Latest news with #ArcUltra
Mint
01-07-2025
- Mint
5 top gadget reviews in June 2025: HP Omnibook 5, Sonos Arc Ultra and more
Not every product I write about comes from a full review cycle. Some I spend days with, others just long enough to form a clear opinion. But each of these stood out in June either for getting something surprisingly right, or trying something different in an otherwise predictable category. Here are five products that left a mark. This one's all about restraint. At a time when AI laptops are tripping over themselves to look futuristic, the Omnibook 5 focuses on being reliable. Its standout feature? Cool, quiet, and consistent performance even under load, paired with surprisingly good battery life. The AI additions are there, but they don't scream for attention, and that's precisely why they work. HP Omnibook 5 Precision, warmth, and a lot of emotional pull. This system doesn't just sound good, it feels immersive. The Arc Ultra and Sub 4 make a case for sound that doesn't overpower but surrounds. What stood out most is how well it handled low-volume detail, and how naturally it blended into daily life once you stopped treating it like a gadget. Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 Dell's Pro 14 isn't trying to be a statement piece, but it gets one thing right: it adapts well to serious work across different environments. The 16:10 screen ratio, the thermals, and its solid productivity performance make it a dependable business-first device. It doesn't cut corners on essentials, even if it slightly overpromises on its premium positioning. Dell Pro 14 (PA14250) Premium This was the surprise package of the month. At under ₹ 10,000, the Super ZX, it becomes one of the most affordable 5G smartphones on the market. This phone delivers just enough power, polish, and display quality to feel usable and not compromised. It's rare to find a phone in this segment that doesn't feel like it was built purely to meet a price. The Super ZX tries to raise the floor instead of chasing specs. Acer Super ZX smartphone The Primebook S is an Android laptop at ₹ 14,490, which sounds like a joke until you actually use it. What it nails is the classroom-first mindset: easy for students, fluid enough for basic tasks, and designed around Google's education tools. It's not trying to be a Windows replacement, it's carving out its own niche. Primebook S Wi-Fi June was an interesting month for reviews. These were the ones that left a lasting impression after use. Stay tunes for the July roundup of such interesting products.
Tom's Guide
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
The Sonos Ace have one of my favorite wireless features — and its not the ANC
It's 1am — the rest of the house is sound asleep. Yet, despite the impending early morning and long day of work, I remain awake, staring at the TV. After all, my binge-watch of "HomeTown Cha Cha Cha" isn't over yet, and I've got three quarters of an episode to watch. But, thanks to my Sonos Ace, no one is awake to hear my midnight TV session. And it's all thanks to the ace hidden up my best headphones sleeves —the audio handover mode. It might just be one of my favorite inventions ever on a pair of headphones, and I learned recently that I actually can't live without it. The Sonos Ace have so many useful features from their excellent sound and continuously improving ANC to the comfort and the Spatial Audio. One of the coolest is how they connect to a Sonos soundbar and take over the audio duties from your TV. The feature in question is called "TV Audio Swap", and it lets the Sonos Ace take over from your Sonos soundbar, like the Arc Ultra, when you don't want to disturb the rest of the house. For me, it's been utterly instrumental in making sure that I don't annoy the people I live with whenever I want to watch some TV or watch a movie. It's easy to set up and use — it's in the settings menu. You slide a switch, tell the app which soundbar you'd like it to work with, and you're away. When you want to watch TV with your headphones, just press and hold the control slider on the headphones. One audio confirmation later, you're all hooked up and listening to your TV audio over your headphones. It's one of the few features I haven't really had any issues with at all over the course of my ownership of both my Arc Ultra and my Sonos Ace. I've used it to watch everything from political question time shows that follow elections to Nascar races at three in the morning and movies that need massive sound at stupid o'clock, when I should really in be in bed. The way that the TV audio swap feature was sold to me when I first chatted with Sonos was a "personal home cinema." That's because it uses the virtual surround of the headphones to make your movies sound like a cinema, or a fully equipped Sonos Arc Ultra setup. The Sonos Ace were already my favorite spatial audio headphones, so to use them for movies felt like a good side step. It's super impressive. The headphones do a great job of taking a spatial audio mix and making it sound like it's all around you. Space battles in Star Wars that surround you in action, car chases that make you feel like you're in the thick of it, and soundscapes that place you directly into the action. It's not quite as good as a cinema, obviously. You don't get the rumble of subwoofers, for example. But it's more than enough to have a great time when you don't want to wake anyone up. One of the coolest parts is the TrueCinema feature. That uses the TruePlay mapping of your space, and then makes a virtual surround version in your headphones. It's loads of fun, and if you've got a Sonos