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Sonos One: Everything you need to know about the Amazon Alexa-enabled speaker

Sonos has unveiled its latest speaker, the Sonos One. Here is what you need to know, including the UK price, details of Amazon Alexa support and what the updated Sonos app entails.

Sonos has been making wireless speakers for a while now and they are rather good quality. Our office one has, for instance, been pumping out tunes of varying quality for years. Now there is another one that sits at the budget end of the range – facts and images await.

Best Sonos speaker setup: Play:1 vs Play:3 vs Play:5 vs Playbar and sub

Sonos One: What is it?

The Sonos One is based on the Play:1 speaker, but with added voice assistant stuff. That means the same two Class-D amplifiers, the same single tweeter and the same mid-woofer that combine to pump out a decent sound.

You also get the ability to control your Sonos speakers using an app, Bluetooth connectivity to connect your phone or tablet to the speaker and the ability to have multiple speakers around the house for multi-room playback.

It also has a six-microphone array that uses an adaptive noise supression algorithm to help ensure it can understand what instructions are being said and the same Trueplay feature to help tune the sound for whatever room the speaker lives in.

Its small size makes it good for less spacious homes, while adding the more powerful Play:3, Play:5 and Playbase speakers provides a more rounded sounded music or movie experience.

Sonos One: Does it support Amazon Alexa?

That is the main selling point of the Sonos One. UK, German and US listeners will be able to use Amazon Alexa to control the speaker using their voice, with services such as Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio and SiriusXM supported.

Exact voice functionality will include being able to skip a track, adjust the volume, pause mid-way through a song or identify what song and artist is currently playing. You will also be able to ask for weather forecasts, set timers, listen to the news or even check for traffic reports.

The inclusion of Sonos One also means the speaker can update itself using the cloud, meaning functionality could be added or improved as time goes on.

For those with older Sonos speakers, it will be possible to add voice control functionality by purchasing an Alexa-enabled device such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot.

Sonos One: What about Google Assistant support?

The Sonos One will become one of, if not, the first first smart speaker to support Google Assistant, which is another one of those voice service things that is always listening (bit creepy, if you ask us).

Functionality from Google Assistant, which will arrive in 2018, will be similar to that of Amazon Alexa, including being able to voice control what music you play, get a news update or check out your to-do list (you need more milk).

Apple AirPlay 2 is another connectivity feature Sonos will be supporting in 2018, meaning playing sound from an iOS device, whether that is a YouTube video or a show on Netflix, will be possible. Siri will be usable for voice control.

Sonos One: Cost and release date?

The Sonos One goes on sale globally on the 24th of October, 2017, with pre-orders open from the 4th of October on the Sonos website. Yours for £199 in either matte black or white – the same price as the existing Play:1 speaker, in case you were wondering.

Sonos One: What about the Sonos app?

The Sonos app is being updated that makes it easier to use, thanks to what it claims is simpler navigation made possible by placing key buttons in a navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. Expect the Recombu verdict on the Sonos One and updated app in the near future.

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