We got the chance to take a closer look at Sonos Era 100, which is their new speaker in the Era lineup – which is available for pre-order in Malaysia right now through TCAcoustics. Now when you look at it, the Era 100 does have some similarities with the One but is there any difference? There sure is.
Sonos Era 100 First Look
The Big Brother of Sonos One
Now yes, one might go that the Sonos Era 100 looks vaguely the same as the Sonos One and that’s an alright assumption to make. Going based on renders, it sure does look the same. But in real life, the Sonos Era 100 happens to be a bit taller but its form of it happens to be more or less the same. The speaker is, however, designed in a different way – thoughtfully different to be specific. For one, the 100 uses PCR and keeps the power consumption to an absolute low – at 2 watts idle and even a sleep mode. It also uses screws instead of adhesives in its construction.
Not only WiFi but Bluetooth Enabled
It does sound like a surprise (no pun intended), that Sonos doesn’t have too many Bluetooth-enabled speakers. The Era series gets Bluetooth support on top of the WiFi connectivity and support for Apple AirPlay 2 as well. So, in case of internet downtime, you are no longer limited to the internet connection as you can switch to Bluetooth at ease and still enjoy this speaker with no issues at all.
A Stereo Speaker
For the first time, the Sonos Era 100 uses a stereo setup instead of a mono setup where you’d have to get two speakers to get that stereo experience. That said, inside the speaker features 2 angled tweeters and a mid-woofer for bass. It uses 3 Class-D digital amplifiers that have been precision tuned according to the speaker’s architecture, which not many audio companies take seriously.
Other than that
The Sonos Era 100 comes in two different colours: Black and White – the latter being my favourite. Sonos has also improved the controls by including a haptic volume slider, which makes the audio control a whole lot smoother and easier to use. So, none of that finding where the volume controller is as it does have the indentations on the top to give you a feel of where exactly it’s positioned.
On the back, the speaker has a USB-C port for connecting audio via an AUX cable (with a dongle of course) or connecting the speaker to your router with an ethernet cable. Unfortunately, the speaker no longer comes with an Ethernet Port – so, you will have to purchase the dongle separately. Not too sure if you could use a third-party dongle, to be frank.
Pricing and Availability
The Sonos Era 100 is priced at RM 1599, which is about RM 300 more than the Sonos One. You can now pre-order the speaker through TCAcoustic by clicking here. But if you want to know more about the bigger brother, Sonos Era 300 – you can click here.