surround already set up it can make things feel more seamless. When I went to use my Sonos Ace a couple of weeks ago, they wouldn't start up. "Kaput," I believe the Germans would put it. They simply wouldn't power up. The battery had completely drained, and they wouldn't charge. "Bereft of life, it rests in peace." Of course, it happened just as I wanted to watch a movie before bed, when everyone else was already getting 40 winks. I was gobsmacked — what was I going to do? For the next few days, I was unable to watch my surround sound at a decent enough volume. I had to slum it with low volume. No spatial audio, just low volume and no bass. Incredible sadness, queue the tissues and the red wine. It was my time without the Sonos Ace that made me realize how much I use the feature. Thankfully, I was quickly able to get myself another pair, but it highlighted how important it has become in my TV watching. Look, I know I'm very lucky. Not everyone has or can afford the $449 for the Sonos Ace, as well as a compatible Sonos soundbar. It's a lot of money to ask for a feature, and I would love to see it come to some more affordable option. I'm thinking it'd be like a way to connect your Sony headphones to your Sony soundbar, no matter how much you've paid for either. As both headphones and soundbars become a more expected part of people's audio setups, it would be excellent to see them work together more. But for now, you'll need to spend at least $800 on the Sonos Ace and a Sonos soundbar.
Campaign ME
25-06-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Sonos debuts in KSA with immersive activation by StickyGinger
Sonos has officially entered the Saudi Arabian market with a brand-led experiential activation, conceptualised and executed by independent communications agency StickyGinger. The campaign introduced the global audio brand to a new audience during the SLS Expo in Riyadh, combining influencer engagement, media relations and hands-on tech storytelling to deliver a high-impact market entry. For its first appearance in the Kingdom, Sonos tasked StickyGinger to design and lead the brand experience. The launch included a curated programme of media interviews, influencer walkthroughs, and tailored demonstrations, featuring products such as the Arc Ultra, Sub 4, and Era 300. Inside the exhibition space, StickyGinger transformed the Sonos booth into an interactive zone, highlighting the brand's multi-room audio capabilities and immersive sound quality. A total of 26 media and influencer demos were conducted on-site, creating authentic engagement opportunities with a mix of tech reviewers, lifestyle content creators and journalists. According to the agency, the launch generated over 17 million impressions across digital and social media platforms, helping to establish Sonos as a premium entrant in the Kingdom's growing consumer tech and lifestyle segment. Commenting on the agency's broader approach, Heba Hemdan, Head of PR at StickyGinger, noted: 'Sonos was about making noise in a new market… Different briefs, one belief: great storytelling starts with experience.' StickyGinger's campaign integrated its core disciplines– creative, PR, influencer, social, and activation – into a unified strategy focused on real-time interaction and local resonance. With this launch, Sonos positions itself as a tech-forward brand ready to serve the evolving expectations of Saudi consumers, while StickyGinger continues to expand its footprint in delivering culturally relevant, full-service campaigns across the region.
Tom's Guide
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
I set up an incredible Dolby Atmos soundbar experience in my living room — unfortunately, it's really annoying to live with
Just like most cinephiles, I can't get enough of a good surround mix. Something that makes it sound and feel like my movies are happening all around me, so that I'm immersed in the world of whatever movie I might be watching. For a long time, it was an assembled bunch of speakers and old gear that I'd bought from eBay that gave me my surround sound mix — but when I heard that the Sonos Arc Ultra could create a similarly excellent movie experience, my interest was piqued. So I decided to give it a test and see how good it might sound, how simple it is to use and how easy it is to live with. Spoiler alert: Unfortunately, not everything was plain sailing during my Sonos Arc Ultra surround sound journey. This is exactly the system that I used to test out the spatial audio potential of the Arc Ultra. It's not cheap, but it absolutely blew me away with its sound quality. It might be difficult to live with if you're short on space, though. Getting the Sonos Arc Ultra working on its own was super simple. I just placed it in front of the TV, plugged it into power, and then plugged the HDMI port into the eARC port on the TV. There were a couple of different setup steps required in the Sonos app, but then it was done. All sorted. From there, we had to connect the other components of the system, starting with the Sonos Sub4. This was also relatively simple. I plugged it in and then used the Sonos app to connect it to the Arc Ultra wirelessly. At least I say relatively simple — it did take a couple of tries for the app to recognize the soundbar, and I had to go over the process a couple of times before everything was sorted. Now it was the turn of the surround speakers — in my case, a pair of Sonos Era 300s. While the soundbar and subwoofer were fairly easy to place, the Eras were not. They're much larger than the surround speakers I've used in the past, so they need more space behind the couch. I