Best Smart Speakers for 2024: We Tested Alexa, Google, Apple and Sonos
If you go out shopping to build your ideal smart homehaving a perfect smart speaker is more important than you think. There’s a lot of technology built into these gadgets, including the ability to become smart home hubs for systems like Matter and Zigbee – and they also provide Great smart home gifts.
A good smart speaker should be good at playing music, audiobooks, and podcasts first and foremost. On top of that, it should offer smart features for internet search and voice-activated control of connected devices. Of course, it needs to be able to understand you easily, whether it’s at your bedside or across from your echoing kitchen.
Most speakers these days run Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, but if you’re fully committed to the Apple ecosystem, you can opt for the Apple HomePod Mini with Siri. With that said, here are the best smart speakers for your home in 2024.
What is the best smart speaker?
The Amazon Echo speaker is one of the most affordable and easy-to-set-up smart speakers available. that’s why this Fourth generation Amazon Echo Our overall pick for the top smart speaker. It probably best meets the needs of most families. Although it’s a few years old, the device has improved sound quality over its predecessor, is compatible with a variety of smart devices, and is relatively affordable at $100 (although it can often be found for $80 or less).
The fourth-generation Echo might not be the best choice for your particular home. almost Every smart speaker Lets you control lights, play music, ask questions, set reminders, and more with simple voice commands. The decision may just depend on which brand you’re already invested in. If you’re interested in a product from a particular company, whether you’re Amazon, Apple, or Google, choosing a speaker is easy.
For the platform-neutral folks (or those who want to switch things up), our top picks besides the 4th-gen Amazon Echo are the 2nd-gen Google Nest Mini, Amazon Echo Dot (5th-gen), Apple HomePod Mini and the new Sonos Era 100. Find out why below.
The Best Smart Speakers of 2024
We give Amazon the smart home edge in the best smart speaker category, thanks to Alexa and the $100 fourth-generation Amazon Echo.
The latest Echo (not to be confused with Fifth generation Echo Dot or echo pop) combines the usual Alexa smart features with a great-sounding speaker with a built-in Zigbee radio. This is a great feature that allows you to connect Zigbee lights, locks, sensors, and other devices to your setup without the need for a separate hub device.
The Echo is even useful when you’re not around, since Alexa can send an alert if your smart speaker’s microphone detects the sound of breaking glass or a smoke alarm.
The Echo earns the No. 1 spot because of its sound quality: The speaker delivers loud, room-filling sound with plenty of clarity and bass control. While there are better-sounding speakers out there, such as the Sonos Era 100 and Echo Studio, none of them can match the price of the Echo.
Read our Amazon Echo (4th Gen) review.
If you’re in the market for a budget-friendly smart speaker, look no further than the feature-packed Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen). It offers a wealth of features, including a temperature sensor, an Eero mesh extender, and the ability to click it like an alarm clock.
The Echo Dot (5th generation) also sounds better than other speakers in its price range, including the Echo Pop and Google’s Nest Mini, with plenty of sound clarity and decent bass content. Its microphone is sensitive enough to hear sounds from across the room, even when another speaker is playing.
While Google’s Nest Mini is slightly more sophisticated in terms of responsiveness, the Amazon Echo Dot is better in every other way and is the best smart speaker under $50.
Google is doing admirably in the smart speaker space, catching up with Amazon. At this point, it becomes difficult to choose between the two companies’ lowest-priced smart speaker devices.
Google Assistant now has nearly as many features as Alexa, and if you like Google Assistant, the $50 Google Nest Mini can be a solid alternative to the Amazon Echo Dot. add, According to our tests, Google Assistant is slightly smarter than Alexa.
If you can’t remember the exact name of a smart home device, it can respond to voice commands more flexibly, and Google’s grouped commands (called routines) work with more types of smart devices than Amazon’s similar routines.
Google Assistant can recognize multiple voices, so it will give you and your spouse different answers if you each ask for the calendar (although Alexa can now do that, too).
Overall, Google still has the smart edge, and the Google Nest Mini is a great, low-cost way to take advantage of that smarts.
Read our Google Nest Mini review.
Apple’s small, Siri-enabled smart speaker bridges a strange gap between its rivals, with the same $100 price tag as Google’s offering Nest Audio and amazon echoas well as cheaper, smaller-package speakers like the Nest Mini and echo point.
Features like intercom, audio switching, and stereo pairing make this small smart speaker very useful. It looks great and sounds great.
Speaking of smart homes, Siri and HomePod Mini are limited to devices that work with Apple’s smart home platform HomeKit.
The number of HomeKit-compatible devices is smaller than the number of devices that support Alexa or Google Assistant.
