Play everything that matters to you with Beam. Control it with your voice, remote, the Sonos app, and more.
Get more out of your home theater setup with this Sonos Beam compact smart soundbar. A 5-speaker with five amplifier setup delivers rich, big sound to your room, while the single-cable connection allows for fast, easy setup. Compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control, this Sonos Beam compact smart soundbar lets you control the volume and power with the just sound of your voice.
We find the Sonos Beam to be a solid sound bar, we especially like the look, and we're happy that we can add to the set-up later, if we choose, to create more of a surround sound experience. It's also plenty of sound for our small space. If we lived in a bigger home, we may have wanted the Playbar. But the Beam, for an apartment life, is well-priced and a nice upgrade.
Installation
(7)
When you first connect the Beam to Wi-Fi you're going to have to take a small extra step: physically connecting the sound bar to your router with an Ethernet cable. That's the only way you can get on the network with the password. We did find this step to be a bit of a pain, and while certainly more secure than wirelessly linking, it was annoying to have to get a cable to do this.
Features
(9)
Those building their smart home will appreciate having Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant baked inside the Beam. You just have to link the device to your Alexa or Google Home apps, and you can then start speaking to the Beam, and control your music this way.
Usability
(7)
The Sonos app is a wonky experience, and to use it to control outside music from Spotify, for example, you have to import those music apps into the Sonos main app. That's a serious pain. So while you need to app to absolutely set up and tune the speaker, you're probably not going to want to use it for running your music.
Performance
(9)
Beam's sound is good — full and bright. Dialog is far more clear, bass is bigger, sound is richer.
Design
(9)
Sonos of course is also a well-designed brand. The speakers have a nice matte finish, with a cloth covering on the outside, and they're heavy and feel substantial, as did the Beam.
Support
(8)
Sonos can be reached through a toll free number and through online chat for support
Value
(9)
The Sonos Beam's appeal is for those who lean towards the Sonos brand. There are certainly cheaper sound bars on the market (we've had one.) But what's nice about Sonos if that if you buy one, the next Sonos speaker will work with it as well. You can then build — easily — a surround sound experience.
Sonos Beam Soundbar with Voice Control built-in - Black (BEAM1US1BLK)
