Motorola's Sound Flow speaker has Wi-Fi, UWB, and is a perfect rival to the Sonos Roam

Motorola isn't new to making portable speakers, as it has launched several models in the past, with its most recent ones being the ROKR series, which includes the ROKR 300 (available on Amazon for $29.99). However, the new Moto Sound Flow speaker isn't like any of its previous models. Shy of being a smart speaker, the Sound Flow is in the league of speakers such as the Sonos Roam 2 and even boasts features not available on Sonos's own speaker.

The Moto Sound Flow has a tall cylindrical design with a flat top with an LED ring and a flat base that sits on a charging dock. Motorola says the speaker is wrapped in refined twill-textured fabric, and it is available in Pantone Carbon (black) and Pantone Warm Taupe (brown).

Under the fabric are a 20W woofer, a 10W tweeter, and two passive radiators. The Moto Speaker features Sound by Bose technology like the Moto Buds Loop. There are capacitive touch buttons at the top and four microphones for hands-free calling. Motorola also says the speaker is rated IP67 for dust and water resistance. The speaker packs a 6,000mAh battery capacity that will last up to 12 hours and charges via an included dock or a USB-C port on the back.

The Moto Sound Flow isn't just a mashup of technical details, as the speaker boasts some pretty interesting features. In addition to Bluetooth 5.0, it has Wi-Fi 5, so it can stream directly from Spotify. It also features support for Apple AirPlay and Google Cast. Another feature of the Moto Sound Flow is Ultra-Wideband (UWB), which is the foundation for three of its features.

There's Proximity Sensing, which detects if a phone with UWB is nearby and automatically transfers an ongoing call or whatever is playing to the speaker. The second one is Dynamic Stereo, which requires a multi-speaker setup and uses the position of a UWB-equipped smartphone to adjust the left and right channels based on the user's smartphone position. The last is Room Shift (also requires a multi-speaker setup), which detects a UWB-enabled smartphone and automatically transfers playback to the speaker closest to the smartphone.

The Moto Sound Flow will have a companion app that will be available for Android and iOS devices. Users will be able to use the app to manage the speaker's settings and connections. They will also be able to use the app to easily transfer playback from their smartphone or earbuds to the Sound Flow speaker.

Motorola is yet to reveal details about the availability of the Moto Sound Flow, but it will cost €199 when it becomes available in Europe. This is the same launch price as the Sonos Roam 2, although you can grab it for €149 on Amazon.