Smart Speaker Showdown: HomePod vs. Google Home Max vs. Sonos One

[G65S]

I don't get what the big deal is about Siri not being able to answer trivial questions. Who cares! What I think more ppl need to focus on is the fact that you can activate Siri without having to scream over the music, which it seems to do better than any other speaker. And once she is activated, it seems like she can still do all the useful things like control lights, etc. I could care less if she cant sing happy birthday or answer questions about Pluto.

 

[44267547]

I don't get what the big deal is about Siri not being able to answer trivial questions. Who cares! What I think more ppl need to focus on is the fact that you can activate Siri without having to scream over the music, which it seems to do better than any other speaker. And once she is activated, it seems like she can still do all the useful things like control lights, etc. I could care less if she cant sing happy birthday or answer questions about Pluto.

Right, that’s a lot of what Siri is used for. Is the more simplistic task of toggling features on or off, answering simple questions about the weather or controlling HomeKit, CarPlay, etc. Siri does all that very well with iOS controls. That’s all I ever use Siri for anyway, Aside from some of the deciphering issues with dictation.

 

[err404]

well sonos does and much more. when it gets airplay it will support pretty much everything.

Fair enough. I have a few last gen Sonos without the smart assistant. I was under the impression that the voice controlled playback for Sonos was limited in supported music services. I’m not sure if this is still true.
Of course you could use the app for playback, but it would be unfair to class that against other smart speakers.
Just like I won’t give Apple a pass for being able to Airplay Google Music to the HomePod.

 

[macjonny1]

No line-in, or even the ability to tie into another device with a line-in. No ability as of yet to synchronize with other Homepods.

Fail

 

[sidewinder3000]

I really, really, really, really, really hope Apple has some major, gamechanging announcements about Siri coming up at WWDC.

To have been first to market with an integrated virtual assistant and then fall this far behind is a slap in the face to loyal Apple customers who have invested so much in their ecosystem.

 

[citysnaps]

.
I'm into day 12 of my 14-day HomePod evaluation.

Still super stoked with its outstanding sound and how well Siri interacts. It's def a keeper, having decided that a few days ago.

Will be buying two more when Apple announces stereo and multiroom capability, with my wife getting one for herself.

 

[patent10021]

Apple execs have said in the past that Siri was not engineered to be Trivial Pursuit, but it would be nice if Siri had a more competitive feature set.

And as a developer this is troubling. This is a very bad sign for Apple. The finer details like trivial interactions are what distinguish the AI platforms from each other. You have 1980s-esque boilerplate answers or human-like interactions. If I'm interacting with AI I want it to be like my little brother/sister. I don't need another Speak & Spell device.

 

[Braderunner]

Poor Apple... too little, too late. Maybe that should be their new tagline.

You don’t know Apple.

 

[jcshas]

I think HomePod is probably better suited for someone who might be new to the smart speaker market, and/or their primary use is for listening to music or controlling homekit devices. I understand everyone's needs are different, but I bought my HomePod the weekend it launched, and its a big a disappointment so far. It's a great sounding speaker and can control HomeKit devices, but that's really all you can expect in return for a $350 investment. I decided to return my HomePod and wait this one out until Apple adds more features.

 

[sime0n]

You don’t know Apple.

The biggest drawback by far is not working with Apple TV for me. I do not want to set the speaker output every time it unsyncs. Huge drawback and it’s pulling me into the sonos sound bar 5.1 system instead.

 

[cliffster82]

Nobody's asking me, but dumb questions in the video. I don't need Siri to be Google, but for BASIC everyday type stuff, she's good enough. We got a HomePod and started asking random facts and Siri nailed them all, down to when George Washington was born. Also can tell the weather. Also knew when the next Timberwolves game was, and the score of a current game. I'm just saying, Siri is not as dumb as everyone keeps trying to say (over and over again). I totally agree the other ones are "smarter" than Siri, I just don't personally see that as being a meaningful knock on the HomePod. As far as everything else that matters, i.e. playing my music, sounding great, and looking good, we love it.

 

[mi7chy]

I’ll repeat what I’ve shared on other threads in this topic. Personally I do not — I do not want to own a Google / Amazon device that is listening in on my family 24 hrs a day. I don’t want a “assistant” to speak into day and night.

Most importantly my life just isn’t that complicated that I need Google anal-yizing my families dialogue and doing who knows what with.

To me.. to me PRIVACY is PARAMOUNT to my families life. Boundaries are critical. The fact that many here are obsessed with the assistant aspect of these devices frankly is — scary.

I’m completely conscious that SIRI is limited because it is not mining my information to sell to any bad actor out there.

If you aren’t aware of the reasons for Apple and it’s privacy policies I suggest you read them very carefully then read Googles and Amazons then - then decide if you even belong on this platform or this forum even — if Siri’s limitations across ALL Apple devices just don’t work for you.

