Sonos Beam review: a great, compact, jack-of-all-trades upgrade for your TV

The new, cheaper, more compact Sonos soundbar has full-range, room-filling sound, wifi and smart speaker functionality with built-in Alexa

The Beam is the new, more compact and cheaper soundbar from multi-room audio specialists Sonos, which promises to be a great one-box upgrade for your TV sound, with Alexa and smart speaker functionality built in.

On the surface the Beam appears to be a relatively simple product. It’s an all-in-one soundbar that connects to your TV via HDMI or optical cable and is controlled by the volume buttons on your TV’s remote.

Pros: compact and attractive, great, room-filling sound whether TV or music, easy set up, Alexa, easy to add to with more speakers

Cons: relatively expensive, no room-shaking bass, takes up a port on your TV, no HDMI pass-through, no support for Dolby Atmos