borrowed the speaker stands from my upstairs HiFi, but this is hardly a permanent solution. It's also one of the primary issues with the system so far — but I'll get back to that later. Once placed, I could get the speakers set up with the Sonos app. There were a couple of issues here, although none of them really made life too annoying. Both speakers needed updates as I went through the setup process, but one of them decided it had to do something else and quit the update halfway through. Finally, they were both in the Sonos app — but now I had to join them to the Arc Ultra and the Sub 4. "Easy!" I thought. "Not annoying at all," I hoped. Alas, it was a pain. In the app, things initially looked simple — and they would be, if things worked properly. But I had so many signal dropouts and issues that by the time I'd finally managed to get them connected together, the only thing I could think was "this had better be worth the effort." I can see the vision of the surround sound setup of the Sonos Arc system — if everything worked well, it would have been much, much quicker. Unfortunately, it seems plagued by instability and all kinds of weird usability quirks afforded by Sonos' consistently disappointing app. But, my goodness, was it worth it for the sound. The Sonos Arc Ultra on its own is already pretty impressive for Dolby Atmos when you're watching movies — but adding in the extra spatial audio capability of the pair of Era 300s elevated things to a whole new level. There were now double the height channels coming from different parts of the room, working together to make things move every which way above your head. There's extra side virtual surrounds for stuff happening on either side of you, and then the physical rear channels afforded by the speakers being behind you. All in? Everything sounds unreal. Every single one of my test movie scenes blew me away. There was massive bass depth from the subwoofer, and everything happening around me made sure that I was immersed in the scenes. This whole thing took a whole lot longer to write because I just couldn't stop watching my movies — I had to force myself to turn Star Wars off. The frenetic action of the opening scene of "Star Wars: Episode III" put me directly in the middle of the space battle over Coruscant. Anakin and Obi-Wan fly over Star Destroyers and the droid fleet in the thick of battle, each laser blast zooming past my head. The dialogue was still able to cut through the rest of the din, however, making sure I could hear what the Jedi were saying. It was the spatial audio bubble that was the most impressive bit, however. It was clearer, and each element of the soundscape was easy to place within my space. A spinning buzz droid slips off Anakin's ship and wizzes behind me, disappearing into the distance. It's super impressive. The rest of my testing revealed more impressive surround sound: the car chase from "The Matrix Reloaded," the opening scene from "Kingsman," the rain in The Emperor's Blades in "Dune". Everything sounds huge and makes your movies sound amazing. So it sounds really, really good — I don't think I can deny that at all. There's incredible surround sound, the spatial audio feels like a game changer and it even sounded good for spatial music (even if I'm not entirely enamored with the format). But some liveability quirks are now persuading me to put the Eras back in their old homes. The first is down to them, in fact. They're much larger than traditional surround speakers, taking up a whole lot more space behind the sofa. There are stands that take up less space than the chunky ones that I used, but even then, there's the "uh oh, I might knock these over" factor whenever you walk behind the sofa — as I do, whenever I need to get to the conservatory. Then there are the power cables to each speaker. When it's a speaker cable, you can more easily route them out of the way and off the floor because they're generally thinner, and all going to one place. The power cables the Era's need are much chunkier and need to be plugged into the wall or an extension block. In my case, I nearly tripped over them multiple times because they had to trail across the floor in a walkway. Not ideal. Finally, there are the Sonos app problems that continue to plague all of my Sonos devices. The rear surrounds dropped out a couple of times, there were all the setup issues and I've had problems with getting music playing on the system even through the Sonos app itself. It's a massive shame, because conceptually, the Sonos Arc Ultra and its surround system are very cool. Wireless surround that uses all of its own amps to save space on your TV stand? And it's all connected to the internet? Great, sounds good. But the reality just isn't quite there. It sounds phenomenal, and it's incredibly impressive. But, as I now put it all back where it came from, I can't help but think a traditional Home cinema system might not just sound better, but also provide even better spatial audio sound quality thanks to physical surround and height channels. It would have more reliable wired connections, and there would be far less that requires connection to the internet. Considering that I could pick up a multi-channel true surround system for a very similar price, I do wonder if the wireless nature of the Sonos Arc Ultra and its accompaniments start to make less and less sense — especially considering how annoying the setup turned out to be. So, I'll be going back to the Sonos Arc Ultra on its own for now — but this experience has whet my appetite for the Dolby Atmos experience. Perhaps it's now time to start looking at amplifiers again...
