With so many smart speakers coming to the UK, what’s the difference between them and which is the best smart speaker to buy? Here, we compare the Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod.
By
Lewis Painter | 50 mins ago
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£149.99, US$179.99
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2017 seems to be the year of the smart speaker in the UK, with the release of not only Amazon Echo (and Echo Show) but Google Home and most recently, HomePod by Apple. With so many smart speakers coming to the UK, what’s the difference between them and which is the best smart speaker to buy?
Here, we compare the HomePod, Google Home and Amazon Echo to find out which is the best value for money.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of what each smart speaker offers, let’s first discuss UK pricing and availability. The Amazon Echo was the first smart speaker to grace UK shores in October 2016, and is currently available to buy from Amazon for £149.
Google Home was next to appear in the UK in April 2017, and is available for slightly cheaper at £129 from not only Google but high street stores like Argos too.
Apple’s HomePod is the most recent smart speaker to be announced, a speaker that got its debut during WWDC 2017. While the speaker has been announced, it isn’ t yet available to buy – and it won’ t be until December 2017.
Even when HomePod is released later this year, it’ ll be to a limited market: the US, UK and Australia. There’s no confirmed UK pricing just yet, but it’ ll set US buyers back $349, making it the most expensive of the three speakers by a country mile.
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While we can’ t imagine either the HomePod, Google Home or Amazon Echo winning any prizes for product design, there are small differences to each that make them more- or less appealing, depending on your requirements.
Let’s start with the Amazon Echo; it’s the tallest of the three speakers at 23.5cm (or 9.25in) and weighs just over 1Kg at 1064g. It features a tube-like design with a blue LED ring around the top to show when Alexa is listening for commands, and a red LED ring when the virtual assistant is muted and not listening. In terms of colour options, it’s available in either black or white.
While the Echo’s main draw is voice control, there are physical controls present on the speaker for volume (a twistable ring around the top of the speaker) and a contextual action button on the top of the device. Below is the speaker housing, surrounded by a metal grille with larger holes than that of the Google Home or HomePod. One of the downsides of the speaker is that it doesn’ t feature a built-in battery, meaning it has to be plugged in to the wall at all times.
Google Home, on the other hand, is much shorter at only 14.3cm (5.6in) and takes a different approach to the Amazon Echo in terms of design. While the top of the device is white and non-removable, the bottom part of the device (the speaker grille) can be easily removed and swapped out for a different colour/material design. Replacements cost £18 each, and can be found on the Google Home website.
Beyond the customisable look, the Google Home features four LEDs (blue, red, green and yellow) on the slanted top of the device showing when Google Assistant is active, and a physical Mute button to stop Google from listening. Where the Google Assistant does win points is in the battery department: it features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, meaning it doesn’ t have to always be plugged in like the Amazon Echo (and possibly the HomePod) .
The HomePod is a little more mysterious, as Apple is yet to fully announce the upcoming smart speaker. As discussed at the initial announcement at WWDC 2017, the HomePod is 17cm (7in) tall and boasts a cylindrical design reminiscent of the Mac Pro, although some argue that it also looks like a larger UE Wonderboom.
Most of the speaker is covered by the speaker mesh, apart from the top and bottom of the speaker. The top features a small screen displaying the all-new Siri animation when Apple’s virtual assistant is active. In terms of colours, it’s not as customisable as Google Home and will be available in two colours: Black or white.
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Right, let’s get down to it.
The Amazon Echo feature Amazon’s own virtual assistant called Alexa. The Echo, paired with Alexa, offers a wide range of voice-activated commands spanning from setting reminders to playing music via Amazon Music, Spotify or TuneIn, and can control a growing number of smart home accessories.
The best part of Alexa smart home support is that it’s software-enabled, instead of hardware-enabled like Apple’s HomeKit, meaning developers can add support for existing smart home tech whenever they want.
Beyond answering general queries, controlling music and smart home tech, Alexa boasts a range of ‘Skills’ that expand its functionality. You can do things like order food via Just Eat, order an Uber or find out the latest Guardian headlines simply by asking Alexa to do it for you. It’s easily the most advanced AI out of the three mentioned here (in speaker form, anyway!) , and looks to get even better over time.
In terms of the audio setup, the Amazon Echo offers a 2.5in subwoofer for ‘deep bass response’ , along with a 2in tweeter and seven microphones to hear you across the room, even when music is playing. It seems to be a step up from the Google Home in terms of audio, but not quite enough to compete with the HomePod – but we’ ll come to that below.
Google Home, rather obviously, offers Google Assistant support. Google’s virtual assistant can handle a variety of requests, from answering general knowledge questions to controlling your smart home devices and playing music via Google Play Music, Spotify and a handful of other music streaming services. It’s not quite as advanced as Alexa, but it can compete.
Google Home features far-field microphones that allow it to hear you from across the room, even when music is playing. Speaking of music, the Google Home speaker boasts an ‘integrated high-excursion speaker’ for audio playback, but it isn’ t quite enough to compete with Amazon Echo and especially HomePod. It’ ll do for casual music sessions and interacting with Google Assistant, but audiophiles will want something a little better.
As mentioned above, we still don’ t know all the details about Apple’s HomePod, so it may boast more functionality than what is mentioned here.
What we do know so far is that the HomePod will be powered by Siri, Apple’s personal assistant, but it won’ t boast the full range of skills available on iOS and macOS for privacy reasons. Apple, like with all its products, takes privacy on the HomePod extremely seriously and will slowly expand Siri’s functionality over time.
