adjusting reflections for width and height channels.

But more than that, Sonos introduced the idea of a new kind of 3D sound processing for the Sonos Ace headphones and the TV Swap feature, tracking your head inside its own recreation of an Atmos-like 3D soundscape.

The 3D soundscape of the Sonos Ace can even be made to mimic the sound profile you get from your main Sonos speaker system, based on where the speakers are positioned compared to your usual seating position. It uses TruePlay data to do this — and so now we know Sonos has a product capable of creating a unique 3D sound environment based on the position of your speakers compared to your seating position.

So it seems evident that Sonos finds the same kind of tech as FlexConnect interesting, even if it hasn't added the freedom of speaker positioning to its home theater setups yet.

But none of this tackles the first question: "How do you get the bits from the source to the speakers?"

This is where Sonos is truly at risk, in my opinion. HDMI is an open standard that has enabled any kind of soundbar to work with any kind of TV. A similar attempt at a wireless standard, WiSA, has never taken off.

That's left TV companies free to use this part as a method of lock-in. Samsung, TCL, Sony, and LG all offer some kind of wireless speaker option that works directly with your TV, enabled by the TV software itself.

Sonos has no power over TV software, which leaves it with two options: partner with smart TV software makers to build in support, or offer some kind of HDMI dongle attachment.

The latter is relatively easy, but still uses up an HDMI port, and part of the attractiveness of these wireless systems is not having to deal with a port for your sound at all.

When it comes to partnering with smart TV makers, it's tough. LG and Samsung make their own software. Google TV is huge, but Sonos and Google famously have not had a good relationship.

That's a lot of TVs sold covered just in that group, especially high-end options. But there are still interesting options. Amazon Fire TV and Roku might be open to a partnership, and Fire TV support could also mean support from Fire TV Sticks, which can be attached to other TVs, of course.

And then there's the Apple TV 4K, which is rare among streaming boxes because it can take audio from anything connected to the TV, as well as generate its own audio from streaming apps. Apple and Sonos have long had a cosy relationship, including the Sonos Amp being the only streaming amp with native Apple Music support, even today.

The Apple TV 4K is popular with home theater enthusiasts, so perhaps Sonos could arrange with Apple to provide a flexible, 3D wireless sound option support at the OS level.

Whatever Sonos' plans are, I hope it's able to roll them out soon — the wireless soundbar revolution is arriving at speed, and Sonos doesn't want to be left behind.

• Sonos brings back notification and lock screen controls on Android
• Work is still ongoing to support these controls on iOS
• You can also access these options from your wrist via Wear OS

After some well-publicized tribulations over the last couple of years, Sonos is on the comeback trail. Not only did the company launch new speakers earlier this week, it's also now fixed a major source of frustration for users of its Android app.

As posted by u/edfosho1 on Reddit (via 9to5Google), the ability to control playback and volume from the Android notification shade and the lock screen has returned. Previously, users had to go into the actual Sonos app for these controls.

Understandably, users are pretty happy with the return of the more convenient widget controls — one user describes the fix as a "game changer" while also welcoming the returning support for scrobbling on the Last.fm service.

There's also a sense of annoyance over the amount of time that it's taken for Sonos to get around to bringing back this functionality. "It's 2026, what took them so long," reads one comment in the Reddit thread.

We can fix it

The playback controls are also going to be available if you're using a Wear OS smartwatch, as demonstrated by u/wizewiz on Reddit. However, as yet there's no such widget control on iOS from the lock screen or the Dynamic Island — though it's believed to be on the way.

As per the official Sonos update, the app may take up to two weeks to reach everyone, so don't panic if you're not seeing it immediately. You're looking for version 82.01.9 on Android and version 82.01.12 on iOS in your app store of choice.

The refreshed app is part of an ongoing effort by Sonos to win back user trust. Speaking to TechRadar, Sonos CEO Tom Conrad has admitted mistakes have been made in software and hardware development, but that he's also now busy righting the ship.

There are also now two new Sonos speakers to enjoy, the first from the company since 2024: there's a new and portable version of the Sonos Play (for $299 / £299 / AU$499), amd the Sonos Era 100 SL ($189 / £169 / AU$289).

It’s well-known that most TVs nowadays don’t generally have the built-in sound to match the picture quality — especially the more mid-range or cheaper models. This is where one of the best soundbars comes to the rescue, but not everyone has the space or budget for one of the really big and immersive systems.

The humble, all-in-one, compact soundbar is what you need, then — and we had three of the best available in our testing lab: the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), the Denon Home 550 and the Sony HT-S2000, the latter of which has been our best budget recommendation for a while now.

So, I decided to pick a few of my go-to audio testing scenes from our back catalogue of 4K Blu-rays to see which soundbar reigns supreme. A quick note: the Sony HT-S2000 is difficult to get hold of (with some stock left in the UK), but I thought it would be a good benchmark soundbar since we've recommended it for so long.

We have a system in our testing rooms to pipe sound and visuals to multiple TVs at once, so I was able to line all the soundbars alongside each other – all attached to LG TVs, for a bit of consistency – and switch between their sound instantly to compare.

The Batman

My go-to testing scene for soundbars and TV audio, the Batmobile chase scene from The Batman is a perfect test for all audio elements: sound mapping, bass, speech, Dolby Atmos and surround effects. It’s easily one of my favorite Atmos scenes.

The first thing I noticed was how effective all three soundbars delivered the rumble of the Batmobile’s engine. The Denon had a lot of up-front bass that was well controlled, but the Sonos’ felt that little bit more refined with good space between the low-end of the engine and other elements. While the Sony’s bass was thinner than the other two, it was still decent.

The Denon delivered a surprisingly wide soundstage with plenty of room-filling power. Its virtual Dolby Atmos processing created a dome-like effect despite its compact size. The Sonos also had a wide soundstage with plenty of depth, but it wasn’t quite as convincing as the Denon. The Sony delivered decent Atmos but again felt a bit thinner in the sound overall.

All three soundbars had great accuracy, mapping effects — such as the bullet spray from Penguin’s weapon, swerving tyres and blaring car horns — accurately between the soundbar and the action on screen. Again the Denon was more precise, but the Sonos was a close second. The Sony also sounded accurate, particularly with the flame of the Batmobile’s engine on ignition.

While the Denon mostly shone in this scene, I did find that various sound effects could get cluttered at times, with the score being lost in the explosions whereas the Sonos was able to give each sound element more room to breathe. The Sony had good detail, but felt narrower than the other two, meaning some elements weren’t as clear.

The Mask

A semi-recent addition to the testing lineup, The Mask has excellent sound design with one area in particular standing out: placement and direction of sound. All of The Mask’s zany cartoonish sound effects, especially his tornado, are a brilliant audio test.

Again, all three soundbars demonstrated impressive sound placement, accurately delivering the movement of The Mask’s tornado around his bedroom with real precision. The Denon and Sonos had the edge when it comes to the power of the sound, which made the tornado effect more engaging, but the Sony did a good job in its own right.

While the Denon was bolder and more direct in the scene, the Sonos had a nice width that was perfect for giving more of a sense of space as the Mask careens around the room. This was also evident later as ricocheting gunfire again had more space on the Sonos, but had more impact through the Denon. The Sony again didn't have the impact of the other two soundbars, but its accuracy can’t be denied — it just wasn't as exciting.

Wicked

Not just a regular disc for me when testing TV picture quality, Wicked is, of course, great for testing audio, as it’s a musical with plenty of elements to put a sound system through its paces. No song does this better than Defying Gravity, not only with its big score and grand vocals, but also in Elphaba’s movement on the broom.

Elphaba’s vocals are big, bold and powerful, and all three soundbars do her justice. The Sonos had the most clarity in the vocals while the Denon had the out-and-out power, and the Sony actually struck a nice balance between the two.

One thing I was surprised by was how the Sonos handled the rest of the soundtrack — the score itself, the sound of the wind as Elphaba flies on the broom — because these were pushed to the back of the Sonos’ soundstage, with the vocals receiving most of the power. This took away from the soaring, impactful nature of the scene.

The Denon, on the other hand, managed to strike a fine balance between every element, as did the Sony (it just sounded thinner than the Denon).

In terms of the expansiveness of the sound, the Sonos proved to have the most width. The Denon went for a direct approach which meant it didn’t sound as wide in places. The Sony again delivered a broad sound with good space, but not as much as the others.

Oppenheimer

While there are a ton of scenes you could use from Oppenheimer to show off your home theater, both video and audio, it’s actually the scene where Strauss gives Oppenheimer a tour of the University that I used, to test dialogue.

All three soundbars delivered crystal clear speech throughout the scene, even without any speech enhancement features activated. I did find that the Sonos and Sony had the most authentic sound, and by this I mean they accurately delivered the echo-y voices of Strauss and Oppenheimer as they’re in the office. The Denon sounded much cleaner and fuller, but this isn’t really the most film-accurate.

Again, all three soundbars showed excellent tracking as they were able to replicate the voices accurately, whether from behind, off to the side or when both characters were at a distance. I tested all three soundbar’s voice enhancements too, and while they were effective, they limited other aspects of the sound. Frankly, none of them needed these enhancements.

Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick is another reference testing disc with a load of scenes to really let your home theater flex its muscles. A common one I use (and is often used in tech demos by companies) is the Darkstar test flight at the start of the movie, because it’s a perfect Dolby Atmos height scene.

What I really wanted to test on these three soundbars was their virtual Dolby Atmos processing, as none of them have up-firing speakers. I had glimpses in The Batman and Wicked, but really it’s the moment in this scene where Maverick flies over Admiral Cain that will make or break height channels.

Honestly, all three did well considering their compact size and lack of up-firing speakers. They all demonstrated pretty convincing Atmos, providing some sense of the flight path of the Darkstar traveling overhead. While it didn’t fill the room or completely go over my head like I’d had on the Samsung HW-Q990F or the Sonos Arc Ultra, it was a valiant effort.

The Sonos had the greatest sense of space, giving the Atmos room to breathe, while the Denon again had that hit of power which felt the most authentic to the jet. The Sony was arguably the most impressive however, as its virtual Atmos positioning was more effective and convincing than I thought it would be.

Which to buy?

For their size and price, all three of these soundbars impressed me. While the Sony had a bit of an uphill battle, it’s still a seriously good soundbar for the money. When it comes to price, these soundbars have all been somewhere in the region of $399-$499 / £399-£499 / AU$799-AU$899 before. However, the Denon is generally the priciest in the US, sometimes hitting $699 and as much as I liked it, that’s a big jump over the other two models.

With the Sony tough to get hold of and the Denon that much pricier, the Sonos still reigns supreme in the US. Elsewhere, where prices are closer, it comes down to preference.

The Denon and Sonos apps perform similarly and both have ecosystems and extra speakers you can add, while the Sony is an impressive budget option. For me, if the price was right, I’d pick the Denon and its particular blend of power and positioning skills, but I wouldn’t be upset with any of these soundbars.

Sonos has just unveiled its first new music speakers since the Sonos Roam 2 in May 2024, and the first since its infamous app change that shook the whole company and led to the replacement of then-CEO Patrick Spence with current CEO Tom Conrad in January 2025.

For the launch of Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL, I spoke to Conrad about his big structural changes to the company and how they impacted the development of these speakers. So my next questions are about what else Sonos was actually doing during its quiet 2025.

What's the inside story on the app's changes, and how does the company plan to win back the trust it used to have?

"For my first year at the company, we had to pour so much of our energy into righting the ship with respect to the software platform that underpins all of the system experiences, that we purposefully paused our new hardware introductions to get back to par on that front," he explains.

