If you want lots of rumble for a little more money, and don't mind losing the voice assistant, the JBL Bar 3.1 includes a subwoofer and can put out even bigger sound thanks to its bigger size.

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

No Bluetooth; Optional subwoofer is expensive

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

Sonos' compact, Alexa-enabled soundbar offers impressive performance for the price. All in all, a smart value.

Affordable price; Alexa voice control; Links with other Sonos speakers

More optimized for TV sound than music; Requires HDMI ARC for voice control of TV

Exactly what it says it'll do

Great upgrade for TV sound; Alexa works well; Simple to set up and use

Google Assistant support turning into a shadowy promise; made in whispers; Average music sound quality; Upgrading to full home theater system is very expensive

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;

In many ways Sonos is the Apple of audio. Its speakers and software are easy to use with thoughtful design and attention to detail, it has its own well-developed wireless ecosystem that "just works" and its products are priced at a premium.

The Sonos Beam offers the promise of multiple voice assistants, with Amazon Alexa now and Google Assistant in the future; Its expansive sound can fill a small room; HDMI connectivity includes the ability to power up and control TV input switching via voice command.

The lack of a subwoofer means the Beam lacks deep bass compared to sub-equipped competitors; You lose some connectivity options on TVs that lack ARC; Google Assistant hasn't been added yet

Sonos recently announced a new soundbar they call the Sonos Beam . I've had some time to test it and simply to use it, and the Beam might be the most impressive speaker I've tested from Sonos yet, especially considering its US$399 price tag .

Easy setup; great, full sound; lower cost-of-entry than other Sonos home theater speakers; better sound and more flexible than Apple's HomePod

Only works with other Sonos speakers for surround sound and subwoofer; With a $699 Sonos SUB as the only subwoofer option, that's a pricey step

Sonos has always gone its own way. The speaker manufacturer dedicated itself to network-connected speakers before there were home networks and they sold a tablet-like remote control before there were tablets. Their surround sound systems install quickly and run seamlessly.

One of the best performance-per-pound products Sonos has produced, the Beam is a blinding little soundbar Alexa and HDMI ARC are the Beam's obvious talking points, but to focus on those features entirely would be to miss out on the fact that the Beam sounds rather exceptional for its price and size.

Impressively open; spacious; three-dimensional sound; Surprising bass weight and depth; Simple setup; Compact and stylish; Usual Sonos music streaming and multi-room capabilities

A little bright and sibilant at high volumes and with poor audio; More HDMI inputs would be nice

Earlier this month , Sonos added the Sonos Beam sound bar to its product range. It's Sonos' second sound bar, smaller and more compact than its older Play Bar and its related Play Base product. Beam appeals to consumers who aren't looking to kit out a huge home theatre.