Customer Ratings & Reviews

I really like Sonos products. I’ve been a user for a long time now. The play in my perspective is not the type of speaker that’s going to fill up a room with a lot of people, but it’s the perfect take to the park or the beach a small portable speaker. I also like that I can link it with my other Sonos devices so I have music in several rooms. If I was to make any changes, I would probably want it to have a little bit more full sound, and a little more volume. But again it’s perfect for what it is designed for.

First let's start with build quality I believe this speaker has excellent build quality sporting a metal grill with quality rubber for a more durable feel, portability is awesome as well as the speaker isn't large, sound quality is amazing it is tuned to sound very balanced although there is a EQ in the Sonos App for bass & treble. Overall I think this speaker works well for BT & sounds great BUT If BT is the only reason for this speaker there are better/cheaper options out there, this speaker is mainly for ppl in the Sonos ecosystem or looking to get into the Sonos ecosystem THAT is where it shines, paired with other Sonos products & speakers for whole home audio that blends together perfectly.

First let's start with build quality I believe this speaker has excellent build quality sporting a metal grill with quality rubber for a more durable feel, portability is awesome as well as the speaker isn't large, sound quality is amazing it is tuned to sound very balanced although there is a EQ in the Sonos App for bass & treble. Overall I think this speaker works well for BT & sounds great BUT If BT is the only reason for this speaker there are better/cheaper options out there, this speaker is mainly for ppl in the Sonos ecosystem or looking to get into the Sonos ecosystem THAT is where it shines, paired with other Sonos products & speakers for whole home audio that blends together perfectly.

I bought the Sonos Play to use around the house inside and out and it has performed perfectly. The sound quality and length of battery charge is just what I wanted. It is easy to use with my iPhone.

Having tried a roam and a move 2, this option will be the best for most. Its size and shape is easy to pack in luggage, and the sound is shockingly full. Playtime has been exceptional as well. Have taken this trip on many vacations/ work trips and can say it is a perfect companion for anywhere you need it.

Overall, this speaker is great. From the smart integration of its own assistant as well as Alexa, Siri, and airplay 2, it really is everything in one small package. This is my first Sonos product. I do wish the eq was more.. diverse, as only the bass and treble can be changed. I do personally find the mids lacking a bit. The Sonos Play has an amazing battery life, I’ve only had to recharge it once in the week I’ve been using it (I usually do my listening around 40-60% volume. $300 does seem a bit hefty, however overall it has a well balanced sound and you really can’t go wrong with this one if it matches your use cases.

i upgraded from the sonos roam 2. and the sound is amazing. very noticable difference. i would definitely by another one.

Great for the garage! Easy set up. Syncs with my other Sonos speakers.

