Insignia voice activated speaker review2/18/2024 Whereas once Alexa was a one-note performer capable of answering basic questions about the weather and or what the capital of Germany is, she's as filled to the brim with knowledge as Stephen Fry after a week in the British Library. Not that the Dot feels cheap - in fact, quite the opposite. The Echo Dot (5th Generation) takes things to new levels, a powerful and clued-up smart speaker that practically gives itself away thanks to its meagre asking price and five-star quality. Love Alexa? We'd heartily recommend the inexpensive and very cheerful fifth generation of the Echo Dot as the direct, if cheaper, rival to the HomePod Mini above.Īmazon's smart speaker range has become big business in the last decade or so, with Alexa now almost synonymous with the whole concept of integrated, domestic AI. A no-brainer for Apple lovers everywhere. From the moment we start playing music, it’s clear that the Mini is happy to outperform its size and price, embarrassing its direct competition with the sophistication, organisation and maturity of its bold, assertive sound.Īpple products have occasionally laboured under the reputation of being a little overpriced, but the HomePod Mini, hovering around the £100 / $100 mark, actually seems like superb, Award-winning value. As a powerful way to discover new music, it's fantastic, and Alexa simply isn't as good at it. Siri, of course, is your voice assistant, and after a short period of learning it'll respond to the phrase “Hey Siri, play something I'll like” not by streaming your most played track of the last few weeks, but by playing something that you probably haven't heard before but which has been curated to fit in with your current tastes and habits. Get its swirling orb of coloured light up and running to signify that Siri is listening or processing and you're in for a real sonic surprise. At just 8.4cm tall and 9.8cm wide, it’s quite a bit smaller than the similarly spherical Amazon Echo, but it certainly doesn't lack for power. If the HomePod 2 is too big and expensive for your needs but you love the idea of an Apple-made smart speaker that will fit perfectly into your iOS-oriented ecosystem, the HomePod Mini is your best bet. By far the best smart speaker for spatial audio on the market, and easily one of the best models available if you have the money. Yes, it’s expensive and yes, it smacks of a rip-off having to pay 20 quid extra for a wired connector, but the Era 300 has earned the right to be so impertinent.Ī truly five-star performer, and one of the best smart speakers you could hope to find right now. Big choral numbers feel broad and immersive thanks to spatial audio, but the Era 300 excels across hip-hop, classic rock, movie soundtracks and more. Music-wise, the Era 300 is a versatile and confident performer, consistently filling our testing rooms with cohesive, spacious sound across a swathe of genres. With its unique, “cinched hourglass” shape, there’s no question that the Era 300 is a bit more of an acquired taste than most of the brand’s rather more conservative designs, but what isn't up for debate is how superbly the five-star Era 300 manages to perform. That's not the greatest loss considering it's never been the most popular AI helper, anyway. Smart features are courtesy of Amazon Alexa and Sonos's own voice control, with Google Assistant dropped due to a change in Google’s technical requirements for third-party devices. With the Era 300, Sonos has delivered a smart speaker capable of voice integration alongside revolutionary sound and an embarrassment of cutting-edge features to rival the best that Apple or other rivals have to offer. If you crave home spatial audio as a matter of priority, then smart speakers don't come much more impressive than the Sonos Era 300.
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