Decided to get a digital assistant for your home? That’s great: welcome to the future. Amazon Echo and the Google Home, both speakers are excellent, but which one to select from these two? Let's find.
Market
The competition is being tighter between google Home and the Amazon Echo with the launch of google home and mini speakers in India. Amazon which came into Indian market earlier has a dominance as of now, but google Home with google assistant and rich features can deliver a much better experience as most of the Indian smartphone users are Android users.
The amazon echo range has 3 speakers the amazon echo dot, echo, and echo plus which varies in function as well as in size. Echo dot is the smallest of the three devices, but in all honesty, that doesn’t really matter. It’s an advantage, but barely. It’s about the same size as the Google Home Mini speaker.
The Echo which is the second in the range has a new speaker system from Dolby with 2.5″ subwoofer and 0.6″ tweeter that sounds much better than the speaker on the Echo Dot.
The Echo Plus is basically the Echo 2 + Zigbee smart hub to connect with various smart home devices, including Philips Hue, Kwikset locks, and others. For right now, the list of compatible devices is short, but it will definitely grow. The whole sell with the Echo Plus is that normally when you get a Philips Hue lightbulb, for example, you need a bridge to allow it to be controlled remotely since it uses Zigbee and not Wi-Fi. The Echo Plus has that bridge built-in. It’s still not as robust a device as SmartThings from Samsung or Wink 2, but that’s certainly where Amazon is looking to go with the Echo Plus.
Check latest offers on Amazon Echo products : Up to 50 % off.
The Google Home is googles flagship smart home device. Google recently, however, expanded their smart home lineup with the release of the Google Home Mini.
Google Home has more playback control than the Google home mini. Google released an update that got rid of most top gestures on the Mini so now the Google Home has more control over playback for music. With the Home, a tap on the top plays and pauses music, and a long press on the top activates Google Assistant. You can still tap the left and right sides on the Mini to turn the volume up or down but that’s about it. To turn the volume up on the Google Home, move your finger in a circular motion from the left. This will show the LED indicator for the volume level. Doing this motion in reverse turns the volume down.
Check latest offers on google home products
Size Matters and so is the Design
The original Amazon Echo plus is a minimal cylinder that measures 9.25 inches tall and 3.27 inches around and weighs 2.34 pounds. It's a bit tall for shelves but otherwise unobtrusive. It comes in black or white. The lower half of the Echo is covered in tiny perforations for the speaker grille, while the top half has a volume ring that lights up whenever Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, is activated. It has two buttons: one that turns the microphone off, and a multipurpose Action button.
The Google Home measures 5.62 inches tall and 3.79 inches around. It weighs 1.05 pounds, and it comes in white, with swappable bases available in several colors and materials, including carbon, copper, snow, mango, marine, slate, and violet. The Home's aesthetic is inspired by candles and wine glasses, with a top half made of smooth, hard plastic that lights up with LEDs in four colors when it's listening. It also has a touch interface you can use to play and pause music, change volume, and activate Google Assistant. On the back, there's a physical Mute button. Neither design is going to blow you away, but thanks to its smaller size and multiple color options, the Google Home is the more versatile option.
The height of the Mini is only 1.65 inches, so this puck-sized speaker can fit into many tight spaces in any room which is great for small houses or apartments.It Weighs only 173 g and comes in two colors charcoal and chalk. The Google Home Mini has four lights on top, which show the speaker is working and turn orange when the mic is muted - there is a mic mute switch near the power (Micro-USB) port on the back. Control mechanisms are on the left and right of the Google Home Mini's lights, which can be used to change volume and start or stop alarms, timers, and calls. The speaker is only available with fabric-based designs. It sports a non-skid silicone base. Its speaker is touted to deliver 360-degree sound and bears a 40mm driver, whilst it mic supports far-field voice recognition. It supports devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and higher, and iOS 9.1 and higher.
Sounds Good
The Home provides richer, more well-rounded sound than the Echo does, although it doesn't get as loud there's a 3-4dB difference in maximum volume at a one-foot distance. The Home delivers much better sound quality than the Amazon Echo Dot or Tap. Home can also play anything stored on your mobile device or in a private library over Bluetooth, just like the Echo can. Both devices support iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify. The Echo also supports Amazon Music, while the Home supports Google Play Music, TuneIn Radio, and YouTube Red. The home also provides gaana and saavn free subscription when bought via Flipkart.
The Home mini is pretty loud but audio quality falls apart around 80 percent volume and higher. Further, there isn’t too much bass with this speaker so the sound quality is pretty flat across all genres. Mids and highs sound pretty clear around 30 to 70 percent volume. It won’t replace a normal bluetooth speaker, but you’ll have no problems filling rooms with music.
Hey Ya
The speakers use voice activation to control music playback, searches, and supported smart home devices. To activate the Echo (pictured below), say "Hey, Alexa" or simply "Alexa" or "Amazon." For the Home it's "OK, Google" or "Hey, Google." Both speakers can hear you, and can be heard, from a comfortable 50-foot distance.
