Forget AI, new Sonos soundbar needs this HDMI upgrade to be a real winner

Sonos Arc Ultra review — (Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)

You may have seen Sonos in the news a lot lately. It's because rumours have been circulating about a big new launch – and with the IFA technology show in Berlin just weeks away, the timing makes sense.

Initial rumours, however, suggested that this would be a launch around artificial intelligence. Whatever that means. Sonos is an audio company, not the next Google, so if you ask me, I think we can forget about the AI buzzwordery and focus on the real matters at hand.

Fortunately, said rumours have rapidly evolved – and it now looks as though more Sonos hardware could be on the near horizon. Now that's what I'm talking about. I also don't think it's a surprise, given the app debacle that saw a leadership shake-up and a refocus on what Sonos is particularly good at – i.e. making great products.

Show me the HDMI passthrough already

However much AI may (or may not) be integrated into forthcoming Sonos products is by the by in my view, as what really matters is getting the core hardware correct. And if there is to be a Sonos Beam (Gen 3) incoming then, well, there's one feature that I really want to see implemented – daresay 'fixed'.

Sonos has been rather stubborn in its approach to HDMI ports to date. All of its soundbars – the Beam and Arc and their derivatives anyway; the Ray only has an optical connection – feature one individual HDMI eARC to connect to a TV. There's no second HDMI for passthrough.

Now I, for one, would pay more to shun the AI and have a second HDMI added to future Sonos soundbar hardware. Such an addition effectively frees up one of the ports on the rear of your TV – which, if you're like me, are in excess demand anyway – and creates a better flow in usability.

The approach to HDMI ports has been getting slightly better, though. It was earlier this year that Samsung's 2026 flagship fixed my biggest bugbear with HDMI ports – namely the lack of them – by introducing an option for four additional ones, making eight total, on its S95H/S99H TVs.

HDMI 2.2 incoming – but does that even matter?

Most people looking to buy a Sonos Beam aren't going to need eight HDMI ports, fair enough, but many of them will want to connect up a 4K/120Hz games console and separate TV Box with best possible resolution and frame rate. Adding a passthrough on the next Sonos soundbar would solve that.

It could well be this is nothing more than wishful thinking on my part, of course. It could be that a future, higher-end Sonos product won't opt for an HDMI passthrough addition at all. Or, who knows, perhaps the brand is just waiting – after all, the HDMI 2.2 standard is imminent.

However, HDMI 2.2 is going to be seen in high-end gaming monitors first, as its 96Gbps bandwidth is largely there to support very high refresh rates at higher resolutions – the kind that movies, sport and TV shows don't require. You could, therefore, call it a niche format – certainly at its launch stages.

Really, at the core of it, Sonos products are about simplicity. Customers don't want to fret about "2.0 versus 2.1 or 2.2", they just want to plug and play, enjoy great sound and a quality experience. But I do think the addition of an HDMI passthrough would quietly enhance that, without making a song and dance of it.

Let's not forget about headphones...

Seeing as I'm spinning the rumour mill's outpourings of late, let's not forget that there might be no new Sonos soundbar at all. Indeed, other rumours point strongly to new headphones: the so-called Sonos Ace Ultra, expected to be a step above the original Ace model.

When Sonos made the big dip into headphones, it seemed like a genius idea. The product didn't please everyone – we loved it at T3 for the sheer comfort factor – and, as mentioned earlier, timing for the company turned out to be poor.

I think Sonos will be looking at this market sector and scratching its head, though, as there's clearly greater potential for the brand to win bigger here – especially with its integration between home cinema and personal audio.

And, just to be clear (as if not obvious enough), I most certainly don't want to see an HDMI port on any pair of headphones. But I'd keenly see a new pair of step-up Sonos over-ears to fill a gap in the brand's line-up.

All of which, in summary, suggets that Sonos is about to have a very busy 12 months or so. If any of these rumours are true, then we could be seeing new hardware, new innovations and, yes, new AI integrations.

But let's get the hardware nailed first and foremost, eh? That'll make me and many existing and prospective customers very happy indeed.

Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.