If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? Wrong. It's a bold move to take a product that's loved by many and replace it with an entirely new one, but that's exactly what Sonos has done with the Era 100.

Having launched alongside the Sonos Era 300, the smaller Era 100 is a direct replacement for the fantastic Sonos One. It bumps up the price, changes up the design and introduces some great new features, but it still has some big shoes to fill.

We've been spending some time with the Sonos Era 100 and if you love the Sonos One, you may just find your head turned by this intriguing newcomer. Here is our full review.

Sonos Era 100 design

Sonos Era 100
Sonos Era 100
Editor's Choice

The Sonos Era 100 is a new era - pun entirely intended - for Sonos speakers. It takes the company's excellent entry-level speaker and gives it a make-over, both internally and externally. There is so much to love about it that we can definitely forgive Sonos for replacing the excellent One.

Pros
  • Lovely design
  • Excellent performance
  • Great features
Cons
  • More expensive than Sonos One
  • No Google Assistant
  • No spatial audio support
  • 182.5 x 120 x 130.5mm
  • Capacitive touch controls
  • Bluetooth switch, microphone switch
  • Black or White

The Sonos Era 100 doesn't look like the Sonos One. Sure, it's similar in size - around an inch taller if you're being pedantic - but it has been redesigned from the ground up and that's immediately clear.

Where the Sonos One is small and boxy, the Sonos Era 100 is cylindrical with minimal fuss. The colour-matched metal grille that surrounded the Sonos One has been replaced with an environmentally friendly polycarbonate grille, matching the look the company delivered with the Sonos Roam and it looks great.

Ports exist on the back of the Era 100, while the power lead is connected underneath - the same as we saw on the Sonos One. It's a neater and more considered arrangement than the Era 300 that its power lead coming out of the rear. In terms of other connectivity, you'll find a USB-C line-in port on the Era 100, like the larger Era 300 and you'll also find a physical microphone switch, allowing you to turn off smart functionality for privacy.

Sonos Era 100 - 2-2

On the top of the Era 100 are the controls. There are capacitive controls for play/pause and forward and back, which is similar to what most Sonos speakers offer - though previous speakers featured volume controls, with forward and back traditionally handled via a swipe between them. The Era 100 has an indented strip - or trough as the company calls it - for volume control instead. Tap each end of the trough - marked with a '+' and '-' or swipe your finger from one side to the other to adjust the volume, while forward and back are done via the dedicated buttons. It basically makes fast forwarding and rewinding that little bit more intuitive compared to older Sonos speakers.

Sonos Era 100 - 24

The top of the Era 100 is much neater than the Sonos One too. The One has quite a thick hat with the Sonos logo printed on it, while the Era 100 has a very slim hat, with the Sonos logo moving to the grille, like the Sonos Roam. We were perfectly happy with our Sonos One speakers at home, until the Era 100 came in.

Don't get us wrong, the Sonos One still looks great, but it's definitely dated compared to the fresh and modern look of the Era 100. Like the Sonos One - and most of Sonos' speakers, there are black and white colour options. White is almost always our favourite, but the black looks great too and in the case of the Era 100, neither will disappoint.

Sonos Era 100 features

  • Adjustable EQ
  • Compatibility with over 100 music services
  • Amazon Alexa, Sonos Voice Control
  • Trueplay, Quick Tune

The Sonos Era 100 brings all the features you would expect from a Sonos speaker, and then some. Starting with the usuals, you'll get support for over 100 music streaming services, the ability to adjust EQ - something you can't do on the likes of the Apple HomePod for example - and you can use the Era 100 individually or as part of a Sonos system.

Sonos Era 100 - 10-1

You can also stereo pair two Era 100 speakers together but importantly, you can't stereo pair an Era 100 with a Sonos One. If you have a Sonos One therefore, and you have been considering buying another for a stereo pair, you'll need to do this before the stock depletes and the Era 100 takes over. Both the Sonos One and Sonos One SL have been replaced by the Era 100.

As with most multi-room speakers, you can play the same music on the Era 100 as any other Sonos speakers you have grouped with it, or you can play different music. We've got a Sonos tips and tricks feature that details all of the features Sonos speakers offer and how to get to them. It's worth a read as there is plenty they are capable of - some of which aren't immediately obvious, like adding any Sonos speaker to an exisiting group by pressing and holding the play/pause button.

The Sonos Era 100 also has smart functionality on board. There is no Google Assistant this time around - likely due to the ongoing legal issues between Sonos and Google - but you will find Sonos Voice Control which is great for control of the speaker itself, and Amazon Alexa if you want control of smart home devices or your shopping list for example. As we mentioned, there is also a microphone hardware switch on the back that allows you to turn the smart functionality off completely.

Sonos Era 100 - 5-1

Most Sonos speakers have what the company calls Trueplay tuning on board too, enabling you to tune the speaker to its surroundings using an iOS device. The Era 100 also has a feature called Quick Tune though, which uses the on board microphones to tune the speaker, enabling Android users to get a level of Trueplay tuning without having to borrow an iOS device. It's not as advanced as the main Trueplay tuning but it means the Era 100 can be adapted to its surroundings whenever it is repositioned, delivering the best sound possible for the environment it is in. We have always highly recommended doing the Trueplay tuning to any Sonos speakers you have and the same applies for the Era 100. The adjustments are often minor but they do make a difference and it takes a matter of minutes to perform.

