If you're looking for an immersive, cinema experience at an ultra-affordable price, the Sonos Beam and its successor, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), are great options – especially with so many deals floating around right now.
We reviewed the 2018 Sonos Beam at £399 ($399, AU$599). This What Hi-Fi? 2020 Award winner is still a great buy thanks to its "exceptionally good" sound and the ability to double up as multi-room speaker.
The newer Beam (Gen 2) arrived in 2021 at the slightly higher price of £449 ($449 / AU$699). It ups the ante by offering Dolby Atmos sound, eARC connectivity and more processing power (Sonos Beam Gen 2 vs Sonos Beam Gen 1).
Whichever model takes your fancy, we've listed today's best Sonos Beam deals below...
Best Sonos Beam (Gen 1) deals
Best Sonos Beam (Gen 2) deals
The five-star Sonos Beam is smaller and cheaper than Sonos' Playbar and Playbase TV speakers, yet offers the same array of streaming and multi-room features, plus the crucial upgrades of voice control and HDMI ARC.
The speaker itself is small, light and will fit in front of most TVs. There are sleek touch controls on the top, as well as support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, plus some Apple Siri commands using an iPhone or iPad.
More importantly, sound quality is superb. Inside, four full-range drivers, one tweeter, three passive radiators and five class-D amplifiers team up to produce a sound that is rich in width, depth and three-dimensionality.
It's also worth noting that the Beam plays nice with other Sonos products, meaning you can easily expand your purchase into a multi-room audio system with the addition of, say, a few Sonos One SL wireless speakers. And thanks to Sonos' S2 app, there's support for 24-bit, high-res audio.
The new Beam (Gen 2) might be a little pricier but it boasts a chip that is 40% more powerful. The extra power opens up the door to immersive Dolby Atmos audio processing, and eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) connectivity, which means the Beam (Gen 2) can handle the most advanced type of Atmos signal.
Perhaps most importantly the Beam (Gen 2) sounds better. Atmos aside, it reaches deeper depths than the Beam Gen 1, with greater refinement, a warmer treble, and wider dynamic range.
The Award-winning Sonos Beam (Gen 1) still has plenty to offer, especially if you can get one at a discount. But if you can stretch to the Beam (Gen 2), you'll be rewarded with more tech and features, all crammed into the same sleek shell that we’ve come to know and love.
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