"We were in the middle of trying to recover from our missteps in the spring of 2024 with the launch of the new app and software platform. Candidly, the real story there is that we just changed too much too fast, and made a bunch of tactical errors along the way of rolling it out to our customers, and then paid a very dear price. As did our customers."

Taking stock of history

Conrad is generally in a pretty candid mood for our conversation about the problems with the app, and why people were so frustrated with it — but he's also clearly incredibly proud to be at Sonos, even if he's trying to be clear-eyed about it.

"If you think about the history of the company, we had a decade under the stewardship of John McFarlane, the company's founder. His vision was really all driven by the idea of filling every home with music on the backs of this emergent streaming moment, that he predicted so accurately. But if you were to critique his decade, it might only be that we didn't ship that much hardware — a couple of amplifiers, a controller, you know, the initial Play:5," Conrad says.

"It wasn't until Patrick became CEO, in our second decade, that the company really found its footing with respect to reliably shipping a couple of new products every single year. In fact, his stated goal for the company was to turn it into kind of a new product introduction machine. And, I mean, I'm the incredible beneficiary of that work!

"But if you were to critique his chapter, I think the unintended consequence of that laser-like focus on new products was the company lost some of its connection to the idea that the product is actually Sonos. That the individual product launches are meant to extend the idea of what the system can be in a home and in the world."

Digging into that topic with Conrad, it seems like he's identified a disconnect between how the company treated the software, and how the users treat it.

"In the aftermath of that, you just have to show up in people's life with some humility and do the hard work of earning their trust back through great execution, great product, great software, great experiences, and never forget what you put people through," he says.

I mention that any changes the company makes to the app in the future will automatically become a big deal, whether the changes really deserve to be or not.

"I think that when you make software that people use every day, and it's a big part of their life, it's always a big deal when you make changes. It's certainly true that there's additional scrutiny on Sonos, but as a software creator, I've always felt a keen responsibility to move my audience along with the changes and updates that we're making, in a really thoughtful and methodical way."

How are things looking now?

I obviously want to get into the work that Sonos has been doing, and how happy Conrad is with it now, and he's pleasingly open and unsparing with his assessment.

"I'd say there were kind of three things that we had to improve upon after the disastrous launch in 2024. We had to fix performance and reliability — we had to restore baseline functionality that had been dropped from the product in its initial release. And we had to improve the user experience of the offering as well.

"And it's really the third thing that we're only just now able to tackle [now]. If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming app, for example. I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way — cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional.

"So when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality. There's a funny kind of search blindness — the interface that we chose for search actually takes up more pixels on the screen than a typical search interface, but people don't even see it. They're like, 'I can't find search' because it's presented in such an unconventional way.

"And so, we're now at the place where we can update the app to return it to more conventional choices. But it is, as you point out, another set of changes for our customers."

The ill-fated set-top box, and the leaky ship

At the end of 2024, while unhappiness with the app was still strong among the Sonos community, information leaked that Sonos was preparing a streaming box, which would be high-priced and yet supposedly developed using ad-based tech from a software partner called The Trade Desk. Sonos later confirmed this partnership, adding that it was "excited to explore" integration with The Trade Desk's Ventura OS.

And then, after previous CEO Spence left and Conrad took over, reports said that the project had been quietly dropped. I asked Conrad about this, and how it factored into the rethinking and restructuring at Sonos over the last year.

"Without getting into specifics of that project, if it exists," he says, smiling, "I will say that part of what I had to do when I came in the door was to make some hard decisions about where we were going to focus. The company was, demonstrably, spread too thin, was trying to do too many things, and was struggling to execute with excellence across all of them.

"So I tried to focus our energies on the programs that I thought that were most aligned with our differentiating power in the market. I remain really confident that the things that we chose to focus on are the things that are going to have the most impact on Sonos, in the near term."

I pointed out that Sonos has been a very leaky ship in the past, with upcoming product info regularly splashed across the tech press — the Sonos Era 300 leaked in detail nearly a year before its introduction. I asked Conrad if that's something he actually wants to change, because I personally with we could go back a few decades to when tech companies talked openly about products months and months in advance so we could get a feel for them.

"You know, the funny thing about the period where Sonos was sort of a leaky ship is that it was a period where the company, I think, was trying to be at its most secretive. In some ways, I think that Sonos culturally, internally, fashioned itself like a mini Apple, and really tried to hold its cards close to its vest.

"As much as I've been a little evasive about some of the things you've asked about our roadmap, I'm conscious that we're not Apple, and that I think we can talk a little bit more about where we're going and the future that we see without being so concerned about the secrecy of it all.

"I sort of love that since I've gotten here, the leaks have dried up from that standpoint, and I think it suggests that the people inside the company are feeling excited and proud of their work, and not wanting to see it out in the world in advance of when the company decides to reveal it. Where my head is, is somewhere between where Apple sits and, and what you would like for us to do. So stay tuned, we should keep talking!"

Working better with the users

Speaking of keeping talking, I also asked if Sonos' experience with the app update has led it to think differently about communicating with its users, and Conrad says that's something he's tried to change.

"We're handling this opportunity in a really different way. I've been on Reddit, for example, describing the changes and asking our customers there to give us feedback back about their own experience learning to use Sonos and living with it every day. We will roll changes out to our beta channel and even there, our users will be able to opt into the experience.

"And then when we take it to production, we'll similarly have opt-in experiences and a gradual roll out and iteration. We've already learned a lot from the perspective of our customers on Reddit after my invitation to them [recently] to share their thoughts."

He's quick to point out that he know this isn't a revolutionary approach, though: "None of this is a surprising way to operate a large-scale consumer software product, but it's certainly the set of best practices and, frankly, it's one of the, the missteps of the company in 2024 is that we didn't more closely adhere to these norms."

I point out to Conrad that its competitors really sensed blood in the water after the app update, and pushed hard to win people over to their own platforms — with WiiM, for example, launching a direct competitor to the Era 100 with a very similar audio setup — so I asked if he felt that they could win back any 'switchers'.

"Certainly, anyone that was frustrated with Sonos in the last couple of years, I hope will consider us again. When I wear my business hat, there was a cost of goodwill with our customers from this chapter, I think it really most impacted advocacy and repurchases. I don't think it was a huge driver of people fully leaving Sonos and going to other platforms.

"So my my hope is that all of the people who had a bad experience in 2024 are having good experiences today, and are starting to feel better about Sonos, and can be excited about a product like Sonos Play or Era 100 SL to extend their experience in their own home, or to evangelize it to their friends and family as something that they have to have in their homes.

"I think that was the real cost, it was sort of a cost of advocacy and evangelism more than it was people switching to one of the the smaller players who purports to do the same kinds of things we do."

There's more to come

Something that really comes across speaking to Conrad is that he feels a deep affinity for Sonos and the things it actually makes, in a more genuine way than a lot of tech CEOs.

"I've been a customer for nearly 20 years. I've been a partner to the company for 15 or something, going back to the integrations we did between Pandora and Sonos in my days building Pandora. I've been on the board for 8 years. I love this company," says Conrad.

"And Sonos in my own home is a huge part of, you know, the daily delight and satisfaction and ambiance I enjoy when I'm at home. As much as anything, I took the job to fix the product and, and get the company back to a place where we're just reliably delighting tens of millions of customers around the world again.

"A lot of that was on the back getting the software right. And so I wanted the company to be just laser focused on that return."

As Conrad mentioned above, there are things he wants to change further about the app, but he's clearly happy with the changes so far, and says Sonos absolutely isn't done with hardware yet in 2026:

"We're back, and we're launching new products again, and we'll have more in the back half of the year, because, you know, I like to say that Sonos is a company that's 100% software and 100% hardware, and so it's nice to get the 100% back that's hardware. "

• Sonos launches two new speakers: Sonos Play and Sonos Era 100 SL
• Sonos Play is a new portable speaker, costing $299 / £299 / AU$499
• Sonos CEO Tom Conrad tells us it's designed as a "front door" to the Sonos system, like the Play:1 speaker was 13 years ago

Sonos has just unveiled its first new music speakers since May 2024: the Sonos Era 100 SL, and a new portable speaker that sits between the Sonos Roam 2 and Sonos Move in the company's lineup. It's called the Sonos Play, and Sonos CEO Tom Conrad tells me that with the Play, "we're not launching a new speaker, but we're really opening a new front door to the system."

The new Sonos Play's name is "an intentional callback" to the Play:1 as the original introductory Sonos speaker, Conrad says, because the idea here is to create a speaker that is the best of all worlds at once. "It's a phenomenal-sounding speaker and just has so much utility relative to anything that we've ever done before," he promises.

The Sonos Play has a smart audio setup for its compact size: there are two angled tweeters for a little stereo separation, with a mid-woofer for mid-range and bass. This is the same approach used in the Sonos Era 100, but because the drivers need to be smaller than in the Era 100, the Play also has two force-opposed bass radiators to help improve low-end power without adding vibrations. "It's beautifully between the audio characteristics of Sonos Roam and Sonos Move," says Conrad.

The idea is that it can provide enough audio power and quality to fill any room at home, either alone or in a stereo pair, but is small enough to take away with you — the Move 2 is a little hefty to take anywhere, even though it's technically portable, as I said in my Sonos Move 2 review.

The Sonos Play supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and promises up to 24 hours of battery from a single charge, which is impressive compared to even the best portable speakers. It has a USB-C port that can be used as a line-in via an adapter (for one of the best turntables or a similar source) — Sonos really wants this to be able to do anything its other speakers can, as far as possible.

The Sonos Play is IP67-rated, meaning it's pretty dustproof and can be fully immersed in water for a short time without problems. It weighs 2.87lb (1.3kg), and at 4.43 x 7.56 x 3.02 inches (113 x 192 x 77mm), it's small enough to easily take around with you, even if it's not exactly pocketable. It has a little hook on the back for carrying or hanging somewhere.

Obviously, it works as part of the Sonos ecosystem on Wi-Fi (and includes Apple AirPlay 2 support), and comes with a charging base. But it also expands the Sonos system in a new way: multi-speaker support over Bluetooth. You can connect your phone to a Sonos Play over Bluetooth, and then it can transmit the sound to up to three other Play or Move 2 speakers, no matter where you are. It's not as broad a system as Bluetooth Auracast support on some speakers, but that's not available on all phones, and this is a nice upgrade anyway.

The Sonos Play will be released on March 31st, 2026, priced at $299 / £299 / AU$499, so it's definitely not a cheap thing to add to every room. As mid-size Bluetooth speakers go, you're paying a lot more than you would for the five-star JBL Charge 6, for example. But then you wouldn't get the Wi-Fi features that are essential to the best wireless speakers — and, significantly, the Sonos has a much nicer home-friendly design compared to the JBL.

The Era 100 SL looks like a great budget buy

The Sonos Era 100 SL follows the pattern of Sonos' other SL products — it's a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100. It has the same speaker configuration of two angled tweeters to provide some sense of stereo sound, with a single mid-woofer for mid-range and bass.

It still includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus a USB-C port that you can connect an adapter to for line-in audio from a turntable or another source. However, it doesn't include any voice control option at all — the mics have been removed to help lower the price. (This also means it doesn't support TruePlay Quick Tuning for iOS and Android, only the iPhone-only full TruePlay.)

With a launch price of $189 / £169 / AU$289 (available on March 26th), it's the cheapest Sonos speaker you can buy in the UK and Australia, though in the US it costs $10 more than the Sonos Roam 2.

