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

[mytdave]

Apparently HomePod is a tiny room in the gardener's shed in the walled garden.

Why can't Apple let HomePod work with my iTunes library on my Mac? Why not allow it to serve as a Bluetooth speaker for any capable device? (no physical ports needed) I'd say 50% of the reason to have a "smart speaker" is precisely for Trivial Pursuit, otherwise, what's the point?

 

[kruegdude]

I suspect that buyers of Amazon or Googles products, possibly motivated by your articles praise of Alexa and GA, will come to be disappointed with the lack of flexibility and real world usability of the AI they acquired. There’s only so many trivial questions you can ask before the shine wears off.

Oh, and some of us consider it a design plus not having to mess with wires and external ports. Which brings up another point, which ports didn’t the other speakers choose to implement. Optical? Composite audio in? Etc.

 

[ivassilis]

the only non-biased review I've seen is Pogue's over at Yahoo, where he put a panel of his colleagues before a hidden set of smart speakers. Nobody ranked Homepod as his first choice. If you want more than good-looks from your speaker (and since Siri is already lagging behind the others), you should try and do the same test for you. You could be surprised at the results.

 

[tennisproha]

Apple's new HomePod is late to the smart speaker market, which is already crowded with speakers from companies like Amazon, Google, and Sonos. The latter two companies, Google and Sonos, have released speakers with high-quality sound and robust voice assistants, giving the HomePod some serious competition.

We decided to pit Apple's $349 HomePod against both the $399 Google Home Max, which comes with Google Assistant, and the $199 Alexa-powered Sonos One to see how the HomePod measures up.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

To compare the three speakers, we focused on design, sound quality, and the overall performance of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

When it comes to design -- and this is certainly subjective -- we preferred the look of the HomePod with its fabric-wrapped body and small but solid form factor. The Sonos One looks a little more dated with its squarer body and standard speaker mesh, while the Google Home Max has a much larger footprint that's going to take up more space.

Apple's HomePod​

All three offer touch-based controls at the top of the device, but the Google Home Max has one design edge - a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting external music sources. The Sonos One has a single Ethernet port, while the HomePod has no ports.

Though we liked the HomePod's design, Siri, as you might expect, did not perform as well as Alexa on Sonos One or Google Assistant on Google Home Max.

Google Home Max​

On questions like "Is Pluto a planet?" or "What's the fastest car?" both Alexa and Google Assistant were able to provide satisfactory answers, while Siri said those weren't questions that could be answered on HomePod.

Siri was not able to sing happy birthday, create a calendar event, or even provide the release date of the HomePod itself, directing users to Apple.com for more information, while the other smart assistants were able to do these things.

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.

Though only briefly touched on in the video, Siri does, in fact, do well with HomeKit commands and controlling music playback on the HomePod through an accompanying Apple Music subscription.

Sonos One​

Sound quality is a controversial topic because there's a heavy amount of personal preference involved when judging these three speakers. We thought the HomePod sounded the best, with the Google Home Max at a close second, followed by the Sonos One.

The Google Home Max gets the loudest, but sound becomes somewhat distorted at the highest volumes, while the Sonos One offers robust sound that's not quite as good at a lower price point. HomePod does have one major benefit: a fantastic microphone that picks up Siri commands even when you're across the room.

All three of these speakers offer great sound, and if you're attempting to pick one based on reviews, make sure to read several. We thought the HomePod sounded best, but other sources, like Consumer Reports and Yahoo's David Pogue found that the Google Home Max and the Sonos One sounded better than the HomePod.

So which speaker is better? The answer to that question depends on the other products you own. If you're an Apple Music subscriber with a HomeKit setup, the HomePod is going to work great. It only works natively with Apple Music, iTunes Match, and iTunes purchases, so if you have a Spotify subscription, for example, support isn't as robust.

For that reason, if you're not locked into Apple's ecosystem already, or if you have Apple devices but subscribe to Spotify, HomePod probably isn't the best choice for you.

Article Link: Smart Speaker Showdown: HomePod vs. Google Home vs. Sonos One

Seriously what do people not get about "Homepod is a MUSIC SPEAKER, not a smart speaker"?? That couldn't be made more clear.

All that aside, Alexa sounds beautiful compared to the others. She has a very calming voice.

 

[Davepbass]

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...

