The new Sonos Play has become my go-to desk and kitchen speaker
The new Sonos Play has become my go-to desk and kitchen speaker
全新 Sonos Play 已成为我书桌和厨房的首选音箱
I work from home, so I typically listen to audio through headphones or AirPods. But I’ve always wanted a desk speaker that doesn’t take up too much space, which made the new Sonos Play a fitting first Sonos product to review. The Play, launched in March, is Sonos’s first new device in more than a year. The $299 speaker is a hybrid: part home speaker, part portable. It sits on your desk in a pill-shaped dock, but at 1.3 kilograms, with a “utility loop” on the back, it’s easy to carry around the house or take outside.
我平时在家办公，所以通常通过耳机或 AirPods 听音频。但我一直想要一款不占太多空间的桌面音箱，这使得全新的 Sonos Play 成为我评测的首款 Sonos 产品。Play 于三月发布，是 Sonos 一年多以来的首款新设备。这款售价 299 美元的音箱是一个混合体：既是家用音箱，也是便携音箱。它通过一个药丸状的底座放置在桌面上，但其重量仅 1.3 公斤，且背面配有“多功能挂环”，非常方便在家中随身携带或带到户外使用。
While testing it, I often started a podcast at my desk and carried the Play to the kitchen while I cooked or made coffee. The advantage over wearing AirPods is that you remain aware of your surroundings — no more missing what someone across the room is saying. And you don’t need to rely on voice commands to control playback; the Sonos Assistant and Alexa are both built in. Physical controls are another advantage. Skipping tracks or adjusting volume with greasy hands is awkward on AirPods; the Play’s buttons are more forgiving. That said, the controls themselves are easy to miss — they’re the same color as the silicone top and barely raised above the surface. After a few days I had memorized their positions, but the learning curve is a minor frustration that better contrast or more tactile buttons could have avoided.
在测试期间，我经常在书桌前开始播放播客，然后在做饭或煮咖啡时把 Play 带到厨房。与佩戴 AirPods 相比，它的优势在于你能时刻感知周围环境——再也不会错过房间另一端的人在说什么。而且你不需要依赖语音指令来控制播放；Sonos Assistant 和 Alexa 均已内置。物理按键是另一个优势。用油腻的手在 AirPods 上切歌或调节音量很麻烦，而 Play 的按键则更宽容。话虽如此，这些控制键本身很容易被忽略——它们的颜色与硅胶顶部相同，且几乎没有凸出表面。几天后我记住了它们的位置，但这种学习曲线带来的小挫折本可以通过更好的对比度或更具触感的按键来避免。
The speaker is sturdy and IP67-rated, meaning it can handle rain and brief submersion — I ran it under a tap without issue. It can also charge your phone in a pinch, doubling as a power bank, which is a welcome feature for outdoor use. For sound, the Play relies on dual-angled tweeters, a mid-woofer, and three digital amplifiers, with two passive radiators to reinforce bass outdoors. The result is balanced and detailed at moderate volumes — instrument separation is particularly good. The soundstage is narrow, though, meaning the music can feel somewhat contained rather than expansive, and at higher volumes the mix loses some of its clarity. The Play is well-suited to a desk or a patio; it isn’t trying to fill a room. For that, Sonos’s Era 100 SL — which launched alongside the Play — is the better choice.
这款音箱坚固耐用且具备 IP67 级防护，意味着它能抵御雨水和短暂浸泡——我曾把它放在水龙头下冲洗，完全没问题。它还可以在紧急情况下为手机充电，充当移动电源，这对户外使用来说是一个受欢迎的功能。在音质方面，Play 依靠双角度高音单元、一个中低音单元和三个数字放大器，并配有两个被动辐射器以增强户外的低音效果。在中等音量下，声音平衡且细节丰富——乐器分离度表现尤为出色。不过，声场较窄，这意味着音乐听起来有些局促，而非开阔，且在高音量下，混音会失去一些清晰度。Play 非常适合书桌或露台；它并非旨在填满整个房间。对于那种需求，与 Play 同时发布的 Sonos Era 100 SL 是更好的选择。
Two Play units can be paired into a stereo configuration, either through the app or, more cleverly, by holding the play/pause button on both speakers simultaneously. It’s a useful feature that makes a noticeable difference for music, though less so for television audio — which these speakers aren’t really designed for anyway.
两台 Play 可以配对组成立体声配置，既可以通过应用程序实现，也可以更巧妙地通过同时按住两台音箱上的播放/暂停键来实现。这是一个实用的功能，对音乐效果有显著提升，尽管对电视音频的改善较小——毕竟这些音箱本身也不是为此设计的。
Sonos has also built in Trueplay, which uses the speaker’s microphones to automatically calibrate sound based on the room. Earlier versions of this feature required waving your phone around the space to tune the audio — an awkward workaround that would have made little sense on a portable speaker. The new implementation handles it automatically.
Sonos 还内置了 Trueplay 功能，利用音箱的麦克风根据房间环境自动校准声音。该功能的早期版本需要用户拿着手机在空间内挥动来调节音频——这在便携音箱上显得非常笨拙且不合理。而新的实现方式则完全自动处理。
Sonos has had well-publicized struggles with its app — disappearing speakers, glitchy volume controls — and while the company has made meaningful improvements, a few rough edges remain. Sync between the Play and my MacBook was occasionally laggy, for example, and playing or pausing audio on YouTube sometimes produced a noticeable delay before the speaker responded. Switching audio between speakers worked reliably through AirPlay but failed repeatedly in the Sonos app until I installed the Apple Music integration — and even then, the process is more cumbersome than it should be. The “Apply” button in the Sonos app, required to confirm speaker changes, feels like an unnecessary extra step. AirPlay handles the same action with a single tap. Pocket Casts integration has a resuming bug: podcasts restart from the beginning rather than picking up where you left off.
Sonos 的应用程序此前曾因音箱消失、音量控制故障等问题广受诟病。虽然公司已经做出了实质性的改进，但仍存在一些瑕疵。例如，Play 与我的 MacBook 之间的同步偶尔会出现延迟，在 YouTube 上播放或暂停音频时，音箱有时会有明显的响应滞后。通过 AirPlay 在不同音箱间切换音频非常可靠，但在 Sonos 应用中却屡次失败，直到我安装了 Apple Music 集成——即便如此，整个过程也比预想的要繁琐。Sonos 应用中用于确认音箱更改的“应用”按钮显得多此一举，而 AirPlay 只需轻轻一点即可完成同样的操作。Pocket Casts 集成存在一个恢复播放的 Bug：播客会从头开始播放，而不是从上次中断的地方继续。
Overall, the Sonos Play is a solid speaker that largely delivers on its premise. The app issues are real but not dealbreakers, and Sonos has shown it is willing to iterate. If portability isn’t a priority, the Era 100 ($219) or Era 100 SL ($189) offer more volume for less money. If you want something more rugged and truly portable, the Sonos Roam 2 or JBL Charge 6 are worth considering. But if you want a speaker that works equally well on a desk and a back porch, the Play makes a convincing case for itself.
总的来说，Sonos Play 是一款扎实的音箱，基本实现了其产品定位。应用方面的问题确实存在，但并非不可接受，且 Sonos 已表现出持续迭代的意愿。如果便携性不是首要考虑因素，Era 100（219 美元）或 Era 100 SL（189 美元）能以更低的价格提供更大的音量。如果你想要更坚固、更便携的产品，Sonos Roam 2 或 JBL Charge 6 值得考虑。但如果你想要一款既能放在书桌上，又能放在后院露台上使用的音箱，Play 是一个非常有说服力的选择。