Tom Conrad told me that it wasn't just a case of removing the mics to get the speaker to that price, though, and that the speaker was actually reengineered inside to make it less expensive to produce:

"There's a lot of work that went into Era 100 SL to get us to a point where we could offer it at this entry-level price, while not compromising on audio quality at all. While it might look like this is as simple as removing some microphones, there was a comprehensive look at the cost of the product from top to bottom to get it to this new price."

Refocusing on the system, not the devices

I asked Conrad why these models are the choices to lead Sonos' return to launching music-focused speakers, and he emphasized that the big change in how he's approaching the company is to stop treating individual launches as separate products, but to focus on the whole.

"One of the first things that I said to the team when I took the job as CEO was that I think we really make just one product, which is a sound system for the home. Any individual device is just a way into the system or to deepen your attachment to it. The system of Sonos really is the product."

So when it comes to planning launches, he says, "We're thinking more fundamentally about 'how does this fit into the overall offering?' How does it make the the system of Sonos more comprehensive?"

As I mentioned earlier on, he was very keen to reference the original Play:1 (and showed me that he uses one at his desk even today). The name and even some design elements of the new speaker are a callback to that model (the thicker band of plastic at the top of the Play is reminiscent of the Play:1 or Sonos One, compared to the Era 100), but he says it was also about the philosophy:

"13 years ago, Play:1 introduced millions of people to [the idea of the Sonos system]. Actually we sold more than 10 million of them, and remarkably, nine out of 10 are still in use today.

"When we started this project, we asked a simple question. If we were designing the perfect fundamental building block for the Sonos system today, knowing everything we've learned over the last two decades, what would it look like?"

As part of thinking about Sonos itself as a product, Conrad started to restructure the company quickly after he joined permanently in January 2025.

"I moved us from a business-unit orientation, where we had a home theater team, and a portables team, and a professional team, a headphones team — to a functional [organization], where we have a hardware organization and a software organization, and a product design organization.

"And the benefit there is that it really allows you to get the company thinking about what we do as a system and not a collection of categories."

Conrad says the development of the Sonos Play is an example of how changing the structure of the company changes the products themselves.

"It allowed us to really think holistically about how the product fits into the lineup," he says. "I think under the old guard, a product like Play might have been, principally conceptualized alongside the various other kinds of mid-tier portable speakers, and would have been scrutinized internally and marketed on [technical specs] around battery life and portability and so forth. We've really focused on how we make this a really great part of the Sonos system — the 'Goldilocks' perfect speaker, if you like.

"I really do think it's the ideal building block. When my friends and family ask me about Sonos, I'm going to start telling them they should put a Sonos Play in every room, or a stereo pair in their family room."

Of course, any discussion about the direction Sonos is moving in can't ignore the app debacle that led to Sonos' nightmare year in 2024, and Conrad and I discussed that in depth.

You can read Conrad's analysis of what went wrong before he joined, how mistakes were made, what's being improved, and what changes still need to happen in my discussion with him here — but here's a little tidbit:

"If I'm candid about my assessment of the app, I think it's peculiar. I think the company made a range of decisions about the user interface that are just not consistent with what you see in any other music streaming apps, for example.

"I mean: all kinds of strange swipe behaviors and a search affordance that floats above the screen in a kind of weirdly invisible way, cards upon cards upon cards as you navigate through the app, none of which is conventional. And so when we sit with our customers in their homes and observe them using the app, they get lost, they don't know where they are. It's not clear to them how to get to just basic functionality."

• A reliable leaker says a Sonos Era 100 SL is coming
• It would be a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100 speaker without mics
• It follows the recent leak of a new Sonos portable speaker and app refresh

It looks like Sonos is planning to launch a new Sonos Era 100 SL speaker, which would essentially be a cheaper version of the Sonos Era 100 that cuts out voice control in order to lower costs — at least, that based on previous Sonos 'SL' products, which have all done exactly that.

The leak comes from well-known tech leaker Evan Blass on X, with images of the bottom of the new speakers, in black and white, with the name clearly visible.

When I reviewed the Sonos Era 100 upon its launch, I thought it was a great speaker overall, but the price was a just a little too high. Since then, Sonos has cut the price from $249 / £249 / AU$399 to $219 / £199 / AU$319 (and often further during sales events), which I think is more where it should be.

With the promise of the SL offering an even cheaper option, I think this new model will probably become the default wireless speaker. We've been recommending the JBL Authentics 200 over the Era 100 in our guide to the best wireless speakers, but this could turn things in Sonos's favor.

What price should you expect for this? To be clear, it's not like the Sonos Era 100 SL is likely to be half the price of the current model, but the Sonos One SL was $20 / £20 cheaper than the Sonos One, and the Sonos Roam SL was about the same difference from the Sonos Roam. So I'd expect the same here, with the Era 100 probably launching for the same $199 / £179 / AU$389 price that the Sonos One SL launched for back in its day.

Bearing in mind that Sonos happily takes part in Black Friday and other sales events, you could end up paying under $170 / £150 for this new speaker, and I think it'll be wildly popular at that kind of price, including as a pair. Simple, good-looking, well-made, with nice sound – it's the kind of thing that'll get Sonos's reputation back at the top of the pile.

In the past, the microphones and voice assistant feature have been the only thing that Sonos has cut from the SL models, but it's possible that it will choose to cut more here – for example, it would be a shame to lose the USB-C port that enables you to connect a line-in adapter, but people might be happy to live with it in favor of the savings.

Sonos is back in action

It's been a busy week in the world of Sonos leaks. First was news that the company is planning a new refresh to its app, including some fast-access music controls on iOS, which is something I've wanted for a while.

Then we saw clear leaks that the company is planning to launch a new portable speaker mid-way between the Sonos Roam 2 and the Sonos Move 2 for price and size. (Something that we anticipated in our round-up of what we hoped to see from Sonos, so well done to my colleague James Davidson for nailing that.)

Now we have the Era 100 SL appearing too (pictured along with more images of the Sonos Play portable speaker in that leak). We already knew that Sonos was planning to "ramp up" its launches after releasing nothing in 2025, and it looks like it's going to come racing out of the blocks with two early speakers, any maybe more to follow.

• Best Buy Canada leaked a listing page for the 'Sonos Play' speaker, but it has since been deleted
• It's set to arrive March 31, and costs $399.99
• The new Bluetooth speaker could be Sonos' mid-range option alongside the Roam 2 and Move 2

Apple isn’t the only one with new devices on the way, as leaks of a new Sonos portable Bluetooth speaker hint that the audio giant could be dropping the device imminently — and people already like what they see.

Dubbed ‘Sonos Play’, the speaker was leaked on Best Buy Canada’s site with a full gallery of images and a thorough list of specs, but has since been taken down. Luckily, a user on Reddit managed to snap some images before the listing was removed from Best Buy’s online store (see below).

According to the listing, the Sonos Play portable speaker will be available in black or white and will cost CAD $399.99 (or around USD $300 / AUD $420), though international prices have yet to be announced. It’s supposedly arriving as soon as March 31, but Sonos hasn’t confirmed or denied the launch date.

At first glance, it seems that the Sonos Play will serve as the mid-range option in Sonos’ lineup of Bluetooth speakers, which consists of the Sonos Roam 2 ($179 / $179 / AU$299) and the significantly larger, higher-end Sonos Move 2 ($499 / £449 / AU$799) — both of which are some of the best Bluetooth speakers we know. But let’s get into the specs.

Bigger than the Roam, smaller than the Move 2

Prior to taking the listing down, Best Buy’s product overview shared the following: “Take quality sound wherever you go with the Sonos Play Bluetooth wireless speaker. Its compact design fits easily in your hand, while automatic Trueplay tuning optimizes audio for any environment. Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth let you stream high‑quality audio from different devices and sources. Up to 24 hours of battery life avoids the need for frequent recharging.”

Design-wise, Sonos keeps it cohesive, and the new Bluetooth speaker doesn’t have any crazy design changes that are out of the ordinary for the brand. Its shape is reminiscent of the UE Epicboom speaker, packing a handy carrying strap, 24-hour battery life, a wireless charging base, an aux port for connecting to other audio devices such as turntables, and a USB-C port, allowing you to use the speaker as a battery pack.

As for dimensions, it’s likely that Best Buy messed up on this one. The screenshots of the listing show the Sonos Play speaker to be W19.23cm, D11.25cm, H7.67cm, which, looking at the product image, is definitely not just under 8cm tall. It’s likely that these have been mixed up (I’d guess that the real dimensions are H19.23cm, W11.25cm, D7.67cm), hinting that someone from Best Buy might have published the listing a bit too promptly.

Despite this mix-up, its size is a perfect starting point for Sonos’ venture into mid-range speakers. Though the Sonos Move 2 is a powerful speaker fit for both indoor and outdoor use, its bulky size contradicts the portability aspect of Bluetooth speakers, while the Sonos Roam is the ideal portable audio companion, but doesn't quite pack a punch on the battery life front.

As well as WiFi connectivity, the Best Buy listing reveals that the Sonos Play will support Apple AirPlay 2 and Alexa, in addition to Spotify and Sonos app compatibility. As per the listing overview, Sonos’ flagship sound-optimizing tool Trueplay is coming to the Play speaker, which tunes the audio based on your surroundings and speaker placement.

Though Best Buy was quick to eradicate all traces of its Sonos Play listing, its first-look images have been well received online, even though it comes in at $400 – though that price level is standard for Sonos. That said, we know that Sonos has other tricks up its sleeve – it’s apparently got another app overhaul in the works — so a new Bluetooth speaker would be highly welcomed alongside a fresh app redesign.

• Bloomberg says a new Sonos app refresh is in the works
• A key feature is extra iOS compatibility
• Anyone else getting déjà vu?

The Sonos calendar may well have skipped 2025 in terms of that 'two new product releases annually' promise, although the company did release a new amplifier at the start of the year – and apparently 2026 will be a much busier year for the brand. So shall we see what shiny new gifts Sonos Clause (sorry) has wrapped up for us in his sack? It’s… an app overhaul. Another one.

According to Bloomberg, the company is planning to rework and refresh its app offering in the next few months, with an early version apparently already working internally. It’s unclear if that means the Sonos app is merely working, or really workable for the many customers still disgruntled over the last update. Apparently, the changes will be optional, and slowly integrated into the app rather than presented as one big push. (Lesson learned there, it seems.)

So what could actually change? Apparently you’ll now be able to control your Sonos device from the iPhone lock screen, using Apple’s recent developments in the area. It's all to do with Apple's Live Activities (the interactive, real-time notifications that appear on the iPhone Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island) which would certainly be a welcome upgrade for iPhone owners.

That presumably won’t be the only change, as it’s something the Android app already offers, but it’s the only one we’ve heard about so far. A company cannot drip-release features if there’s only one, though, so we’ll likely hear about more nearer the time.

Keeping fans 'appy

The word combination of ‘Sonos’ and ‘app’ may give users conniptions given that a bungled May 2024 app change which was only really fixed in 2025 is now what fans think about when they hear those words used together.

The then-new app had laggy volume controls, missing features from the older app, and a more confusing design that took users too long to get their heads around. While it’s mostly fixed now, a brief skim of the Sonos subreddit still yields post after post of complaints about the app and its bugs.

As a baseline, Sonos’ new new app really needs to not to present these issues, or it could signal the end of trust in the brand: fool me once, and all that. The affections of plenty of Sonos fans are on the line, and if the company is planning a gangbusters product launch slate this year, it’s going to need some ardent cheerleaders to help it along — especially with the growing slate of WiiM products hitting the market…

Some of the best soundbars on the market are surround sound systems, with the likes of Samsung, Sonos and JBL serving as notable names in the market. These mean you can get truly immersive Dolby Atmos at home, without relying on virtual Atmos from smaller soundbars or having to resort to dedicated height speakers – the soundbar delivers expansive sound across the front, a subwoofer kicks in the bass, and the rear speaker complete the surround experience.

