Best smart speaker of 2019 – Complete Buyers guide

Tech companies are constantly looking for different ways to make life easier for us. They have built remote control device for pretty much every home appliance. We can simply use the remote to control these appliances without having to get up from the comfort of our bed. However, it appears that, even these remote devices are not convenient enough for us. So, technology companies have come up with smart devices which can be operated using our voice. Smart speakers are one of the most common type of smart devices now a days, according to an YouGov Poll, in the UK, smart home speaker ownership has doubled in just six months. So, want to listen your favourite song? All you need to do is ask.

With a smart speaker, you can play music, listen to the news, create shopping list, write a memo and many other things. A fantastic feature of a smart speaker is its ability to work as a smart home hub in a smart home. You can control other smart devices of your home such as smart lights, climate control system and other smart speakers using a smart speaker with built in smart home hub. The most popular feature of a smart speaker is its ability to answer any question you have in your mind. These smart speakers come with voice based personal assistants. These personal assistants have transformed smart speakers. Now, when we think of smart speakers, we think of the personal assistant it comes with. Most common voice based personal assistants are Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri. They are powered by artificial intelligence. Developers of these technologies are constantly competing to improve the technology and gain control of this huge smart speaker market.

So far, we have discussed about what is a smart speaker and what are its usual features. Now let’s discuss; what should you look for in a smart speaker.

1) Personal assistant: Only smart speaker worth buying is the one that comes with either Alexa, Google assistant or Siri.

2) Sound quality: Do you want your smart speaker to play music for the entire room, or want to use it to play music in your personal space (table top, bed side table)? You can select your smart speaker based on your requirement.

3) Materials and colours: Many of these smart speakers comes in different variations of material and colours. So, you can select the one suits your decoration.

4) Features: If you need your smart home speaker not just to play music or read you news but also to control your smart home system then you will need a speaker with smart home hub built in. So, check in the specs if the speaker you are looking for has that feature. Carefully check the compatibility to make sure you purchase the speaker compatible with your existing smart home features.

Based on our smart speaker checklist, we have created our list of best smart speakers of 2019. Have a look at our reviews and select the most suitable speaker for you.

Sonos play 1 – Great sound quality

The first smart speaker in our list is Sonos Play 1. In just few years, Sonos has released some of the best speakers available in the market. Sonos Play 1 is one the most talked about smart speaker. If you are looking for excellent sound quality along with fantastic looking device that you can place anywhere in your room, then this is the perfect speaker for you.

Sonos Play 1 comes with Alexa built in. However, according to latest news, Google Assistant will soon be available on Sonos speakers. What we love about this Sonos device is its ability to communicate with other Sonos speakers in your home. So, it can easily be made part of a multi room audio system. An unique feature of this device is that, you can play music even when Alexa is muted.

The £199 (approximate) price tag is well worth the quality the Sonos Play 1 speaker offers. The multi room ecosystem provided by Sonos works as a bridge fixing gaps in Alexa’s smart home ecosystem. So, it is the most suitable smart speaker for smart homes.

Google home speaker – Perfect for controlling smart home

Powered with the best voice controlled personal assistant in the market Google Assistant, Google home speaker takes the full advantage of Youtubes (Also owned by Google) huge music library. With this speaker, every music track from Youtube is at your reach. It is cheap, can perform all basic tasks that you expect from a smart speaker. The sound quality is not as good as others though. It doubles as Google smart home hub. So, you can control other compatible smart home devices using this device.

Google has invested heavily in smart home systems. And this smart speaker is at the forefront of its ecosystem. It has multi language support, so far, the feature supports English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Japanese. Google has also revealed that the speaker can work with 5,000 different types of devices.

With this device, you can make hands free calling. You can also use its Bluetooth connectivity option to import all your contacts from your mobile devices. So, whenever you need to make a phone call. All you need to do is ask your google Assistant.

Apple Home pod – Expensive , elegant looking but lacks compatible smart devices

Like every other Apple device, Apple Home pod is expensive. This smart speaker has great sound quality and nice, minimalistic design. The speaker runs with Apples own voice assistant Siri. If you have a home full of Apple devices, then this Smart speaker is perfect for you. The home pod is essentially a combination of a premium speaker and a hub for controlling smart devices from Apple. It integrates seamlessly with Apple Ecosystem. As a speaker, the Apple HomePod fares excellent. Setting it up is also very easy. As a smart home hub, it gives basic control over your home. But the problem is, you are stuck with only handful of smart devices which are currently compatible with Apple Home Pod. Also, to play music on this speaker, you need to subscribe to Apple music.

Amazon Echo – Inexpensive, good sound quality, popular

Amazon Echo is the most popular smart home speaker on the market. In fact, Amazon with its Alexa voice assistant and Echo family of speakers made smart speakers mainstream. Amazon Echo (2nd gen) is inexpensive and the audio reaches the whole room. Echo (2nd gen) does not have smart home hub, however you can get Echo plus. If you are looking for a smaller device then Amazon has echo dot smart speaker for you.

Read comparison between Amazon Echo, Echo Plus and Echo Dot.

These smart speakers come in many different colours and materials. So, no matter what your interior design is, you will find the perfect smart speaker in this product range.