Earth to many of you — that just isn’t gonna change drastically at Apple in the foreseeable future.

This is just scaremongering.

HomePod doesn't have a physical mic mute switch like Google Home Max.

HomePod doesn't recognize individual voices so anyone can ask it to play your private messages.

Apple doesn't respect anonymity and requires you to login to iOS while Android doesn't.

Apple has a worse track record with leaking customers' private pictures to the internet.

 

[EdT]

I wish I could give you a 1000 upvotes. Far too many people these days don't care about how much of their life they 'give away' to any tom, dick or harry aka Google and Amazon and Facebook and everyone else.
There will come a time when the WW2 saying 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' will become very apt again. Keep your private life 'private'.

This isn’t new. For decades advertisers have been able to buy lists based upon income/race/location/schools attended and more. It was pretty accurate in the 1980’s when I worked for a direct mailer (junk mail) and it probably has 99.9% of Americans nailed down statistically now.

Interesting facts from both then AND now:

• There is no requirement that the data on you is accurate.
• If there is incorrect data the data firms collecting and selling that bad information have no legal responsibility to correct it, or even to notify you about it.
• You don’t have a legal right to view that data to see if it is accurate, although a few places allow you to view it, usually for a fee. The information may be about you but it belongs to them.

 

[sidewinder3000]

A nice, non bias overview of the three products.


Apple execs have said in the past that Siri was not engineered to be Trivial Pursuit, but it would be nice if Siri had a more competitive feature set.

Probably a limitation of Siri I imagine at the moment. If Siri was able to answer such "Trivial Pursuit" questions, Apple would be advertising the fact, heavily.

The article did miss the fact that the Google and Amazon devices can be used with IFTTT workflows, and others, which is great for building custom workflows / extending the capability set, but I imagine Homepod cannot do so yet?

I disagree with Apple’s stance on “Trivial Pursuit”. When Siri debuted, it had all sorts of playful, engaging little tricks. Such behaviors encourage play and discovery, which are key to transitioning people into having greater daily interaction with Siri. The original Mac was playful as well, which encouraged interaction and built rapport for an entirely new and foreign product.

I fear that some self-serious people at Apple are sucking the life out of Siri and deviating from some of Apple’s core brand attributes and strengths. Any fear that people might not take Siri seriously if it tells jokes or sings happy birthday is absurd. Anything that gets a foot in the door in terms of customer interaction is a good thing.

I hope that Siri’s fun side returns, along with a sea change in power & capabilities, at this year’s WWDC. Apple customers should have the best virtual assistant on the market, period.

 

[csurfr]

The biggest drawback by far is not working with Apple TV for me. I do not want to set the speaker output every time it unsyncs. Huge drawback and it’s pulling me into the sonos sound bar 5.1 system instead.

"Unsyncs" ? What are you referring to? Choose the output on the AppleTV and it will stay that way until you either change it or the AppleTV enters sleep mode. As mentioned in another thread, just hold the play/pause button down and choose HomePod from the menu that pops up. Though I can't say specifically if an App has to support this ability or not, but it seems the ones I am using do.

If you're saying that it doesn't "remember" where you last played it (like iTunes does)...well, I can't help you there, because it doesn't have that functionality built in. I'm fairly certain that none of the iOS devices will remember it either. You have to choose it every time.
[doublepost=1519161012][/doublepost]

Fair enough. I have a few last gen Sonos without the smart assistant. I was under the impression that the voice controlled playback for Sonos was limited in supported music services. I’m not sure if this is still true.
Of course you could use the app for playback, but it would be unfair to class that against other smart speakers.
Just like I won’t give Apple a pass for being able to Airplay Google Music to the HomePod.

I'm fairly sure that the playback over voice that the Sonos:One supports are limited to those that Alexa supports. You can't use your voice one the Sonos:One to control AppleMusic, because Alexa doesn't support it. All Sonos did was toss the brain of an Echo Dot on top of their existing speaker. And don't get me wrong, I loved my Play:1 but the recent problems with AppleMusic drove me batty. If the Sonos:One had AirPlay out of the box and I could turn Alexa off completely, I might have jumped on the 2-for-1 bundle.
[doublepost=1519161234][/doublepost]

This is just scaremongering.

HomePod doesn't have a physical mic mute switch like Google Home Max.

HomePod doesn't recognize individual voices so anyone can ask it to play your private messages.

Apple doesn't respect anonymity and requires you to login to iOS while Android doesn't.

Apple has a worse track record with leaking customers' private pictures to the internet.

You're correct. However, at least all of your Siri requests are anonymized. . . Apple (says) they don't collect personal information with any request. I think we have to take them at face value for that. It would be utterly disastrous if it came out that they were lying the entire time.

edit: I also wonder if the lights on the top of the HomePod are hardwired in to the request listening portion (kind of like the iSight camera gains power through the LED on Mac hardware so that you KNOW your camera is on). . .

