Sonos jumps in the smart speaker game with the Sonos One
While the rest of us were waiting impatiently to see what Google was planning to unveil, Sonos held an event yesterday morning where the company announced an all-new smart speaker. The Sonos One is a brand new addition to the Sonos lineup but features Amazon’s Alexa Voice services integration.
Just last week, we saw Amazon announce a new lineup of Echo devices, and then yesterday afternoon saw the launch of the new Google Home lineup. Now, Sonos is getting in the game but is using Amazon to do so in the beginning. Sonos confirmed that Google Assistant support would be coming sometime in 2018.
As for what makes the Sonos One special, there are six internal microphones along with “echo-cancellation” technology which helps the speaker to differentiate between your voice and the music that is currently playing. It seems that Sonos is getting serious about smart speakers, and this could just be the beginning before we see a true Google Home Max or Apple HomePod competitor.
As for pricing, Sonos has opened up pre-orders for the new Sonos One, and the speaker is expected to launch on October 24th for just $199. While this price may seem a bit steep, you should consider the quality of speaker compared to what’s available from the Amazon Echo or Google Home. Sonos has been in the speaker space for quite some time, and provides some excellent hi-quality options.