Both Google Home and Amazon Echo are very smart home computer devices, allowing users to do many tasks that they usually do on their phones, but just using the voice. So which one is better?
Audio Comparison
Google Home’s sound quality is rather disappointing. This is because it is annoyingly high pitched, which is not suitable for something that has bass in it. On the other hand, Amazon’s Echo has a better audio quality, along with a rich bass sound. Both the speakers are not very good though, but they offer options for connecting wirelessly to a standard stereo system. In case of Google Home, there is Chromecast Audio available for $35 and in case of Echo, there is the Echo Dot available for $50.
Accurate Recognition
Both Echo and Home come with excellent accuracy as far as voice recognition is concerned. The feature works very well even if the user is not near the device or if some music is in the background.
Looks and Aesthetics
Though this is rather subjective, it has to be said that Google Home wins when compared to Echo. Home is more compact with a well thought out design. Being compact, it can be displayed more easily and its sloped touch is rather attractive. It matches the individual home décor well with its unique appearance. The design is also customizable, as users can swap the speaker grill at the bottom using different colors.
Echo comes in plain black or in white and offers an industrial appearance. The lights on the top are pleasing, yet not as inviting as Google Home.
Third Party Ecosystem
Though the two speakers offer good functionality on their own, it helps when it connects well with apps or services from third party developers. In this aspect, Google Home offers only limited options, as you can sync it with Pandora or with Spotify and Uber. That is all for the present, unless more developers come up with services to build for Google Home.
In this respect, Echo is better as it has hundreds of such third party services, such as Dominos Pizza and Capital One to name two. The ecosystem offered by Echo is far superior, maybe due to having an early start.
Smartness or Intelligence
AI devices are all about smartness and it is this aspect that really sets one above the other. Both the devices are smart in several aspects. However, Google does have an edge over Echo over here, as it can access the search giant’s treasury of knowledge. It can also unify several Google services, such as the Google calendar, Gmail and so on. The new Google Assistant is fairly new, but it is definitely more impressive compared to Apple’s Siri or Alexa of Amazon Echo.
Echo has the ability of synchronizing with Google calendar and so on, but Google Assistant is more refined. As far the future potential is concerned, it seems that Google will make its Assistant far smarter than Alexa of Echo.
Google Has the Edge
Though Google Home and Echo seem neck to neck, Google Home as the edge due to Google Assistant. Google is always ahead as far as artificial intelligence or machine learning is concerned. Moreover, Google Home is available at $129, which is $50 cheaper when compared to Echo.
Have had an Echo since launch and family uses every day. I purchased the Google Home and received yesterday.
We have had the Home for a short time but what I have noticed is the biggest difference is how much better the Google Home is in understanding what you want.
I am terrible at remember specific words and what something is called. So listening to music for example I love an obscure song called Crazyhorse by JD Blackfoot. So if you say Play crazyhorse blackfoot the Home does it and the Echo can not.
With the Google Home you can have it play a song by using just a well known lyric in the song. So you can say Teanage wasteland instead of whatever the real name is and no problem. Or play walk 500 miles.
This has been an issue with the Echo since we received. I would from time to time have to grab a tablet or my phone and do a Google Search and then with the results have the Echo play the song.