Sonos Move 2 First Look: Launching 20th September for £449

Sonos Move 2 Announced: New Premium Portable Speaker

After a number of leaks and rumours, Sonos have finally announced their latest wireless speaker. The new Sonos Move 2 portable speaker is the second generation of the Sonos Move and brings a number of upgrades, including a 24 hour battery life, stereo sound, a refreshed design and USB-C line-in functionality.

This release comes 4 years after the launch of the original Move back in 2019, which is one of our favourite Sonos products and was Sonos’ first venture into the portable speaker market.

The Sonos Move paved the way for a new category of premium, heavy duty portable speakers designed to move around the home and out into the garden. This new update brings Move in line with more recent product launches from Sonos, most notably the new Sonos Era 100 and Era 300, which launched in early 2023.

Want more? Watch our Sonos Move 2 Announced: First Impressions video over on YouTube!

Sonos Move 2 Price And Launch Date

The new Sonos Move 2 will launch with an RRP of £449, a £50 increase on the original Move. With a new set of features and anticipated upgraded sound performance, we will be putting it to the test in our upcoming review to see if it’s worth the step up in price.

The Sonos Move 2 is set to launch on the 20th September 2023, and will be available to pre-order soon with our usual 6 Year Extended Sonos Warranty and 30 days returns policy.

Sonos Move 2 vs. Sonos Move: what's New?

Sonos Move 2 Design: Refreshed appearance

The Sonos Move 2 looks very similar to the original Move, and in terms of shape, size, and weight, everything will stay the same. But there have been a few changes to highlight.

Firstly, the Move 2 will be available in three new colourways. A new Black version will feature more discreet branding with a matching black logo, while the White Move 2 steps away from the more grey-toned “Lunar White”. Finally, there is now an Olive green colourway available for those looking to bring the outdoors in.

On the top, Move 2 now features a newly redesigned top panel and is very similar to the new Era 100 Sonos speaker with a volume slider and speech bubble icon on the top to activate or deactivate your voice assistant. There is also a new far-field microphone array on top, which uses something called advanced beamforming and multichannel echo cancellation to hear you better and quicker when using voice assistants.

As a portable speaker, there needs to be an element of durability factored into the design, and the Move is made from shock absorbing materials to withstand a few knocks or drops. Like the original Move, Move 2 is IP56 rated making it water resistant and suitable for taking outdoors in most weather conditions. It would have been nice to see them upgrade that to an IP67 rating like we’ve got on the Roam to give a bit more protection from the weather, but given the use-case of the Move, IP56 should be weather-proof enough.

Sonos have also redesigned the charging base, which also features a smaller, detachable plug. While a small change in the grand scheme of things, this updated design will make it easier to fit the plug behind a bedside table or unit and easier to chuck in a bag.

Sonos Move 2 Spec: Upgraded SOund Performance

Onto the best part—the sound. Sonos have completely overhauled the internals of Move 2 for an all new acoustic architecture. The main difference is that the new Move 2 is a stereo speaker rather than mono like the Move (Gen 1).

Inside, we’ve got three class-D digital amplifiers powering two angled tweeters and one midwoofer. The dual angled tweeters should give us those nice, accurate high frequencies and crisp vocals and also provide a more spacious stereo sound, separating highs and vocal frequencies into left and right channels. The mid-woofer as far as we can see hasn’t changed from the first generation Move, so we’re expecting a similar bass performance, but we’ll test that out in our upcoming review.

Sonos have also said that there are custom waveguides to finely control the direction and dispersion of frequencies to give us a wider and more balanced soundstage.

The acoustic makeover Move 2 has received is similar to that of the Era 100 (minus the upgraded woofer size), which definitely gives a wider sound with better separation compared with the previous Sonos One (Gen 2), so we’re really looking forward to testing it out in our studio. We'll be comparing the new Move 2 with the original Move as well as other speakers in the Sonos lineup, including the Era 100 and Era 300 and the larger Sonos Five.

