If you’re a gadget junkie and you love smart speakers. Then you must be torn between the Amazon Echo and Google Home, two prolific brands.
Of course, these devices are notable, reliable and are definitely good choices. But for the curious, it is important to weigh your options and see which speaker is most suitable for your needs.
Although the Amazon Echo was released first before the Google Home, the Google Home has geared up competition through its offering of sheer quality that is quite evident in the newly unveiled Google Home Hub.
The competition for the best voice assistant in the market has been going on for months now. And it is time to evaluate and decide which is best. We begin.
Let’s talk about the design
Google is known for its superior speakers’ design but that has changed now as the second-generation of Amazon Echo has challenged the sleek designs of Google Home.
Google Home still maintains its curvy shape, with a bottom casing that can be changed to a plethora of choices, ranging from six shells, which is available in both fabric or metal to match your furnishings. It has a sleek design with a sloped top coupled with four LEDs meant to provide visual feedback.
See Also: Google to Upgrade Its News App With Artificial Intelligence
On the other hand, Amazon has made the new series of Echo speaker more attractive than before. There’s now a choice of six finishes: three material, two wood and a metallic choice which makes it easier to find the product that suits your home decor.
In the Amazon Echo, there are physical buttons for mute, activation and volume and the volume controls have been downgraded to the original rotating dial. Also, Google has gone for a capacitive touch panel so that you can swipe to control music however, there is a physical mute button at the back.
Both Amazon Echo and Google Home can pick up your voice from across the room or down the hallway because of the presence of microphones with far-field technology.
Voice Assistant & Audio
Both the Amazon Echo and Google Home are voice-controlled speakers. As you already know, Google Home comes with the Google AI — Google Assistant while Amazon Echo is loaded with the Alexa digital assistant. Alexa understands simple commands and the default search engine is Bing.
You also need to phrase things for Alexa in a particular way for better understanding and the language you have to speak extra clearly.
However, a little challenge could be Amazon’s AI default wake-up word. Set as ‘’Alexa’’, by default, with the user being able to choose other words like Echo or Amazon. There is a possibility that Echo might wake up at the sound of the word ‘’Alexa’’, regardless of who or where is calling.
In this case, Google Assistant has a clear advantage since it’s built right into Google’s overall architecture.
If you tell Google Home your shopping list, Assistant will be able to reproduce that in your Pixel phone later. And, by using a two-word wake-up phrase, Google Home goes off less often by accident.
A conversation should be more natural because it’s loaded with two-way conversation based on Google’s own natural language processing algorithm.
The power of Google means that you can ask for directions or traffic reports when commuting, with the results being pulled from Google Maps. In comparison, the Echo can only give you traffic information to one address that you enter into the Alexa app.
If music remains a top priority for you, the Google Home Mini sounds a lot better than the Echo Dot. But you can get a better quality if you hook up a Dot to another speaker over Bluetooth or a 3.5mm jack, otherwise, the vocal production is basically too tiny.
If you are looking for a small Echo speaker, your best bet is the Echo Spot because it offers richer sound. The Google Home is too bass-heavy to be truly enjoyable. It also has inferior clarity than the latest generation of the Amazon Echo speaker and the Echo Plus.
See Also: New Amazon to Launch Fire TV Cube
Smart Features
The two devices have similar smart features. Offering great flexibility in operation, you will be able to do anything by speaking to them – from playing back music, having questions answered, controlling smart home gear, and setting alarms.
Both Google and Amazon are constantly improving their respective voice platforms, and each has employed third-party smart device manufacturers – from thermostat makers to smart lighting companies – to make their products compatible with each service.
Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers do take a slightly different approach to the way their abilities are accessed.
Google Home’s abilities are, by default, very open – allowing the pairing up of third-party smart home devices with your Google Home system. Alexa, on the other hand, requires skills to manoeuvre.
In a nutshell, Google is simpler, but Alexa’s encourages faster and broader development and support from third-parties.
Price
There’s a wide range of prices for the two speakers for every wallet size. It’s just about your specification and what you are expecting to get from Amazon Echo or Google Home. Although it is worth noting that Amazon offers the widest spread of options for both the most affordable and expensive price.
Conclusion
With the aforementioned, you can now decide if Amazon Echo or Google Home is the smart speaker of your choice. Both products are good and the choice boils down to what you want.
Google Home is more natural to converse with and a little smarter out of the box. If what you’re looking for is a personal assistant, then Google Home is the best choice. Google’s Cast integration makes it brilliant for anyone with a Chromecast or Cast-enabled speakers, too.
That being said, Amazon Echo has a wider range of speakers, including the fancy screen-enabled Echo Show. While Alexa is a little trickier to talk to, its huge range of Skills means that the Echo can do more than Google Home can. Smart home control is still brilliant, but Amazon doesn’t have quite the lead it once did and now Google matches Amazon feature-for-feature.
All in all, If you want the range of expandable skills, Amazon Echo is the system to buy; for a smarter personal assistant go with Google.
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