Sonos Move 2 vs Tribit StormBox Micro 2

The Move 2 is not really a Bluetooth speaker, and that is the most useful thing to know about it. It is a full Wi-Fi Sonos speaker, part of the multi-room system, grouped and controlled from the Sonos app, that happens to have a battery so it can go outside. Judged as a portable it is expensive and heavy. Judged as a Sonos speaker with a battery, it is the only one of its kind here.

Two tweeters give it a genuine stereo image from a single unit, which neither of the other picks can do, and automatic Trueplay measures the space it has been set down in and retunes continuously, so a hard patio and a soft living room do not sound the same. The rated 24 hours is the longest here, and there is a line input over USB-C for a turntable or a laptop.

The compromises follow from what it is. IP56 handles rain and splashes and will not survive immersion, which makes it the wrong speaker for a poolside among these three. At around three kilograms it is carried deliberately, not casually. Most of what you are paying for needs Wi-Fi and an account, so on Bluetooth alone it is a very expensive speaker doing an ordinary job. And the battery is a service-replaceable part rather than a user-replaceable one.

The Micro 2 is defined by its strap. A thick silicone loop is molded into the back, so it wraps a bike crossbar, a rucksack strap or a shower rail in seconds with no bracket, no clip and nothing to lose. Every competitor at this size wants an accessory for that.

For the volume it displaces it moves a surprising amount of air: a 48mm driver with passive radiators on both faces, and Tribit's XBass mode leaning on them hard. IP67 means a drop into a lake is a retrieval rather than a replacement, and two of them pair for stereo, which turns it into a reasonable desk or kitchen speaker as well.

The physics still apply. A cabinet this small cannot move enough air for real low bass, and pushing the volume past about three quarters compresses what bass there is, so it gets louder and thinner at the same time. The rated 12 hours is measured at moderate volume and falls well short of that with XBass on and the volume up. It is mono, so a single unit gives you no stereo image at all. And the rubberised shell attracts dust and grit that lodges in the grille.