The Sonos Play portable speaker, to steal a phrase from a random woman I met at the park, is “a real banger!” I agree with her assessment. I brought my Sonos Play to my local park and tried out the different outdoor listening scenarios I would normally find myself in. Such as, a random boulder along a path, a metal countertop at the Snack Shack, the sidelines of a soccer field, and a random basketball court full of random people. Overall, the Sonos Play does an excellent job in these environments. The Sonos Play also did an excellent job with low volume listening on my work desk and end table in my den. Overall, I found the Sonos Play to be highly portable, flexible, and easy to use in most situations. Outdoor Sound quality: The Sonos Play excels at outdoor listening. It won’t pressurize the ballpark, but it will provide a satisfying experience between 50% to 75% volume. At 100% volume, the speaker can be heard as far away as 78 feet. I was surprised at how far away this speaker was able to project just sitting on the ground, in a field, with nothing around it but grass and sky. At about 50 feet I could comfortably hear my music with enough detail to enjoy it. I could see myself kicking around a soccer ball while using the Sonos Play. Up close at this volume, we are talking about 10 feet or less, the Sonos Play sounds terrible and must be turned down to a normal listening volume below 50% or less. This is because at about 10 feet I can really hear the cabinet vibrate and some speaker artifacts. Below 50%, this speaker is very pleasant for such activities as a picknick, reading, or chilling under a tree. The Sonos Play, in my opinion, opens up and does a fantastic job in any wide-open space unconstrained by walls or hard reflective surfaces. Indoor Sound Quality: Indoor listening is a completely different experience. As mentioned in the previous section, the Sonos Play’s cabinet vibrates with the speaker drivers. At low listening levels, this is not an issue. Actually, this is an asset since the Sonos Play relies on the table, cabinet, countertop, or shelf that it rests on to reinforce its mid-bass and lower mid-bass performance. This became immediately clear to me when I first setup the Sonos Play on my work desk. I was simply amazed by how much bass the Sonos Play was able to output. And then the bass immediately evaporates once I pick up the Sonos Play and hanging it in the air. But I could definitely feel the bass from the speaker going into my hand. I placed the speaker back down onto my 4 x 8 wooden desktop and the bass immediately returned. I put my hand on my desk and could feel the desk vibration with the Sonos Play. In short, whatever furniture the Sonos Play is on will become part of the Sonos Play. Which brings me to my second point. The in-room sound quality degrades from 20% volume up. First, the speaker vibrations increase as the volume increases. My table surface magnifies the speaker vibrations which increase audible distortion from the table. And second, the midrange compresses as volume increases. The midrange essentially becomes nose around 75% volume in room. My use for the Sonos Play will be background music and news for my office during the day and soft reading music on my end table in my den at night. At these lower volumes, vocals are clear, mids are present, and bass is solid. Setup: The Sonos Play will connect to any Bluetooth source straight out of the box at the push of the Bluetooth sync button on the back of the speaker. The Sonos App is required for everything else. This includes Apple Play 2 playback which I use regularly. The initial setup process, for me, was a frustrating half-hour of discovery. Short version. The Sonos app requires a cell phone to complete initial account, network, and device setup. After that any mobile device can be used for control, syncing devices, managing music, and creating speaker relationships. Why the cell phone requirement? No idea. All I can tell you is that the app kept locking up my very current iPad every time I attempted initial setup. I also received a Sonos ERA 100 the same time I received my Sonos Play. I set up the ERA 100 after setting up my Sonos account and the Sonos Play. Setting up the ERA 100 took a minute or two throw the Sonos app. Once setup, connecting the audio stream to both speakers was as easy as pressing the play/pause button for 5 seconds on the ERA 100. For example, I was listening to the news on my Sonos Play in my home office. I got up to make lunch for myself in the kitchen. Instead of turning up the volume or moving the Sonos Play the kitchen, I simply pressed the ERA’s play/hold button for about 5 seconds. And just like that both speakers were playing the same content in two different rooms. Pressing the play/pause button on the ERA 100 a second time ended the stream for the ERA 100 only. And I could have always done this the other way around where the ERA 100 is stream, I move to a new room that I want music in, and press/hold the Sonos Play play/pause button for 5 seconds to sync the streams. Finally, the Sonos Play will connect to any source device that is Bluetooth capable. The speaker has a Bluetooth connection button on the back of the speaker. Press the button, add the Sonos Play to your devices Bluetooth paired devices, and then press play on your phone or other music source device. One last item. The volume control on your cell phone, tablet, or other source device only interacts with the speaker when the connection is made outside of the Sonos app. This includes Bluetooth and Apple Airplay 2. If the Sonos app is used as the source, then volume must be controlled from inside the app or using the volume controls on the speaker. The volume control on the speaker will control the volume in all cases. Size and Weight: The Sonos Play is roughly the size of a brick. And at 2.87lbs it weighs more than a brick. This speaker is very easy to place into a bag for transport to anywhere you wish to take it. I am still impressed with how dense this product feels even after two weeks of carrying it around. The size and weight are impressive. Durability: I did not abuse the Sonos Play. I have not dropped it into any mud, puddles, or sticky sidewalk chewing gum. I have washed the Sonos Play under my kitchen faucet to clean dirt and other grime the rubberized base and top picked up at the park. The debris washed off without any fuss. Per Sono’s user guide, I wiped the speaker off with a clean dry towel and set it on the tower Sonos logo face down until the entire speaker was dry. It is recommended that you stop using the speaker once it gets wet and allow it to dry before next use. It worked for me. Charging and Battery life: Battery life is good. I played the Sonos Play on my desk for almost a week before needing to recharge. I was down to about 20% before my park trip. After topping off the battery, I went to the park and played the speaker all over the place at various volumes. When I returned, I was at about 50%. Mind you, I was pushing the volume to 100% for a good half hour at one point. I would expect better battery life below 75%. Better still at normal listening volumes. The charging base is hard plastic with a rubberized surround. The base has a built in 6-foot USB C cable that is long enough to provide a good amount of placement flexibility. And there are two electrical leads in the base that align with the charging port on the speakers. However, the Sonos Play power adapter is a separate purchase. Any USB C wall adapter will work if it meets Sono’s minimum requirements. Directly from the user’s manual, “Play is designed to work with 18W (9V/2A) USB-PD compliant adapters, but 45W (15V/3A) is recommended.” A laptop USB connection is not going to be enough to recharge or power the Sonos Play. In my case, I am using my MacBook’s power adapter to power and recharge my Sonos Play. And it seems to be doing a good job. Final Thoughts: Overall, I like the Sonos Play. I have zero intention of entertaining a loud party in my home with the Sonos Play. I feel that it will take more away from the party at volume than it would if it were used as background entertainment over drinks. For outdoors, I have no issues turning up the volume as a workout companion or soccer warmups. The IP 67 rating also gives me peace of mind that a little bit of weather, some mud, dirt or a tumble due to a direct hit from a speeding soccer ball won’t bother the Sonos Play. The battery life is solid enough for all day listening. And the speaker is small enough to throw into a backpack for travel anywhere.

