Polk Audio React vs Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

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React compared with Beam (Gen 2)

	Polk AudioReact	SonosBeam (Gen 2)
Overview
Released
Released	January 2021	October 2021
Sound
Type
Type	Soundbar	Soundbar
Channels
Channels	2.0	–
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos	No	Yes
Drivers
Drivers	Two 96 × 69 mm midrange drivers, two 25 mm tweeters and two 110 × 100 mm passive radiators; optional React Sub and SR2 rear speakers sold separately	One centre tweeter, four elliptical midwoofers and three passive radiators
Amplifiers
Amplifiers	–	Five class-D digital amplifiers
Audio formats
Audio formats	Linear PCM, Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround; 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz sampling. Physical stereo 2.0 bar; optional subwoofer and rear speakers expand to 4.1 discrete channels (AVForums), with a virtual centre presentation.	Stereo PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos (Dolby Digital Plus); with HDMI eARC also Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos (TrueHD), multichannel PCM and Dolby multichannel PCM; DTS Digital Surround
Room tuning
Room tuning	Movie, Music, Sport and Night listening modes; bass and VoiceAdjust dialogue-level adjustment	Trueplay (iOS device required); bass, treble and loudness adjustable; Speech Enhancement; Night Sound
Connections
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	Yes	No
AirPlay
AirPlay	No	Yes
HDMI eARC
HDMI eARC	No	Yes
Voice assistants
Voice assistants	Alexa	Alexa and Google Assistant
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac networking on 2.4 and 5 GHz	802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.2, SBC and AAC; A2DP 1.3 and AVRCP 1.6; approximate 10 m line-of-sight range under maker conditions	–
Ports
Ports	One HDMI ARC connection and optical digital input; USB-A service port does not play music from USB drives. No analogue AUX input or separate HDMI video passthrough input.	HDMI eARC (optical adapter included); 10/100 Ethernet; IR receiver
Streaming
Streaming	Spotify Connect, Bluetooth and music services through Alexa; no AirPlay 2 (TechRadar)	Apple AirPlay 2; Sonos Radio
Multi-room
Multi-room	Alexa multiroom music with compatible Alexa-enabled speakers	Groups with other Sonos products over Wi-Fi; add a Sonos Sub and rear speakers; TV Audio Swap to Sonos Ace headphones
App
App	Amazon Alexa app for network setup and voice-service configuration	Sonos app (iOS and Android); works with the TV remote
Design
Weight
Weight	2.9 kg	2.88 kg (better)
Controls
Controls	Top microphone mute, volume and Alexa action buttons; IR remote, HDMI CEC and IR learning. Light bar and status LED with ambient-light brightness adjustment.	Capacitive touch controls (play, pause, skip, replay, volume, microphone off)
Microphones
Microphones	Four far-field microphones for Alexa with a physical microphone-mute button; current EU manual states the microphone cannot be used for calls.	Far-field microphone array with beamforming and multichannel echo cancellation
Mounting
Mounting	Rear wall-hook holes and supplied wall-mount template	0.5 in (12.7 mm) threaded mount / 10-32 threaded socket; wall mount sold separately
Size
Size	Soundbar 864 × 57 × 121 mm, W × H × D (maker manual dimension diagram); main weight is bar only. Maker information sheet's 1066.8 mm width conflicts with its 34.02 in width.	68 × 651 × 100 mm (H × W × D)
Colours
Colours	Black with fabric grille	Black, White
In the box
In the box	Soundbar, IR remote, two AAA batteries, power cord, HDMI and optical cables, wall-mount template and quick-start guide; maker sheet additionally lists a separate soundbar power supply.	Beam (Gen 2), power cable (2 m), HDMI cable (1.5 m), optical audio adapter, documentation