A brilliant soundbar with Atmos smarts, a sharp design and more for a song.

One of the best, more affordable soundbars in recent years has been the Sonos Beam Gen 2 (even if Sonos is overdue to release a Gen 3 model), which brings with it some great performance across a variety of content and also doubles nicely as a Sonos WiFi speaker for wireless playback and smart speaker with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa powers that makes it quite the versatile customer. As part of a new Sonos Spring Sale, this soundbar is down to £349 from Amazon - that's the best price it's been since January.

We actually use a Beam Gen 2 at home, and have been a family of Sonos soundbar owners for the last five years - I still use our original one as a PC speaker, and it works well over an optical port with the included adapter to my gaming PC. The Gen 2 brings with it some worthwhile upgrades, most notably the addition of Dolby Atmos. While it isn't achieved by actual upwards-firing speakers (unlike the new Marshall Heston 60) and is more to do with 'psychoacoustics', the Beam Gen 2's Atmos performance is excellent in supported content, offering immersive audio with a great sense of depth and positioning. It works well for movies and for music, as you can install the likes of the Tidal app, hook the Beam Gen 2 up, and it'll allow you to play Atmos-mixed music. Granted, you'd get more immersion with a full surround system, but as a single box, it's pretty much unmatched in its price point for the Atmos experience (although that may soon change with rival options from the likes of Marshall and JBL), and is a great step towards upgrading your audio setup from more basic TV speakers.

Beyond the addition of Atmos, the Beam Gen 2 also features a small but important aesthetic upgrade, with the changeover from a fabric to a plastic grille. This may seem unimportant at first, but it makes the Beam Gen 2 look a lot cleaner, and it also makes it easier to wipe clean, too. The dust that's sometimes attracted to the fabric grille of my Gen 1 has caused me to consider to upgrade to the Gen 2 purely on the basis of the grille, admittedly.

It looks the same as the Beam Gen 1 otherwise, ith a small form factor that makes it easy to position anywhere you want to. For us, it's actually the only soundbar we could fit into the small alcove we've got for a TV and soundbar, and it's paired with the smallest 42-inch LG C2 OLED, which is a fantastic combo for the combined price. Otherwise, it's got the same capacitive touch buttons on the top, which feel solid, and the same minimal interface - a single HDMI eARC port that allows for Atmos (Another small, but convenient upgrade), an Ethernet port, power socket and pairing button. Getting up and running with the Beam Gen 2 is easy, as long as you've got the associated Sonos app - simply follow the instructions on screen, and also make sure to use TruePlay if you've got an iOS device for the most optimised experience where the app and your iPhone's microphone will 'listen' to the room you're placing the Beam in and optimise its profile to suit.

The Beam Gen 2's audio is also quite rich and detailed, with enough volume that can certainly fill our smaller living room, and also the entire downstairs. If you've got a small to medium sized room, the Beam Gen 2 will easily fill it and provide you with a fair amount of punch for the price. It's certainly an enhancement over the first gen option, with a surprising amount of low end for such a small unit, and a better sense of scale. It's also as impressive with music as it is for films and other content, which makes the Beam Gen 2 a treat for pretty much anything you choose to watch or listen to.

Of course, this isn't 'just' a soundbar, and integrates well with Sonos' acclaimed system of WiFi speakers, and you can play music from virtually any device with the Sonos app installed to it, plus it integrates with Roon, and I've had no issues using it with Tidal and Spotify over the years. There is also support for AirPlay 2 for convenient operation with Apple devices, and smart assistant support in the form of both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for searching for content on streaming services, or answering any questions you may have, for instance. You can also add everything from a Sonos Sub Mini for more bass, or a pair of Sonos Era 100s behind you as rear channel speakers to create a seamless surround sound system that all integrates rather nicely. The beauty of the Sonos system is that you can upgrade it at your leisure, and the modularity of it - you can pair all sorts with the Beam Gen 2 and get a convincing surround system that suits your budget.

The Sonos Beam Gen 2 is a truly excellent Dolby Atmos soundbar for the price, and if you want to upgrade your TV or PC speaker setup with a handy all-in-one solution, it's an amazing choice, especially for the best price it's been since January.