Why the Sonos Beam 2 is the Black Friday soundbar deal you should buy
The Sonos Beam 2 has seen a price cut to £349 - here's why it's the soundbar to buy this Black Friday
With so many enticing Black Friday soundbar deals floating around, it can be tricky to know which one to take advantage of. But of all the offers we’ve seen so far, this offer on the exceptional Sonos Beam 2 stands out as the best Black Friday soundbar deal yet.
The second-generation Beam typically costs £449, but is available for just £349 directly from Sonos as well as a variety of retailers, including Amazon, Currys and John Lewis.
That’s an epic £100 discount on a soundbar that doesn’t see price cuts very often, and when it does, those discounts tend to be between £20 and £50. It’s not just the rarity of the discount that makes this our favourite soundbar deal of Black Friday, however.
The Beam 2 marries compact dimensions with phenomenal sound quality and also supports the Dolby Atmos object-based audio format. Atmos is the big upgrade on the original Sonos Beam, and although the Beam 2 lacks up-firing drivers, it harnesses Atmos by processing five beam “arrays” covering the left and right front channels, the left and right surround and height channels and the centre channel.
There isn’t the same sense of all-enveloping immersion you’d get from bigger soundbars with up-firing drivers or dedicated rear speakers, but the Beam 2’s clarity and presence are top-notch. Crystal-clear audio spreads far and wide, and the bass response is outstanding, too. At one point during testing, our reviewer had to check he hadn’t left his subwoofer connected – that’s how potent the bar’s low-end reproduction is.
It’s easier to set up than its predecessor thanks to the inclusion of an NFC sensor, while support for Amazon’s 3D Audio allows you to enjoy spatial effects with supported content. The Beam 2 also supports Spotify Connect and Apple AirPlay 2 streaming, and gives you a choice between the two most popular voice assistants: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
What’s more, the Beam 2 can be seamlessly incorporated into a multi-room speaker system or transformed into a fully-fledged Sonos home theatre setup by pairing it with a Sonos Sub and two Sonos One speakers operating as rear satellites. Both the Sonos Sub (Gen 3) and Sonos One are on offer this Black Friday too, with the former reduced from £749 to £599 and the latter down to £159 from £199.
If the Beam 2 has one real weakness, it’s that you can only take advantage of its Atmos capabilities via its single eARC port. So, if your TV doesn’t have an eARC HDMI port, you’ll want to give it a miss.
But for everyone else, this is a compact soundbar that produces better audio than any of its similarly sized competitors and is far smarter than most of them to boot. It’s our pick of the Black Friday soundbar deals available – we can’t recommend it highly enough at this all-time low price of £349.
For more of our favourite deals, head on over to our Black Friday hub, which also features links to our deals roundups across a huge range of product categories, including TVs, laptops and broadband.