If you like Apple (if Siri is your go-to smart assistant), or HomeKit is your go-to smart home platform, then you’re going to love Apple’s smart speakers.
For those who already use an iPhone, Apple TV, or original HomePod, adding this smart speaker to the lineup makes sense.
Read our Apple HomePod Mini review.
Replacing will be a big job sonos onebut the company not only succeeded in making the Era 100 sound better, but also gave it more functionality.
also Apple AirPlay 2 Compared to Sonos’ own multi-room systems, the Era 100 now has Bluetooth functionality, which puts it in line with the Roam and Move portable speakers.
The only downside to the Era 100 is that the speaker no longer offers a choice between Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. While adding the Nest Mini seems to defeat the purpose of a speaker like this, it should solve this problem for people in the Google ecosystem. The issue is reportedly due to a change in Google’s rules, so perhaps Assistant can be added in the future.
Either way, the Era 100 sounds great, and Alexa fans especially should enjoy it.
Read our Sonos Era 100 review.
Other smart speaker options
The smart speakers above are our current favorites, but if you’re looking for specific audio performance, you still have plenty of other options. Read our breakdown Alexa vs. Google Assistant vs. Siri If you want to know the pros and cons of each device and decide on a smart home device based on its platform.
Over the past year or so, we’ve seen several new smart speakers (i.e. AppleHomePod, Amazon Echo PopSonos Era 100 and Anno 300)but most models are available for much longer. The Era 100 is the speaker of choice for these new speakers, and while the $40 Pop is interesting in its own right, Point (fifth generation) More features are available for just $10 more.
If you like the idea of instant technology but want something more intuitive, check out our list best smart display. A smart display essentially combines a smart speaker with a touch screen, so you can watch videos on YouTube, make video calls, Scroll through images and control your smart home Touch gadget. Both Amazon and Google have several options worth considering in this category.
Read more: The best smart displays of 2024
Figure out what platform or features you want, and you should be able to quickly narrow down your choices and find the smart speaker that’s right for you and your family.
Smart Speaker FAQs
Do you have a stereo smart speaker?
Yes; nearly every Amazon Echo smart speaker can be stereo paired with another Echo speaker. The list is quite long, so check out Amazon’s Stereo Device Compatibility Page. You’ll find a list of speakers that can be paired with each other for stereo sound.
All Google smart speakers can be paired in stereo as long as they Same model. Google’s Nest Audio speakers are a great choice for stereo pairing, and two-packs of these speakers are often available at a discount of $99 per speaker from the MSRP.
You’ll be able to set up the speakers in the Google Home app and tell Google which speaker is on the right and which is on the left. Bass and treble settings can also be adjusted through the Home app.
Apple’s HomePod and HomePod Mini can be paired with the same speakers for left- and right-channel stereo listening. You can also Pair your HomePod Create a surround sound theater with Apple TV. The smaller speaker won’t blow your mind, but it’s a nice extra feature.
If you build a Stellar home theater system is your top priority smart speaker, and we think Sonos offers the best audio quality. Two Sonos speakers (same model) Can be paired in stereoor you can exchange for their selection of Smart sound bar (beam or arc) or Universal sound bar.
What is the smartest voice assistant?
The competition between Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa is fierce these days. Apple’s Siri also made the list, but held steady in third place in terms of reliability, knowledge and understanding of human requests.
Overall, we think Google Assistant’s strengths lie in its superior pacing, natural tone, and ability to consistently understand (and answer) questions and follow-up queries.
It’s close enough that you can safely invest in Google Assistant or Alexa based on other preferences like speaker style, devices, and compatibility with other popular smart home products.
Alexa is almost as good as Google Assistant, so no matter which assistant you choose, you can’t go wrong. You’ll learn its quirks and how to interact with your assistant to induce optimal responses and useful information.
just for fun, Here’s our in-depth study Incorporate the “personality” of each assistant.
Which smart speaker is the loudest?
In our tests of Apple, Amazon, and Google smart speakers, we think Amazon Echo Studios Offers the most in terms of sheer numbers. The Sonos Era 100 is a close second, with strong sound and our current pick for best sound quality. Especially if you are considering using the speakers as a stereo pair or as a theater system for watching TV.
Which smart speaker is best for playing free music?
Amazon smart speakers can play music from Pandora, Spotify and other popular music streaming platforms for free or at a paid subscription level. Additionally, if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can play music from the vast Prime Music catalog.
Google smart speakers have similar music streaming options, but Amazon requires a paid Prime subscription to listen to ad-free music through Prime Music. Google offers free YouTube Music subscription and its smart speakers.