Who, What, When...
Google Assistant is better at giving you information from the web. Alexa is better at shopping-related queries. Both can do things like spell words, set timers, and read you the news. Google Assistant is more conversational: It will often remember what you were talking about or let you carry ideas throughout a conversation. For instance, if you ask, "Who was the leading actor in Taken?," you can follow up with, "What other movies was he in?"
Mission Smart Home
The Google Home controls many more smart home brands, but Amazon still has the edge. The Home handles August, Belkin Wemo, Frigidaire, Honeywell, Insignia, Lifx, Logitech Harmony, Next, Philips, Rachio, Samsung, TP-Link, and Wink, along with anything with a Chromecast attached to it.
The Echo supports all of those except Chromecast, but adds Blink, Carrier, DigitalStrom, Haiku, Leviton, Lowe's Iris, Lutron, Netatmo, and many other kinds of devices. The Home has an edge in TV integration. In addition to working with your Chromecast, Google now supports a number of streaming services, including HBO Now and Hulu, that enable you to call up shows by voice. With the Echo, you need to connect it to a Logitech Harmony Hub.
The Echo and Home connect to your home Wi-Fi network. In testing, the Home had weaker Wi-Fi connectivity than the Echo. We were able to use the Echo in some places the Home just couldn't reach. And while the Home now has 200 third-party skills, letting you order pizzas from Domino's and cars from Uber, Alexa has more than 11,000. Some of those Alexa skills even handle Google accounts better than Google's own system does.
What Else?
Alexa can add events to your Google Calendar and extract travel details from Gmail, which the Home can't do. Alexa now has voice calling, which lets you ask Alexa to call or send a message to anyone with a supported Echo device or the Alexa App for free. Google Assistant, meanwhile, now supports free voice calls to actual phone numbers without the need for a phone. You can add a number to your account, but it's optional.
Google has superior multi-user and multi-room functions. The Home can recognize up to six people's voices and seamlessly switch between their accounts and preferences. You have to tell Echo specifically, "switch account to X," to switch accounts. The Home can also synchronize audio between rooms, while Alexa can't.
Money Matters
The Google Home costs Rs 9,999 and google home mini costs Rs 4,499 and was priced similar to the competitors Echo which costs Rs 9,999 and the Echo Dot costs Rs 4,499. However Amazon Echo plus is more expensive, at Rs.14,999.
Check latest offers on Amazon Echo products : Upto 50 % off.
Market
The competition is being tighter between google Home and the Amazon Echo with the launch of google home and mini speakers in India. Amazon which came into Indian market earlier has a dominance as of now, but google Home with google assistant and rich features can deliver a much better experience as most of the Indian smartphone users are Android users.
The amazon echo range has 3 speakers the amazon echo dot, echo, and echo plus which varies in function as well as in size. Echo dot is the smallest of the three devices, but in all honesty, that doesn’t really matter. It’s an advantage, but barely. It’s about the same size as the Google Home Mini speaker.
The Echo which is the second in the range has a new speaker system from Dolby with 2.5″ subwoofer and 0.6″ tweeter that sounds much better than the speaker on the Echo Dot.
The Echo Plus is basically the Echo 2 + Zigbee smart hub to connect with various smart home devices, including Philips Hue, Kwikset locks, and others. For right now, the list of compatible devices is short, but it will definitely grow. The whole sell with the Echo Plus is that normally when you get a Philips Hue lightbulb, for example, you need a bridge to allow it to be controlled remotely since it uses Zigbee and not Wi-Fi. The Echo Plus has that bridge built-in. It’s still not as robust a device as SmartThings from Samsung or Wink 2, but that’s certainly where Amazon is looking to go with the Echo Plus.
The Google Home is googles flagship smart home device. Google recently, however, expanded their smart home lineup with the release of the Google Home Mini.
Google Home has more playback control than the Google home mini. Google released an update that got rid of most top gestures on the Mini so now the Google Home has more control over playback for music. With the Home, a tap on the top plays and pauses music, and a long press on the top activates Google Assistant. You can still tap the left and right sides on the Mini to turn the volume up or down but that’s about it. To turn the volume up on the Google Home, move your finger in a circular motion from the left. This will show the LED indicator for the volume level. Doing this motion in reverse turns the volume down.
Check latest offers on google home products
Size Matters and so is the Design
The original Amazon Echo plus is a minimal cylinder that measures 9.25 inches tall and 3.27 inches around and weighs 2.34 pounds. It's a bit tall for shelves but otherwise unobtrusive. It comes in black or white. The lower half of the Echo is covered in tiny perforations for the speaker grille, while the top half has a volume ring that lights up whenever Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, is activated. It has two buttons: one that turns the microphone off, and a multipurpose Action button.
