Sonos’s new entry-level speaker doesn’t have voice control.
What you need to know
- The Sonos One SL is officially available for purchase for $179.
- It replaces the Play:1 in the Sonos lineup.
- While it shares the Sonos One branding, it doesn’t feature any microphones for voice control.
At the recent Sonos hardware event, the main focus was on the new portable smart speaker, the Sonos Move. Our own Daniel Bader called it “the portable smart speaker of my dreams.” However, it is an expensive dream at $399, but Sonos also announced a new, more affordable speaker.
Beginning today, you can order the new Sonos One SL which replaces the Play:1 in the Sonos lineup. It comes in a choice of white or black colors for a total of $179. That makes it $20 cheaper than the standard Sonos One.
However, while the Sonos One SL shares similar branding with the Sonos One, there is one big feature the Sonos One SL lacks — a microphone.
The Sonos One SL is, for all intents and purposes, a cheaper version of the Sonos One without support for Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Even though you won’t be able to control the Sonos One SL with your voice, support for the Sonos App and AirPlay 2 are still present.
Being part of the Sonos ecosystem also means you’ll be able to pair the Sonos One SL with the Sonos One or another One SL for stereo sound. Plus, you can even use it as a set of surround sound speakers by pairing it with the Playbar, Playbase, or Beam.
Entry-level Sonos
Sonos One SL
$179 at Amazon
No microphone, no problem.
The new Sonos One SL is essentially a Sonos One without a microphone and replaces the Play:1 in Sonos’s lineup. You get the same great Sonos One sound and the ability to pair it with other Sonos speakers in the ecosystem, but at a more affordable $179 price point.