Good things do come in small packages and the package that I am talking about today is the new Sonos Play. This is a speaker that is about 8 inches tall, 5 inches wide and about 3 pounds but sounds like full size sound system, if not better. I have been testing the Sonos Play for a few weeks now and simply put, this thing is amazing. So, lets go over what this snack sized speaker has to offer. Sound Quality: Normally I start off talking about the dimension of the product and the setup process but today we are going to skip that and jump to right where this little fun sized speaker shines and that its quality. You don’t realize how much sound a small box can pump out until you turn this on. But the Sonos Play just isn’t big on sound, it delivers audio with clarity, deep bass, fullness and details that you would expect from bigger speakers. The bass has punch without sounding muddy, the vocals are crisp and the highs just sound absolutely beautiful. But if the factory audio presets are not to your liking you can always adjust them to your preference. Unboxing and Setup: Dimensions: Height: 7.57 inches Width: 4.43 Inches Depth: 2.89 Inches Weight: 2.89 pounds The Sonos Play is as smooth as ever. Power up the speaker, open the Sonos app and the app immediately. The app walks you through the connection and in minutes you are online, stream from WIFI, Bluetooth, and apple airplay. The Sonos Play can be fully controlled via the app but there are also physical buttons on the speaker for Bluetooth, Microphone, Play and Pause, Track and volume. Features: One of my favorite features of the Sonos system is how easily you are able to connect to other Sonos speakers. I was able to test that out by connecting ERA 100 SL speaker. You can place the speakers anywhere, control the volume individually or together, and adjust presets to your preference and enjoy your music or audio anywhere in or out of your home. The Sonos Play offers about 24 hours of audio enjoyment on a full charge but does come with a charging base. The only thing is that it does not come with charging brick, which seems to the way most electronic manufactures are going anyways. Conclusion: All in all, the Sonos Play Portable Speaker isn’t just another Bluetooth box. Whether you’re hosting a backyard party or just vibing while folding laundry, the Play won’t just play your music—it’ll flex on every other speaker in the room. If your looking for a speaker to take anywhere, then this is it.

This little guy packs a lot of punch in a small package! I am a lover of bass in my music and this has it in spades! The set up is simple. The app helps you adjust the EQ and other settings. I have the Sonos Era 100 and I love that I can connect them and have the same music or audiobook playing in different rooms as I move through the house. The Play has long battery life! It has been running for a couple of weeks and I am at 94%. You can charge via a C cord or the included base that would let it continually charge. It is also water resistant. I have not tested this yet (other than that I have it in my kitchen and it does get splashed when I wash up!). I plan to use it by the pool this summer. I love having my music outside and appreciate that I don't have to worry about this being splashed. Another great aspect- It can act as a power bank! You can charge your phone off of the speaker. Another great aspect when you take it on the go. I set up the voice assist- I am so used to talking to my devices it would be strange to NOT have voice assist. Sonos has its own collection of music to play. I have been playing different artists and genres. You can also connect several speakers and create a whole sound system. This is a great sounding expandable system that is definitely worth the price

