Sonos Beam: The Sonos Beam is the smartest soundbar around and a great multiroom TV speaker

The Sonos Beam is a compact soundbar with expandability that makes it a perfect companion for Apple users. AirPlay 2, Apple Music, and a big bag of tricks make this great sounding speaker a must-have.

Beautifully simple, the Sonos Beam is designed for the smart home owners who want a single device for the TV, online streaming service and voice commands. It's a soundbar that does everything a smart home owner needs.

1. Great sound Very clear and balanced sound 2. Easy to set up and use Very smart and easy

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.

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.

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;

If you've been tempted to get into Sonos, but weren't sure where to start, the Beam is for you. Not only is it a relatively affordable, solid speaker in its own right, it is a capable soundbar and Alexa assistant rolled into one.

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