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In 2020, Amazon, Google, and Apple are making good smart speakers. Competition between these tech giants only pushes them to keep getting better. Amazon popularized smart speakers with the original Echo and the Alexa voice assistant, but today you have multiple options, each with its own pros and cons.
So how do you choose the best smart speaker for your needs? The key differences come down largely to hardware size, price, and audio quality. If you don’t need a lot of boost from your music and you’re good with slightly lower audio quality, you can save money and get the same intelligence in a smaller smart speaker.
Virtually all of its options include multi-room audio and allow you to turn on lights, play music, ask a question, set reminders, and more with simple voice commands. If that sounds appealing to you, it might be time to give in to the growing hype from this growing category of devices and buy a smart speaker.
Read more: The best Sonos speakers from $ 100 and up
If you have an affinity for one of those particular brands, choosing a speaker is easy. Head here for help choosing an Amazon smart speaker model. Here is a guide if you want a google equipped smart speaker.
If you’re platform independent and don’t need to choose between Alexa or Google, the variety of options can seem intimidating at first. Here are our thoughts.
Editor’s note, October 30: We have reviewed the new Echo and Echo Dot speakers, but we’re still waiting to get our hands on Apple’s HomePod Mini recently announced. Once that speaker is out and we’ve had a chance to rate it, we will update this list based on our ratings.
Ben Fox Rubin / CNET
Deciding which assistant you want in the center of your smart home is a difficult decision. Both Alexa and the Google Assistant work with many devices. Both help you easily organize and control them. While the Google Assistant is a bit smarter, Alexa works with more smart home devices and makes it easy to set up with voice commands.
Ultimately, we’ll give the smart home edge in the best smart speaker category to Amazon thanks to Alexa and the $ 100 fourth-generation Amazon Echo.
Alexa can send alerts if your smart speaker hears glass breaking or a loud smoke detector. The newest Echo combines the usual Alexa smarts with a great-sounding speaker and has a built-in Zigbee smart home hub so you can sync your little sensors to it instead of having to buy more gear. Read our Amazon Echo (2020) review.
Sarah Tew / CNET
The $ 200 Sonos One lets you pair two units together to play stereo or multi-room audio, but even a single speaker sounds amazing when playing a wide variety of music genres and costs significantly less than other premium sound quality smart speakers like the Google Home. . Max and Apple’s HomePod.
Better yet, the Sonos One has both Alexa and the Google Assistant built in; just choose which one you would like to use for your voice commands during setup. Plus, Sonos has Apple’s AirPlay 2 so you can control it with any Siri-enabled device, including your iPhone.
Add it up and the Sonos One is a great-sounding, reasonably priced smart speaker that can fit into homes focused on Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. It’s a tough pitch to beat. Read the Sonos One review.
James Martin / CNET
Amazon used to be the undisputed ruler of the smart speaker world, but Google has done an admirable job of bringing its digital assistant up to speed in the sound race. At this point, choosing between the lower-priced smart devices from the two companies comes down to dividing the hairs.
If Alexa is your voice assistant of choice, you should go for the latest Echo Dot. It’s affordable and offers all the Alexa skills and smart home integrations you’ll need.
Google Assistant now has almost as many capabilities as Alexa, making the Google Nest Mini a solid alternative to the Amazon Echo Dot if Google Assistant is your preference. Also, Google Assistant is a slightly smarter voice assistant than Alexa. It responds more flexibly to voice commands if you can’t remember the exact name of your smart home devices, and Google’s grouped commands, called routines, work with more types of smart devices than similar Amazon routines. The Google Assistant can recognize multiple voices, so it will give you and your spouse different answers if each of you asks about their calendars, although now Alexa can, too.
Overall, Google still has the upper hand in assistant intelligence, and the Google Nest Mini is a great, low-cost way to take advantage of that intelligence. Read the Google Nest Mini review.
Tyler Lizenby / CNET
Siri’s first smart speaker adapts its sound to the room you’re in and sounds great when playing all genres of music. Its sound quality beats the Sonos One and even squeaks for the similarly priced Google Home Max. Thanks to Siri, you can also use an Apple HomePod to control your smart home products with the sound of your voice, ask for help like you would with other smart speakers, and answer phone calls that come to your iPhone.
Then there’s the just-released HomePod Mini. Apple’s smaller smart speaker offering is $ 99 and it sounds great. It doesn’t have the volume and power of its big brother, but you’ll get the same Siri intelligence at a more affordable price.
When it comes to a smart home, both speakers are limited to devices that are powered by Apple’s smart home platform, HomeKit. HomePods have some limitations that the rest don’t, but that shouldn’t matter to you if you’ve already invested in Apple products and just want great sound quality. Read the Apple HomePod review.
Best portable smart speaker
JBL 20 link
Sarah Tew / CNET
Given the wide range of smart speakers, it’s surprising how few are portable. Fortunately, the JBL Link 20 checks all the right boxes to qualify as a good smart speaker and it is battery powered. It has decent battery life and solid sound quality, and it has the Google Assistant built in, just like the Google Nest Mini.
Even better, the wireless speaker is fully waterproof, so you can play music outside and connect to your home Wi-Fi network, or you can stream audio through your phone’s Bluetooth. $ 200 is a bit expensive. It’s often on sale for $ 150 and is out of stock at the moment, but we were assured by JBL reps that it will be back in stock soon.
Meanwhile, the similar JBL Link 10 is a solid and cheaper alternative, albeit a little less impressive. Read the JBL Link 20 review.
Other options
Those smart speakers are our favorites, but you still have plenty of other options if you’re looking for something specific. Read our breakdown of Alexa versus Google Assistant versus Siri if you want to know the pros and cons of each one and decide by platform.
Please note that neither the original Amazon Echo neither him Nest Audio appeared above because you can get the same capabilities for less with the smaller versions (Dot and Mini). That said, if you want a smart speaker that divides the difference between affordability and premium sound, both are still solid options.
If you like the idea of an aid that always listens, but wants something more visual, check out our best smart screen list. Smart displays essentially combine a smart speaker with a touch screen so you can watch YouTube videos, make video calls, scroll through images and control your smart home devices with one touch. Amazon and Google have several options in this booming smart home tech smart display category.
read more: The best Wi-Fi speakers and music systems of 2020
There are also many third-party devices with built-in Alexa, and a growing number of third-party speakers with the Google Assistant. Review the Amazon Tap wave UE Megablast if you want Alexa in a portable body. the TicHome Mini it’s another more compact option if you want a portable smart speaker with Google Assistant. You can also buy add-ons from a company called Ninety7 if you want your Google or Amazon smart speaker to be portable.
Finally, the Invocation of Harman Kardon applications Microsoft Cortana Assistant. It’s competent enough if you’re a Windows fanatic but otherwise doesn’t have enough to stand out from the crowd. Samsung even has a very retarded smart speaker, the Galaxy Home with Samsung’s assistant, Bixby.
Find out which platform or features you’d like, and you should be able to quickly narrow down your options and find the best smart speaker for you and your family.