I recently tested one of these soundbar systems: the Yamaha True X Surround 90A. It's a premium piece of gear, priced at $3,499 / £2,116 / AU$4,499, so I expected mind-blowing performance. And while I got it in some areas, one stuck out as lackluster: the rear speakers – and got us talking on the TechRadar team about how it's often the smaller parts of a package that make the whole thing come together perfectly.

Yamaha surround speakers lack the punch

The Yamaha True X Surround 90A demonstrated truly brilliant sound, especially when it came to power and accuracy. The Batmobile scene from The Batman was spectacular, with the Surround 90A accurately delivering the huge rumble of the Batmobile’s engine. I also found when watching The Mask that the Surround 90A mapped the Mask’s whirlwind sound effects as he tornadoes around a room, plus capturing the cartoon-y sound effects of hammers, clocks and punches.

But it was The Mask that also revealed the Surround 90A’s weakness in its rear speakers. While The Mask got up to his antics, I found that portions of the sound field – more subtle effects and music – were notably muted compared to the Samsung HW-Q990C I’d used for testing the 4K disc as part of my Blu-ray Bounty feature.

Another surprising omission was the Yamaha’s rear speakers' lack of a height speaker. Other flagship brands, such as Samsung and Sonos, have included height channels in their rear speakers, which helps deliver more effective height effects for Dolby Atmos.

Rear speakers – the unsung heroes

While rear speakers may be the smallest component of a lot of surround sound systems, they are pivotal – and it's a let-down if they don't match the rest of the system.

While the front channels may handle major sound effects relating to what's on-screen and speech and the subwoofer handles bass, the rear channels will handle more subtle sound effects, some dramatic circular or front-to-back motion, and sometimes the score depending on the soundtrack’s mix: all extremely important for creating the immersive sound.

One major example where I found this was during my testing of Chungking Express as part of the Blu-ray Bounty. The movie’s 5.1 DTS-HD mix sounded fantastic through our reference Samsung HW-Q990C soundbar system in our setup and I noticed just how much one market scene relied on the rear speakers.

The clanking of plates, ringing bells and shouting stall owners all came through the rear speakers, and these sound effects are what made the scene feel so alive.

Another scene I have used for testing soundbars is the Death Star attack run from Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Again, the rear speakers were crucial for delivering a balanced, immersive experience by handling the pursuing TIE Fighter’s infamous groans, laser fire and even John William’s iconic score. If these elements are lost in the mix, the scene doesn’t have the same thrilling impact.

Rear speakers that succeed

Some of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars come from some of the big names I’ve mentioned already: Samsung, Sonos and JBL. These are just three examples of brands whose big, flagship soundbar systems deliver on all areas, including the rear channels.

Samsung’s flagship soundbar, most recently of which is the Samsung HW-Q990F, have delivered strong, immersive sound for years and the Q990F is no different. Big power, excellent control and of course, detailed and punchy rear speakers. As these rear speakers also include a height speaker, you really get the full surround sound experience, great for movies like Top Gun: Maverick that have a lot of different sound effects.

Sonos takes its rear speaker setup approach differently. As speakers can be grouped and added and removed as users want to, there are a couple of different options, namely the Sonos Era 300 and the Sonos Era 100. The Era 300 is the beefier, more dynamic sounding of the two, with upfiring speakers. Pairing the Era 300 with the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sonos Sub Gen 4 will give you a mighty surround sound system where the rear speakers really feel like a crucial part of the impressive sound signature.

The JBL Bar 1300MK2 is a flagship soundbar that adds a twist on the rear speakers: they're battery powered, and can be stored on the front soundbar itself for charging. This means space-saving without having the effort. They performed well during our testing as well, again demonstrating excellent clarity and impact without overshadowing other elements in the mix. The Mask once again served as an excellent tool for showing what the rears could do.

Being pricier doesn't automatically mean better

At $3,499 / £2,116 / AU$4,499, the Yamaha Surround 90A is a premium soundbar. Some of its rivals I mentioned are cheaper: the Samsung HW-Q990F ($1,699 / £1,499 / AU$1,099) and JBL Bar 1300MK2 ($1,699 / £1,299 / AU$2,299.95). Even a full Sonos surround system with its top-tier products is significantly cheaper in the US, priced at $2,399. It’s pricier in the UK at £2,499, but it’s a more powerful system than the Yamaha overall. In Australia, it'll set you back roughly the same money as AU$4,596.

While the Yamaha thrived in so many areas, it’s such a shame that Yamaha overlooked the depth needed for this crucial component. It’s made me appreciate rear speakers more, and is a reminder – whether you're building a soundbar system or a dedicated home theater setup with separates – that you can't take any element for granted.

Don't spend all your money on big front speakers and thing cutting corners on the rears is a good investment if you're buying individual speakers at home; and the exact same advice goes if you work for a soundbar company.

Sonos had a quiet 2025. After the company got a new CEO, having fired the one who oversaw the app update debacle that turned the brand's most ardent fans against it, it's been licking its wounds. It canceled an ill-fated streaming TV device, and didn't announce any new hardware at all last year – its last consumer product was the Sonos Arc Ultra.

But now it appears that Sonos is ready to get back to business, and reportedly "hardware launches will ramp up in the second half of its fiscal 2026" – which in Sonos' case, means between April and September.

Sonos has already started by unveiling the Amp Multi, which is a niche music amp designed for custom-install needs, capable of powering lots of speakers in multiple Sonos zones from a single box.

There haven't been many leaks on what to expect for more mainstream releases (which is maybe a sign things are changing for Sonos on its own; it used to leak like a particularly structurally compromised sieve ), but here's what I'm hoping to see.

1. A 'Sonos Era 500' hi-fi focused speaker

The Sonos Five has been around for a long time, and is surely due for its retirement. The Sonos Era 300 isn't quite the same kind of thing – its focus on spatial audio means that's impressively expansive, but it doesn't have the pure focus on detail and depth that a real hi-fi speaker offers.

Sonos' Sound Motion bass speaker is the cool addition I hope to see as the foundation here. It debuted in the Sonos Arc Ultra, and is basically an ingeniously small dual-diaphragm low-end speaker with a force-opposing design, so it can move a lot of air in a small space, without shaking the unit.

I'd love to see this used with a traditional forward-facing driver system, rather than the angle speakers of the Era 300. Allowing this driver to handle the low end would leave the other drivers to handle mid-range without also needing to wade into the low-end, hopefully allowing for really strong mid detail reproduction, but with a bigger dynamic range overall.

And I'd be happy for this speaker to borrow the compression driver and horn system used in the Era 100. This is the kind of system used in studio monitors, so would be a great fit for a hi-fi focused speaker.

Naturally, I hope that instead of needing a dongle to connect a turntable or other wired input (as the Era 100 and 300 do), this would just have a range of inputs on it, like the Sonos Five does.

2. A Sonos Beam Gen 3 soundbar with Sound Motion and upfiring speaker

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is still a great soundbar that we highly recommend, following its price drops. It produces impressively full sound from its small frame, but it's a shame its Dolby Atmos support is totally virtual, when the Bose Smart Soundbar is able to fit in real upfiring speakers for a better 'dome' of sound effect.

I hope a new Beam could use the Sound Motion bass driver again to add even richer bass, but in a small space that hopefully leaves Sonos free to add upfiring speakers, and to make even better use of its forward speakers.

I'd personally also love if Sonos would finally start adding HDMI passthrough ports to its soundbars, but that seems like a distant dream, alas. I'll settle for the audio upgrades.

3. A wireless home theater HDMI dongle

Speaking of soundbars, for the last few years, they've slowly but surely been going wireless. Samsung and LG both offer wireless connections from their TVs to their soundbars, and LG in particular has gone to the next level by offering Dolby Atmos FlexConnect in its new soundbar and speakers. TCL is also on board with Dolby Atmos FlexConnect's wireless speaker skills. You can get wireless surround speaker system from both Sony and Hisense.

Sonos clearly should have been the leader in fully wireless home theater (sort of its raison d'être, you know?), but lacking the ability to transmit from the TV to its soundbars/speakers means it hasn't made progress. All it needs to start is a little HDMI attachment, so I'm hoping we'll see one soon.

I'd also love for this attachment to offer the ability to have wireless surround sound using satellite speakers only, no soundbar – and this apparently was on the cards with the canceled streaming box, and I said at the time that the company shouldn't abandon this feature.

4. A portable speaker between the Roam and Move

Sonos has two portable speakers: the Sonos Roam 2 and the Sonos Move 2. The former is pretty small and costs $179 / £179 / AU$299, while the latter is large and costs $449 / £449 / AU$799. So there's a big gap in terms of both size and price for something else – something closer to the JBL Charge 6.

Maybe this is a good size to include a mini version of the Sound Motion speaker, which Sonos told me it's exploring: "We're exploring all kinds of applications, whether it's more bass, more compact form factors, more energy efficiency."

One of the nice things about the Roam and Move is that they can work as a home speaker most of the time, and then you just grab them to go out. There's definitely scope for something with a meatier sound than the Roam but a lower price than the Move that could fill the bedroom, office or kitchen of most people.

5. An Era 100 with a screen

The WiiM Sound is a direct competitor to the Sonos Era 100, with a nearly identical speaker setup and multi-room skills – but with the addition of a touchscreen on the front to add some personality and easy control options to the whole package. And we really liked it!

It made it notably more expensive than the Era 100, so we still preferred Sonos' option for value. However, just as WiiM then followed that up with the Sound Lite, which omits the screen and competes with the Era on price, we'd love to see Sonos go the other way and offer an Era 100 with a touchscreen.

The screen doesn't need to function like a full Sonos app, but the Sonos app already has a 'Favorites' bar, so it could replicate that part only on the touchscreen, so you can easily find your favorite streaming stations, playlists or artists – and control which speakers the music is playing on.

6. A big party speaker

The Sonos Move 2 is a very powerful portable speaker, but I've been told by many audio companies that huge party speakers are getting more and more popular – the kind of thing that sometimes comes with wheels, and is for mid-size events (parties in a hall, weddings, and big outdoor parties) more than home listening. The likes of JBL, Anker Soundcore, LG and many more make these.

It'd be great for Sonos to get in on the action too – waterproof, beefy, great sound quality, and perhaps a classier design than most of these have. It could be another good fit for Sound Motion – maybe in a bigger guise, or even multiple of them to provide a ton of bass kick – but it'd also be fun to again see Sonos use the pro-like compression drivers used in the Era 300, to bring a touch more 'studio' accuracy to the sound than these big speakers usually strive for.

Those are the picks from me and the TechRadar AV team – we'd love to hear what products you hope Sonos will launch or update in the comments!

• Sonos' new Amp Multi is a sign that app problems "have been resolved"
• Hardware launches will "ramp up" in the second half of 2026 says report
• Sonos wants customers to love it again

Sonos has just announced its first new products since late 2024: new Amp Multi amplifier for professional installations. It isn't just a new Sonos product: it's a new dawn for the company. That's what Sonos insiders are telling Bloomberg, which reports that Sonos believes that its app-related shenanigans have come to an end.

Sonos "believes the majority of bugs and issues that once plagued its mobile app have been resolved", and the launch of the Amp Multi marks the end of "an intentional lull in product launches… Hardware launches will ramp up in the second half of its fiscal 2026".

