Sonos One speaker now packs more powerful internals

How do you improve the Sonos One speaker when there aren't too many qualms about the basic design? If you ask Sonos, it's all about future-proofing. The company is rolling out a Gen 2 version of the One that shares the same design, but includes Bluetooth Low Energy, a newer processor and more memory. In other words, it should perform next-generation tasks that would simply be too much for the original to handle -- not that Sonos is saying just what those additions might be.

The Gen 2 model is "transitioning" into the market, and you'll see the original One discounted to $179 to help clear out stock. We've asked Sonos if there will be a way to tell whether you're getting a Gen 2 beyond the price, but it's safe to say you'll want to double-check that you're buying the latest version. When Sonos introduced AirPlay 2 support, it had to leave older speakers behind. There might come a time when you'll need a Gen 2 speaker to use certain features, even though it's otherwise functionally identical to its predecessor.