It makes sense comparing Sonos Beam vs Sonos Playbar because they both are able to give some premium features. Based on our rating, Beam has a total rating of 6 out of 10 versus 5.5 for Playbar. The competitors' control buttons are different: volume down, volume up, microphone, play/pause and play/pause, volume up, volume down, respectively.
Both soundbars have active amplification type. Soundbars have the same number of channels on 3.0. Competitors do not have a built-in subwoofer. Rivals have wireless connection to separate subwoofer. The Sonos Beam got our rating of 6 out of 10, and the Sonos Playbar 7 for its audio features and specs.
Each of rivals supports AirPlay 2. Spotify support is available on the Playbar.
These models have the ability to connect to the Internet via WI-FI. Only the Beam has Bluetooth support. The HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) does not support any one of these models. The compared models do not have a USB connector. For connectivity, the Beam received a rating of 6/10 versus 3/10, respectively. App control is available in every soundbar. A built-in microphone is present only on the Beam. Soundbars do not have Multi-room support.
None of soundbars equipped with Dolby Atmos multichannel audio decoder. The soundbars do not support the surround sound technology DTS:X. For multichannel surround, each of the opponents received 4 points out of 10.