It's worth noting here that Sonos' fiscal year ends in September, so it looks like the next eight months could be busy for Sonos believers.

What's the story behind Sonos's new hardware plans?

To the best of our knowledge, only one planned product, Sonos's streaming video player, was outright cancelled – but other products had been rumored and failed to appear. And Sonos execs had talked about launching at least two new products per year, and that definitely wasn't the case in 2025.

Sonos' woes stemmed from the ill-fated upgrade to its app, a PR disaster that was still rumbling on in early 2025: the upgrade turned out to be a downgrade for a lot of users and many of Sonos' most vocal advocates were extremely unhappy about it.

Then-CEO Patrick Spence was replaced by new CEO Tom Conrad in January 2025, who said that "we've let far too many people down" and promised "to get us back on track [by] getting back to the innovation that is at the heart of Sonos' incredible history." The Amp Multi is the first new Sonos product on his watch.

The Amp Multi isn't made for people like me – it's a pro-level product for high-end installations – but it does indicate that Sonos is back in the ring, and that's a reason to be optimistic. Conrad has said that his goal is to get Sonos customers to extend their Sonos investments, and in order to do that you need to make those customers happy.

As we reported last year, Sonos used to have the best word of mouth in tech; it does seem that Conrad intends to make that happen again.

With the Sound range, it’s safe to say WiiM has entered the wireless speaker market swinging. Not only has it released the more audiophile-baiting WiiM Sound, but it simultaneously released a cheaper version, the WiiM Sound Lite. Given both are multi-room speakers with an unabashedly mid-market price, it’s pretty clear it’s gunning for Sonos with these devices. I couldn’t resist seeing how they stack up against their closest rival: the Sonos Era 100.

As you may have seen, I’ve already compared the full version of the Lite to Sonos’s speaker in my WiiM Sound vs Sonos Era 100 piece. And while you might think this comparison is going to be more of the same, it’s worth bearing in mind that the Lite is quite a different proposition.

Priced at $229 / £229 / AU$399, the Lite is much closer in cost to the Sonos Era 100’s $219 / £199 / AU$319 than the full WiiM Sound’s $299 / £299 / AU$499 list price. And while it’s had quite a bit of its price slashed, it hasn’t lost a whole lot of functionality to get there, making the Lite a much more nimble opponent for the Era 100 and a credible contender for a spot on our list of the best wireless speakers.

So how did it fare during my testing? Read on to find out.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: features

Just like the WiiM Sound, the Sound Lite packs a 4-inch, 50W woofer for driving bass and a pair of angled, full-range 25W tweeters to broaden its stereo field. Meanwhile, the Sonos Era 100 is similar, containing a mid-woofer for both mid-range and bass and two angled tweeters, only this time with a waveguide frame to disperse sound across 180 degrees per tweeter.

Refreshingly, despite costing less, the Sound Lite offers connectivity as excellent as the full-fat Sound, and that includes its hi-res 24-bit/192kHz playback. It can also connect to WiiM, Google Cast, and Alexa multi-room systems, as well as stream directly from a wide array of services, including Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Plex, SoundCloud, and more. On top of this, it offers a 3.5mm jack input, which is always handy if you’re likely to want to hook it up to external audio kit.

Unfortunately, there is a catch, and if you’re heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem, it may be too big for you to overlook. The Sound Lite doesn’t support Apple Music or AirPlay 2, meaning you won’t be able to connect your iPhone or MacBook to the speaker via Wi-Fi. If you’re an Apple fan, you might find that a speaker like the Sonos Era 100 gives you far more flexibility.

On top of AirPlay 2, the Era 100 offers access to all the streaming services above and throws Apple Music support in for good measure. There are a few trade-offs here, too, though. While the Sonos is capable of lossless playback at 24-bit/48kHz, you won’t get the same super-high-quality as the WiiM, though it’s worth noting there’s debate around how much this extra quality is even discernible. And, regrettably, an analog in is also absent, although you can purchase an additional adapter to convert the Era 100’s USB port into either a 3.5mm jack or an Ethernet port.

Of course, both speakers come with additional functionality packaged into their apps. Each app offers multi-room connectivity and the ability to hook them up as part of a stereo pair.

EQ is handled a little differently by each brand. Sonos offers treble and bass adjustment and automatic loudness correction for increased bass at lower volumes. Conversely, WiiM offers much more granular control: not only does it come with a 10-band EQ, but its parametric EQ lets you create curves to boost or duck frequencies throughout the whole spectrum, which is seriously impressive. I tested it out in a pretty echoey room and was honestly blown away by how easy it was to smooth out errant frequencies this way.

Finally, both speakers offer room correction algorithms. The process of the Era 100’s advanced tuning mode involves pinwheeling your phone with your arm while you walk around the room, but it achieves pretty credible results. Testing it near a wall, I found it brought the high end more into focus and made the overall sound more cohesive. It also did an impressive job of taming the outrageously resonant bass when I placed the speaker in the middle of an acoustically reflective laminate floor.

Although I gave the WiiM Sound a hard time for its room correction, it seems to have been tightened up for the Sound Lite in a recent update. It may not be a sonic silver bullet, but it does seem to go a little further, occasionally boosting weaker frequencies rather than just trimming excessive ones back. Close to a wall, it sheared off some of the wooliness in its lower frequencies, while in the middle of the floor, it helped whip the overly doughy kick into shape. It’s not quite as sophisticated as Sonos’s algorithm, but it at least gives the sound some much-needed spit and polish.

Honestly, with some of the recent improvements to WiiM’s feature set, this isn’t as big a sweep for Sonos as it was when I tested the Sound. Honestly, if you’re an Apple user or room correction is your biggest priority, the Era 100 is your best bet. But that hi-res playback and parametric EQ means that audiophiles might now find the Sound Lite takes the upper hand.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: sound quality

You’re very unlikely to get sound quality that’s utterly unimpeachable. Instead, the WiiM Sound Lite and the Sonos Era 100 each have their individual sonic strengths

When I played Listen by Pola & Bryson & goddard., the Sound Lite made its arpeggiated synth sound utterly gorgeous, and there was more than a hint of bass harmonics. However, switching to the Era 100, it became clear what I was missing – not only did the drop of that D&B bassline sound suitably snarly, but there was something delicious dubby about the way that sub bubbled up every couple of bars.

Unfortunately, like a tragic hero, the Era 100’s strength is also its greatest flaw. While listening to Peace Talk by Maribou State, I found that its bass too often encroached on the mid-range – the heft of the guitar and flabbier low-end sometimes overwhelmed the synth and strings. Conversely, the balance the Sound Lite strikes is far more judicious, allowing these melodic elements more time in the spotlight and giving that gorgeous vocal even more gloss.

Nothing shows up a speaker’s sonic weaknesses faster than poorly controlled treble, so I’m glad that neither of these devices lumbered into that bear trap. Playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, the Sound Lite kept the brightness of its high end carefully in check, with the strumming of the guitars and transient hats and snares never feeling over-exposed. The Sonos Era 100 couldn’t quite strike this balance, though, with the guitar feeling less crisp and the toms focusing on heft rather than bite.

Cumulatively, this sonic profile means the Era 100 seems to offer greater cohesion, but sometimes that comes at the expense of precision. For example, when I tested it on Wasting My Young Years by London Grammar, I noticed some instruments were forced to fight for attention. By contrast, the Sound Lite was a lot more airy – the vocals erupted upward in the mix, with the piano subtly underpinning them. It’s not quite the surgically precise separation of a speaker like the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Pro Edition, but it's definitely decent given its price point.

Perhaps one area where the Era 100 is more balanced than the Sound Lite is listening angles. While neither showed any egregious deadspots in their soundstage, the WiiM’s treble fell off much faster as I moved to the sides of the device, whereas the Sonos was pretty consistent up until I strayed into the bassier area at the rear 90 degrees of the device.

I’d also give the Era 100 the slight edge when it comes to stereo field. Playing The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, I struggled to identify any panning at all on the Sound Lite, with most of the sound seeming to emerge directly from the speaker’s center. By contrast, the Era 100 doesn’t have the widest soundstage I’ve heard, but I could at least perceive a slight spread to the drum and guitar parts, even though there was hardly a gulf between them.

Honestly, it’s hard to pick a clear winner here because the best option for you is going to depend so much on what you personally want out of a wireless speaker. Want spacious mids and considered expression but aren’t offended by milquetoast bass? Then the Sound Lite is absolutely a solid choice. But if your definition of a speaker is something bassy and brassy with omnidirectional sound, then the Era 100 will definitely be more your vibe.

WiiM Sound Lite vs Sonos Era 100: design

Naturally, when it comes to design, the situation here is not all that different from my WiiM Sound vs Sonos Era 100 piece. Not only is the Era 100 the exact same unit, but the Sound Lite has an almost identical form factor as its more premium stablemate.

The one big departure for the Sound Lite is that it doesn’t have the Sound’s porthole-style display. However, while this was a fun addition that helped the Sound stand out a little more, I wouldn’t say it’s a deal breaker. It’s nice to be able to see album art or photos on your speaker, but the resolution and vibrancy weren’t so eye-wateringly gorgeous that it’s truly unmissable. If your biggest priority is getting the best sonic bang for your buck, the display is probably the easiest thing to let go of.

Elsewhere, the WiiM and the Sonos come from very similar schools of design. Both have a cylindrical build with controls on their top face, and both come in black or white colorways. The Sound Lite has a little more bulk, weighing in at 2.5kg compared to the Era 100’s 2.02kg, and it comes wrapped in fabric rather than the latter’s metal grille. But otherwise, at first glance, they give a similar general impression.

There are some small points of difference in that control scheme, though. Each has the same basic functions laid out on its surface, with touch-capacitive buttons for pausing or playing content, adjusting volume, or skipping back and forth. However, the Sound Lite’s buttons are hidden until it detects your hand nearby, at which point they light up. On top of giving it a slightly classier look when the lights are off, this also means it’s easier to use in darker rooms.

That’s a definite point in the WiiM’s favor. But while its glass top panel gives it a slightly more premium look than the Era 100’s matt black plastic, it also shows up way more marks from your greasy mitts. I only prodded the odd button here and there to test the Sound Lite’s functionality, as I mostly operated it from the connected app, but it quickly resembled a scene from CSI as it got covered in oily fingerprints. Fortunately, it wipes clean pretty easily, but better keep a microfiber cloth handy just in case.

Neither speaker draws the line at physical or app control. The Era 100 comes with built-in voice control via either Sonos Voice Control or Amazon Alexa, which is always an enormous help when you're feeling too lazy to reach for your phone or the device. The Sound Lite doesn’t offer voice control built into the unit itself, but if you buy its separate WiiM Voice Remote 2 Lite, its push-to-talk button lets you control the device via Alexa or Google Assistant.

While I’m a little disappointed the remote isn’t included in the box as it was for the WiiM Sound, I’d argue it’s still a worthy purchase at $39 / £39 / $79. It’s robustly crafted from aluminum and has wonderfully clicky buttons, making it a great choice for anyone who prefers a more tactile way of interacting with their gadgets than yet another phone app.

Personally, when it comes to design, I just about favor the Sound Lite. Light-up controls can help when you’re operating it in darker rooms, and its fabric-and-glass build looks a skosh classier to me. But I recognize that if you prefer to use voice control for your speaker, the Era 100’s on-device mic is far more convenient than having to fork over additional money for a remote.

WiiM Sound Lite VS Sonos Era 100: verdict

When comparing the full WiiM Sound to the Sonos Era 100, I definitely came down in favor of the latter. So it may seem odd that I’ve changed my tune now I’ve swapped in the supposedly ‘Lite’ version. However, I’d argue the Lite is anything but.

