More than ever, major developers are set to launch smart speakers in Fall 2020, with a new Google Nest Speaker Already, and now Apple's new HomePod Mini And Four new Amazon Echo devices On the way before Thanksgiving. These devices are key to each company's smart home ambitions, as a $ 100 voice-driven speaker - housing Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant - serves as one of the best anchors for a connected home experience is.
We are influenced by the first holiday season COVID-19 Lockdown, and people are now home more than ever. As a result, and with three competing smart speaker brands on the market, 2020 could see a major expansion in this still smart home category. The question is which smart speaker is the best?
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It is still early for a definitive answer. Amazon's new flagship Echo speaker will launch on October 22, and Apple's HomePod Mini will hit the market on November 16. We'll put our hands on all of them to give you a completely real-world assessment about space. For now, let's break down the choices based on what we learned first-hand with Google Nest Audio, and we know so far about the fourth-generation Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod Mini that each company has made public.
Apple's HomePod Mini is the iconic (but great looking) HomePod of 2018. Although the original HomePod did not claim much market share, it proved that Apple, a latecomer to the smart speaker party, could compete with industry leaders Google and Amazon.
The HomePod Mini is a much more reasonable $ 99, which is about the same price as the 2020 Echo and Nest Audio. Like its rivals, the HomePod Mini will connect to its company's voice assistant - Siri, in the case of Apple - and a slew of Apple-specific features, such as the messaging app on your iPhone or the home app that controls your Wi-Fi. . - Electric light bulb. In addition, Apple says that the HomePod Mini will be able to adjust its audio output to the acoustics of the room (something Amazon has also claimed about the new Echo), and "hand off" music from iPhones held in its proximity Receives. Also many HomePod minis will be able to play songs in stereo automatically.
When it comes to voice assistance, Siri is less polished than Google Assistant and Alexa, but it caters to all that their competitors can do. For many customers, the option for brand loyalty will come down.
Apple's other big empires with the HomePod Mini are security and privacy: nothing you say will be shared without your consent; You can choose whether to send your recording to Apple or not; Your questions will not be associated with your Apple ID; And it will not respond to personal requests unless your phone is in the room. These features quite closely match what the contestants are doing, though we will certainly be able to dig into the details when all the devices are on sale.
The obvious downside of the HomePod Mini is its price in relation to its size: the Mini's profile is higher than Google's Nest Mini and Amazon's Echo Dot, both costing only $ 50. In fact, the smaller 3.3-inch, HomePod Mini is shorter than the new, 3.5-inch-long circular Echo Dot. While we won't be able to explain how this affects its sound performance until reviewing the device, it's hard to imagine that the HomePod Mini would equal mass sound performance with $ 100 devices from Google and Amazon.
Read our first article of HomePod Mini.
Chris Monroe / Tips Clear
$ 100 Nest Audio is replacing the 2016 Google Home, and Google says that "75% louder with 50% stronger than the original [speaker]. "The performance comes from its 19mm tweeter and 75mm mid woofer, which is slightly smaller than its counterparts in both the new Amazon Echo (which also has two tweeters). But overall, the speaker is still about the size of a HomePod Mini Almost double., And generally speaking, is better when it comes to speakers. Our reviewer called Nest Audio "an improvement on Google Home in every way."
Google Assistant is still the most natural-sounding voice assistant, although Amazon is keeping the competition tight with its recent upgrade. For most people, whether you like Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant will likely decrease in use cases: Siri integrates with iPhone functions like messaging; Google Assistant works with Google's calendar, Gmail, and search services; Alexa works with Amazon Shopping. Work will be done to varying degrees for different requests between the three.
When it comes to smart home connections, Nest Audio brings a solid array of integration with other Nest devices, with a larger hitter in the connected home space. That said, it is not Alexa's wide reach with smart home developers - especially with more niche products.
Read our Nest Audio Review.
Adventuress
Amazon's focus in 2019 was on hardware, rolling out half a dozen speakers and displays in a single year, but in 2020 Alexa is the star. Alexa's improved home security features, more natural speech and predictive smart home controls can make it far more competitive with Google's still-best Google Assistant. The voice assistant race between these three will be tight, with responses from Google and Siri.
The hardware of the new Echo likewise prioritizes home integration, which features a ZigBee receiver for connecting smart lightbulbs and the Amazon Sidewalk Bridge to connect home and near-home devices to a vast network of technology.
As a speaker, the new Echo will likely be a slight improvement over the previous generation, with solid sound quality for the $ 100 price tag (although it currently gets a Prime Day discount price of $ 95). It states that the 3-inch woofer appears to be the same as the previous generation, but a 0.8-inch second tweeter is added, meaning a better difference in mid-to-high sound. Amazon also says that the speaker voice will automatically adapt to the acoustics of that room, much like the HomePod Mini.
For the price of $ 100 (or up to $ 95 as Amazon's Prime Promotion), the new Echo is a very sweet deal. Read our Amazon Echo 2020 first.