Hardware and performance

  • 25 per cent larger woofer than Sonos One
  • 2 dual-angled tweeters
  • Custom wave guides
  • 47 per cent faster processor

The Sonos Era 100 has a different sound architecture to the Sonos One. When Sonos replaced the Play:1 with the One, it didn't change the internals. That was fine though because the Play:1 sounded great, as does the One.

For the Era 100 though, everything has changed. There isn't a single part of the Sonos One in the Era 100 we were told, and we believe it too even, though we still have plenty of love for the Sonos One.

Sonos Era 100 - 11-1

The woofer has increased in size by 25 per cent compared to the One for starters, delivering extra punch and a deeper bass that is immediately evident when listening to the Era 100 and Sonos One side-by-side. There's an extra tweeter too - making for two in total within the Era 100 that are dual-angled, allowing for stereo sound and wider dispersion. The Sonos One is mono and while it does a great job of delivering great sound performance despite this, the Era 100 is superior, offering a more expansive sound stage overall with low to high frequencies represented well across a range of tracks and genres.

There are also custom wave guides on the Era 100. You won’t find any upfiring elements so you're not getting Dolby Atmos or Spatial Audio from the Era 100 like the larger Era 300. That's not necessarily something you'd expect given its size, though the Apple HomePod offers it and it isn't that much larger and only slightly more expensive. That may make it a better option for those specifically looking for a more immersive sound experience.

In terms of overall performance and what all the changes mean though, the Era 100 is excellent. It handles everything well, which we would expect given it's replacing one of the speakers we would recommend most.

Best wireless speaker - Sonos Era 100

We've listened to a wide variety of tracks and genres, including October Sky by Yebba, Billions by Caroline Polachek and About Damn Time by Lizzo and all sounded great. One of our favourite tracks for testing - Space Ghost Coast to Coast by Glass Animals - sounds brilliant on the Era 100. It's a track that has a great mix of vocals, instruments and other individual background sounds and the Era 100 handles and separates everything well. It's not as immersive an experience as is offered by the Era 300, nor the Apple HomePod (2nd generation), but vocals are lovely and clear and there's good distinction between the vocals and the rest of the soundtrack.

Dynamic range is good and the Era 100 performs brilliantly, even at lower volumes, with plenty of detail. Crank it up and you lose some distinction compared to the Era 300 and Sonos Five, but there's plenty of body and the Era 100 delivers mighty sound for its size. The overall balance is on the bassier side, but this is standard for Sonos speakers and we find the tuning pleasing, without being booming. That's of course a personal preference and you can always adjust the EQ levels in the Sonos app if you aren't a huge bass fan.

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Elsewhere on the hardware front, the Sonos Era 100 features support for Wi-Fi 6 - keep in mind you'll need a compatible router to take advantage of this - and there's USB-C line in too, though you will need an adapter, which is sold separately. You'll also find Apple AirPlay 2, and Bluetooth - the latter being key here. This is the first time - along with the Era 300 - that Sonos has put Bluetooth into a non-portable speaker.

It means that you can use the Era 100 as a traditional Sonos speaker, using a Wi-Fi mesh network created when you set it up, or you can use it as a traditional Bluetooth speaker. To switch it into Bluetooth, you simply press the hardware button on the rear and connect it to your device as you would any other Bluetooth device when the LED light on the front is blue. It's very easy and it works well, while also giving you another way to play music and we are absolutely here for that. We suspect many will never use it - especially not Apple users who will most likely find AirPlay more convenient when not using the Sonos app - but it's great to finally have the functionality.

Sonos Era 100 - 3-1

Lastly on the hardware front, the Sonos Era 100 has a new co-neural processor on board, along with a 47 per cent faster processor the Sonos One, which sets it up for future features, whilst also improving performance. In all fairness, the Sonos One's performance continues to be good and we didn't notice any huge differences between the older speaker and the Era 100, but this may change in the future as more features are added. The Era 100 was marginally quicker to respond when we were grouping and ungrouping speakers during testing, but it's unlikely to be something you'd notice unless you had the two speakers side-by-side. The Era 100 is also said to be more power efficient than the Sonos One though, only using 2W or under when in standby or sleep mode. That's not really something that can be tested but we're all for less power consumption.

Verdict

The Sonos Era 100 is a new era - pun entirely intended - for Sonos speakers. It takes the company's excellent entry-level speaker and gives it a make-over, both internally and externally.

The Era 100's new design gives the baby Sonos a new lease of life, whilst adding a number of new features that make it even more appealing - like Bluetooth capabilities, new controls and line-in functionality. Yes, it adds a few pounds or dollars to the One's price tag, and no it can't be paired with its predecessor, but if you're considering entering the Sonos platform, the Era 100 is a perfect place to start.

Most of all, it sounds fantastic and builds considerably on the performance of the speaker it replaces - so much so that we can forgive Sonos for replacing the excellent Sonos One.