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The Esquire Expert Guide to the Best Smart Speakers of 2021 - esquire.com

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Ever watched 2001: A Space Odyssey and thought to yourself, “Do you know what? Hal 9000 wasn’t so bad, I think I could do with an AI assistant myself”? Well, modern smart speakers aren’t quite so murderous, but they do help you to manage various aspects of your life just by talking to them.

Tech has progressed to such an extent that you can just have a natter with your smart speaker to adjust your Spotify playlists and make sure nothing embarrassing crops up during a BBQ. A voice assistant can do everything from book taxis while you’re getting ready, to checking up on your calendar ahead of the weekend. All you’ve got to do is speak to your digital genie and your demands are met.

But which one should you go for? The market is full of high-end sound systems that can talk to your smartphone, control your home temperature, and tell you cheesy knock-knock jokes, and it can be a tricky choice to decide between Bose, Apple and Amazon. So we decided to help out by laying down all the facts and deciding which smart speaker is best. Oh, and we also included a couple of portable smart speakers in there too, in case you’re hoping to take it with you on your travels.

How we test

To put the speakers below to the test, we put on a playlist full of slow, melodious bass (Bonobo, Alt-J), rap (Trippie Red and Travis Scott), and treble-led rock (Kings of Leon and RHCP) testing out the range and volume. We also hooked them up to our smart devices to see how well they respond to our requests.

Some of the more portable ones we charged up and took out to the park, and even took on up England’s tallest peak just to see how well it performed.

Which Voice Assistant Is Best: Alexa vs Siri vs Google

There are three main assistants you’ll see: Siri, Google, and Alexa. Siri is for the Apple lovers as you’ll only find it on iPhones, iPads, AirPods, and Apple Watches. It’s good for connecting to your other devices as an extension to your iPhone, letting you make calls and texts, stream from your Apple Music, and link up to your calendar.

Google is great if you ask a lot of those head-scratching questions when you’re with your mates. “Hey Google, who got the golden boot trophy at Euro 96?” “Hey Google, what’s the difference between a pale ale and a lager?” These devices have direct access to the biggest search engine and so are a little smarter. Google assist is also able to have free-flowing conversations with you.

For example you can say, “Hey Google, what’s in a White Russian?” It will then run off the ingredients, and if you find your kitchen is missing some of the key ones, you can add it to your shopping list without having to say “Hey Google” again.

Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant, and it has the most connectivity options with other smart devices. Philips Hue lights and plugs are compatible with Alexa so you can turn them on with a barked order. It’s also the most prevalent of the three, and is available on many of the non-Amazon devices below.

Key Specs To Consider

Before you go out and buy any old speaker, there are a few major specs you need to pay attention to.

Music services: Some streaming services won’t be available from all smart speakers. For example, Apple wants you to use its own platform, so you’ll be limited to using Apple Music and YouTube Music (though you can play Spotify tracks through AirPlay, which wirelessly casts music to your speaker). Google and Alexa will both play anything from Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music.

Other connections: Or you can opt to physically connect your speaker to your smartphone or tablet using a cable. Many models come with a 3.5mm plug so you can connect other speakers or devices.

Tweeters and woofers: No, we haven’t gone mad and turned into an anthropomorphic dog, we’re talking about what makes up a speaker. A tweeter focusses on reproducing high-frequency sound and will give you that crisp audio through vocals and treble-led songs.

Woofers and subwoofers deal with bass, vibrating through the bottom of a speaker for heavy-impact songs like R&B or rap. Most models you pick will have some combination of the two, with the better-sounding devices housing more variations.

Battery life: Smart speakers aren’t often that mobile, and will require you to plug them into a mains socket. However, some can be taken out into the world with the power of batteries, so you can jam out in the garden, down by the beach, or just in the park with a few bevvies. These are smaller devices that don’t weigh that much. The three battery-powered models on this list can last between eight and 18 hours.

These ones may often be waterproof to some degree too, so they can survive a splash of rain or even a dunk in the pool in some cases.

Dimensions and weight: Following on from that, you’ll want a device that’s small and light enough if you want to carry it with you on your escapades. The mains-powered models will be heavier, weighing as much as 3kg and roughly the size of a kettle. Portable options can be as light as half a kilo and can be as small as a hockey puck or a cricket ball in some cases.

Best Apple smart speaker

Apple HomePod mini Smart Speaker
Apple johnlewis.com

£99.00

Apple aficionados will want to check out the HomePod Mini, which is the sole Siri flag-waver on this list. Apple used to make a bigger version of this, but have discontinued it in favour of the Mini, which still packs an audio punch.

It pushes out sound from its seven tweeters in a 360-degree soundstage so you can plop it anywhere in the room to keep the music going. It’s surprisingly loud considering its size, but it’s not really bass-y enough if you’ve got a house party with more than 20 people. 

Only consider this one if you’re on Apple Music’s service, as that’s what will work best. You can get Spotify but it’s only through a complicated AirPlay process that’s just a little too annoying to deal with. Also works great if you’ve got an Apple TV box, as you can hook this up to be a soundbar replacement. 

Key specifications:
Voice assistant:
Siri
Voice-controllable music services: Apple Music
Connections:
Bluetooth and Airplay
Power supply:
Mains power
Dimensions:
9.79 x 9.79 x 8.43 cm
Weight: 345g

Best smart speaker for Alexa

Echo Studio
Amazon amazon.co.uk

£189.99

Amazon’s best smart Echo device in terms of performance, the Echo Studio is bass-rich, loud, and well-equipped to keep the audiophiles happy. 

It’s a big, cylindrical model that's one of the heaviest on this list thanks to the wealth of tweeters and subwoofers driving noise around it. 