India Today
17-06-2025
- India Today
Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 review: A match made in home theatre heaven
The word 'ultra' stands for something that goes way beyond what many perceive as usual or ordinary. Regardless of whether you use it as a prefix or a suffix, it is widely understood, what we're dealing with is something extraordinary. Especially in consumer tech circles – where it gets thrown around a lot these days – the word ultra represents the latest and absolute greatest thing a brand can here's the thing: sometimes, it can get tricky. What if someone made an ultra-capable thing, but did not call it ultra? Marketing would say they missed an opportunity. But what if that thing was so far ahead of its time, it didn't matter what they called it? What's in a name, right? But here's another thing: what if the same company goes and launches a follow-up model? Only this time, it names it could say that this brand – which is called Sonos – chooses its words with extreme caution. You could also say it has a crack marketing team, which decided to hold off 'overselling' its product – the Sonos Arc – with fancy naming knowing full well, its engineers could pull off something even more impressive, something truly worthy of the title ultra, even if it takes another five years to get unbelievable as it might seem, it is business as usual at Sonos, where a lot of these decisions are in fact being taken by the very people who are making these products. So, despite what you may hear about it – based on recent events – this is a company with a great culture. We don't know where it will go from here, but that is a subject for another day and another discussion. For now, what's fascinating to me is how on earth Sonos managed to make an already ultra-class product, even more ultra. We'll try and find out in this India Today Tech review of the Sonos Arc Ultra premium soundbar, and its companion piece (but completely optional), the Sonos Sub 4 Arc Ultra and Sub 4: Design and buildSonos, like Apple, is known – and revered – for minimalist design. Everything from the box to its contents and the device inside mirror the sentiment as if it were a ground rule. The Arc Ultra and Sub 4 are no exception. Unboxing is an experience and Sonos wants you to feel and enjoy it. Strange that a piece of tech brings joy like this, but in a world that is full of complexities, anything that makes your life simple is priceless. But I Arc Ultra retains the sleek, elongated, and gracefully curved silhouette that made its predecessor – Sonos Arc – an instant design icon. Available in stand-alone white and black, it is designed to sit elegantly beneath large televisions, or you can mount it on your wall. Either way, it has a general propensity to blend well with the dcor if you have a large room setup. I won't go into the specifics, but the soundbar is 117.3 cm in width, 8 cm in height, and 11 cm in depth. It weighs 5.9 kg. So, you can go It is not huge per se, but it is not small, like say, the Ray or Beam, other soundbars that Sonos makes. But – and this is the real kicker – it is noticeably more compact than the Arc, meaning that Sonos was able to shrink a lot of things, add more things, and yet, make a relatively smaller product. A newly included back panel now provides more convenient access to controls and ports. Surely, people who've had no prior access won't be able to relate, which is why, if possible, you should visit a Sonos store near you. The difference – and the spec upgrade – will blow your Sub 4, with its unique central opening, doesn't stray very far from the Sub 3 in look and feel. It is still striking to look at, yet very tasteful and functional. You can put it vertically or horizontally, much like the PlayStation Arc Ultra and Sub 4: SetupThe simplicity extends, or rather, it blends into the setup process as if it were one entity. You start by plugging in the Arc Ultra to power and connecting it to your TV's HDMI eARC port. The Sub 4 needs to be plugged into a separate power outlet wherever you feel it is convenient (you don't need to connect it to the TV or even the soundbar). Once ready, open the Sonos app on your phone or tablet, at which point, it will detect new Sonos devices nearby. Follow the on-screen prompts to add the Arc Ultra to your existing Sonos system or create a new the soundbar is set up, the app will prompt you to add the Sub 4. With a few taps, it pairs wirelessly with the Arc Ultra. The setup is now complete. You can choose to start using it at this point or, enable Trueplay, which is basically Sonos' version of Apple's Colour Balance, but for audio. It basically lets you calibrate the soundbar to the shape and confines of your room so it can deliver – per Sonos – the best possible sound stage and tonal is all technical jargon and there is an off chance, most people would simply skip it much in the same way they do with instruction manuals. But it doesn't take up a lot of your time and doesn't require you to jump through multiple hoops to call it a menial and cumbersome task, so I'd say you should go ahead with it. Watching, or rather listening to your soundbar firing invisible beams of sound in the air like in Sci-Fi movies, was definitely not something that I had signed up for. But I am glad it exists and with Sonos finally opening the platform to Android, more