This is my first Sonos product and I’m impressed, confused and excited all at once. Here’s the short, useful version without the long-winded filler some reviews lean on. The Play arrived with a Sonos Era 100 SL, which is a plug‑in stationary speaker that’s a bit bigger than the Play. Setup Setup for both was simple. I downloaded the Sonos app, it found the speakers, asked a few quick questions, updated them and I was done. Sonos App I linked my Spotify account and it worked immediately. You can still use the regular Spotify app to play music on your speakers though, which I prefer. The Sonos app itself is clean and works as a hub for all your services. It also gives you access to Sonos radio stations with ads, plus things like Audible and YouTube Music. It’s basically a service aggregator. The app matters because it’s the only way to update firmware and adjust options like Bluetooth, battery settings and touch controls. Oh, and you can’t use your phone’s volume buttons to control Sonos volume, but you’ll still try it a few times and feel ridiculous when nothing happens. Because of how Sonos works, you have to adjust volume in the app that’s streaming the music. Hardware Both speakers feel substantial. They’re dense, solid and well built. The Era sounds richer and fuller than the Play, which makes sense since it’s larger and wall powered. The Play still sounds good. It’s clearly designed for portability and smaller rooms, while the Era is something you’d put in a living room. The Play also has a replaceable battery, which is rare. It comes with a USB‑C dock that charges it and lets you use it like any other Sonos speaker while docked. What it doesn’t come with is a USB‑C adapter. It needs an 18W or higher charger or the dock just blinks red and refuses to charge. For a $300 device, not including a proper charger is disappointing. Sonos will happily sell you one, of course. Sound The Play sounds great for a portable speaker. Good bass, clean mids and highs that never get harsh. Bluetooth sounds fine, but wireless streaming sounds better. The Era SL isn’t huge, but it puts out a big, punchy sound. Everything I played through it sounded excellent. The Sonos Magic This is where things get fun. You can pair the speakers in stereo, which works perfectly with no latency. You can also set up zones to play the same music across multiple Sonos devices or different music on each one. The flexibility is impressive and it’s easy to see why people stick with the ecosystem. I’m already thinking about adding more Sonos speakers, maybe even some for the patio. The sound is great, but the ecosystem is what really hooks you. Overall The Play is a solid home speaker that also happens to be portable, with a replaceable battery and a convenient dock. The Era SL fills my open living room and kitchen with ease and would handle any medium room without trouble. If you want more punch, you can add a sub through the app. Both speakers sound fantastic, but the app and ecosystem are what make them special. It’s a strong start to my Sonos journey, even if the Play should have been bundled with a USB-C charger.

this is better than the Move 2 that i own . its more portable and the battery last longer as well. the sound is very similar although the move 2 is about 35 percent louder on max volume in my review. i like this smaller speaker allot better than the move 2 . the dock also is 100 percent improvement its easier to set in to charge . i enjoy this speaker . i have other sonos speakers as well the the sound profile is what i am used too. i use it away from home so it has Bluetooth . u cant control the eq settings when u are not on wifi so make sure you adjust that before u leave home .

The Sonos Play speaker is one of the rare products that genuinely blurs the line between portable convenience and high-end audio performance. It delivers sound quality that easily rivals—and often surpasses—many fixed, in-home speakers, which is impressive given its portability. What stands out immediately is the range. The speaker produces a full, room-filling sound with exceptional clarity across highs and mids, while still delivering deep, punchy bass that you typically wouldn’t expect from a unit this size. It doesn’t just get loud—it maintains balance and detail even at higher volumes, which is where many portable speakers fall apart. From a usability standpoint, it’s versatile enough to move seamlessly between indoor and outdoor use, making it a true all-around solution rather than a niche device. The combination of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity also gives it an edge over typical portable speakers, allowing it to integrate into a broader home audio setup. Perhaps the most compelling part is the value. While it sits at a premium price point for a portable speaker, it competes with—and often outperforms—traditional fixed speakers in the same range, making it a strong buy for anyone who wants both flexibility and performance without compromise. Bottom line: if you’re looking for a portable speaker that doesn’t sacrifice sound quality, the Sonos Play is in a class of its own.

