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Will your speaker work with the rest of the tech in your house? Both of these smart speakers have great compatibility with online services — the voice assistants work with Spotify , Pandora, and other popular apps. For each speaker, smart features are handled by their voice assistants, so the real question becomes — which do you like better, Alexa or Google Assistant? Alexa tends to have better smart home compatibility, while Google Assistant tends to play more nicely with your phone. Ultimately, they offer very similar services and can both handle your schedule, give reminders, answer questions, play games, searching the Web for info, and all sorts of smart capabilities.
It is powered by the search engine's web of information and is cleverer overall. While you technically can have both Google and Alexa speakers together under one roof, we think that’s more fuss than it’s worth. You’d be best off picking the one you prefer and keeping everything connected to a single platform. Once you’ve peppered a few smart speakers around the house so you can talk to them wherever you are, you’ll feel like you’re living in a sci-fi movie.
Support and Complexity
The Google Nest Audio also has a 3.0-inch woofer but, unlike the new Echo, it does not have a 3.5mm audio jack so you cannot connect it to bigger speakers. The Echo also comes with a built-in smart home hub, with support for Zigbee, and supports Bluetooth Low Energy . Want an assistant that can handle a proper chat and can understand you like a normal human? The value of Google Assistant is its natural language recognition and that you can issue several commands without having to say the “Hey Google” wake phrase each time.
Google's natural language understanding is superior too, even if its voice implementation still needs some refinement. If you're going for pure sonic superiority between the Echo and Google Home ranges however, opt for the Google Home Max. Its bass is well tuned, its mids and highs well defined, and its top volume levels loud without verging into highly distorted territory. There's no right or wrong approach really – Google's is simpler, but Alexa's encourages faster and broader development and support from third-parties. Both virtual assistants let you Make Phone and Video Calls and send messages. For comparison, one of our employees kept a track of how often he needed to repeat or rephrase a question for an assistant to get it.
Handy Services
She writes full-time for a number of leading review and editorial publications on the web. They are good for news briefs and getting the weather report but not the best as dedicated music blasters. And because Google has the world’s information with it, Assistant is better at fetching you the exact kind of answer you are looking for. Overall, the Max’s design feels very similar to that of Echo Show; not elegant but good looking enough to put in your living room. They lack the sleek design obsession of Apple or Sonos products.
With a standard mini jack socket, you can use the device with most headphones. Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology that allows sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects. By doing so, Dolby Atmos allows for immersive, 360-degree sound.
Ring Video Doorbell
Both companies’ speakers can also sync with each other to play the same music across speakers in different rooms. Whichever brand you prefer, it’s a really useful feature when you want the whole house playing a song for a party or if you’re just walking back and forth among a few rooms while doing chores. One simple test we tried was to use speakers from each company playing music in the bathroom while taking a shower, with each speaker set to full volume and placed in the same spot. (What can we say, who doesn’t love music while in the shower?) For this test, we used the lowest-end speakers, the Echo Dot and the Google Home Mini. But if I were setting up a smart home hub today, I’d go with the Echo speakers.
The Echo 2 and Echo Plus on the other hand are more average in size. They have the traditional cylinder design of most smart speakers. It’s fairly well designed, it picks up your voice effortlessly and the sound quality is way above that of any Echo speaker.
Amazon Alexa vs. Google Assistant
A table stand is available, but that's kind of missing the point. While we haven’t mentioned it much here, Apple’s HomeKit is the other major player in the world of smart home platforms. This is the ideal pick if you want to control your smart home from your iPhone or iPad, and it works with a fair few third-party devices along with the Apple 4K TV and HomePod Mini.
Both services are pretty comparable in terms of the big names, but again, Google probably wins thanks to its support of YouTube - and, by extension - YouTube Music. It’s also worth pointing out that the Google Nest Hub Max has Chromecast Built-in, which allows you to cast content to the screen as long as you’re on the same Wi-Fi network. The downside is that not every Chromecast-compatible app works with the Nest Hub Max - which means there’s currently no way on either device to watch Netflix. But when both devices are so similar in terms of specs and features, how do you know which one to buy? Well, we put together a guide to help answer that very question.
When you turn the switch off, the mics are electronically disabled — they don’t have power, and they can’t pick up any audio at all. When you want to use the mic, just flip back on and it will start listening for you again. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. The Home Max, meanwhile, is intended as the main hub of your music life. To find out how we got on with this little speaker, check out our Google Nest Mini review. And, while their jobs are more or less the same – to respond intelligently to your request – the results, how they work and which devices they work with can differ.
He has been reporting on technology since 1999 and has been an invited speaker at events including CES and CEDIA. He has completed certification classes from THX, ISF, and Control4. Stepping down from those models, the Echo Dot has a bit of an edge over the Nest Mini, which has fairly weak bass and midrange. Of course, these smaller speakers are much more suitable for nightstands and desks than serving as a room's main audio device. I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade.
Priced at £89.99, the smart speaker has a bright LED light ring at the base of the sphere that reflects off of surfaces for added visibility. The cheapest Google smart speaker is the Google Nest Mini at just £29. The second generation model was released in October 2019 and has 40 per cent stronger base than the original Mini. The Echo Show 10 has a 10.1-inch touch screen with 1,280-by-800-pixel resolution. The Nest Hub Max has a comparable display that's just a fraction of an inch smaller , with the same resolution.
They’re ranked at similar price points, provide fantastic video and audio quality, come with virtual assistants, and can effectively link up with other smart gadgets in your home. That said, the new Echo Show tips the scales thanks mainly to its 13MP camera. The Google Nest Hub Max is also a great option, though, doubling as a good security camera.
The Duo feature is compatible with Android smartphones, iPhones, and Chrome browsers, specifically. Video calling preferences are totally subjective, we know, but we really like the auto-framing and zooming feature on the Nest Hub Max. That tool helps keep us centered, focused, and in-frame, no matter how far away we are from the camera itself.
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