Sonos Era 300

It may not be the flagship of the range, but this is the best-sounding Sonos speaker to date and one you have to hear to believe

The Sonos Era 300 and Era 100 are the company's first brand-new smart speakers since 2017. While the smaller Era 100 is set to replace the existing Sonos One speaker, the Era 300 sits just below the flagship Sonos 5 model. But despite the fact the Era 300 costs £100 less than the Sonos 5, in many ways, this is a better speaker.

There's one thing to get out of the way with the Era 300, and that's the shape. Unlike most speakers, it's not cylindrical instead, it's hourglassed, as if someone tied a belt around its middle, so it's thinner in the middle than on either end. And unlike the Sonos Five, you can't sit the Era 300 on its side it only sits with its longest side horizontal. This look certainly makes it stand out, but it won't be to everyone's taste.

SPECIFICATIONS

Drivers 6 (2x woofers, 1x forward-firing tweeter, 2x side-firing tweeter, 1 x upward-firing tweeter) Audio features Dolby Atmos, automatic room calibration Connectivity USB-C, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, AirPlay 2 Microphones beamforming array Voice assistant Sonos Voice Control, Amazon Alexa Dimensions 160x260x185mm Weight 4.47kg

Of course, that strange shape, and the positioning are all down to the audio design of the speaker and allow it to create an immersive sound from a speaker that's small compared to the Five, albeit still quite heavy.