Windows Phone App Review: Phonos - A Sonos Controller

WP Central Lumia 800 Sonos

The Sonos multi-room streaming music system is probably my favourite piece of musical gadgetry correct at present. I listen to a lot of music and it's often a hurting to keep plugging in my phone or mp3 histrion into a system in each room. It took me plenty of deliberation, just eventually I succumbed to buying a few bits of the Sonos kit. Now I could have music playing throughout my minor flat. "Wonderful," I idea, until I realised in that location isn't an official Sonos app for Windows Phone. Luckily, I plant Phonos in the marketplace. How well does it stack up against the competition and of course the official offering from Sonos? Read on to find out..

Setup

Upon installing the app you lot'll be taken through a painless setup process and then that information technology can find your Sonos system. Just click Starting time and off you lot go; it will look for your organisation and you're done. The official app would require you to hit a connect button on one of the Sonos players to pair the controller app, then in this regard it is actually a little easier.

In Employ

The app itself moves forth prissy and quickly, getting the essential job of music option and zone group (connecting Sonos players together to play the aforementioned source) washed with lilliputian or no fuss. The primary 'at present playing' screen is where yous will find all the controls needed for volume, for both individual rooms and the group. You are able to share what you're listening to via Twitter and Facebook. Sharing uses Windows Phones native 'postal service a message' functionality, meaning there's no additional setup required in connecting your social networks. That kind of deep linking is exactly what I like to see.

WP Central Phonos LastFM

Selecting a music source is handled by tapping the primal cover fine art/album tile on the main screen. I institute that a niggling counter-intuitive at first only one time yous know how it becomes 2nd nature. I think a "select music source" button would have been far more discoverable. Sonos have been busy adding music services to their platform so now includes nine options y'all can stream through the player. Phonos currently supports three of these services: Last.fm, Rdio and Spotify. Those three certainly cover my own needs. If you lot were hankering after whatever of the others, yous will have either to wait or grab the official app on another platform.

Phonos

Improvements that I'd like to meet, such as being able to skip, pause, and terminate tracks from the lock screen are probable impossible due to how Windows Phone works. But we can all dream, right?

Conclusion

Phonos fills a gap that is sadly left past the absence of an official Sonos offer. Information technology does so extremely well. Whilst non as full featured as Sonos'southward own app on other platforms, it does nowadays the best feel you lot can get from whatsoever app currently in the Windows Telephone market by a wide margin. The UI is intuitive overall and offers quick and piece of cake access to grouping and music choice. If cover art is bachelor, it will display that as a groundwork to the now playing screen. That looks very dapper and dare I say, does a better job than the Sonos offering elsewhere.

I have been to the marketplace and looked at user reviews. There is some malaise at the price of $9.99 (£7.99 in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland). For people that accept just gone out and splurged around £500 on a streaming music organization, £7.99 isn't very much to enquire. Considering how niche the market is for such a actor, I'd await it to come with a higher request price. Having tried the other apps in the marketplace, I tin can say with confidence that Phonos is simply the best Sonos controller available for Windows Phone. Information technology's clear the developer is actually keen to improve the app and support his users personally. That kind of support makes recommending this app even easier. If y'all have a Sonos system and a Windows Phone, Phonos is the app to get.

**UPDATE**

I wasnt able to see the full range of services supported by Phonos (geo fenced via Sonos). Happy to report the total list includeds; Pandora , Spotify , MOG , Last.fm , iheartradio and WiMP

Thanks to pinkfloyd01 who picked up on this in the comments!

For more information about the developer, see my interview with Andy Pennell.

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