Sonos Move 2 review: The price of portability

By Alex Choros

Last updated 18 September 2023

Sonos Move 2 Review: The Verdict

The Sonos Move 2 boasts impressive sound and battery life, but you really have to want its somewhat limited portability to justify the steep price tag.

What we love

Great sound quality
24-hour battery
High quality build

What could be improved

Expensive
Weighs 3kg
Needs a dongle for line-in audio

75/100

See price on Sonos

The Move 2 is the nichest speaker in Sonos' portfolio. It's technically a portable speaker, but it also weighs 3kg. It costs $800, which makes it one of the most expensive Sonos speakers you can buy.

While it fulfils a specific need very well, the Move 2 isn't the best Sonos speaker for most.

Sonos has kitted out the Move 2 with two key upgrades. The battery now lasts up to 24 hours, which is more than double what its predecessor was capable of. And the sound is now stereo, rather than mono. I'll cover these in more detail later, but what hasn't changed is equally important.

The Move 2 weighs in at 3kg, just like the original move. It feels high end, but it's a hefty lad. This isn't the kind of Bluetooth speaker you can just put in the water bottle pocket of your backpack. You probably don't want to have it in your backpack at all. (Sonos does sell a dedicated carry case for it, just in case you'd like one.)

Instead, the Move 2 is more so a speaker you can take from room to room. Maybe something you keep charged on its dock in your kitchen, and bring it out to the garden if you're doing yard work, or onto the balcony if you're having a dinner party. The sheer weight and size mean it's not something you want to be lugging around. Maybe for a picnic, if you're driving, but the Move 2 isn't the most practical option for an on-the-go speaker.

(Sonos does have the much more affordable and compact Roam - pictured below - if you're looking for a genuinely portable speaker in the Sonos ecosystem.)

To give credit where credit is due, it is impressive that Sonos more than doubled the battery life while keeping the Move 2 the same weight as the OG. 24 hours is enough to listen to Carly Rae Jepsen's "Cut To The Feeling" on repeat 411 times.

This represents a big improvement over the ten hours you got on the original Move, and is on par with or exceeds what you'll get from other larger speakers like the UE Hyperboom. You can even use the Move 2 to charge other devices via the USB-C port on the back.

On the sound front, the Move 2 seems to share its acoustic hardware with the Sonos Era 100 - at least on paper. Both have three Class-D amplifiers, two angled tweeters, and a single mid-woofer. As a starting point, this means the Move 2 sounds pretty damn good. You get a balanced audio profile with clear definition between highs, mids, and lows.

But while the pair may share hardware and a very similar sound profile, the Move 2 packs a lot more volume. It's noticeably louder when both are at 50%, and has a much higher ceiling. There can be a tiny bit of distortion if you really crank the Move 2, but anything about 70% is way too loud indoors anyway. Well, maybe unless you have a mansion.

Similarly, the Move 2 also benefits from deeper bass. Low-end frequencies are a lot more present on songs like Childish Gambino's "3005".

The Move 2 is Sonos' first portable speaker to feature stereo sound, but there's a limit to what it can accomplish given the form factor. On a song with hard pans to the left and right, like The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights", there's clear stereo separation.

The effect is less pronounced on subtler tracks, however. You can hear the synths slinking back and forth between channels on Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", but only if you're listening for it. The Move 2 certainly adds depth, but it's naturally not the same experience as a dedicated stereo pair.

The Move 2 also has a few other quality-of-life changes. It now supports line-in over USB-C, which means it can play music from non-wireless sources like a turntable. In most cases, you will need a USB-C to 3.55m dongle, however.

It also has IP56 water resistance, which is a step up from the IPX4 splash resistance you see on most rivals. While you don't want to drop the Move 2 into your pool, the IP56 rating means it's protected against strong jets of water. As such, it shouldn't have any issue surviving if you get caught in heavy rain.

Lastly, I really like the new olive green finish. Colourful tech is grand.

Sonos Move 2 - Final Thoughts

The Move 2 is a solid upgrade on its predecessor, but it certainly comes at a higher cost. $799 is a steep asking price, no matter how you cut it. It's a solid buy if you spend a lot of time in parts of your house where you can’t plug in a mains-power operated speaker - your garden or a balcony, for example. The Move 2 sounds great, and it's not going to die on you during a dinner party.

Otherwise, the economics get a bit confusing. You can buy two Era 100s for the same price, or an Era 300 and get change. You really want to know that you'll take advantage of the portability to commit to Move 2.

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