Table of Content
- Get a Nest Audio if you…
- Second Chance: Win a FREE Sonos Arc Soundbar + Installation
- Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home: Verdict
- Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home vs. Apple HomeKit: What's the Best Smart Home System?
- Which voice control system should you buy for your home: Google Home or Amazon Echo Dot?
- Amazon Echo versus Nest Audio versus HomePod Mini: Which smart speaker is for you?
- Price
Here's how the smart speakers that use them stack up against each other. Now it’s Apple’s turn, with theHomePod, which is actually more of a great speaker that currently lacks the smarts it needs to really compete. Here’s how these products stack up against one another in terms of design, features, and pricing. The HomePod is the speaker for any music aficionados who use Apple Music and want incredible sound quality. It also has ambient Siri integration, so you can give commands to Siri from anywhere in the room, and she will hear you.
If you’re looking for the best sound from a smaller smart home speaker, then the Apple HomePod Mini is your best bet. During our testing, we were extremely impressed with its 360-degree sound. It’s guided from the internal driver down to the base of the HomePod, where it's fired outwards to create a more immersive experience. Apple's signature attention to detail is evident in Siri, but the voice assistant is plagued by a slow pace of innovation.
Get a Nest Audio if you…
And say, "Alexa, turn off my living room lights," and that was it. Anyone in the family could control a wealth of compatible products without having to shuffle permissions or apps. You'll have to do a bit more legwork with the Echo and Google Home, but when you're done you'll still have some pretty comprehensive voice control over your smart home.
They serve as the nerve center for your smart home automation. Smart speakers anchor your smart device ecosystem, enabling your smart devices from different manufacturers to connect and interact with each other. In contrast, the Echo Dot has a single 1.6-inch front-firing speaker. At peak volumes, the Echo Dot has some distortion, but that's not surprising for a speaker that costs $50.
Second Chance: Win a FREE Sonos Arc Soundbar + Installation
If you tap on that notification, it'll bring up the HomePod Mini settings and features. Or you can transfer music between the phone and the HomePod through AirPlay. These settings work for music, podcasts, or anything else you’re listening to.
The speakers themselves don't make that choice any easier, because both are quite good; the Echo has been our Editors' Choice winner for a long time, but the Nest Audio is a close runner-up. The Echo's bass is a bit better and Alexa can use multiple wake words, but the Nest Audio sounds quite clear and Google Assistant is easier to talk to thanks to more flexible natural language recognition. In the sub-$50 price range, the Echo Dot has a clear edge over the Nest Mini in audio quality, but even those two smaller speakers work well for what they are and offer the same choice between voice assistants. If you haven’t jumped into the smart speaker pool, it’s probably because it’s a tough decision.
Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home: Verdict
In fairly typical Apple style, there’s only one model of theHomePod to choose from. You can just decide whether you want it to come in space grey or white. Either way it costs£279/$299 making it one of the more expensive options on the market. If you’re a die-hard Apple convert, you might not bat an eye at spending $349 on this gadget. If you're going for pure sonic superiority between the Echo and Google Home ranges however, opt for the Google Home Max.
It also integrates with Nest appliances, allowing you to, for example, set the temperature to 70 degrees Fahrenheit in specific rooms in your home. While the Google Home Max is the most impressive speaker when it comes to sound quality, it’s very bulky and expensive so the Echo Studio is a a more well-rounded option. If you can only afford the entry-level devices, and music remains a top priority for you, go for the Google Home Mini, which sounds a lot better than the Echo Dot. Unless you hook up a Dot to another speaker over Bluetooth or the 3.5mm jack, it's just too thin and harsh to fully enjoy. Like the Echo Dot, the speaker is puck shaped, if a little more pebble-like with softer edges, and has a top side covered in a fabric speaker mesh.
Amazon Alexa vs. Google Home vs. Apple HomeKit: What's the Best Smart Home System?
Google claims it has incorporated hundreds of thousands of various audio environments to ensure the Home can isolate speech even in an environment with added ambient sounds. Similarly, the HomePod has six microphones, and Apple says they’re each designed to hear you, even over your music. Google Home was next, followed by the Google Home Mini and Max, all of which feature Google Assistant and are making huge strides in the voice assistant market. They’re lagging behind Alexa in some areas but dominating in others.
Presumably, it will act in a similar fashion to the Home, letting you ask Siri to play songs on the Bose speakers in your dining room. If you’re looking to stream Spotify on a HomePod, forget it. You’ll have more flexibility with Echo and Home devices, which are compatible with Spotify, Pandora, and most other major services. A smart speaker is so called becuase it can do a lot more than simply play music. With integrated microphones and internal hardware, you’re able to speak to these devices and have them talk back. An Apple Music subscription is £9.99/$9.99 a month but you sign up to get afree trial.
The base of the device is covered in gray fabric, although you can change this using one of the extra bases Google offers. At its not so wallet friendly price, it’s a good job that the HomePod sound excellent thanks to its upwards facing high-excursion woofer and seven tweeter array, each with a dedicated amplifier. There’s very little to dislike and if you can afford two, then you can create a stereo pair. Many will support both Alexa and Google Assistant, but it’s clear that Apple’s HomeKit doesn’t have the same level of compatibility. Christine Romero-Chan was formerly a Senior Editor for iMore. She has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade at a variety of websites.
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them.
That's a huge selection of lights, locks, cameras, thermostats, fans, garage door openers, and other home automation and security gadgets. If you install anything in your home with HomeKit on the box, you can control it with Siri, and that means you can control it with HomePod. There’s a lot to think about when buying a smart speaker, especially when they might set you back £300.
All you have to do is ask Siri to play your favorite song or turn on the lights, and you're all set. It works best with an Apple Music subscription, although selected other music services will integrate with Siri, such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Deezer. You can also play anything from your iPhone or iPad on your HomePod mini via AirPlay 2, but that somewhat defeats the purpose of a voice-controlled smart speaker. The 4th-Gen Echo isn’t just a smart speaker — it can also help get smart home gadgets online and keep them connected using its built-in Zigbee hub. While other smart speakers require you to have a dedicated hub for, say, pairing a set of Philips Hue lights, the Echo lets you do it all from a single device.
Amazon Echo vs Google Home: price
Having a speaker to listen to music is one of the main reasons for buying an Echo. However, thanks to Alexa, Echo is much more than a reasonably-priced home speaker. At most, you can initiate a call on your smartphone and then use your HomePod as a speakerphone for that call. “Proactive Assistance,” one of the Home’s features, prompts the speaker to light up with a certain pattern when it has something pressing to tell you. ” and it will tell you about a traffic alert, flight status update, or reminder. Alexa will also turn green when it has an updateto share, but these are more general, like news alerts or package updates.
Alexa's Drop In feature only works with other Alexa-enabled devices. Speak commands to Google from across the room with improved voice recognition. I don't see support for iDevices, iHome, Leviton, and much more. Apple's following a trend with this feature, as both the Echo and the Google Home recently announced ways of using those speakers as a means of communication.
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