Every tech player from the game wants to get its moves in the smart speaker market, hence its blooming nowadays. First, there was Amazon, with its most-famous Echo smart speaker. Then it was Google, with the Google Home speaker. Then it came to Apple, with Apple HomePod. Now it’s Samsung’s turn with the fresh-out-of-the-box Galaxy Home smart speaker.
But the question is what makes a smart speaker smart. It’s all about the ability to control the device with your voice, a streaming music service and a built-in virtual assistant. All of those mentioned above have them. But between Apple and Samsung, which one is actually better?
We’ve written this article to give you the answer.
In terms of design
In terms of design, these two are not similar at all. They both have cloth coverings, it’s understandable, and their overall body shape is actually different. The one from Apple has the form of a cylindrical canister, and the one from Samsung wanted to give its device something quite different. It stays on three tripod legs, and its body tapers near the top.
In terms of the assistant
To “talk” to your devices, you must use your voice. For HomePod, you talk to Apple’s Siri. For Home, you have Samsung’s assistant, Bixby. Many people think that Bixby is the most weaker one from all the assistants on the market. So it might be a given that Samsung improved its assistant for Home.
In terms of sound
Home is supposed to sound good since it has a built-in subwoofer and about eight microphones made for far-field communication. Also, it is said that Samsung’s Home is the only artificial intelligent speaker that can move a wave of sound right towards you when you ask it to do it. This means that it doesn’t really matter where you are in the room, you’ll work together nicely.
HomePod, however, is not a weak one either. It has AirPlay 2, with which you can send music to other HomePods around the house. It also has a high-excursion woofer with a custom amplifier, seven horn-loaded tweeters (and each has its own custom amplifier), and 6-microphone array for far-field Siri. Now you decide which one sounds better for you. (get it? The mother of puns here).
In terms of smart home device integration
At the moment, both HomePod and Home cannot do much when it comes to smart home integration. Home can support some products from some major smart home device makers. The same goes for HomePod, too.
In terms of price
At the moment, Apple’s HomePod is sold in the UK at the price of £319. Galaxy’s Home is supposed to come with a price worthy of a premium product, too, so it might be just a little bit below the price of the HomePod, if not actually the same. We just have to wait and see for this one.
Conclusion
We’re not sure which one is better – it’s too early for that, since Home doesn’t really have a ship date just yet. But if we are to look of those written above in this article, we’d probably choose HomePod, since it has the team from Apple behind and it’s all about Apple integration. If, however, you’re more of a Samsung person, then you might want to wait a bit until Home hits the market, and then you can try it for yourself and see if it’s the right choice. It might just fit better together with the other Galaxy devices that you own.
As a passionate gamer since the 1990s, Vadim has kept his passion alive since then, and he is here to cover video games news, as well as to share with you all the novelties out there regarding gadgets or games-related tech.