Sonos 4+

I had a play 5 which we’d been using for a number of years and were very happy with, great design and sound quality all in a relatively small speaker.

When we needed a portable Bluetooth speaker I didn’t hesitate to buy a Sonos Roam. However set up was terrible. I wasted hours trying to get the speaker set up. You have to download a new Sonos app (why 2 apps?) and then I discovered my old play 5 was not compatible with the new speaker and had to be managed on the old app. To make things worse I’d set up my Sonos account so long ago it had an old email address. When I tried to update the email it asked me to verify but I never received any email. I was then effectively blocked from doing anything in both apps. I still can’t use the new roam because it is not properly set up. Tech should be an enabler not a blocker!! Really disappointing Sonos, you’re experts in sound and design but your tech leaves a lot to be desired.

Update 15/12:
This SONOS product is more of an OHNO(S). Avoid like the plague: constantly drops out on same wireless network none of my other devices have problems connecting to. As a consequence the alarm often doesn’t go off AT ALL or plays the incessant Chime tone which makes me want to go postal. I’ve resorted to setting a second alarm on my phone - which defeats the point of having an alarm on a Wi-Fi speaker, no. Absolute worst. The app is buggy as hell and constantly pauses, stops, forgets what it’s doing, goes and makes a cup of tea etc. Pitiful. Worst thing I’ve ever bought and I owned a Fiat Panda once.

Older review:
This app is possibly the worst preforming app I’ve ever had the misfortune to need to use. I’ve spent the last 25 minutes ridden with insomnia just trying to change my alarm time for the morning. The app either randomly crashes and kicks me out or takes 30 seconds or more to even enable the System menu or just does not respond at all. How is it this hard to change an alarm setting / use an app?! And, no, my connection is fine given I’m seamlessly playing a podcast via the speaker. Honestly, get some performance testers you tight arses and get them to test. Or set yourself some decent SLAs. Or check your crash reports. T. H. E. W. O. R. S. T.

Update in July 24: everything is still bad. The only thing that the refreshed app has going for it is the new UX. It plain doesn’t work at all anymore. Won’t play more than a minute of any song on any of my 15 Sonos products. Absolute trash and if I hadn’t invested so much money on this I’d be giving away and moving onto something else. AirPlay is saving me at the moment, but draining my iPhone battery everyday. Terrible. I only hope people looking to buy into Sonos read these app reviews before taking the plunge. Speakers can sound as good as you but if you can’t play music, what is the point!?!

May 24: The good: UX is much better and I can find music quicker and easier. The bad: everything else. Sonos Boost is now no longer supported. No message to users of these devices, no nothing. Disgusting. I’m now forced to use my network instead of dedicated Sonosnet. I use a mesh network which doesn’t work with Sonos. Constants drops outs now, one speaker can’t see it’s stereo pair, Airplay is non-existent. I purchased three Boosts to make my system work and they made them obsolete overnight. These were only on sale last month! At least when they grandfathered S1 devices they gave warning. This is just customer neglect and downright wrong.