Two New Sonos Speakers, and Why We're Trying a New Material

Sonos has had a busy year. Two new portable speakers landed in 2026, and between them they cover most of what people actually want from a speaker they carry around the house.

We've had both on the bench for a few weeks now. Here's what they are, and what we're building for them.

The new Sonos Play

The Play arrived in March at $299. It's the one people have been asking Sonos for — smaller than the Move 2, bigger and louder than the Roam, with a replaceable battery so the thing doesn't become landfill in three years.

Dimensions: 7.57" × 4.43" × 3.02" (192.3 × 112.5 × 76.7 mm), 2.87 lb (1.3 kg)

It's an elliptical cylinder — rounded, not boxy. Controls sit on top, and there's a carrying strap anchored about a third of the way down the back. It charges two ways: a wireless base in the box, or USB-C on the back, roughly halfway down.

That strap tells you what this speaker is for. Sonos expects you to pick it up and move it — kitchen to patio, desk to bedroom. Which is also why it's going to get knocked about.

The Sonos Roam 2

The Roam 2 is the small one. Same body as the original Roam — genuinely identical, which matters if you already own the first generation.

Dimensions: 6.61" × 2.44" × 2.36" (168 × 62 × 60 mm), 0.95 lb (0.43 kg)

It's a triangular prism. Lay it flat and it won't roll off the table; stand it up and it takes almost no shelf space. Clever design. Also, as we've discovered, an awkward shape to wrap.

Why we're experimenting with neoprene

Most of what we make is 600D Oxford. It's the right material for a speaker that lives outside: UV resistant, sheds water, survives a season on a patio without going brittle.

But a portable speaker has a different enemy.

Nothing kills the look of a Sonos faster than the first month of ordinary handling. The grille picks up scuffs. A corner catches a door frame. It goes in a bag with keys and a laptop charger. None of that is weather — it's abrasion and impact, and 600D isn't the answer to it. 600D is a shell. What a portable speaker wants is a cushion.

So we've been working with neoprene.

Neoprene is dense foam laminated between stretch fabric — the material in wetsuits, knee braces, laptop sleeves. Two properties make it right here:

It absorbs impact. The foam compresses on contact and springs back. A knock that would leave a mark on a bare speaker gets spread across the foam instead.

It stretches, so it can fit closely. A woven cover has to be cut oversized to go on at all. Neoprene can be cut to the actual body of the speaker and still slide on. That means no slack, no bunching, and a case that looks like it belongs on the speaker rather than swallowing it.

The trade-off is honest: neoprene is not an outdoor material. It doesn't have 600D's UV life or water shedding. For a speaker that lives outside, we'll still point you at the 600D range. For one that lives indoors and travels, neoprene is the better answer.

What we've learned building these

The Play's strap is the interesting problem. You could just cover the whole back, but then the strap is trapped and useless — and the strap is half the reason people picked this speaker. So the case opens where the strap anchors. Flip the strap out and carry the speaker with the case on. Fold it down inside and the case reads as one clean piece. Your call, day to day.

Charging shouldn't mean undressing the speaker. A case that has to come off every time the battery runs low ends up in a drawer. So there's a die-cut opening at the USB-C port. Plug in, keep the case on.

The Roam is a genuinely hard shape. A triangular prism has three corners that all want to be somewhere different from where your fabric wants to go. We've been through more than one version. That one's taking longer, and we'd rather it took longer than shipped badly.

Coming soon

Two new lines, both neoprene, both in black, white and red:

SCS500 — for the Sonos Play (2026) SCS600 — for the Sonos Roam and Roam 2, one case fits both generations

We're finishing the samples now. If you want to know when they land, reply to any of our emails and we'll put you on the list — no automated marketing sequence, just a message when there's something to say.

And if you have a speaker we don't make a cover for, tell us. Half our range started as somebody's custom order.

— Team, SoundCover