Sonos sounds great! But lock your phone and try to adjust the volume... You can't! You have to have the Sonos app open to do this. I realize this is a limitation sweet by Apple but it's a total deal breaker for me.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

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.

My experience has been almost entirely error-free. As a test, I've concentrated on making my requests conversational rather than mechanical/well-articulated. Works fine. I just asked for Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio, Opus 50. Bada bing, bada bang! My biggest "problem" is I'll say "Siri..." instead of "Hey Siri..." and, of course, get nothing at all. Not even a "You talkin' to me?" (For that response, I guess I shoulda said, "Hey De Niro...")

On a more serious note, song/music requests are also subject to garbage in/garbage out. Especially in Classical, the quality of the metadata/search data can be a problem affecting both conventional text-based search and Siri alike. People have been scouring/normalizing their iTunes Library metadata for years in order to get consistent search results. Whether it's the fault of the record labels/producers, the companies that maintain the music metadata libraries, or Apple's iTunes staff hardly matters - they've all had a hand in it.

 

[ackmondual]

I know. Really?

But what I really want to know is which one leaves the most marks on the most surfaces when moved about!

Thems the state of the current tech landscape:
New phone comes out... what material is the casing made out of?
New TV gets released... does it do 4K?
New version of mobile OS is out... what emojis were added?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

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.

Seems likely that most of what you're hearing is the difference between a summed mono signal, and stereo - much can be lost when you sum left and right into mono, depending on how the music was recorded. We'll see how a pair of HomePods compares, once the capability is available.

 

[robbyx]

It seems to me that Siri came long before the other two assistants. You’d think by this point it would be way ahead, but it’s way behind. I’m guessing Apple is aware of this and that’s the reason it’s being marketed primarily as a music speaker.

Siri will never match the competition unless Apple rethinks its stance on “privacy”. The more an assistant knows about the person he or she is assisting, the more helpful that assistant becomes. This is simple logic and it applies as much to real life human assistants as it does to AIs. Voice interaction will be the next major leap forward. There were touch screens before the iPhone, but it was Apple who took the experience to the next level. The company that does the same for voice UI will be the next Apple.

 

[Black Tiger]

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

iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch All came out well after products in the same category. How’d that work out in the long run?

 

[steve knight]

Sonos sounds great! But lock your phone and try to adjust the volume... You can't! You have to have the Sonos app open to do this. I realize this is a limitation sweet by Apple but it's a total deal breaker for me.

that is sometimes the case sometimes not. often I have sonos on my lock screen even if I did not use the app and my wife did. or my watch. but with voiceover my wife seldom has it on the lock screen. but then again my wife has been using airplay but if she leaves her ipad connected to the speaker siri always starts playing when she tries to use siri.

 

[robbyx]

Apparently HomePod is a tiny room in the gardener's shed in the walled garden.

Why can't Apple let HomePod work with my iTunes library on my Mac? Why not allow it to serve as a Bluetooth speaker for any capable device? (no physical ports needed) I'd say 50% of the reason to have a "smart speaker" is precisely for Trivial Pursuit, otherwise, what's the point?

Apple wants to reserve the Siri experience for Apple Music. They want to extract a monthly fee from you to interact with your music library via voice commands. HomePod might be a hardware product but its primary purpose is adding value to Apple Music.

 

[femike]

Obviously Tim Cook simply did not put in the emphasis on Siri. Carpool Karaoke and TV shows for the US market, stopping router production, no mac minis and monitors etc, is more important to him. Probably didn't expand the team, didn't hire more full time staff and people that stay in the team with a career path without being moved elsewhere... who knows, but the proof is in the results, or lack of.

 

[Black Tiger]

the only non-biased review I've seen is Pogue's over at Yahoo, where he put a panel of his colleagues before a hidden set of smart speakers. Nobody ranked Homepod as his first choice. If you want more than good-looks from your speaker (and since Siri is already lagging behind the others), you should try and do the same test for you. You could be surprised at the results.

Silliest review I’ve come across actually. He actually put up a curtain to obstruct the speakers. The HomePod calibrates for obstacles. This is one of its key features. Surely he could have just had the “panel” Face a different direction or close their eyes rather than using this approach; absolutely ludicrous.

 

[Lab4Us]

the only non-biased review I've seen is Pogue's over at Yahoo, where he put a panel of his colleagues before a hidden set of smart speakers. Nobody ranked Homepod as his first choice. If you want more than good-looks from your speaker (and since Siri is already lagging behind the others), you should try and do the same test for you. You could be surprised at the results.

