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 feature-packed Sonos Beam delivers very good sound for a small soundbar, and comes with Alexa voice controls.

Easy set up; Alexa inside; Wide soundstage

Bass lacks detail; No Bluetooth audio

If you don’t care to have Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri functioning in any way, then pay more for the Playbase or Playbar, or consider something comparable from another vendor.

Smaller form factor; Great sound; Alexa plus Google Assistant and AirPlay 2 coming

More bass would’ve been nice; No Dolby Atmos support; Still pricey

Sonos has launched its most affordable soundbar to date and has entered a tough segment where it delivers great performance compared to the competition. For its compact size, it delivers good treble and mid-tone performance at both low and high volume. These are Beam’s main strengths.

Good mid-tones; Design & build quality; Decent 3D effect despite its size; Apple Airplay 2

Distorts at high volume; Weak bass; No Dolby Atmos; Only 1 HDMI port

I just had a birthday recently and my girlfriend bought me the Bose sound bar (I forget which model but they were around $250 or so) as a gift. I read so many bad reviews about the Bose that I wanted to see what my other options would be.

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.

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.