I'm going to begin by saying that I have and currently do use, lots of different brands of network based music players/streamers. Working with all of these brands is very familiar to me because it is the way I listen to music in different areas of my home as well as outside. I was anxious to try out a Sonos system since I've never worked with one before. The Play is the newest model in the Sonos lineup and there are quite a few things to like about it. The build is very solid and offers an IP67 rating, this gives it really good dust and water protection. This is important if you plan to enjoy your music outside. The top, bottom and rear panels are rubberized and have a nice feel, the curved front is a solid, perforated piece that wraps around most of the device. The whole thing weighs almost 3lbs., so it's got some heft to it, especially considering it's small size. There's an LED at the top front to show the various modes, etc., and also one at the bottom front to indicate the charging status. It has a nice charging base that is included, so you can either leave it in the base where it will stay charged, or just grab it and take it with you. It's a good design that only requires you to set it on the base to start charging. No hunting for, or plugging in cords. As I've mentioned, the top is rubberized, so it has a good tactile feel. The transport buttons are on top to make them easily accessible, however I got the black color and trying to see which button to press (or even exactly where they are located) is almost impossible. It gets a little better in bright light, but not a lot. In fact you're going to want to remember the button layout once you find it, they're that hard to see. There's also a set of controls on the rear panel and they are just as difficult to see as the ones on top. I love the black color, but it makes using the controls pretty much impossible. You really are at the mercy of the app at this point. This is ok until you just want to quickly turn the music down or stop it. The sound is fair for a speaker this size and it's perfect for areas that could really benefit from having music, but also don't have a lot of extra space to spare, like kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, offices, garages, you get the idea. There's no “extra bass” button or any kind of spacial sound enhancement. Instead Sonos relies on it's Automatic Trueplay technology. Which is, well good if you have an ios device, not great if you don't. I personally use Android, so I can't comment on the benefit of Trueplay, it has limited benefits for me. Overall the sound quality was a bit lacking for me. Very average with nothing that really struck me as quality sound. Bass was especially thin sounding. But the thing I miss the most that Sonos didn't bother to include, is DLNA certification. On a device that's built to be portable and taken to different houses, offices, work environments, I can't believe they didn't think it beneficial to include it. So what does this mean? Well if you've used a lot of different streamers you might be used to seeing a list of network devices where your music resides. At that point you can just pick the one you're interested in streaming from. I store all of my music in .flac file format on my Synology NAS drive. Every other streaming device I have will show my NAS in some list of devices making it super easy to select and stream from. Now, does this mean you can't connect to a NAS from the Sonos Play? No, it's possible, but it's not intuitive and it's a somewhat time consuming process. You need to manually add the specific network path as a “shared music folder”. By entering in the IP address of your NAS followed by the path to the music folder, then adding your username and password, you can start an indexing process that takes a ridiculous amount of time (depending on how large your library is), and then stores this index on each Sonos device. After around three hours, mine never really finished and I got tired of waiting. If you want to play music from your phone you can connect via Bluetooth instead of Wifi and use a different app to play your misic. I could find no way to access local music on my phone, from the Sonos app. I was also able to connect to the Play via Bluetooth and use a different streaming app to stream my NAS library to the Sonos, but at that point it's a little messy and you don't seem to be able to connect to your Sonos speaker “group”, only to a specific speaker. And really, it seems to defeat the purpose of being able to use the Sonos app for the benefits it does offer, like setting two connected Sonos devices to stereo mode or assign them to a group. If you're just interested in streaming from a music service, then Sonos has you covered with a huge number of streaming sites all conveniently listed. I found this to be confusing initially and unclear how this actually works, but after you log into your service you can add it to the “Your Services” section and you only need to choose the service you want to use at that point. This is where the Sonos ecosystem seems to shine brightest. It works well in this mode. The app itself is not the most intuitive and it would have been extremely valuable to include some kind of quick start guide to spell out the steps that will get you up and listening quickly. As it was, it took me monkeying around with things and figuring them out by trial and error. This tends to lead to a fair amount of frustration more than anything else, and you have to figure out the streaming limitations yourself. My best experience with this speaker was setting it up for Bluetooth connection and using a third party app to play music from my phone or stream from my NAS drive and bypass the Sonos app altogether. Although what Sonos is really trying to sell here is their infrastructure, and if you don't use the app, you're not going to be able to connect multiple Sonos speakers together, so you're left with a very portable, but mediocre sounding Bluetooth speaker, and they are obviously banking that you get all your music from streaming services, and not from your own library. LIKES: Portability Included charging base Great selection of streaming services Build quality is solid Ability to add multiple Sonos speakers in other areas DISLIKES: Difficult to use onboard buttons (can't see what they are) No DLNA certification Very difficult (impossible?) for the app to play locally stored music Sound is average Stereo mode only works with specific Sonos speakers (and not the one I additionally had) Anemic amount of documentation The base charging cord is molded into the base. So you can't change the cord if anything happens to it.

