We've had a slew of Sonos leaks lately, from the impending launch of a new affordable Sonos Ray soundbar to the connected audio brand's voice assistant, and now we can add another to the stack, from new colors for Sonos roam.
As discovered in this Reddit threat, subscribers to the Sonos mailing list received a mysterious email containing a countdown timer and a not-so-subtle URL containing "roamcolors", along with an image with the name of "Roam_Colors_Launch.png" file. What could it be?
The colors themselves were leaked by Chilean retailer MusicWorld, where all three options were visible on the spot at the time of writing, but have since been removed. Although we don't have the official names of the shades, the colors include an olive green, blue-gray, and red-orange option.
life in technicolor
As those familiar with the company will know, the vast majority of Sonos products launch in the super exciting black or white color options, with any additions to the palette coming later as special releases.
This happened with the Sonos One when it received the options of red, green, yellow, pink and grey, all at a £30 / £30 (around AU$50) premium over its monochrome brethren. We think that will be the case with the Sonos Roam, although we really hope that there will be no price difference, or at least not that serious.
With audio brand products initially designed exclusively for the home, a monochrome color scheme was a smart and safe choice; Generally speaking, black or white products are much easier to match with home décor. But as you expand into the portable Bluetooth speaker market, character becomes more important than ubiquity.
It's something Ultimate Ears is more than familiar with, with the hugely popular UE Boom 3 arriving in a wide range of colours, with more landings over the life of the product. Indeed, the company took this to its natural conclusion, allowing customers to fully customize their UE Boom 3 speaker.
In the Sonos Roam vs UE Boom 3 debate, there are compelling cases for either product (price being chief among them), but with Sonos introducing a splash of personality to its Roam lineup, the gap could be closed.
As mentioned, we think these new colors will be around the same price as the existing Sonos Roam at $179 / £179 / AU$299, but with no official word on pricing or regional availability, we'll have to wait until September. Wednesday May 11 for the official reveal.