Smart Hubs & Speakers
Product | Features / Benefits | Price / ROI | Buying Options | |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Echo 2
by
Amazon
|
Alexa integration Third-party skills Color and texture options |
$70-$80 |
|
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Echo Plus
by
Amazon
|
Alexa integration Built-in smart hub Future proof |
$149 |
|
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Echo Show
by
Amazon
|
Alexa integration 7-inch screen Future proof |
$229 |
|
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Home
by
Google
|
Google Assistant Chromecast control |
$129 |
|
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Home Max
by
Google
|
Google Assistant integration High-quality sound Access to Google account and Chromecast |
$399 |
|
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One
by
Sonos
|
Alexa integration High quality sound |
$179 |
|
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SmartThings
by
Samsung
|
Device grouping by room Third-party support |
$70 |
The concept of a “smart home” has become widespread amongst people looking to have more control and flexibility in their lives. “Smart home” has come to represent the interconnectedness of the appliances, devices, and systems in a home, and the power and ease of control that comes with wireless connectivity.
A smart home device makes managing your home easier and more accessible by connecting you wirelessly to the objects in your home that make your life run seamlessly. Smart home devices can help save energy and money while connecting your home to the internet and giving you access to many of its functions. In a way, smart home devices are turning our homes into pieces of tech themselves.
Smart home speakers take voice commands to control smart devices in your home, which have been wirelessly linked to your speaker. In addition, smart speakers have native features that can also be accessed through simple voice commands, like weather reports, list-building, and news reports. A common implementation of a smart speaker is to link it to a compatible smart hub, which gives you voice control over every device linked to your smart hub.
Most smart home hubs do not take voice commands directly, but they still connect your devices and centralize their operation and management. Smart home devices around your home communicate on several different frequencies depending on the brand and device. You can think of smart hubs as a translator for devices with differing frequencies of communication.
Smart home speakers and hubs tie all of your smart home devices together into one smart network, to be controlled through one unifying mobile app or voice commands. Smart hubs allow different types of devices from different brands to be accessed through the same interface and they all devices that would otherwise be incompatible to communicate and coordinate actions.
Most smart home speaker can’t unify all of your smart devices, but smart speakers come with access to powerful software that can play music, tell you the weather, and make lists, among other handy actions to help make your day run. Smart speakers have a growing compatibility with many smart home devices, all through hands free voice commands. Currently, the main smart speakers on the market are compatible with a range of smart thermostats, light bulbs, and media devices, among several others.
There are three main characteristics to evaluate as you compare your smart home speaker and hub options: compatibility, ease of use, and aesthetics.
The most important feature to look for in a smart home hub or speaker is how compatible it is with the wide range of smart home products on the market. A smart home hub’s intelligence is limited by the connections it can make with other smart devices, so always make sure that you are buying the hub or speaker that has compatibility with the products you already own, or plan to buy in the future.
Importantly, smart hubs and speakers can come with “future-proof” compatibility capabilities. Some products have a lively developer community that will produce third-party applications to link up non-compatible products, while others have built-in, unactivated protocol capabilities for future smart home devices. This means that as new smart home devices become available, you won’t need to worry about those new devices being incompatible with your old hub or speaker.
For smart home hubs, how well the mobile app works and allows home control is critical. Mobile apps allow you to connect and control other smart home devices. The interface for that control is an important part of how a smart home hub functions.
In the case of smart speakers, a mobile app or web page is usually used to facilitate set up, and not much else due to the voice control aspect of smart speakers. More importantly, a speaker needs to be responsive to voice commands and easy to communicate with.
Smart speakers in particular are visible pieces of tech in your home. Having an aesthetically pleasing smart home device can be an important factor as you decide on a hub or speaker. Some devices come with interchangeable colored parts, while others have unique, modern shapes that fit in today’s modern home. Many hubs and speakers will also have some lighting aspect, indicating power or recognition of a voice command.
The 2nd-generation of Amazon’s original smart speaker, the new Echo 2 still operates on Amazon’s Alexa software, which can be activated by saying “Hey Alexa”, “Alexa” or even “Amazon.” From there, you can direct Alexa to do just about anything for you, just by speaking.
What can it do for you? Alexa has capabilities for weather, music, news reports, smart device control, and much, much more. You can even make free voice calls to anyone with an Echo device or the Alexa app. Amazon has also released a software development kit for third-party developers to make “Skills”, of which there are thousands (like calling an Uber or ordering a pizza).
For homeowners who want to have access to powerful voice control capabilities, as well as an ever-evolving network of third-party support, any of the Amazon products are a great smart home solution.
The Echo Plus is a smart speaker and smart hub combined. All of the other Echo products require a smart hub to connect to most other smart products, while the Echo Plus makes that additional purchase unnecessary. You still get news reports, weather, calendar reminders, and music, (plus a whole lot more) but the Plus will connect to any other “smart” product you own right out of the box.