It works with all the top streaming services, but will be most at home playing from Amazon Music, which has a new HD feature for premium subscribers. It basically upgrades the audio to play with greater clarity and more nuance. This is most obviously shown if you sit it in the centre of the room and hear the emphatic crash of cymbals or a heavy kick-drum from different parts of the room.

We liked that when we set ours up, it did a series of tests to figure out its own equaliser, calibrating the sound to suit the size of the room and the material we placed it on. It’s currently sitting on our kitchen countertop and offers decent bass – enough to interrupt our girlfriend's cooking if we play a particularly heavy song. 

Key specifications:
Voice assistant:
Alexa
Voice-controllable music services:
Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn
Connections:
Bluetooth, 3.5mm and optical
Power supply:
Mains power
Dimensions:
20.6 x 17.5 x 17.5 cm
Weight:
3.5kg

Best Smart Speaker Under £200

Sonos One (Gen 2)
Sonos johnlewis.com

£189.00

If we could have picked Sonos’ Five we would have (as it’s one of the best speakers we’ve ever used) but that one doesn't have any voice controls, so instead, we’d recommend the Sonos One, which is a brilliant substitute if you want top-end audio reproduction. 

It’s small enough to fit on a shelf or coffee table, but powerful enough to fill the room with loud, expressive sound. The stylish, monochromatic design fits well into the corner of the party, and it has manual buttons (play, pause, skip, volume) on the top if you get tired of barking orders to Alexa or Google. 

Sonos has a large catalogue of high-quality speakers that you can pair up with, giving you that multi-room experience if you want it, or even a surround-sound cinema system to improve your movies. 

Key specifications:
Voice assistant
: Alexa and Google
Voice-controllable music services:
Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn
Connections:
Bluetooth 
Power supply:
Mains power
Dimensions:
16.15 x 11.97 x 11.97 cmWeight: 1.85kg

Best portable smart speaker

Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 (2nd Generation)
Bang & Olufsen johnlewis.com

£199.99

Need a decent speaker to take on your travels? Have you been given the key role of DJ at the company away day? Then pick up B&O’s rugged BeoSound A1, as it’s one of the best portable devices we have used. 

We took this on a camping trip to the Lake District this summer and enjoyed chucking it in our bag to play music as we struggled up Scafell Pike. It is sturdy so can survive being knocked around a bit, and delivers decent sound, though the bass is not fantastic unless you put it on a table or hard surface. It’s battery powered though, up to 18 hours, so great for taking around with you. 

Key specifications:
Voice assistant:
Google and Alexa
Voice-controllable music services:
Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn
Connections:
Bluetooth, USB-C
Power supply:
Battery
Dimensions:
13.3 x 4.6 x 13.3 cm
Weight:
560g
Battery life:
18 hours

Best portable smart speaker for Google Assistant

JBL Link Portable
JBL jbl.com

£129.99

If you’re after an affordable speaker to kick back with you on the balcony or take with you to the beach, then you should check out JBL’s offering.

Yet another cylindrical speaker, this one is a bit taller and thinner, but still offers top-performing range, especially in high-treble music. The brains behind it are all in the Google Home app which you’ll have on your smartphone, whether you’re rocking an iOS or Android device. 

The main speaker sits on a small little plinth that acts as it’s charging station, but you can take it with you on your travels once it’s at 100% (it’ll last for around eight hours), and it’s waterproof so can be chucked into the pool or taken out into the dreary British weather with no stress. 

Key specifications
Voice assistant:
Google Assistant
Voice-controllable music services:
Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn, YouTube Music
Connections:
Bluetooth
Power supply:
Rechargeable battery
Dimensions:
17 x 8.8 x 8.8 cm
Weight:
735g
Battery life:
8 hours

Bose Portable Smart Speaker

Bose amazon.co.uk

£289.99

In our opinion, Bose’s speakers are among the best options if you want to take your AI voice assistant with you to a party. 

The Portable Home speaker is fairly lightweight, weighing just over a kilo, but it comes with a strap to help you carry it around, and it’s capable of surviving a few bumps, drops and a little bit of rain if you’re battling this great nation’s unpredictable weather.

It uses a similar setup to the SoundLink Revolve and Revolve+ and can last around 12 hours on a single charge. And if you’ve got other Bose products, you can sync them all up together to spread the party around the house.

Key specifications
Voice assistant:
Google and Alexa
Voice-controllable music services:
Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn, YouTube Music
Connections:
Bluetooth, USB-C 
Power supply:
Rechargeable battery
Dimensions:
19.15 x 11.9 x 10.4 cm
Weight:
1.06kg
Battery Life: 12 hours

Echo Dot (4th generation)

Amazon amazon.co.uk

£49.99

If you’re after a more personal smart speaker that is best suited to a small room away from the party, you can’t go wrong with Amazon’s 4th-gen Echo. 

The spherical device is unobtrusive and small enough to stick in the corner to stay out of the way, but when you need the music to play, it can fill the room. Alexa helps us to manage our lighting at home, and it’s always quick to respond to our demands. 

We’ve also been listening to Stephen Fry’s Mythos audiobook through our Echo these past few weeks, and the speaker manages to reproduce his bass-y, relaxing tones rather well. 

It won’t blow your mind with its audio quality compared to some others on this list (especially the Studio above), but does a great job of keeping things a bit more low-key in a smaller, more relaxed environment.

Key specifications:
Voice assistant:
Alexa
Voice-controllable music services: Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn
Connections: Bluetooth and 3.5mm
Power supply: Mains power
Dimensions:
10 x 10 x 8.9cm
Weight:
0.328kg

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