Sonos overhauls PLAY:5 wireless speaker with new design, vastly improved sound

Sonos has updated its flagship wireless speaker, the PLAY:5, with a new modern design and a more immersive soundstage.

Featuring three mid-woofers, a central tweeter and two side-firing tweeters, the PLAY:5 can either be used as a standalone unit arrayed horizontally or vertically, or you can use two PLAY:5 speakers side by side in a stereo configuration. The orientation sensors automatically disable the tweeters when they detect two speakers in a horizontal configuration to prevent sound distortion.

The speaker comes with a capacitive control panel that allows you to use gestures to control music playback. The quality of the unit as a whole has increased dramatically, with the PLAY:5 now featuring 60,000 individually drilled holes. There are two color variations on offer with the PLAY:5, an all-black model that's designed to be unobtrusive, and a white-and-black version that stands out.

The PLAY:5 will be available later this year for $499 USD, $549 CAD, $749 AUS, €579 and £429.

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Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.