In addition to new smart hub capabilities, the Echo Plus has some hardware and visual features that set it apart from the standard Echo 2. First, as a larger device, the Echo Plus has higher quality audio. While still not a high-end speaker, the larger size of the Echo Plus does make for a louder, crisper audio device. And second, unlike the Echo 2, the Plus comes in only three color options: black, silver, and white.
Sometimes a new recipe needs more than a step-by-step list. Other times you want to get that new Amazon Prime show started before the cooking is done. For these cases and more, the Echo Show has a seven-inch screen that will display whatever video you need right on your countertop. Like other Echo products, you can link it to your suite of smart devices with the help of a hub.
As an answer to the Amazon Echo, Google released their Home smart speaker. The biggest advantage to a Google Home is the wealth of data available through Google. Google Home can pull information from all aspects of your Google account (such as web browsing, emails, GPS records) to customize your experience.
For example, Google Home can use your Google Calendar to proactively give you reminders and alert you to traffic on your commute. Additionally, Google Home can recognize different voices in your family, which gives it the capability to customize responses for different users. Integration with Google’s Chromecast media streaming device is an additional advantage.
Google Home can control many types of smart home devices, and more are constantly being added to its capabilities. A unique feature to the Google Home is its ability to communicate especially well with televisions and Chromecast. Through your Google Home linked to a Chromecast device in your house, you can simply tell your system vocally to cue up the next episode of your favorite show.
As an added bonus, you can swap out the colorful base to your Google Home, allowing you to match it to the aesthetic of whatever room it happens to reside in. The Google Home is a great option for anyone looking for a high quality speaker with a wealth of information at the ready, all activated by your voice.
Smart speakers have traditionally been focussed only on the “smart” aspect of home automation, but the Google Home Max compromises nothing in the sound department. A larger, more powerful speaker than the standard Google Home, the Max offers high-quality sound to complement the intelligent capabilities of Google Assistant.
Not interested in talking to your speaker? You can connect an audio player to your Home Max with USB-C, Bluetooth, or an auxiliary cord, which means that you don’t need to rely on voice commands to play music if you choose. While the Home Max has the full power of Google Assistant at its disposal, it also functions as a high-quality standalone speaker.
The Home Max can do everything that the original Google Home can do when it comes to smart capabilities and controlling other devices (more supported smart devices are constantly being added), plus some cool new tricks. One unique feature of the Home Max is “smart sound”, which is the name for its ability to self-adjust audio levels based on its position in a room. For example, if your Home Max speaker is situated in a corner, it will automatically adjust the audio settings to make sure that music levels are rebalanced to sound best given the extra amplification being near a wall might create.
With its sleek appearance, great sound quality, and access to Google Assistant, the Google Home Max is the perfect centerpiece to a voice-controlled smart home audio system.
For those looking to invest in a smart speaker with the highest audio quality, the Sonos One is the product to beat. Like the Amazon Echo, the Sonos One utilizes Amazon Alexa to let you access a wide variety of tasks using your voice, from a pizza delivery to setting alarms. Additionally, Sonos has said they are planning on adding support for Google Assistant as an alternative software to control the One. Beyond the software, the Sonos One offers the best audio quality of any smart speaker. With an already impressive sound for a 6-inch speaker, you can maximize your Sonos One’s audio power by pairing it with other Sonos speakers.
There are some drawbacks to operating with Alexa on a non-Amazon product, however. Most notably, the Sonos One is not compatible with all other Echo applications, although Sonos has said they will be integrating new compatibilities over time. To control all of your smart home devices through a high quality speaker, you might be better off pairing the Sonos One with a smart hub instead. The Sonos One is a great smart speaker choice for shoppers looking for home automation and a high-quality music player at the same time.
A powerful smart home hub option, the Samsung SmartThings offers many robust features. Most notably, SmartThings can connect to over 200 products, and several “SmartApps” are available to help facilitate device communication. SmartThings also supports IFTTT programming, a unique way of making several events occur at once across several kinds of smart devices. Aside from IFTTT, SmartThings employs SmartApps to help you create customizable functions that allow fine tuning of countless connected device actions.
A great feature of the Samsung SmartThings is its partner mobile app, which you can use on iOS, Android, and Windows devices. SmartApps are easily accessible within the SmartThings app. The mobile app offers intuitive ways to group devices into rooms and find new devices in your home network, making the SmartThings a powerful tool.
As an added bonus, Samsung SmartThings has a backup battery attached – if your power goes out, your smart home can operate as usual. The Samsung SmartThings hub is right for someone who wants highly customizable home automation, built around your rooms and routines.