Google Home, Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod— or all 3? How to choose a smart speaker

All you’re hearing out of the voice activated “smart speaker” market is static. You wish you could ask Alexa or the Google Assistant to help you sort out this burgeoning business, a space in which the biggest names in tech are all crowding around to grab your attention.

You wonder how much to spend. Mini, Max, Plus or original? Whether to choose a speaker with a screen? And must you commit to one virtual assistant over another?

The latest noise came with Google’s unveiling Wednesday of new Google Home offerings built around the Google Assistant. Only a week earlier, Amazon announced the expansion of its own line of Echo speakers, featuring its voice-driven virtual assistant Alexa.

Meantime, Apple is readying its HomePod speaker activated with Siri, best known from the iPhone. Harman Kardon (owned by Samsung) is doing the same with the upcoming, yet-to-be priced, Invoke speaker that houses Microsoft’s Cortana assistant.

Alexa continues to branch out into other devices, too, including speakers made by the likes of Sonos and Lenovo.

The smart speaker market really got going in 2015, when Amazon introduced consumers to Alexa as part of the original Echo speaker. Amazon has remained the clear leader since, controlling about 70% of the market, eMarketer says, and now boasting north of 20,000 Alexa “skills.”

What makes a speaker smart?

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These aren't the dumb speakers of yesteryear but rather connected speakers that leverage the Internet and artificial intelligence.

You engage them by calling upon one of the aforementioned cloud-connected virtual assistants by barking out a wake word—notably “Alexa” in the case of an Echo.

Amazon and Google have each lined up partners to work with the speakers, and the kinds of things you can accomplish with the devices continues to mushroom.

There are the basic, and yes useful, things you can do: asking for the weather, a wake-up alarm or kitchen timer, for example. Or getting the speakers to deliver news, podcasts or music on command—limited by the available services you subscribe to.

The speakers can respond to financial queries and answer queries related to trivia or your kids’ schoolwork. You can use them to make calls, too.

There’s also a growing emphasis on home automation: using your voice to control lights, thermostats, doorbells and other items around what tech companies are banking on will become your increasingly intelligent home.

What are the main buying decisions?

In simple terms: design, price, and any steadfast loyalty you might have for one ecosystem or digital assistant over another.

Alexa may help you shop (through Amazon of course). A Google advantage comes through search and the company’s vast reservoir of knowledge. If you’ve got an iPhone you’re probably most comfortable with Siri, though many pundits believe Apple’s assistant must play catch-up to the others.

Amazon and Microsoft announced recently that Alexa will talk to Cortana and vice versa, though it is unclear how smooth (or useful) such interactions will be. Meanwhile, don’t hold your breath waiting for the other virtual assistants to become chums anytime soon.

Why such a disparity in price—from around $49 to $399?

In general terms, you’re paying for speaker quality, though there are other factors like whether the device has a screen or built-in smart home hub.

Let’s start at the low end. Amazon sells the $49 Echo Dot, a price matched by the just- announced Google Home Mini. The pint-sized Dot speakers are adequate for Alexa or the spoken voice generally but not for music mavens seeking richer, louder and purer sound. Though I haven’t tested one yet, the same can surely be said for the Google Home Mini.

You do have options if you want a better music experience, however. In the case of the Echo Dot, you can connect optional headphones or other speakers by running a 3.5mm stereo cable to the jack on the unit. Or you can connect Dot wirelessly to a range of Bluetooth speakers.

There’s no such 3.5mm jack on the Home Mini or Bluetooth support But in keeping things within the Google ecosystem, you can connect Google Home Mini wirelessly to Chromecast Audio-capable speakers.

At first blush, the new stone-shaped Home Mini is better looking than the Dot. It comes in three colors, is covered in fabric and is meant to blend in nicely with your home décor. But either the Dot or Home Mini can be helpful bedside or kitchen companions.

The benefits of stepping up?

You get better sound, for starters. And Amazon did recently lower the price of the full-size Echo to $99.99, where it competes against the full-size $129.99 Google Home, which is now on back order.

Amazon also just unveiled a $149.99 Echo Plus with a smart home hub inside, a price that under a temporary promotion includes a free Philips Hue smart light bulb. Setting up smart home devices can be exceedingly complicated but Amazon insists Echo Plus makes it a breeze to do so, a claim we’ll have to put to the test.

Since Apple, Google, Samsung and others have a vested interest in pursuing a smart home strategy, don’t be surprised to see speakers that follow suit down the line. Even without a dedicated hub, you can use your voice and these speakers to control many of the smart devices you may have in your house.

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