Smart speakers are becoming ever more popular and now we actually have some that sound pretty good. Here we have the Apple homepod and the Google home max. I'm going to compare them-- the design, the sound quality, and the assistance built in and see which one is better. But not only that-- which one you should actually buy.
The first thing you notice when looking at both these speakers is just the sheer difference in size. The home max is a huge speaker. You can use it vertically or horizontally, sits on this little rubber pad to minimize vibrations. It has a fabric front, it’s made out of plastic, but it's a very hefty hence solid speaker. The homepod, on the other hand, is very small. It's still pretty heavy, but it's covered in a squishy fabric material and looks pretty much the same from any angle.
Now as for controls on the actual device, the whole max has a little touch bard that you can use to swipe and adjust for volume or tap it to play pods. The homepod is similar there's a touchpad at the top. It has dedicated volume controls that you can tap and in the middle you can tap for play pause or to activate Siri. Now in theory, both of these controls are pretty much the same. But in practice, they work they work a little bit differently the homepod is much more responsive. I found with the whole Mac, you kind of have to play this guessing game.
When you touch it you don't know exactly where to go and sometimes it doesn't register your touch. I don't have any of that with the homepod. Some other design notes though, the home max has a built-in 3.5 millimeter jack it has a very easily removable power cable and USB ports and it has a dedicated mute switch. Something you don't get with the homepod. From a design perspective both have advantages and disadvantages. But from a usability and what I want to have in my house perspective, I think the home pot takes it. It's not that the home max is bad. It's just the homepod is a little bit better.
Sound is hard to judge. What I think sounds good may not sound good to you. So instead of just telling you what speaker I think sounds better. I'm gonna tell you the differences in the sound. The home max has two four and a half inch subs and 2.7 inch tweeters and this translates to very loud and very basic sound. The max gets loud enough that I can't listen to it at full volume. In fact if it's anything above 75%, it starts to hurt a little bit. The max only projects in one direction though. So you'll probably want to put it bookcase or up against the wall. But it does listen to its environment and kind of change itself so you'll get the best sound no matter where you put it.
The homepod, even though it's quite a bit smaller, has one sub and seven horn loaded tweeters so in this little package there's quite a lot. It doesn't get quite as loud as the home max and one big difference is-- the speakers are all around the homepod so you get 360 audio. And like with the home max it listens and it adapts to its environment so you can put the speaker pretty much anywhere.
For sound I think the biggest difference between the two is how they handle the high-end and how they handle the low-end. The Google home max tends to overshoot the high-end a little bit so you do get some distortion, but it has really punchy bass. The homepod on the other hand is kind of the opposite. The high end is very crisp and clear and doesn't really have any distortion and the low end; well it doesn't have distortion, it's not quite as boomy as what you get with the max. I found the midst on both to be pretty similar. They're not as crisp as you can get and there is some distortion there. It's pretty even in that front.
One last thing about distortion though. Even though the home max does get very loud. If you play it at its full volume, it has definitely enough Distortion. While with the homepod, you can crank all the way up and it still sounds good. So when it comes to just pure accuracy and quality, I'm gonna have to give this round to the homepod. But like I said, sound is a very subjective. So what I like may not be what you like and you may love the beats by dre bass that you get with the home max. It's really up to you so this round is somewhat of a tie.
Probably the biggest debate between the homepod and the home max is Siri versus Google assistant and this reaches far beyond these two speakers. But when you start to compare them, There are some pretty big differences for basic tasks, like weather setting alarms timers. They handle that pretty much the same on both but when you get to more complicated and specific questions. Google assistant just destroys Siri. There's a certain line that you just can't cross with Siri as long as you don't Sirius pretty good. But with Google, it just handles everything pretty well. There's one thing though and that's that, the homepod has a six array microphone and it can hear you really well much better than the home max. I could stand across the room speak in a normal voice anyway here with no problem even if there was music playing.
The home max, on the other hand, even if there's nothing playing. Sometimes I'd have to do it two or three times and if there is music playing, I'd have to shout. I was very impressed with the homepod and I think Google needs to add more than just two microphones. Given that these are speakers, it's important to talk about music and how you cantrol it. So on the Google home max, you can use pretty much any service you'd like except for Apple music.
On the homepod, you can only use Apple music. Yes on the homepod you can use airplay and yes on the Google home max you can use Bluetooth. But if you're just going to control up your voice that's a very big distinction that you need to keep in mind. Apple music is really the big discrepancy here. If you use it then you'll probably want the homepod and if not the home max. But when taking everything into account, Google assistant is just plain better. It can handle more complicated queries, you can handle multiple voices. Sure it doesn't hear you as well. But when it does hear you, it just works.
In comparison, it's almost a tie of which is better and it depends what category is most important to you. If you like sound quality, I would choose the homepod. If you want say bigger speaker that's more bassy and go with the whole max. And if the assistant is what's most important to you, Google just wins here. But because this is a versus, I'm not gonna leave it at a tie. For me I'd have to choose the homepod. I prefer the sound of the homepod. It's significantly smaller which makes it easier to put in my home. The basic questions I ask Siri work fine. And it's cheaper than the home max. Neither of these speakers are perfect, but they're a step in the right direction of having great sounding home audio that you can talk to.
Be sure to let us know down below in the comments which one you would choose and why. I’m really interested to know if you enjoyed this article be sure to share this with others in social media and also you can subscribe to our newsletter so that you receive the latest technology breaking news, trends and helpful tech reviews directly in your inbox.
Apple HomePod Versus Google Home Max! Learn What is Best For You
Reviewed by Richard A
on
March 08, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by Richard A
on
March 08, 2018
Rating:
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