It has the same drivers, the same audio quality, and the same features – plus it's had a couple of recent quality-of-life updates. The only thing that’s changed is that the display has disappeared, and, as I pointed out in my intro, the price has dropped from $299 / £299 / AU$499 down to $229 / £229 / AU$399. Getting essentially the same performance for a lower price changes the equation for me and brings both speakers much more in line with each other.

In light of this, I’d say the WiiM Sound Lite and Sonos Era 100 are fairly evenly matched, albeit with different strengths. If you’re an audiophile, you’ll likely find the Sound Lite's hi-res streaming support and more open, expressive sound compelling – not to mention its granular parametric EQ. However, should you be into substantial bass, smarter room correction, or Apple’s ecosystem, I’d say you’ll get a lot more mileage out of the Era 100 instead.

When you’re upgrading your wireless speaker, it can be tempting to focus on finding the most trailblazing features. Spatial Audio. AI-enriched voice assistants. HDMI input for home cinema sound. But sometimes you’ll find it’s the more prosaic features that you’ll miss most if they’re absent.

I’ve tested a lot of wireless speakers over my career, so I’ve got a lot of experience in both feature-packed superstars and no-frills Wi-Fi workhorses. But I’m also heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem – I use an iPhone 16 Pro, MacBook Pro, Apple TV and Apple Music. That’s why there’s one feature that’s an absolute deal breaker for me: AirPlay 2.

So if you’re stepping outside of Sonos’s ecosystem for the first time and, like me, Apple gadgets are your go-to, let me explain why this is still a killer feature when picking up one of the best wireless speakers.

The argument for AirPlay

Peruse the specs of some wireless speakers and you’d be forgiven for thinking AirPlay 2 is a ubiquitous feature these days. But that’s not always the case. For example, Amazon’s Echo range doesn’t support the technology, not even in the lossless Echo Studio. And while carrying out the testing for my recent Sonos Era 100 VS WiiM Sound feature, I was surprised to find out that the latter didn’t have AirPlay 2. So it’s definitely not always a given.

But why does it matter? Well, for several reasons.

First of all, while many wireless speakers allow you to stream lossless and even hi-res audio direct from services like Tidal or Deezer, fewer devices can natively stream from Apple Music. So if you’re not using a HomePod or Sonos multi-room system, AirPlay 2 offers the only way to wireless enjoy lossless quality music from Apple Music.

It’s not just about streaming services though. A far bigger benefit of AirPlay 2 is the fact it allows you to wirelessly stream all kinds of audio from your Apple devices. Tired of your TV outputting insipid audio? With the Apple TV 4K, you can stream sound wirelessly to your multi-room speaker system. Playing Alien: Isolation on your iPad 11-inch (2025)? Then you can enjoy its creepy soundtrack with real depth by connecting to an AirPlay-enabled speaker.

I know first-hand just how flexible AirPlay 2 can be. Not only do I stream music and TV shows on my Apple devices but I often use them to create content too. When I’m producing music on my MacBook Pro 2017, being able to ping my sound to a high-res speaker like my Cambridge Audio Evo One allows me to hear what it sounds like on a different setup without having to faff around with wired connections. That kind of versatility really cannot be beat and the fact I can do this with any audio from my Apple devices really is invaluable to me.

So when you’re shopping for a new wireless speaker, yes, it’s worth looking out for fancy features like Dolby Atmos or automatic room compensation. But if you’re an Apple user, don’t sleep on AirPlay as it’ll add value in all kinds of subtle ways you might not even be able to predict yet.

I’ve tested a whole load of wireless speakers in my time at TechRadar and as a result I’m always excited to see new entrants into the wireless speaker space. That’s why I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the newly released WiiM Sound to see how it stacks up against some of the other speakers I’ve put through our testing process.

Given the WiiM Sound is a mid-range Wi-Fi speaker with multi-room functionality, it was inevitably going to draw comparisons to Sonos’s speakers, as the brand has been delivering some of the best wireless speakers for two decades. That made my decision to test the WiiM side-by-side with one of Sonos’s speakers a total no brainer.

And while the $299 / £299 / AU$499 WiiM is about halfway between the $479 / £449 / AU$749 Sonos Era 300 and the $219 / £199 / AU$319 Sonos Era 100, the latter feels like a more apt comparison. The main reason for this is the Era 300 offers a fancier speaker array designed to deliver Spatial Audio, while the form factor of the Era 100 more closely reflects that of the Sound.

So how did these speakers measure up during my testing? And which will offer you the best bang for your buck?

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: features

Looking under the hood, these wireless speakers offer a fairly similar array of drivers. The WiiM Sound packs in a four-inch, 50W long-throw woofer for handling bass, while a pair of angled, full-range 25W tweeters give it a decent stereo field. Similarly, the Sonos Era 100 rocks a mid-woofer for both mid-range and bass and two angled tweeters, this time with a waveguide frame in front of them to disperse sound across 180 degrees per tweeter.

The WiiM Sound offers excellent connectivity – albeit with one major exception. It’s capable of hi-res streaming at up to 24-bit/192kHz, while you can also connect to over 20 streaming services directly in the WiiM Home app – including Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TIDAL, Qobuz, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Plex, SoundCloud, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more – and analog wired sources via its 3.5mm jack. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer access to Apple Music or AirPlay 2, which is likely to be a deal-breaker for anyone invested in Apple’s ecosystem.

Fortunately, the Sonos Era 100 has you covered if you’re an Apple fan. Not only can you stream over both Wi-Fi 6 and AirPlay 2 but the Sonos Era 100 allows you to stream directly from all the services listed above, plus Apple Music too. In terms of quality, the Era 100 tops out at 24-bit/48kHz but for most practical purposes, you won’t be able to detect a real difference here. Unlike the WiiM Sound, it doesn’t offer a dedicated line in but you can spend extra on an adapter for its USB-C port that will allow you to plug in an ethernet cable or 3.5mm jack.

Perhaps the biggest gulf I noticed between the two speakers is when it comes to room correction. Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound’s AI RoomFit just isn’t as smart as I would hope. Despite showing you a target curve and the raw signal, the actual noise correction it applies goes nowhere near far enough. I tried it four times with the speaker near a wall every time it only actually corrected frequencies above 0 on the magnitude scale, leaving smaller spikes and major gulfs in its frequency profile uncorrected.

In fact, it was only when I repositioned the speaker and ran the room correction again that I was able to get less problematic – albeit not perfect – results. And, fundamentally, if room correction only works in certain parts of the room, it’s not true room correction.

By contrast, the Sonos Era 100’s room correction felt fiddlier but rewarded me with far better results. Once you’ve initiated the process, the Era 100 will play its calibration noise while you walk around the room moving your phone in slow circles so it can calculate the acoustics of the room. My living room is quite awkwardly shaped and it failed on my first attempt because apparently windmilling my fist like an old-timey boxer was ‘too fast’. But once I’d completed my second attempt, the Sonos calibrated really well, not showing a hint of distortion or reverberation.

So, with everything else being largely equal, the Sonos Era 100’s superior room correction means I’ve gotta give it first place when it comes to features.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: sound quality

This has been one of the harder audio comparisons I’ve had to do. On the surface level, the WiiM Sound and the Sonos Era 100 sound very similar. But once you dip beneath the surface and get into the nitty gritty, each of them portrays its own set of sonic idiosyncrasies that stands at odds with the other. And, honestly, I’m not sure either has the balance quite right.

Let’s start with treble. Playing Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, both speakers had decent control of the high end, with the guitars and drums having plenty of presence without feeling harsh or overdriven. However, the WiiM can occasionally prove to be a little overexcitable – when listening to I Want You by Moloko, I noticed a slight brittle edge creeping in to the sound of the cymbals and snares.

Probably the most polarized these two speakers get is in how they handle bass. Trying them both out with Tensoon by O’Flynn, the WiiM was able to conjure up a decent hint of the bass and a punchy enough kick to drive everything forward, but I was surprised how much of a drop off there is in the lowest frequencies, leaving things feeling a pretty top heavy. Conversely, the cheaper and slighter Sonos did a more impressive job of rendering that low end – it feels more dynamic, with a satisfying pump to each kick and the pulsing bass buoying the whole mix up.

However, as we remarked in our Sonos Era 100 review, the speaker’s approach to low-end can sometimes get a little heavy-handed. When I put on Otherside by Maribou State, the Era 100 made both the bass and syncopated guitar sound wonderfully substantial, yet it left more delicate details like its fuzzy synthline blanching in its shade. By contrast, the WiiM really reserves the limelight for these mid-frequency elements: in particular, it lets those gorgeous vocals fully shine, rather than being eclipsed by the bass.

Fortunately, both speakers’ more extreme edges can be sanded off using their EQ settings, although by varying degrees. Dropping the Sonos’s bass setting by two steps, boosting treble by one and turning off loudness correction goes a long way toward bringing that bloated low-end in line. Results from the WiiM Sound were a bit more equivocal – boosting the lowest three channels and ducking the highest two helped rebalance it somewhat but it didn’t help it regain those lost sub frequencies.

One area I’ll happily hand the WiiM its dues though is when it comes to detail and definition. While it doesn’t have quite as spacious a soundstage as some hi-res Wi-Fi speakers, it definitely squeezes things far less than the Era 100. When playing Clair de Lune by Kamasi Washington, it renders that gorgeous trumpet line in gloriously honeyed tones but without tamping down the double bass and piano. Conversely, the Era 100 smothers the drums and bass, drowning the finer details in mud, which is a real shame.

While I admit I’m a little torn here, I’d say that the Era 100 just about comes out on top in terms of sound quality for me. Yes, its bass is a little doughy and it tends to compress details a lot more than its rival, but the WiiM is lacking enough in the low-end that my favorite tracks just ended up feeling like they were missing something. But your mileage may vary – if you’d rather have poise than low-end presence, you might find the WiiM a better fit.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: design

When it comes to their looks, these speakers aren’t quite two peas in a pod but they certainly share a leguminous likeness. Both sit very much in the mold that many Wi-Fi speakers at this price point occupy. Monochrome? Check. Column-shaped? Check. Wrap-around grille, top-facing controls, metallic lettering spelling out the brand? Check, check, check.

Okay, I’m being slightly unfair here: there are some small variations beyond the aforementioned display. For example, the WiiM features rounded off edges surrounding its top face, while its grille is wrapped in cloth compared to the Sonos’s metal finish. And while lots of speakers echo this form factor, Wiim has at least taken a swing at something different with its porthole-style display.

Overall I’d say the WiiM’s built-in screen is a nice touch. It certainly opens up a lot of options for information, whether that’s picking sources, setting EQ profiles or displaying album artwork. As I’ve occasionally seen with other speaker screens, it doesn’t quite offer the best of modern display tech, lacking a bit of HDR punch and appearing a bit too reflective for my liking. But it’s nice that WiiM is trying to break with convention a little here.

While both devices have gone for similar control functionality – with touch-capacitive buttons that allow you to control the volume, pause or play content and skip backwards and forwards – there are a few slight differences. The WiiM’s controls are hidden most of the time, lighting up when you wave your hand over them, while the Sonos has no lighting at all. That gives the WiiM the edge when using it in darker rooms.

However, there’s a few minor areas the WiiM Sound loses out in my mind. Firstly, as its touch-capacitive panel is glossy rather than the Era 100’s matte, it’s an absolute magnet for fingerprints – I’ve only used the on-device controls for testing purposes and they’re already covered in oily prints. And, unlike the Sonos’s gentle sonic pips, the WiiM doesn’t offer any immediate feedback when you’re tapping, although I’ll admit that’s not a significant deal breaker.