Integrated perfectly with existing Sonos system, for me app's not had issues, so it was up and running in minutes. the quality is very adjustable, by Sonos-app EQ , though it may take fine-tuning to find a crisp, but not too crisp or flat sound. The quality connected via wifi makes a huge difference, I'm going to say I'd pick this up at random in my days more than my Bose portable home smart speaker, though the Sonos doesn't integrate as well with homekit/siri, it does a good enough job, and you can use the internal app connected media-accounts, for direct hifi playback, directly, or use Sonos voice command for basic stuff if you don;'t want to use buttons, which are great, it's durable, small, but geez it's not a Beam or era100 pair with a submini, but it's really impressive, so far, great battery life, included charging stand, it's a generous package , at worst...just return if you don't like it, but just like the Sonos Ace vs. Sony xm*** or Bose QC etc, these are underdogs but I think this play speaker is hitting all the right notes ;)

This isn't my first Sonos product, so I'm used to the system. I think any of the problems with the app update from last year are long since gone. This is an insanely great speaker. The battery life is amazing. The charging base is great. We pick this speaker up and carry it outside. We don't have to worry about it getting wet. AirPlay just works. The Sonos app is great. I love the fact that the battery is replaceable as well. I could see us buying a couple more of these to be able to have around the house. Really love it.

My first Sonos speaker, i needed something easy to use, alexa capable, and good battery lfe. This ticks all the boxes and more, great quality, small, portable. Love it!

I am fully invested in the Sonos ecosystem. I have the Move 2 and love it, but it is very cumbersome for being portable. This fills in the gap - this device is truly portable, and carries the signature Sonos sound profile. Its very bass heavy, esp the extra low frequencies. The only speaker i've ever returned was the Sonos roam. I felt it was just too wimpy. This is the perfect substitution. This is perfect for the beach, the pool, the restroom during shower time. The wifi/bluetooth combo is great for in and out of the house. Its a little pricey, but if you've been bitten by the Sonos bug, you wont be sorry if you add to your system.

This speaker is amazing with one caveat that has nothing to do with the speaker, and I will cover it last. Let’s get the one and only negative of this speaker out of the way first. It is heavy. Not ridiculously heavy, but heavy. However, I have came to the conclusion that if you want great bass in a portable speaker, it has to have some weight to it. This thing has awesome bass that totally negates the weight. So much for the negative because everything else is amazing. Setup is so simple it is ridiculous, using the Sonos app. The app walks you through adding it to your Sonos “System” (or creating one if you don’t already have one) and also adds it to your WiFi. All you have to do is provide your WiFi password. I set up the Play and a not portable ERA 100 SL both in less than five minutes. Sonos uses a really wild sound key for the app to find and connect to the speaker. The speaker plays an actual short sound that the App listens for and recognizes the speaker using the sound. So much for setup. Again, it is simply amazingly simple. The speaker sounds great from any and all angles and I have already talked about the bass. The same is true of treble and all ranges in between. In the app, there is an equalizer that optionally lets you customize your speaker’s sound. There is not a way to save multiple equalizer settings, but that isn’t really an issue for me. There is not much more to say about the sound. For a portable speaker it is amazing. Funny thing is that calling it portable is almost an insult. When sitting on its charge base (included), it really functions as a full-blown home speaker. The portability seems to be just an amazing additional benefit of this amazing speaker. When on its base, I always play music in my home through both the ERA mentioned above and the Play speaker as though it is a permanent in home speaker. The two of them as a pair fill the entire downstairs open living area with music. Nice thing is that I keep it by the door to the deck and when I need music outdoors, I simply pick it up and take it outside with me. The music continues and now I have the same music playing inside and outside. This will be amazing this summer when the windows are open, and the music will play in tandem inside and outside. The speaker has minimal controls. See picture. There are the two volume buttons, the typical pause/play/skip button, and the voice control button. The Play unlike some of its non-portable siblings has voice control that allows you tell control what is playing with your voice. The Play has a physical switch on the back (just above the USB C cord in the picture) that allows you to disable the microphone if you wish. Now to the one caveat mentioned at the beginning. This speaker requires a USB-PD charging block with a MINIMUM output of 9V/2A/18W. This is a lot more output than most charging blocks including all of the most, if not all, of the more popular phones and tablets, and portable speakers. It doesn’t just charge slower, it WON’T charge at all with anything less. This is not that prominent in the descriptions of the product that I have found online. Even worse, it is barely mentioned that the charging block is NOT INCLUDED with the speaker. The charging block is approximately $30 on Sonos website and has to be separately purchased from the speaker. It took me quite a while to figure out why my speaker would not charge with any charge block I had in the house. As long as you’re willing to consider the $30 mandatory extra purchase (unless you already have one) as part of the purchase price, then there is absolutely no reason not to invest in this speaker. It is amazing in every way