You shouldn’t buy it for the advertised stereo sound, but various other upgrades and tweaks make the Move 2 a great sounding and versatile portable speaker.

Several years into a portable Sonos, it’s still intriguing that few players have jumped onto what Sonos offers: a connected music experience for inside and outside the home. It makes sense.

Sonos didn’t need to go back to the drawing board to design a better portable speaker, but I’m glad they did. The Move 2 sounds better than the original, produces a wider sound stage than the original, and offers twice as much battery life as the original. And those are just the top-line improvements.

The Sonos Move 2 is a versatile, battery-powered smart speaker that tunes your music to sound great both indoors and out. While it’s still a bit too bulky to carry beyond the backyard, a number of improvements over the first-generation model help justify the $449 price.

As a complete package, the Move 2 is a slam-dunk sequel that will only get better when you factor in Sonos’ long-term software support. The company needed to draw on lessons learned from other products to get here, but anyone who loved the first Move will find even greater value in its successor. Hopefully Google Assistant will eventually make a comeback. But even if not, the Move 2 offers plenty of features and good enough sound to make it a unique standout in Sonos’ hardware lineup.

More battery life, wired and wireless line-in options, an uptick in wireless range, and confident sound quality make the Move 2 a compelling member of the Sonos family. While those interested in spatial audio will still want to look to the Era 300, the ability for a single Move 2 to serve as a capable home speaker and a vocal portable one lends a duality that helps justify what remains premium pricing. While that's a challenge its predecessor set out to tackle, it's how well Sonos has broken down the barriers between uses — home and away — that leaves Move 2 delivering the cohesiveness fans of the system rightly expect.

With its redesigned audio system, the Sonos Move 2 adds two tweeters into the mix to deliver stereo, as well as a wider, less positional soundscape than its predecessor. There’s no escaping that this is an expensive speaker, but there’s nothing else that can quite do what the Move 2 can: it’s a proper, fully integrated Sonos speaker that works as well inside and out, capable of running on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. And with more than double the battery life of the original, this is a speaker that keeps going

The Sonos Move 2 is all about refinements, which add up to big improvements over the original Move. If you're after a Sonos speaker that delivers excellent performance across sound, features and battery life - whilst also offering a versatile design that allows for indoor and outdoor use - the Move 2 is the one.

Much like kombucha, Crocs, and Tom Waits, there’s little point in pretending the Sonos Move 2 isn’t an acquired taste. It’s still too big for anyone who wants a truly go-anywhere speaker and not quite as fine-tuned as any dedicated at-home boombox. Of course, the whole point of the Move 2 is that it’s a hybrid creation that can span this sonic divide, and judged on its own terms, there’s a lot to like about it. Especially now that its battery life has been more than doubled, and its stereo speaker arrangement does a lot to step its audio up a notch. Sure, the Move 2 is the black sheep of the Sonos family, but that only makes us love it more.

Whether indoors or outside, the Sonos Move 2 is a highly versatile smart speaker.

Sonos has been on a roll since the introduction of its first smart speaker, the One, in 2017. The Move 2 is the latest addition, and it benefits from the improvements Sonos continually makes to its audio infrastructure and product ecosystem. Some features I didn’t test, like the ability to hook the Move 2 to a turntable using an optional dongle or the user-replaceable battery, speak to Sonos’ confidence in this being your go-to portable speaker for a long time and that you may even find new ways to use it. Of course, the Move 2’s $449 price tag will put it out of reach for many people, which is why the Toblerone-shaped Sonos Roam exists for $179. But what you get with the Move 2 is similar performance to the homebound Era 100 wherever you go and a battery that keeps going and going. The Move 2 is a refined speaker that will satisfy existing Sonos fans with its familiarity and audio quality that should convert new fans if their budget allows.

Capable of deftly revealing sound. Exemplary control options. High standard of build and finish. Loud. Better battery life.

Due to its price and size, the Move 2 isn’t the ideal portable speaker for everyone. But that’s OK, because it does succeed as a speaker that you can rely on for high-quality and seriously loud audio. It’s well-suited to being your main speaker inside the house as well as something you can take to the porch or backyard to power a party. And while it won’t comfortably slip into a backpack, it should make a good road trip companion. I could definitely see tossing it in the car and bringing it on my summer vacation with me.

The Sonos Move 2 has carved its niche as a feature-packed portable wireless speaker, but there are better-performing rivals at this premium price point

The Sonos Move 2 delivers an energetic yet refined sound, equally balancing punchy bass with refined classical instruments. Its bigger scale compared to smaller Bluetooth speakers is clear, but it comes with a bulky size and very high price as a result. But its ability to be a great home speaker as well as one that can move with you makes it undeniably worthwhile.

The Sonos Move 2 may not look much different but it’s better than the original in almost all of the ways that matter

The Move 2 improves upon with predecessor with stereo audio and longer battery life, making it the best Sonos speaker for listening to music outside.

The Sonos Move 2 is a little big and bulky, but if portability is second to sound for you, it’s an excellent option.

Stereo sound in a portable speaker that supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and line-in connectivity.

No, this is not an especially affordable wireless speaker. And no, it's nowhere near as portable as Sonos seems to think. Yet there is still much to like about the Move 2. It is deftly revealing, has significantly greater scale than the speaker it replaces, and is capable of hitting hard enough to make your garden party swing. Oh, and now it has the stamina to keep the party going until the wee small hours, too. The fact that it can be half of a stereo pair, part of a multi-channel system or a multi-room system – all with complete ease – doesn't do any harm either. Just try to remember that one person's 'portable' is another's 'really not all that portable at all'!

If you’re looking for a solid portable Bluetooth speaker you can pop into your backpack and take with you to the park, the Sonos Move 2 isn’t it. But for versatile use around the home without being tethered to a power outlet, and for bigger trips, it’s a solid option. It’s ideal if you already have other Sonos speakers in the home, too, so you can add this to the network and enjoy seamless audio throughout the home, both inside and out.

Beefed up audio and a longer-lasting battery – a winning combo