Yep! Especially if you remove the curtain that prevented HP from properly analyzing the room and adjusting accordingly.

 

[Willo]

I don't have ears, or a home, or the part of the brain dedicated to understanding other people may live their lives differently, so I fail to see how any of these products are relevant.

 

[G5isAlive]

the only non-biased review I've seen is Pogue's over at Yahoo, where he put a panel of his colleagues before a hidden set of smart speakers. Nobody ranked Homepod as his first choice. If you want more than good-looks from your speaker (and since Siri is already lagging behind the others), you should try and do the same test for you. You could be surprised at the results.

Why, have you done this? just curious. As others have pointed out one of the flaws in Pogue's 'test' is that the use of a curtain confounds the acoustics and the ability of the HomePod to adjust for the room... but another flaw is he didn't use the HP with Apple Music... he used Spotify to airplay over to it and many have commented on sound degradation of that route.. the best sound on the HP comes with the use of AppleMusic. So, no I am not surprised at Pogue's results. Nor am I surprised at my own results in a Sonos home (I own a pair of 5's, the sub, the playbar, a couple of 3's and numerous 1's., the HomePod definitely sounds better to my ears when running Apple Music under a variety of conditions. I won't give up my Sonos Set up for Movies on my 4k tv with Apple TV though. Oh, and yes, I own an Alexa... but its not worth discussing music wise.
[doublepost=1519170020][/doublepost]

Jokes aside, Actually I think the microphone is very sensitive and accurate On picking up your voice with the HomePod, it’s Siri that’s not always on par with producing the results you are asking of it. But I don’t have any general complaints.

Yes, I agree. I am very impressed with Siri on the HomePod to hear me over loud music and from across the room while talking in a conversational tone. Its getting to the point one has to recognize these 'speakers' have so many different features its silly to rate one over the other. its what combination of features/sound quality that fits you that will win the day.

 

[Mac 128]

Sonos sounds great! But lock your phone and try to adjust the volume... You can't! You have to have the Sonos app open to do this. I realize this is a limitation sweet by Apple but it's a total deal breaker for me.

Just control it with Siri, like Apple expects you to control the volume using the AirPods. You know, like Jean Luc Picard did on STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION.

 

[ipedro]

Just got my HomePod and while the first impression was of amazement that all that sound was coming out of this very small speaker, there was something missing from my usual experience in my home with a Harman Kardon Aura.

The HomePod's sound is very clear but it's missing the Aura's bass. The Harman Kardon displaces a large volume of air that makes it sounds like every air molecule in the room vibrates. The HomePod feels more localized. It sounds fantastic but doesn't come close to touching the Harman Kardon.

I'm keeping the HomePod but I'm going to have a hard time parting with the HK Aura. I feel like I need another HomePod to get the room filling sound of the Harman Kardon and I'm not prepared to spend another $400.

So my verdict: if you have a high end sound system, don't try to replace it with a HomePod.

I love having Siri always listening, able to control my home (everything is HomeKit) by just speaking in a normal voice walking around in my condo but the rich sound of the Harman Kardon is going to be hard to give up. I might just keep them both.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Got my homepod today. It sure beats Sonos One through Five in the sound department.

Google can eat my shorts.

Funny because multiple sites have said the difference is negligible unless a purest. Just reinforces my opinion that audio is purely subjective. No winners or losers.

 

[tbayrgs]

I understand how the HomePod fits some users individual needs. The problem however, is that all of the other deficiencies of the product severely limit the number of consumers who will find the HomePod as the best fit for their needs. There are approximately 30 million Apple Music subscribers--the only music service that the HomePod truly caters to. Remove any Android users as the HP requires either an iPhone or iPad to configure and use and that number shrinks even further.

Me and my family are avid user of Apple products--many Macs, iPads, iPhone, Apple Watches, Apple TVs used amongst our household as well as a bunch of HomeKit enabled smart devices. But we choose to live in the Google ecosystem for our media, smart home and smart assistant needs because Google Assistant just far outclasses Siri and there is greater flexibility and features regarding audio and video. Google Play Music is every bit as good as Apple Music, if not better (YouTube Red and YouTube Music included), Chromecast and Chromecast Audio are more capable and useful than AirPlay, and my Nvidia Shield TV is preferred over the 4K Apple TV in most cases.

