Smart speakers are more than just devices for finding and listening to music. They have built-in knowledgeable voice assistants, allowing users to control any smart devices connected to their smart home ecosystem comfortably.
Apple Home Pod
The Apple Home Pod is the best smart speaker for syncing with Apple devices that uses the company’s proprietary voice assistant Siri. It has a wide range of additional features, whose number continues to grow with new updates. Apple Home Pod can control smart home devices. It works directly with the Apple Music service and can play music from your playlists on any synchronized device.
Siri is known for its highly advanced artificial intelligence system and has unlimited possibilities for verbal interaction with users. The speaker has a modern design and pleasant colors. The main feature of the Apple Home Pod is high sound quality, which in its purity, can be compared with studio sound. The disadvantages include its relatively low volume and support for Apple services only.
Google Home
Google Home with Google Assistant voice service is one of the most popular smart speakers in the world. Despite its small size, it produces a very high-quality sound. This full-fledged part of a smart home allows users to control their smart devices, play music, set alarms and reminders, check the weather, and much more.
Google Assistant’s artificial intelligence is constantly evolving. Today, users can not only personally see the assistant’s ability to recognize any phrases but also teach it to understand the individual characteristics of their speech and their manner of speaking. Users can control the speaker by voice and using a touch panel or an Android device.
The main feature of Google Home is that it is compatible with any device connected to the speaker and has a high sound power of 65 watts. Among the disadvantages, users point out synchronization errors that sometimes break the connection between the speaker and elements of the smart home ecosystem.
Sonos One
Sonos One is a compelling and compact smart speaker from Sonos, which has already received the new Sonos One Gen 2 version. It has two built-in voice assistants: Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The speaker is available in black and white. It has a stylish design and fits well into any interior, and this speaker’s body is waterproof.
The sound is crisp, clear, rich, and has deep bass. One of the features of Sonos One is that it allows users to link different speakers together to enhance the sound. Users can use various services, including Amazon Music and Google Play Music. The speaker supports AirPlay 2, which will appeal to Apple device users.
Amazon Echo Dot 3rd Gen
The third generation of one of Amazon’s most inexpensive but well-made and popular intelligent speakers. It is controlled through the Alexa voice assistant and has a wide variety of features, over 15,000 to be exact, and the number continues to grow. The third generation of the Amazon Echo received an increased size of speaker drivers and increased power, volume, and sound quality.
It also allows users to combine two speakers into a stereo system. One downside of the speaker is the lack of microphones, making it difficult to talk to Alexa in a noisy environment.
Harman/Kardon Citation One
It is a compact smart speaker with a stylish design and a brilliant built-in Google Assistant voice service. The speaker is easily integrated into the intelligent home system. It connects via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; synchronization with other devices is automatic. Despite the speaker’s small size, its main advantage is its surround sound.
Harman/Kardon developers managed to perfectly balance how the music of any genre, from classical to heavy rock, sounds. The speaker supports various services, including AirPlay and Chromecast. Besides, it has excellent build quality. The main criteria for choosing this speaker are its sound quality and voice command recognition function.