Fortunately, you don’t always have to use your greasy hand sausages to control these speakers. Alongside its app, the Sonos Era 100 offers built-in voice control through Sonos Voice Control and Amazon Alexa. And while the WiiM Sound doesn’t offer voice control through the speaker itself, it does offer this functionality through its discrete remote – which is also exceedingly well built, with a sturdy aluminum body and satisfyingly clicky buttons.

All in all, despite my gripes about greasy marks, I’ll happily give WiiM the win when it comes to design. That screen and well-engineered remote edge out the Era 100 in my eyes.

WiiM Sound VS Sonos Era 100: verdict

Fundamentally, the WiiM Sound and Sonos Era 100 are hardly poles apart. They’re aimed at a similar slice of the market, have similar looks and driver arrays and share a lot of features. They also both have solid sound that exhibits a few imperfections.

But while the WiiM Sound takes a few more bold steps with its design, it also offers more flawed room correction features and its lack of low-end clout can make its sound feel somewhat neutered at points. When you factor in its higher price, coming in at $299 / £299 / AU$499 compared to the Sonos Era 100’s $219 / £199 / AU$319, I think you’re more likely to feel the latter has given you your money’s worth.

We know Ultimea well for its super-affordable soundbars, which bring improved audio and even solid surround sound for super-cheap prices. We rate the Ultimea Poseidon D50 among the best soundbars on a budget, for example.

But the company also leans towards the high-end sometimes, and I got very interested by the unusual new soundbar system it teased for CES 2026, so I tracked it down at the show.

The Skywave X100 Dual is a 9.2.6-channel Dolby Atmos system, which is a very unusual system to get in a single home solution – and it's doubly unusual because the setup uses four satellite speakers with a soundbar at the front to deliver all these channels, plus two beefy subwoofers. The main competitor in this way is the Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6.

Ultimea's booth at CES was playing Top Gun: Maverick's bombing and air defense scene on the system, which was perfect for me – we regularly use this exact scene for testing surround sound, and I've highlighted it as being one of the best Dolby Atmos movies to see what your system at home can do.

So I sat on a sofa, with two speakers at the sides behind me, two immediately to my left and right, and the soundbar and subs in front by the TV – and the surround effects are easily the most convincing I've ever heard for a soundbar system.

Elite soundbar setups like the Samsung HW-Q990F do a fantastic job of bouncing sound around the room to simulate side speakers, but there is no substitute for having an actual speaker firing directly to the side.

The connection between the front and rear speakers is immediately clearly better than my elaborate home Sonos surround system – missiles blast from the screen, snake right past my ear, and then whip behind me.

And the impact of the dual subs is obviously massive as well – non-directional bass just fills the space, gripping your ribcage when it wants your attention.

My only area of concern based on this demo is the soundbar at the front. I wasn't getting the same scale of width from it during my time there, but I think that may be partly just due to how the booth was set up. The sofa was quite far from the soundbar, but with the surround speakers right next to the sofa, the soundbar may have been interfered with more by sounds from the rest of the expo.

And at the same time, there was a solid wall to my left that the soundbar could use to bounce audio off, but nothing to my right at all. It's not really the environment it's designed to operate in, so I'll reserve judgment on that aspect.

What I can say for sure is that, as someone who's used to a four-box soundbar system (soundbar, rears, sub), switching to this seven-box system has me absolutely hooked and wanting to try it out more with more movies.

And one of the best parts of this system is that I could have it at home, even in my small living room. No big home theater space is needed – the satellite speakers are all super-slim, and the soundbar is just regular-sized.

It supports DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, has 2,000 watts of total power, and has 4K 120Hz HDMI passthrough for good measure. This could be THE home theater setup for those of us desperate for real surround sound in a small space.

Now, the Skywave X100 Dual doesn't come anywhere near as cheap as the company's other soundbars… and yet, it's still kind of a bargain in the grand scheme of things.

It will cost $2,200 full price when it hits retail, which I think is pretty reasonable for something with this many speaker boxes, and it'll probably get discounts during Black Friday.

However, it's actually going to launch with huge discounts too. It will launch on Kickstarter on March 12th, 2026, and will be available for just $899 at an 'Insider Price', or for $999 as a 'Super Early Bird Price'. We never recommend products when they're in the Kickstarter phase only, and obviously, I'm FAR from giving this a full review, but if you, like me, are a home theater nut with limited space, I think it's worth keeping a close eye on this.

TechRadar is extensively covering this year's CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2026 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI. You can also ask us a question about the show in our CES 2026 live Q&A and we’ll do our best to answer it.

And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!

• SoundTouch speakers will lose cloud services in May 2026
• Bose has published an API for third party app developers
• Spotify Connect and AirPlay will continue to work

Bose's SoundTouch speakers are positively ancient in tech terms: they were introduced in 2013, and after a successful 13-year-run Bose has decided to turn off the cloud services: "we’re no longer able to sustain the development and support of the cloud infrastructure that powers this older generation of products."

Rather than "brick" existing customers' speakers, which is what tends to happen when the cloud stuff gets turned off, Bose has provided extensive information on how to keep using them with Bluetooth and AirPlay – and they've published an API so third party app developers can add SoundTouch features to their apps.

Just take a look at the Bose SoundTouch 20 above. Now imagine it obsolete and unworkable. Isn't it great that if you bought one of these multi-room wireless speakers (for around $399 / £350 / AU$549, upon their release at least) that doesn't have to happen?

A smarter way to work with smart speaker obsolescence

As Bose explains, the speakers themselves will remain perfectly functional – so standalone SoundTouch speakers with Bluetooth and Aux connections will continue to work, and home theater products will continue to connect over HDMI or optical connections. Features such as SoundTouch streaming will be going away, but "AirPlay and Spotify Connect should continue to function."

Bose is giving customers lots of notice here. It first announced the server shutdown in October 2025, and in this new January update it's pushed the changes back to May 2026. From then, the app will update "to a version that supports key functions without relying on the cloud."

What does that mean in practice? Bose says:

"With this version of the app, you will be able to control any system that is on the same Wi-Fi network as your phone. You will still be able to set up, configure, remotely control, and group systems through the app. Browsing music services and initiating content from within the SoundTouch app will no longer function. Instead, you may download your favorite music service apps (TuneIn, Pandora, etc.) and send audio to the SoundTouch systems via AirPlay, Bluetooth, or AUX. If you are a Spotify user, stream content to your SoundTouch system using Spotify Connect from within the Spotify app."

I'm really impressed by this. All tech should probably come with a memento mori on it to remind you that connected services won't be available forever, but it's how shutdowns and recommended upgrading is handled that sends a message to customers – so for example Sonos upset a lot of people in 2019 when it initially required customers to "brick" their existing speakers in order to qualify for an upgrade discount, and the complete shutdown of Spotify's Car Thing in 2024 ruffled some feathers too.

As I wrote at the time, "be very wary of buying devices that are tied to a single service or a proprietary platform. As Car Thing demonstrates, some devices are here for a good time, not a long time." But what Bose is saying is the opposite.

What Bose is doing here isn't just sending a message to existing SoundTouch owners. It's sending a wider message about its values to would-be smart speaker buyers. And that's very smart indeed.

So farewell, 2025 – you were frequently exciting, regularly chaotic, occasionally frustrating but always interesting. And that’s how we like it around here.

It was a year in which often fairly iterative improvements to hardware were overshadowed by rapid and significant advances on the computing side of things. I’m talking, of course, about AI, which is now so dominant within the tech world that it’s increasingly hard to find a device that doesn’t have an AI brain.

Not that I’m complaining, because the leaps made in 2025 by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Gemini were truly astonishing; the pace of change is such that it feels like we’re squeezing about a decade’s worth of advances into each year now, and I wouldn’t like to predict what the state of play will be in 12 months’ time. Well, other than to say that we’ll be taking for granted things which seem almost impossible right now – although as our AI Editor Graham Barlow notes below, maybe we’re already doing that.

In comparison, it often looked in 2025 as though things were slowing down on the hardware side. Could Apple really make its already-excellent MacBooks much better? Could Samsung improve much on the superb Galaxy S series? Was there much scope for OLED TVs or wireless headphones or mirrorless cameras to develop?

The answer was yes, yes and yes. Though the upgrades to many models may not have been as big as those on the software side, they were frequently excellent in their own right. The improvements to battery life, screen tech and camera lenses may not be as flashy as those on the AI front, but they can make a real difference to how we use our devices on a daily basis. In many ways, tech fans have never had it so good.

Whether that will continue in 2026 remains to be seen. AI now looks to be having a direct – and negative – effect on component prices, which could make your favorite new phone or laptop more expensive in the coming year. We might also see stock shortages in some areas, which could further inflate those price tags.

It looks like we’re set for another year of exciting, chaotic, frustrating and interesting news, then – and we’ll be here with you every step of the way. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2025, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

I bent reality, but I failed to bend an iPhone

This year was marked by astonishing leaps in AI capabilities, which I tried to not only report on but experience in full. From my first experience with ‘vibe coding’ to wild leaps of fancy with Veo 3 (and later the Sora app) to creating my own digital double, AI’s fast-changing capabilities constantly amazed me.

Never in four decades of covering emerging technologies have I seen anything like it: AI’s rise continues to be a heady mixture of enthusiastic adoption tinged with white-knuckled fear about what it all means for jobs, and for humanity, and nothing we saw in 2025 did much to resolve that anxiety.

However, it was my conversations with those leading the AI and wider innovation charge that stood out. My interviews with Amazon’s Panos Panay about Alexa+ and Google’s Sameer Samat about the future of Android were particularly memorable, as was the moment when one of Apple’s top executives threw his brand-new iPhone Air to me during a video podcast and insisted that I try to bend it.

The rise of humanoid robots was a trend that shocked and pleased me in equal measure, though I’ve tried to temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge that clever marketing and eye-popping videos will only get us so far. We all want the ultimate home robot, but I still don't think many of us are willing to pay $20,000 to get it.

Away from all the AI and robots, I spent much of the year trying new phones, including redesigned iPhones and an incredibly thin folding Samsung phone, along with a wide range of wearable technology that included the Galaxy XR headset, and some very exciting AR glasses from Meta and Google’s Android XR group. Experiencing these felt like peering into our near technological future, which increasingly will be filled with on-demand AI, flexible phones, and maybe those robots.

The year in AI

This was the year we started taking AI for granted 

For all the talk of breakthroughs and hype, 2025 felt less like the year AI changed everything and more like the year it quietly became unavoidable. While the much-hyped arrival of super-powerful artificial general intelligence (AGI), predicted for 2025 by many, simply hasn’t materialized, the year has still been a strong one for companies such as OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Google. That said, there have also been some massive flops; and as for Apple, it feels like yet another year in which it slipped further behind in the AI race.

ChatGPT maintained its vice-like grip as the most popular AI chatbot in the world, though it hasn’t been plain sailing for OpenAI. Legal challenges, particularly the copyright infringement claim brought by The New York Times, have continued to dog the company, and in June its servers crashed for a couple of days, giving the world a brief taste of life without the ubiquitous chatbot.

OpenAI then fumbled the ball with the release of its GPT-5 model, which came across as cold and unemotional compared to the previous GPT-4o. For millions of users who’d come to rely on the chatbot as something closer to a trusted companion it felt like a best friend had undergone a personality transplant overnight, forcing OpenAI to make the legacy 4o model available again.