For less than the $350 cost for a HomePod, I can have a Google Home mini, Chromecast Audio and a better pair of speakers (and thus stereo sound) that simply outclass the HomePod, even in regards to audio quality . And for far less than the cost of 2 HomePods, I can have multi-room audio.

Until Apple offers much more robust Siri functionality (i.e. no calendar support yet, seriously?), multi-user support, a reliably implemented AirPlay 2 and opens up to other streaming services, I won't even consider a HomePod. Truly sad, as it's the first major Apple product over the past 10+ years that has captured zero interest from me.

 

[Lab4Us]

Just got my HomePod and while the first impression was of amazement that all that sound was coming out of this very small speaker, there was something missing from my usual experience in my home with a Harman Kardon Aura.

View attachment 751909

The HomePod's sound is very clear but it's missing the Aura's bass. The Harman Kardon displaces a large volume of air that makes it sounds like every air molecule in the room vibrates. The HomePod feels more localized. It sounds fantastic but doesn't come close to touching the Harman Kardon.

I'm keeping the HomePod but I'm going to have a hard time parting with the HK Aura. I feel like I need another HomePod to get the room filling sound of the Harman Kardon and I'm not prepared to spend another $400.

So my verdict: if you have a high end sound system, don't try to replace it with a HomePod.

I love having Siri always listening, able to control my home (everything is HomeKit) by just speaking in a normal voice walking around in my condo but the rich sound of the Harman Kardon is going to be hard to give up. I might just keep them both.

Good news! You’ll only have to spend $349 and not $400! Worth.Every.Penny!

 

[willnpc]

Apple's new HomePod is late to the smart speaker market, which is already crowded with speakers from companies like Amazon, Google, and Sonos. The latter two companies, Google and Sonos, have released speakers with high-quality sound and robust voice assistants, giving the HomePod some serious competition.

We decided to pit Apple's $349 HomePod against both the $399 Google Home Max, which comes with Google Assistant, and the $199 Alexa-powered Sonos One to see how the HomePod measures up.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.​

To compare the three speakers, we focused on design, sound quality, and the overall performance of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

When it comes to design -- and this is certainly subjective -- we preferred the look of the HomePod with its fabric-wrapped body and small but solid form factor. The Sonos One looks a little more dated with its squarer body and standard speaker mesh, while the Google Home Max has a much larger footprint that's going to take up more space.

Apple's HomePod​

All three offer touch-based controls at the top of the device, but the Google Home Max has one design edge - a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting external music sources. The Sonos One has a single Ethernet port, while the HomePod has no ports.

Though we liked the HomePod's design, Siri, as you might expect, did not perform as well as Alexa on Sonos One or Google Assistant on Google Home Max.

Google Home Max​

On questions like "Is Pluto a planet?" or "What's the fastest car?" both Alexa and Google Assistant were able to provide satisfactory answers, while Siri said those weren't questions that could be answered on HomePod.

Siri was not able to sing happy birthday, create a calendar event, or even provide the release date of the HomePod itself, directing users to Apple.com for more information, while the other smart assistants were able to do these things.

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.

Though only briefly touched on in the video, Siri does, in fact, do well with HomeKit commands and controlling music playback on the HomePod through an accompanying Apple Music subscription.

Sonos One​

Sound quality is a controversial topic because there's a heavy amount of personal preference involved when judging these three speakers. We thought the HomePod sounded the best, with the Google Home Max at a close second, followed by the Sonos One.

The Google Home Max gets the loudest, but sound becomes somewhat distorted at the highest volumes, while the Sonos One offers robust sound that's not quite as good at a lower price point. HomePod does have one major benefit: a fantastic microphone that picks up Siri commands even when you're across the room.

All three of these speakers offer great sound, and if you're attempting to pick one based on reviews, make sure to read several. We thought the HomePod sounded best, but other sources, like Consumer Reports and Yahoo's David Pogue found that the Google Home Max and the Sonos One sounded better than the HomePod.

So which speaker is better? The answer to that question depends on the other products you own. If you're an Apple Music subscriber with a HomeKit setup, the HomePod is going to work great. It only works natively with Apple Music, iTunes Match, and iTunes purchases, so if you have a Spotify subscription, for example, support isn't as robust.

For that reason, if you're not locked into Apple's ecosystem already, or if you have Apple devices but subscribe to Spotify, HomePod probably isn't the best choice for you.