The Google Home measures 5.62 inches tall and 3.79 inches around. It weighs 1.05 pounds, and it comes in white, with swappable bases available in several colors and materials, including carbon, copper, snow, mango, marine, slate, and violet. The Home's aesthetic is inspired by candles and wine glasses, with a top half made of smooth, hard plastic that lights up with LEDs in four colors when it's listening. It also has a touch interface you can use to play and pause music, change volume, and activate Google Assistant. On the back, there's a physical Mute button. Neither design is going to blow you away, but thanks to its smaller size and multiple color options, the Google Home is the more versatile option.
The height of the Mini is only 1.65 inches, so this puck-sized speaker can fit into many tight spaces in any room which is great for small houses or apartments.It Weighs only 173 g and comes in two colors charcoal and chalk. The Google Home Mini has four lights on top, which show the speaker is working and turn orange when the mic is muted - there is a mic mute switch near the power (Micro-USB) port on the back. Control mechanisms are on the left and right of the Google Home Mini's lights, which can be used to change volume and start or stop alarms, timers, and calls. The speaker is only available with fabric-based designs. It sports a non-skid silicone base. Its speaker is touted to deliver 360-degree sound and bears a 40mm driver, whilst it mic supports far-field voice recognition. It supports devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and higher, and iOS 9.1 and higher.
Sounds Good
The Home provides richer, more well-rounded sound than the Echo does, although it doesn't get as loud there's a 3-4dB difference in maximum volume at a one-foot distance. The Home delivers much better sound quality than the Amazon Echo Dot or Tap. Home can also play anything stored on your mobile device or in a private library over Bluetooth, just like the Echo can. Both devices support iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify. The Echo also supports Amazon Music, while the Home supports Google Play Music, TuneIn Radio, and YouTube Red. The home also provides gaana and saavn free subscription when bought via Flipkart.
The Home mini is pretty loud but audio quality falls apart around 80 percent volume and higher. Further, there isn’t too much bass with this speaker so the sound quality is pretty flat across all genres. Mids and highs sound pretty clear around 30 to 70 percent volume. It won’t replace a normal bluetooth speaker, but you’ll have no problems filling rooms with music.
Hey Ya
The speakers use voice activation to control music playback, searches, and supported smart home devices. To activate the Echo (pictured below), say "Hey, Alexa" or simply "Alexa" or "Amazon." For the Home it's "OK, Google" or "Hey, Google." Both speakers can hear you, and can be heard, from a comfortable 50-foot distance.
Who, What, When...
Google Assistant is better at giving you information from the web. Alexa is better at shopping-related queries. Both can do things like spell words, set timers, and read you the news. Google Assistant is more conversational: It will often remember what you were talking about or let you carry ideas throughout a conversation. For instance, if you ask, "Who was the leading actor in Taken?," you can follow up with, "What other movies was he in?"
Mission Smart Home
The Google Home controls many more smart home brands, but Amazon still has the edge. The Home handles August, Belkin Wemo, Frigidaire, Honeywell, Insignia, Lifx, Logitech Harmony, Next, Philips, Rachio, Samsung, TP-Link, and Wink, along with anything with a Chromecast attached to it.
The Echo supports all of those except Chromecast, but adds Blink, Carrier, DigitalStrom, Haiku, Leviton, Lowe's Iris, Lutron, Netatmo, and many other kinds of devices. The Home has an edge in TV integration. In addition to working with your Chromecast, Google now supports a number of streaming services, including HBO Now and Hulu, that enable you to call up shows by voice. With the Echo, you need to connect it to a Logitech Harmony Hub.
The Echo and Home connect to your home Wi-Fi network. In testing, the Home had weaker Wi-Fi connectivity than the Echo. We were able to use the Echo in some places the Home just couldn't reach. And while the Home now has 200 third-party skills, letting you order pizzas from Domino's and cars from Uber, Alexa has more than 11,000. Some of those Alexa skills even handle Google accounts better than Google's own system does.
What Else?
Alexa can add events to your Google Calendar and extract travel details from Gmail, which the Home can't do. Alexa now has voice calling, which lets you ask Alexa to call or send a message to anyone with a supported Echo device or the Alexa App for free. Google Assistant, meanwhile, now supports free voice calls to actual phone numbers without the need for a phone. You can add a number to your account, but it's optional.
Google has superior multi-user and multi-room functions. The Home can recognize up to six people's voices and seamlessly switch between their accounts and preferences. You have to tell Echo specifically, "switch account to X," to switch accounts. The Home can also synchronize audio between rooms, while Alexa can't.
The Google Home costs Rs 9,999 and google home mini costs Rs 4,499 and was priced similar to the competitors Echo which costs Rs 9,999 and the Echo Dot costs Rs 4,499. However Amazon Echo plus is more expensive, at Rs.14,999.
Check latest offers on Amazon Echo products : Upto 50 % off.
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