people can access it now. Previously, Trueplay was an Apple-exclusive feature, meaning that only people with iPhones could use Arc Ultra and Sub 4: Sound performanceWe've established that the original Sonos Arc was a strong performer, so, what does the Arc Ultra do, its predecessor couldn't? The devil, apparently, lies in the details. This starts with the hardware set itself. The Arc Ultra simply has more powerful hardware. Despite its tighter dimensions, Sonos was able to put 15 Class-D digital amplifiers and 14 drivers inside it while the Arc had 11 of each. That's four more amps and three additional upwards and sideways-firing drivers. Sonos even says the design was modified internally for better acoustics. What you might be more interested to know is, the Arc Ultra has a 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos surround sound profile. The 5.0.2 Arc, even though it sounded amazing, was technically less immersive even by Sonos's own spec Arc Ultra is also getting the first dibs at its new Sound Motion technology, which is basically a new – and proprietary – type of transducer that takes up less space and yet, theoretically delivers double the bass response. The idea is to let the soundbar itself do more of the heavy lifting even before the subwoofer kicks in. In the real world, what this means is that the Arc Ultra delivers a surprisingly and substantially more robust low-end while freeing up the other drivers to focus on mid-range and high-frequency clarity. Speech enhancement is also getting an upgrade with more fine-tuning options that work silently in the background to enhance dialogue, which is often a pain point for soundbars. Maybe you're getting the sense that this is a very thought-out product, the work of scientists and engineers who worked day in and day out to perfect the internal structuring, so everything has a distinct purpose. Good, we're on the same the Arc Ultra holds its own, pairing it with the Sub 4 – unsurprisingly – unlocks greater immersion (provided you're willing to loosen your wallet). Compared to the Arc Ultra, the upgrades here are less headline-grabbing. In fact, they are incremental at best, but frankly speaking, that is okay. There was nothing wrong with the Sub 3. It is still a compelling system, but the newer generation brings promise of more polish and refinement. Also, from pure marketing speak, your mind would say, it should work better with the Arc Ultra even if your heart says, there's merit in saving some hard-earned cash. Both are right, which is why it helps to know that the Sub 4 is an optional purchase, not a necessity. You can pick and choose your poison. Whatever works for the Sub 4 has dual 5- x 8-inch elliptical woofers. While they do deliver deep and impactful bass, what stands out more is how they do it with full and total control. Subwoofers often tend to run around like headless chickens but the Sub 4 walks into a room and owns it. Its force-cancelling design, of course, plays a key role in this, its two inward-facing woofers virtually eliminating cabinet vibration, meaning you get pure, unadulterated bass without any annoying distortions, even when you crank up the volume. But truth be told, this was mostly expected. What's surprising is how quickly it can plunge down to something like 25 Hz, letting you feel every explosion, every rumble of thunder, and every beat of a bass drum as if you were right there. Not many subwoofers can brag about a wide soundstage like the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 work like a dynamic duo. They work to each other's strengths. They lift each other up when the going gets rough. More specifically, the Sub 4 takes over the demanding low-frequency duties, allowing the Arc Ultra to focus its substantial power and drivers on rendering the mid-range and high frequencies with even greater precision and openness. The synergy creates a wider, deeper, and more open Arc Ultra and Sub 4: ConnectivityThe Sonos Arc Ultra also brings a much-needed connectivity upgrade. While Wi-Fi 6 lets it stream high-resolution audio, with Bluetooth 5.3 support, you can now also stream directly from mobile devices. It might seem small, but this quality-of-life feature was missing from the original Arc for some curious reason. Then there are the usual suspects: HDMI eARC, AirPlay 2, and voice control, though this is still limited to Amazon Alexa and Sonos's own voice control offering. While not a deal-breaker, the absence of DTS:X support might be a minor concern for a very niche audience with extensive DTS:X media Arc Ultra and Sub 4: Should you buy?The Sonos Arc Ultra at Rs 99,999 and the Sonos Sub 4 at Rs 84,999 offer an amazing home theatre experience. The Arc Ultra is a big step up from the original, with more powerful insides and a fuller Dolby Atmos sound that really pulls you into the content. Even on its own, it delivers impressive if you want the absolute best sound, adding the Sub 4 makes a huge difference. It handles the deep bass perfectly, letting the Arc Ultra focus on clear voices and detailed sounds. Together, they create a wider, richer sound that fills the room. Plus, with Bluetooth and better sound tuning for Android phones, these Sonos products are a smart buy for anyone serious about great home audio despite their premium price tags. It is truly a match made in home theatre heaven.