Article Link: Smart Speaker Showdown: HomePod vs. Google Home vs. Sonos One

That wasn't even really a contest, sad Apple used to when contests like this .... that was supposed to be spelled WIN but i'm using my iPad and Siri doesn't know the difference.. anyone else notice Siri has gotten even stupider lately? I have to proofread every text I send and make changes 90% of the time now
[doublepost=1519181772][/doublepost]

I understand how the HomePod fits some users individual needs. The problem however, is that all of the other deficiencies of the product severely limit the number of consumers who will find the HomePod as the best fit for their needs. There are approximately 30 million Apple Music subscribers--the only music service that the HomePod truly caters to. Remove any Android users as the HP requires either an iPhone or iPad to configure and use and that number shrinks even further.

Me and my family are avid user of Apple products--many Macs, iPads, iPhone, Apple Watches, Apple TVs used amongst our household as well as a bunch of HomeKit enabled smart devices. But we choose to live in the Google ecosystem for our media, smart home and smart assistant needs because Google Assistant just far outclasses Siri and there is greater flexibility and features regarding audio and video. Google Play Music is every bit as good as Apple Music, if not better (YouTube Red and YouTube Music included), Chromecast and Chromecast Audio are more capable and useful than AirPlay, and my Nvidia Shield TV is preferred over the 4K Apple TV in most cases.

For less than the $350 cost for a HomePod, I can have a Google Home mini, Chromecast Audio and a better pair of speakers (and thus stereo sound) that simply outclass the HomePod, even in regards to audio quality . And for far less than the cost of 2 HomePods, I can have multi-room audio.

Until Apple offers much more robust Siri functionality (i.e. no calendar support yet, seriously?), multi-user support, a reliably implemented AirPlay 2 and opens up to other streaming services, I won't even consider a HomePod. Truly sad, as it's the first major Apple product over the past 10+ years that has captured zero interest from me.

Same, my household is full of Apple products but this will not be one of them
[doublepost=1519182299][/doublepost]

Obviously Tim Cook simply did not put in the emphasis on Siri. Carpool Karaoke and TV shows for the US market, stopping router production, no mac minis and monitors etc, is more important to him. Probably didn't expand the team, didn't hire more full time staff and people that stay in the team with a career path without being moved elsewhere... who knows, but the proof is in the results, or lack of.

It's all about the $$$$ for Apple nowadays

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.

But she can't do a multitude of simple common things such as calendar events or set multiple timers, among many many other things, and then they want to charge a premium? No thank you, ridiculous
[doublepost=1519182620][/doublepost]

I don't get why HomePod/iOS is so clever as to hand off ALL queries to the HomePod, and then fails to answer them?

My iPhone is in my hand, and I'm in the same room as a HomePod. I say, "Hey Siri, what's the fastest car in the world?" My iPhone lights up briefly, then the HomePod says it can't answer on HomePod.

How am I supposed to get any meaningful answers when I'm in the same room as my HomePod? Must I stop using "Hey Siri" and instead hold down the button?

Do the wise thing, return the piece of crap, by buying that junk all you're telling Apple is go ahead continue making crap overpriced inferior products

 

[koa]

the only non-biased review I've seen is Pogue's over at Yahoo, where he put a panel of his colleagues before a hidden set of smart speakers. Nobody ranked Homepod as his first choice. If you want more than good-looks from your speaker (and since Siri is already lagging behind the others), you should try and do the same test for you. You could be surprised at the results.

From Pogue...

I don’t think that’s it. First, the cloth I used is extremely sheer — you can see right through it. It’s a single ply of very thin fabric.

The “curtain” was a piece of very sheer fabric.
Second, if the cloth affected the sound of the HomePod, wouldn’t it have affected the sound of its rivals in the same way?

Third, I used the same cloth the night before, during the dress rehearsal, when both panelists ranked the HomePod as the winner.



He says you can see right through the barrier to block the listeners vision.

He asks why the barrier didn’t effect the other speakers.

During rehearsals the HP was picked the winner.

 

[Seoras]

"Is Pluto a planet?" wow, Siri can't answer that? What a deal breaker.
Every time I forget, or the science community changes it's mind, how am I suppose to get through my day without knowing facts like these from my music box?
Or perhaps I can just enjoy listening to music and not give a flying chuck.
LOL!