I am an owner of two Sonos home speakers: the One and the One SL. These are amazing sounding speakers that are easy to use. While I love these speakers, they are not portable as they must stay plugged into an outlet in order to work. I looked at the Sonos Move but was turned off by the size of the speaker and the high price. Needless to say, when Sonos introduced the Roam, I was intrigued. I got it as a father's day gift and what follows are my thoughts on the new Sonos Roam.SoundMy main concern with the Roam was that I noticed it was rather small and how that would effect the sound quality and loudness of the speaker. I was foolish for thinking this however. Sonos is known for having excellent sounding speakers and they would not jeopardize that reputation by putting out a new product that didn't adhere to their high audio standards. This speaker sounds amazing! Music sounds rich and full of depth. The clarity of the highs is excellent and the bass is surprisingly rich and full. Further to the point, the Sonos app allows you to tailor the sound to your liking, adding more of less treble and/or bass. I cannot overstate how pleased I am with the audio quality of this diminutive speaker.As a secondary point under sound, I was also concerned about how loud the speaker could get. Indoors, this little gem can get plenty loud and fill a large space with amazing sound. Outdoors, the Roam does a better than adequate job of projecting great music. I have taken it in my backyard while doing some yard work and it gets loud enough to hear and enjoy the music. However, I don't think Sonos designed this speaker to pump out the tunes at the pool party or at the beach like the EU Boom 3 or other larger bluetooth speakers. It can function adequately in that role but excels in smaller spaces and in overall sound quality.FunctionalityThe speaker works seamlessly with my other two Sonos speakers via WiFi using the Sonos app. The ability to move the speaker all over the house is a major plus. I can configure the Roam to play alone or with either one or both of my other speakers. I love that versatility. The buttons have some straight forward uses and also are multi-functional, which can take some getting used to. For example, I have issues sometimes with the power button and how long to push it. Five seconds to turn it off, a quick push to put it in sleep mode to save power. Same with the play/pause button: once to pause music, twice to advance to the next song, three times to go back to previous song, press and hold for a second to put the speaker in bluetooth pairing mode, and press and hold and listen for a sound in order to be able to swap your music from the Roam to the closest Sonos speaker or vice versa. It has taken some getting used to initially but I'm getting the hang of it.The battery life is good but I wish it were better. I get about 8 hours of play time per charge. Charging is another small issue. Sonos includes a USB-C (plugs into speaker) to USB-A (plugs into charger) charging cable with the speaker, but they do not include a charging adapter to plug into the wall. Luckily, I have an Apple iPad USB-C to USB-C cable with a large 20w charging adapter that charges the Roam very quickly. I highly recommend the larger charging adapter to greatly reduce charging time. As a side note, the speaker can function fully while being charged.Airplay and bluetooth connectivity are straightforward and work well. I have not had any issues connecting the speaker via bluetooth to my phone, laptop and various other devices around my home.FormThe speaker works in either a horizontal or vertical position with some claiming there is a difference in the sound. That is a matter of preference as I like both positions for different reasons. Horizontally, the speaker is designed to project the sound up and it seems to use the surface the speaker is sitting on to amplify the sound. Vertically it sounds great and it is much easier to access the control buttons on top. Ultimately, I love the design of the Roam because it is small, clean and elegant looking.In my opinion, the Sonos Roam is an excellent speaker because of its portability, convenience of use within my existing Sonos system, and its superb audio performance.