It seems now that a lot of tech companies are coming out with the latest piece of technology: a speaker that you can talk to around the house. Amazon launched one of their own called Alexa, but Apple was quick to follow it with it’s latest product, the HomePod.
In this post, we’ll be taking a closer look at the Apple HomePod and see if it has what it takes to measure up to Amazon’s Alexa.
What HomePod Can Do
First and foremost, the Apple HomePod is a powerful speaker that can easily fill a room with outstanding sound. With the help of HomeKit, you’ll also be able to control HomePod even when you are out of the house. You can also set timers, reminders and naturally interact with Siri in a variety of ways.
Right out the door though, it’s easy to think that the HomePod is Apple’s answer to the Amazon Echo (or Alexa) along with Google Home, but it’s actually not. This is one of the big differences between these two things.
Where HomePod Is Different
Going back to its features, the big thing is the quality of the audio. Apple has placed a massive focus on it to the point that it’d actually make sense to compare HomePod to a Sonos wireless speaker than Alexa.
To put things into perspective, Apple placed a lot of hardware into this speaker. It’s got seven beam-forming tweeters, a six-microphone array, and a 4-inch woofer designed by Apple. It even runs on the A8 chip Apple designed too.
This is a massive step up compared to the Amazon Echo (aka Alexa). Alexa has a single 2-inch tweeter along with one 2.5-inch woofer. Although Alexa does have seven beam-forming microphones, the beam-forming feature is only for the microphone itself and not in the tweeters or the woofer.
In other words, Apple’s HomePod is going to have a significantly better sound quality when comparing the two of them.
But the big question honestly here is this: should you buy one?
What To Buy? HomePod or Alexa?
The big answer here is that it depends.
One big decision maker to keep in mind is that the >HomePod does need Apple Music. So if you don’t have that or any other Apple-supported stuff (like AirPlay), it’s going to be tough to find a use for it. Again the only real feature that Apple’s HomePod offers is sound. It’s a great sound, but that’s its crutch.
On the other hand, Alexa is more of a virtual assistant. It can do sound decently enough however, you can get the best experience from the Amazon Echo when you are looking for help in other things. It’s perhaps for this reason why we refer to Amazon Echo as Alexa more often since we talk with her. Compare that to Apple’s HomePod, the idea for this is to provide the quality sound you can listen to around the house or at work. The HomePod simply has Siri built into it by chance.
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