The company has also lost a little ground to Google’s Gemini in recent months. The arrival of Gemini 3 Pro in November was well received, and on the image front, Gemini’s Nano Banana and Nano Banana Pro proved superior to ChatGPT for image generation. OpenAI responded with a new image-generation model in December.

AI-powered pets and toys also began to appear this year. We took Moflin for a spin, until we accidentally fried its battery. More broadly, the dominant theme of the year was that every product must now have AI built into it in some form, and no company exemplifies this approach better than Microsoft, which has spent the year enthusiastically stuffing Copilot into just about everything it makes.

Finally, the year looks set to end on a high note for Amazon. Alexa+, the AI-powered version of Alexa that Amazon has been promising all year but hasn’t yet managed to fully roll out, may finally be getting a web version, at least in the US.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

Slim pickings for thin phones, and hints of a tri-fold future

2025 was the year of the super-thin phone, writes Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing, with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of the year, and the iPhone Air in the second. These handsets grabbed headlines with their svelte proportions, but so far sales figures have yet to match the hype.

That’s likely due to their relatively high prices in the face of already pretty slim iPhones and Galaxy and Pixel handsets, all of which saw the expected yearly upgrades with the iPhone 17, Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 lines respectively. While the upgrades to the iPhone 17 family appeared incremental at first glance, I'd argue they're a bigger deal when you dig into the details: there was a new design and cooling system for the Pro phones, the standard model finally got a 120Hz display, and Apple's 48MP 'Fusion' camera came to every iPhone in the lineup, including the Air (the Plus model went the way of the dodo).

AI found its way into more phones and more features, with Google’s Pixel phones in particular boasting a whole host of genuinely useful smart tools. Meanwhile, Apple just about managed to distract us from the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence with its flashy Liquid Glass design and the eye-catching Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro.

Some of the most interesting phones came from smaller brands, with the Nothing Phone 3 offering something a little different without scrimping on flagship features. There was the Oppo Find X9 Pro with its strange but useful camera kit, while the OnePlus 15 was the only phone to earn a maximum five-star review from us this year. There were also a clutch of affordable phones from the likes of Motorola and Xiaomi, proving that you don’t have to pay a lot to get a very capable smartphone these days.

We saw further evolution in the folding phone space, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 leading the way, and Samsung also unveiled its first tri-folding phone, with the Galaxy Trifold joining Huawei's Mate XT, and teasing a future of devices that truly blend phones and tablets. We may even see a foldable iPhone in 2026, but don’t hold your breath.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

RAM drama enlivens a year of evolution over revolution

When it came to computing, 2025 didn't start off as the most promising year. While 2024 felt like a year of revolutionary change, with the explosive growth of AI, the fall of Intel, and the rise of Arm-based laptops that were actually worth buying, this year has felt more like we're in a holding pattern, as the innovations of the past few years are iterated on and refined.

The year kicked off with Nvidia launching its latest generation of consumer graphics cards, the RTX 5000 series, at CES 2025, and they encapsulated the ‘evolution, not revolution’ theme, with some great new features that haven't fundamentally shaken up the industry, as the introduction of ray tracing with the RTX 2000 series did. Of course, making a great product even better is no bad thing, and our components editor and GPU expert John Loeffler was suitably impressed, enthusing in his RTX 5090 review that “If you're a gamer, you'll still get impressive gen-on-gen performance improvements over the celebrated RTX 4090, and the Nvidia RTX 5090 is really the first consumer graphics card I've tested that can get you consistent, high-frame-rate 8K gameplay.”

I have an RTX 5090 and I love it, and I've also been impressed by its 8K performance in modern games, but with the majority of PC gamers still playing at 1080p, this high-end GPU might be a bit too expensive to justify. Other releases from AMD and Intel, plus Apple’s latest M5 chip, continued the theme of impressive releases that don’t massively change the computing landscape.

Perhaps the biggest event in 2025 was the continued rise of AI. Recently, the AI boom has led to a global shortage of memory, which has in turn caused an increase in the prices of devices that use it. All of a sudden, PCs, RAM, and GPUs look set to get increasingly expensive, though some, like our computing editor Christian Guyton, aren’t too worried – yet. Personally, the end-of-year drama is making me nostalgic for those early months when 2025 felt rather boring.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The era of giant, cheap TVs is here

This year saw two really interesting developments in TV technology, with the first being the arrival of a whole new kind of ‘Tandem RGB’ OLED TV panel from LG. This appeared in the LG G5, helping it to score the maximum five stars in our review, and in the fantastic Panasonic Z95B, enabling both TVs to hit stunning levels of brightness and color depth, but with reduced power consumption.

However, this new screen technology didn’t win either of those sets our TV of the Year award – that went to the Samsung S95F, which not only earned its own perfect 5-star review, but was also voted the top TV in the most categories by the judges in our flagship OLED TV showdown, which pitted it against the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B, and Sony Bravia 8 II.

The second big tech development was the arrival of RGB mini-LED tech – and, make no mistake, this is the next big thing. It’s more efficient than current mini-LED tech, and is capable of richer colors and less light leakage from bright areas to dark ones, and it could be the tech to finally knock OLED off its perch.

We know that Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense will all launch RGB mini-LED TV ranges in 2026, but the Hisense UX116 was the only TV to use it in 2025 – and it was a mixed bag, with performance issues that disappointed given its eye-wateringly high price. Still, we’re excited to see how this tech develops.

But the biggest thing in TVs this year was the TVs themselves – as in, they got big and they got affordable. TCL and Hisense launched 85-inch and 100-inch TVs that were within the budgets of regular mortals, and 75-inch TVs are becoming positively cheap, while still being good. While new tech is exciting, huge TVs like the Hisense U8N and TCL QM7K becoming more affordable is the change that made the biggest difference for customers.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Android XR arrives to challenge Meta’s dominance

This year XR or 'extended reality' took center stage, thanks in large part to Android XR hardware finally breaking cover in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset. We also tested prototype Android XR glasses ahead of their expected release in the coming year, and they’re impressive (the glasses at least, the headset less so right now). Google, along with its Android partners, looks set to seriously challenge Meta in 2026.

For its part Meta debuted several new smart wearables over the past 12 months, including two pairs of Oakley smart glasses – the stylish HSTNs and the sporty Vanguards, the latter of which are perfect for runners when used with a compatible Garmin watch. We also saw a Gen 2 model of the Meta Ray-Bans, and the company's latest step towards full-on AR specs, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which as you can probably guess feature a display for the specs to relay info visually. We’ve tested them, and they’re everything Google Glass wanted to be, but right now they're not easy to get hold of.

What about VR headsets proper? Valve surprised no one (because the device was so heavily leaked before launch) with its Steam Frame headset announcement. Key details like the price are still a mystery, but it will be landing in 2026 – and when it does, the spec sheet teases a device that could seriously challenge the reigning champion of VR, the Meta Quest 3. Depending on how Valve handles the launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes all other headsets feel obsolete – even the Galaxy XR and Apple Vision Pro.

Talking of Apple's mixed-reality spatial-computing headset, we got a new version with an M5 chip and comfier strap, but while it's a worthwhile upgrade the price still feels too high.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

The year the big dogs bit back

If 2024 was the year niche UK hi-fi brands took over the dance floor amid a hiatus from audio's heavy hitters (see Bowers & Wilkins' fantastic Pi8 earbuds or Cambridge Audio's inaugural, affordable, adorable P100 cans), 2025 was the year the big dogs returned to the party and got their groove back.

We got five major headphones releases in 2025, starting with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds in February. The hotly anticipated update to the 2019 Powerbeats Pro proved that Apple could indeed deliver heart-rate monitoring in its earbuds.

Cut to May and Sony's WH-1000XM6 landed, to finally knock the 2020-issue WH-1000XM4 off the top spot in our best headphones guide. It was a similar story with the June arrival of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), quickly followed by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in September – a two-pronged attack on the market that saw Bose reinstated as the king of ANC.

However, this roundup wouldn't be complete without a nod to the biggest launch of them all: the fall arrival of Apple's AirPods Pro 3. The shape's different, the ANC is twice as good, and yes, like the Powerbeats Pro 2 they also keep tabs on your ticker, in a slightly different way, and with increasing third-party fitness-app support. Still the most popular earbuds in the world? Absolutely.

Elsewhere, Spotify Lossless finally landed, at no cost to Premium subscribers, offering almost-as-good-as-Apple-Music resolution at up to 24-bit/44.1kHz. While Lossless wasn't a huge hit with fans initially, the big green streaming machine's popularity continues to grow, despite concerns over artist payments.

Oh, and if you take note of just one audio brand name this year, let it be WiiM. As Sonos continues to tackle trust issues among its once-loyal fanbase, the plucky multi-room underdog unveiled its WiiM Sound (and now the WiiM Sound Lite) premium hi-res speakers – and the firm would love to help you build your wireless sound system around them.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

A memorable year for glass as well as for cameras

2025 was full of pleasant surprises for photographers. The Sigma BF was truly out of the ordinary, being dubbed ‘the camera Apple would have made’, while the Caira with its Nano Banana AI skills showed us a glimpse of how on-the-go generative editing can work in an actual camera.

Fujifilm and OM System showed us that user experience matters with the quirky X half and retro OM-3 respectively, while Hasselblad and Nikon delivered strong offerings of their own – my favorite stills camera ever, the X2D II, and a new player in the cinema-camera game, the Nikon Zr. A special shoutout goes to Nikon for becoming the best-value camera brand this year, notably for the excellent Z5 II, which is our Camera of the Year, and Z50 II.

It was arguably an even better year for new lenses than cameras, with Sigma, Sony and Viltrox in particular knocking it out the park with world-first and affordable optics. Canon continues to lock out third parties from its full-frame camera lineup, but that decision feels more justified after it launched the affordable and capable 45mm F1.2 STM prime.

A sense of order was restored towards the end of the year when Canon and Sony launched their anticipated mid-range full-frame cameras: the EOS R6 III and A7 V, both of which are integral to their lineups.

The long-threatened US ban on DJI products finally came into effect, and we saw a couple of major product launches from the brand in the build-up to it: the incredible (sort of) sub-250g Mini 5 Pro, and the DJI Osmo 360 – its first foray into 360 cameras, and rival to both the Insta 360 X5 and GoPro’s new Max 2. DJI is also being tipped to launch its first 360 drone soon, but Insta360 got there first with the truly innovative Antigravity A1.

Overall, it’s been a good year for camera fans, with demand seemingly remaining strong in the face of competition from increasingly capable smartphones. I’m predicting that the consumer and cinema camera spaces will continue converging in 2026, and I hope the likes of Viltrox expand our options with new and affordable autofocus zoom lenses.

The year in gaming

The Switch 2 makes waves, and GTA 6 looms over 2026

Gaming in 2025 was largely dominated by the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s a safe improvement on the original Switch, and one that epitomizes the ‘evolution not revolution’ approach to console development.

The specs sheet won’t blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a superb package that cements the Switch's position as the go-to handheld console; and it was so popular in the pre-order and launch phases that it took months for retailers to catch up with demand. It’s been backed up by some excellent games too, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Kirby Air Riders, and Pokémon Legends Z-A.

Sony had its own say in the gaming handheld space, breathing new life into the PlayStation Portal handheld device, which is now capable of excellent cloud streaming. This has elevated the handheld, which we were already big fans of, to impressive new heights.

The PS5’s game library got a bump with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei, as well as titles including Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders and TechRadar Gaming’s Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Elsewhere, indie games ruled, with the likes of Blue Prince, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong proving standouts in a strong year for releases.