The mutli-room speaker company’s third soundbar charms HFC with its smart tech and strong audio performanceYou certainly can’t accuse Sonos of resting on its laurels.

Sonos’ home cinema gear has always been a little expensive, but with Beam, it’s created a great value soundbar. It sounds ace, comes with loads of features, and is compact enough to fit into the average living room AV setup without taking over. If you want the best sounding system then Playbar or Playbase are still the products to go for, but they’re a lot more money, they don’t have Alexa, and they don’t control your TV in the same slick way as Beam does. As it stands, Sonos Beam is easy to recommend for anyone who loves watching TV, and a high-value intro to the brilliant world of Sonos home audio. READ MORE: Which Sonos should you buy?

Looks good and sounds great; Alexa and AirPlay 2 integration; HDMI ARC support; Cheaper than Playbar and Playbase;

Not as punchy as Playbar; Only one ethernet port; Not all Alexa skills work;

It took two years, but the Sonos Beam ($398 at Amazon), and its little brother the Sonos One ($199 at Audio Advice), are the first speakers to offer both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. If you've been waiting for Google integration to buy this speaker, then go ahead, it works!

Although some cheaper options sound better, Sonos Beam is a feature-packed, voice-operated sound bar with unmatched flexibility.

The Sonos Beam is the least-expensive sound bar available with a choice of two voice assistants, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant; Its expansive sound can fill a small room; HDMI connectivity includes the ability to power up and control TV input switching via voice command; Apple AirPlay 2 support should please iPhone users.

The lack of a subwoofer means the Beam lacks deep bass compared to sub-equipped competitors, even some that cost less; You lose connectivity options on TVs that lack ARC; You can't switch between Google and Alexa on the fly and there's some lag with Google Assistant voice commands.

The Sonos One was one of the first third-party smart speakers to support Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, letting you treat it like a bigger, better-sounding Echo. The $399 Sonos Beam takes that voice assistant experience and puts it in front of your TV. This small soundbar offers hands-free Alexa, can play audio from your TV or wirelessly stream from the 50 different services Sonos supports, and gets surprisingly loud for its size. It's an ideal one-piece sound system for anyone looking to add audio power and a voice assistant to their living room without dealing with lots of different devices at once, earning it our Editors' Choice. A Small, Streamlined Soundbar The Sonos Beam is downright puny compared with the company's previous home theater speaker systems like the Playbar and the Playbase. It's a 2.7-by-25.7-by-4.0-inch (HWD) bar that combines stark right angles and flat surfaces for the front, back, and top with semicircular curves on the left and right sides. It's available...

The Sonos Beam packs multi-room, multi-service audio streaming and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant into a deceptively small soundbar.

Powerful sound for its size; Built-in Amazon Alexa voice assistant; Easily expanded with additional Sonos speakers

No Bluetooth; Optional subwoofer is expensive

On paper, the Sonos Beam looks like a modern home entertainment system miracle. Part soundbar, part smart speaker, and all Sonos, the Beam promises to control your TV with Amazon’s Alexa, provide richly cinematic sound for your movies and TV shows, and stream music from just about any source you can imagine, all for $400. The Beam can also connect to a Sonos Sub and any two of the company’s many other speakers, such as the Sonos One and the Sonos Amp, for a hardcore 5.1 surround sound system. Versatile? Absolutely. But is the Beam as “Sonos simple” as the company’s prior products? We had to find out. Hidden behind the Beam’s seamlessly wrapped cloth grill is a center-mounted tweeter, four full-range woofers, and three passive bass radiators, all of which have been custom-designed by Sonos specifically for the Beam. Sitting atop its smooth surface are the same touch-sensitive controls from the Sonos One, plus the microphone array needed to pick up voice commands. Hilmar Lehnert, a senio...

Great sound; Elegant, simple design; Reasonably priced; TV voice control with Alexa on-board; AirPlay 2, Google Assistant coming;

Still no HDMI pass-through; No Dolby Atmos support;

The Sonos Beam soundbar is compact but delivers expansive performance. From our experience, this small soundbar is a winner. Just a shame there's no Dolby Atmos support, like the larger, but more expensive Sonos Arc.

Compact size is ideal; Sounds great for both music and TV/movies; Multiple voice-assistants supported;

No Dolby Atmos support; Not great at lower volumes; Expensive when adding additional speakers;

Excellent sound ; Integrated Alexa works like a charm ; Controls TV ; Lovely design;

Not the last word in bass output;

Looks good and sounds great; Alexa and AirPlay 2 integration; HDMI ARC support; Cheaper than Playbar and Playbase;

Not as punchy as Playbar; Only one ethernet port; Not all Alexa skills work;