Can You Stereo Pair 2x SOnos Move 2's

While a single Sonos Move 2 will now deliver stereo sound, you can also choose to pair two Move 2 speakers to create a stereo pair, which will give you a much wider soundstage. As with Move (Gen 1), this will still only be possible over Wi-Fi, which we know a lot of people will find frustrating and something we were hoping would be brought to Bluetooth.

Sonos Move 2 Features: Added Functionality

Updated Connectivity

Connectivity-wise, we still have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for the best of both worlds when connecting at home or on the go. However, we step up to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 on the new Move 2. It still offers the usual options of Spotify Connect, AirPlay 2, and voice control via Sonos voice control or Amazon Alexa, but due to ongoing problems with Google, there won’t be Google Assistant available.

We are also presuming that the Sonos Move 2 will follow on from the Era products and also say goodbye to Sonos Mesh, though we are yet to confirm this.

USB-C Compatibility & Device Charging

Like the previous Move, the USB-C can be used for charging; however, it now offers extra connectivity and functionality. First things first, like the Era 100 and Era 300, you can purchase a Sonos Adapter to connect up to a turntable, computer, or another audio source, which will be a huge plus for a lot of Sonos users.

Previously, if you wanted to connect to a turntable with the Move, you would have needed to connect via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth turntable, so this should give a lot more flexibility.

Secondly, the USB-C port will now enable you to charge your phone on the go, acting as an on the go powerbank. It’s not clear how much this will affect battery life yet, but we will be testing this in our upcoming review.

Battery Life

As a portable speaker, one of the biggest features is the battery life. The previous Move offered 11 hours, which is okay but fell behind a lot of competitors in this market. Sonos have since upgraded the battery in Move 2 from 18Wh to 44Wh and nearly doubled the battery life with up to 24 hours of playback when used continuously at a moderate volume while connected to Wi-Fi and with voice control enabled. Sonos haven’t shared the recharge time yet, and there’s no news on any quick charging feature, which is something we would have liked to see on this new update. 

We have asked Sonos what the battery life will be like when the Move isn’t playing and were told that when it powers fully off, it should last months. When in its more responsive “Sleep Mode”, Sonos said it’ll last a few weeks, but again, this is something we need to test out. It’s also worth noting that the battery in the Move 2 is replaceable and can be swapped by the end user.

Automatic TruePlay Tuning

Move 2 offers Automatic TruePlay Tuning, the same as Move (Gen 1), which is clever technology that continually optimises the sound performance for your surroundings. The Move 2 uses its internal mics to measure the frequency response of the music in response to its surroundings.

Sonos have said that tuning will happen around every 60 seconds on Move 2, so you should always be getting the best sound for your environment. It’s not clear whether there have been any changes here with the new move, so again, this is something we need to test.

Sonos Move 2 FAQs

Can you pair a Move (Gen 1) with a Move 2?

You will be unable to stereo pair a Move 2 with a Move (Gen 1). This is due to the fact that one speaker would be mono and one would be stereo, which would give an unbalanced sound performance.

Can you use 2 x Sonos Move 2 as rear surround sounds to a Sonos soundbar?

You cannot use a pair of Move 2 speakers as rear speakers for a Sonos soundbar. Your options for rear surrounds are the Sonos One SL, Era 100, Era 300, or Sonos Five.

Can you add a Sonos subwoofer to the Move 2?

Unfortunately, you are unable to pair a Sonos subwoofer, either the Sonos Sub (Gen 3) or Sonos Sub Mini, with the Sonos Move 2.

Sonos Move 2 Initial Impressions

We have a lot of questions around the Sonos Move 2, but from our initial experiences, we think the changes Sonos have made will make this a much more attractive offer to a lot of people. Move 2 ticks a lot more boxes and should be a step up both in terms of sound performance and features. But what I want to know is, have they done enough to convince me to upgrade from my Move (Gen 1)? And is it worth that £449 price tag? Stay tuned for our upcoming review to find out.

For more information about the Sonos Move 2 or any other Sonos products, get in touch and one of our Tech Guides would be happy to help!

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