Sonos has had a strange year. It’s focused heavily on mid-range products such as its Sonos Ray and the delayed Sub Mini, with no high-end devices announced. Well, that’s no longer the case. Sonos HQ is currently hard at work designing a new speaker, codenamed Optimo 2.
The speaker is yet to be announced, though if reports are accurate it’s shaping up to be Sonos’ best-performing speaker by a mile. Why? 360° audio, for starters.
Optimo design
According to The Verge, which has seen early images of Optimo 2, stating that a huge increase in quality is expected. Judging by the render above, it’ll feature a dual-angle body, kitted with more drivers than an F1 race. Plenty of these drivers fire out in all sorts of directions, coming from beneath the shell, between the front speaker grille and backplate. To give some perspective, the render above shows us the device’s front. This gives Optimo 2 the ability to play in almost every direction, offering some of the best sounds the company has produced to date.
We don’t have exact sizes just yet. The Verge has compared it to the Sonos Five/Play:5 in terms of footprint. Design-wise it’ll come in standard black and white colour choices. Sonos isn’t expected to make a radical departure there.
There’s a lot to be excited about here if the rumoured specs and designs stick to the current plan. Optimo 2 reportedly has double the RAM of any of its predecessors, paired with eight times more internal storage. It’ll support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth playback. Perhaps most interesting is the decision to include line-in USB-C functionality. The Play 5 is the only other device from Sonos to include a line-in, though it has a much more robust 3.5mm aux to work with.
Read More: Sonos Ray review – See you on the other side, Ray
Sonos Voice Control will be supported too, through Optimo 2’s built-in microphones. It’ll automatically sound tune to increase performance based on its surroundings, also using the microphones.
Optimo 1?
The use of the codename Optimo 2 is a weird one. Yes, plenty of companies pick the strangest codenames possible to throw watchful eyes off the scent. Not this time it seems. The Verge was able to confirm that Sonos is working on three devices within the Optimo range. The Optimo 1 and Optimo SL are still on the cards, though we have no clue what to expect from either. SL could potentially mean the Optimo 2 without the built-in microphones or Voice Control options, based on how the company has previously named retail devices.
We have no word on a release date, or even when we can expect an announcement. We’ll just have to wait on this one. Hopefully, it’s worth it. Knowing Sonos, it probably will be.
Source: The Verge