Following their highly successful original Sonos Beam Soundbar, Sonos has announced the next generation, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 with Dolby Atmos.
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is very much an iterative update and stays true to the original Beam. In terms of the design, it features a familiar pill-shape form factor but this time with a new perforated polycarbonate grille on the outside that is supposedly more durable and easier to clean. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is also available in both black and white color options.
The internals of the Sonos Beam Gen 2 have also remained largely unchanged with a centre tweeter, four elliptical midwoofers, and three passive radiators. The new Sonos Beam does have two additional speaker arrays for a total of five compared to the original Sonos Beam. The additional arrays help produce a more immersive sound experience through providing surround and height information. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 also has a 40% faster internal processor that creates new audio paths for a better sound experience. However, the main improvement in the second generation Sonos Beam is the inclusion of Dolby Atmos audio, allowing for a more immersive home theatre experience and sound space.
Apart from the internal improvements, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 features the same power, ethernet, and HDMI ports, except this time the HDMI port has been updated to eARC. The Sonos Beam is still compatible with Apple AirPlay 2, and can be controlled hands-free with either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is priced at $449 and is available for pre-order on September 14, with availability beginning October 5th.