6 | MANE PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY | APRIL 2018
SMART SPEAKER
REVOLUTION
Apple Homepod
smart speaker market became increasingly popular due to the recent release of the much-
delayed Apple Homepod. Late to the game, Apple finally released its own smart speaker in mid-February after first announcing it at WWDC 2017. The Homepod joins already well-established smart speakers like the Google Home and Amazon Echo (or Alexa).
Google Home comes in three SKUs with the Google Home Mini, Google Home and the larger & premium Google Home Max. You can grab a Google Home Mini for as low as £49 and does everything the larger variants do with only a decrease in audio output volume and power. The Google Home Max is the loudest of the three Google Home models and has arguably some of the best sound of any speaker its size. Along with great-sounding speakers, the Google Home also has what is likely the most intelligent digital assistants around with the Google Assistant. The Google Assitant will answer just about any query you have and control your automated devices like lights, blinds, heating and more. The speaker also natively works with streaming services Google Music and Spotify (something the HomePod cannot do without a little manual assistance). Google does compatibility well and allows for an iPhone or Android device to connect to the Google Home.
On to the Amazon Echo, which has an equally impressive voice assistant in Alexa. A great counterpart to the Google Home, the Echo also has several SKUs ranging in features and price starting from £49. While Google uses its own search engine for answering your questions, Alexa resorts to Bing as its default search engine. And while the audio on its more expensive variants isn’t exactly mind-blowing, it should be enough for most consumers.
Both the Amazon Echo and Google Home allow for voice recognition, meaning you can have tailored content and information for each user in the household.
And finally the latest player in the game, the HomePod is Apple’s attempt at penetrating the smart speaker market. Coming in with only one model, the HomePod starts at £349 – like with other Apple products it won’t come cheap. The HomePod, however, isn't as smart as you may have hoped it would be. While it features Siri, which is already lagging behind its competition on mobile devices, the version on HomePod is stripped
The
Comparing the top smart speakers in the market today