The Sonos Era 100 Is $50 Off This Black Friday

If you’re in the market for a compact speaker with excellent sound quality, the Sonos Era 100 is worth a look—especially now that it’s down to $199 on Amazon (from $249). It features dual-band Wi-Fi 6 for reliable streaming and Bluetooth 5.0 (this slightly older Bluetooth version might be a letdown for some), along with Apple AirPlay 2 support. That said, out of the plenty of streaming options this speaker gives you, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, and more, Google Cast isn’t one of them.

You can manage the Era 100 using voice commands through Alexa or Sonos Voice; however, you might find the lack of Google Assistant limiting. If you’re already invested in Google’s ecosystem, alternatives like the Sonos One ($199.98, for a refurbished one) could be a better fit, though it still does not support Google Cast. On the plus side, privacy controls are solid, with a physical mic mute button and a switch to completely disable the mics for added security. It also has a USB-C port for wired audio or Ethernet connections, but you’ll need to shell out extra dollars to buy separate adapters for those.

The Era 100 does a great job with midrange and low-frequency sounds but it reportedly struggles a bit with deep sub-bass. You can boost bass at lower volumes with a loudness feature in the Sonos app, though how much it helps seems to depend on where you place the speaker, notes this PCMag review. And, if you’re building out a Sonos system to fill your home with music, the Era 100 fits right in, effortlessly connecting with other Sonos speakers for multi-room audio—you don’t even need to reconnect to your wifi to pair them.