Bose has today announced the Smart Soundbar 600, a small and sleek offering that will go on sale on 20 October 2022. Pre-orders are open now.

If you do place a pre-order you'll find yourself paying £499 / $499 / €549 for the privilege. However, for that money you're going to receive a lot of speaker, just not in the physical sense. Bose says the soundbar "is 5.61cm tall, 10.39cm deep, and 69.44cm in length". That all sounds great, and it looks it as well - few would call this thing ugly.

As always though, it's what's on the inside that counts. In this case the Smart Soundbar 600 packs support for Dolby Atmos and Bose TrueSpace technology that will allow the Soundbar 600 to deliver beefier audio for its size. Add support for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Chromecast connectivity, and most boxes are ticked. The addition of AirPlay 2 support will please Apple users, too.

Bose promises much from its new soundbar, but can it deliver?  It comes with two side-firing, racetrack-shaped transducers that project audio horizontally into the room. You also get a centre tweeter that delivers dialogue, and two upfiring transducers for overhead Dolby Atmos support. Hopefully, this will result in a wide and high soundstage.

Other tidbits include support for single-cable connections using either HDMI eARC or optical as well as Bose QuietPort technology that promises "deep bass performance with virtually no distortion at every volume." Sound good? You can get you pre-order in today.