 

[Trager]

Isn't part of a review supposed to be a test of what a product is designed to do? Over and again, the HomePod reviews focus on HomePod's Siri command set, and make its effectiveness at executing its designed command set a footnote.

Except Siri commands are the only way to interface with this thing and are supposedly it’s raison d’etre. Even as a music player, the Siri interface to HomePod kind of sucks — in the few days that I’ve had mine, I have regularly had to try rephrasing requests to get music anywhere near what I was trying to have it play. It’s an okay sounding speaker, but the smart aspect is the only conceivable reason it’s worth the $300+ price tag.

 

[csurfr]

Except Siri commands are the only way to interface with this thing and are supposedly it’s raison d’etre. Even as a music player, the Siri interface to HomePod kind of sucks — in the few days that I’ve had mine, I have regularly had to try rephrasing requests to get music anywhere near what I was trying to have it play. It’s an okay sounding speaker, but the smart aspect is the only conceivable reason it’s worth the $300+ price tag.

That's very strange. I've asked Siri many times to play some obscure remixes that are on AppleMusic and the request has been spot on every time so far.

 

[The Game 161]

homepod fits the ecosystem even though Siri really does need to improve.

 

[jmgregory1]

I hope Apple makes the HomePod a bit smarter, so that it recognizes when I ask it to do something, vs when my wife does, switching iCloud accounts as needed. I don't need it to be able to work with lots of people, but I'm not going to buy into one that my wife can't use when I'm not around to tell it what to play. There's got to be a way to have a couple or three iCloud accounts associated with it so that it could work for both of us.

 

[Trager]

That's very strange. I've asked Siri many times to play some obscure remixes that are on AppleMusic and the request has been spot on every time so far.

Were you able to give the exact, complete name of the remix? I managed to stump Siri by asking for the Glenn Gould version of the Goldberg Variations — probably one of the more famous classics recordings of the 20th century.

Likewise, she has real problems with jazz music (where it’s common for a single artist to have several versions of the same song in their discography).

 

[Mtmspa]

I absolutely love my Homepod.
- Super simple to setup (I remember it took a lot of steps to setup Echo Dot).
- Amazing sound, with very less footprint.
- Siri does respond even at high volumes. I had to literally scream at Alexa to listen to me.
- Both Sonos and Google Home Max are ugly looking for me!

However, Siri can improve the abilities.

Same here. Siri does exactly what I expected. Music and home automation control. And it sounds better than my Sonos 5, which I unplugged and but in the closet.

 

[ttate90303]

I've got some Sonos One's. In my opinion, the Sonos App and experience are what make the system. I can start some music playing on my laptop using the controller app there, then if I'm walking around the house I can open the App on my iPhone and it just picks up and shows me what is playing completely seamlessly.

Plus the Sonos works with their other products. I was so impressed with the Sonos "experience", I added in a Connect to my home theater system.

The whole house audio capability of Sonos is amazing. I can play from all my Sonos devices for whole house audio, and it's synchronized with no latency.

Plus Sonos already integrates with like every music provider out there!

Seems these reviews only talk about subjective sound quality, use of the digital assistants, and some basic integration. But they are leaving out a whole bunch of other stuff that Sonos has had for years and years...

You may already know this but if something is already playing on a Sonos speaker if you go up to another speaker and hold the play button it will begin playing the same track!

 

[edgonzalez32]

I just switched to a pixel 2 xl and the home max is looking more and more attractive now that I have this phone. I am absolutely blown away by Google Assistant and am all in on Google's service.

I know I am essentially the product to Google. But, if I can at the very least, benefit from all of the info they have on me, then its a bit of a win. This phone has really helped my productivity. Having the max could only help out more.

 

[kruegdude]

And as a developer this is troubling. This is a very bad sign for Apple. The finer details like trivial interactions are what distinguish the AI platforms from each other. You have 1980s-esque boilerplate answers or human-like interactions. If I'm interacting with AI I want it to be like my little brother/sister. I don't need another Speak & Spell device.

You changed the narrative. They didn’t say trivial interactions.
[doublepost=1519163459][/doublepost]

I have decided to return my homepod. This morning I was taking a shower, and I asked Siri for the weather report. Got nothing. Nada. Totally ignored. And its supposed to have good microphones! Okay, so I was whispering, the water was on high, the bathroom door was shut, and my bedroom, where Siri sits, not leaving a mark, was down the hall and around the corner with it's door shut. But still. Total piece of junk.

I know, right? I put mine in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet and the sound sucked.

 

[Phil A.]

IMO a single Sonos One (or Play:1 as they're effective identical except for the built in Alexa on the former) doesn't sound particularly good, but putting 2 of them in a stereo pair makes a huge, huge difference to both the sound stage and sound quality and they sound brilliant with superb clarity and excellent response across the whole frequency range.