Amazon Echo (4th Gen) vs Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

The Amazon Echo (4th Gen) wins overall on value and smart home capability. It costs a fraction of the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), carries a built-in Zigbee coordinator, Thread border router and Matter bridge, offers dual-band Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth, and adds motion and temperature sensors. The Beam is the better choice only if your priority is TV audio rather than home control.

Their purpose. The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) is a soundbar built to sit under a television, with speech enhancement and processed Dolby Atmos, and it wall mounts. The Amazon Echo (4th Gen) is a standalone smart speaker with a smart home hub inside, controlling Zigbee, Thread and Matter devices directly, which no Sonos speaker does.

The Sonos Beam (Gen 2). It runs Alexa, Google Assistant or Sonos Voice Control and works with Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant. The Amazon Echo (4th Gen) is Alexa only, with no Google Home or HomeKit support and only partial Home Assistant integration, so a mixed-platform household leans toward the Beam.

No. The Amazon Echo (4th Gen) supports Bluetooth and connects over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, and it has a 3.5 mm line-in. The Sonos Beam (Gen 2) has no Bluetooth and is limited to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, though it does include an Ethernet port for a wired connection, which the Echo lacks.

Buy the Amazon Echo (4th Gen) if you are in the Alexa ecosystem and want one device that plays music, answers questions and replaces a Zigbee hub. Its Thread border router and Matter bridge future-proof it, its temperature and motion sensors feed routines, and the price is a fraction of the Sonos. Note the short 90-day warranty.

Buy the Sonos Beam (Gen 2) if television sound is the problem you are solving. Its center tweeter and speech enhancement make dialogue intelligible, it fits under most TVs, it can grow into a surround system with other Sonos speakers, and it supports Alexa, Google Assistant, Sonos Voice Control, AirPlay 2 and Home Assistant with a 1-year warranty.