As someone who uses both a Sonos Beam and Beam Gen 2 at home, I’m probably more excited than most about the announcement of the new Beam Ultra.
And, I have to say, I think it broadly looks excellent, delivering pretty much everything that Beam owners like me have been asking for.
But ‘pretty much everything’ and ‘everything’ aren’t the same thing, and we always want more.
So, here are the five features of the Beam Ultra about which I’m most excited, and the three elements that I find slightly disappointing.
Good: up-firing drivers
This is the big one: the thing Sonos Beam owners have been clamouring for since the launch of the original model back in 2018 – dedicated up-firing drivers.
In fairness, the Beam Gen 2 does an excellent job of creating a Dolby Atmos effect with its front-firing drivers and clever virtualisation tech, but the Beam Ultra should be significantly better in this regard. I find that very exciting indeed.
Good: more drivers in general
The Beam Ultra actually feature nine drivers, which is four more than the existing Beam Gen 2.
As well as the two up-firers, the new soundbar features a forward-firing driver, two side-firing drivers, and four woofers, arranged into what Sonos says is a 7.1.2-channel configuration.
This should bring improvements to spaciousness and directness as well as Dolby Atmos delivery – assuming Sonos has nailed the tuning, that is.
Good: compact dimensions
It might feature four more drivers than the Beam Gen 2, but the Beam Ultra is still impressively compact, measuring 6.5 x 75 x 10.5cm.
In other words, it’s only 10cm wider than the diminutive Beam Gen 2, which means it will still fit neatly below or in front of most TVs – even smaller models – and it won't visually dominate a typical living room.
Good: upgradability
As with Sonos’s previous soundbars, the Beam Ultra can be upgraded through the addition of a subwoofer and/or wireless surrounds, and the new model’s launch is coinciding neatly with a new feature called ‘Portable Surround’.
This, as the name suggests, will allow you to use two portable speakers – the Play and Move 2 are compatible – as surrounds with one of Sonos’s soundbars.
Why does that matter? If you use a pair of non-portable speakers (Era 300s or Era 100s, for example) as surrounds, that's likely all they’ll ever be. Use portable speakers, though, and they can be picked up and used as music speakers anywhere in or out of the house. That’s much better value for money.
Good: new app
The launch of the Beam Ultra is also coinciding neatly with the launch of the new Sonos app, called Sonos 27.
Sonos is promising fancy features such as integration with any and all AI chatbots, so you can control your system via ChatGPT if you like, but, frankly, I’m just excited for the promised usability overhaul.
I still find the current Sonos app a real pig to operate, so I can’t wait to see how Sonos has (hopefully) improved things.
Disappointing: no HDMI passthrough
Look, I wasn’t expecting Sonos to add HDMI passthrough – I don’t think this is a feature that Sonos will ever support – but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed that it’s not been added.
I own a TV with just two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and one of those doubles as the eARC port. Once that’s taken up by a soundbar, I have just the one left. Seeing as I have both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X, that’s a bit of a pain in the bum, and it wouldn’t be if the soundbar just had a dedicated HDMI input and 4K/120Hz passthrough.
For Sonos, though, simplicity is key, so I think the single HDMI socket is here to stay.
Disappointing: no DTS:X
Again, this isn’t something I was expecting, and I don’t actually think a lack of DTS:X in the context of a mid-range soundbar is actually that big a deal, but it would still be better to have than not, especially as there are rivals that offer both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
That said, Sonos hasn't completely ruled out adding DTS:X support in the future.
Disappointing: a fairly high price
Whether the Beam Ultra is good value will ultimately depend on how it sounds, but at £699 / $699 / AU$1099, it certainly looks expensive on paper.
There are rivals from the likes of JBL and Harman Kardon that offer up-firing drivers and similar driver configurations for around the same money as the Beam Gen 2. If the Beam Ultra had simply replaced the Beam Gen 2 at its £449 / $449 / AU$649 price, it would be exceptionally tempting.
At £699 / $699 / AU$1099, though, Sonos is asking us to pay a significant premium, and the new soundbar is going to have to deliver some seriously impressive performance to justify it.
In fairness, this is nothing new for Sonos, which typically prioritises performance over specs – let's see if it's got the formula right again when we get the Beam Ultra in for review.
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