Find the right voice assistant speaker for your smart home
A smart speaker is the beating heart of any modern smart home setup.
Whether you’re interested in the best smart speaker to control your Alexa, HomeKit or Google Assistant devices, searching for an awesome centerpiece of a multi-room music system or you simply want a voice assistant to dole out information and crack jokes, the options have never been better, nor more plentiful.
The early arrival of Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers tied connected devices together – without one, you’d be turning lights on and setting the temperature via your smartphone. Or even, dare we say, an actual switch.
And while there was once a big war between Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri, with all vying to become the lynchpin of your home, the recent arrival of Matter, the industry’s latest interoperability protocol, is set to change the landscape considerably. When picking a smart speaker, you’ll soon no longer be tied into a company’s ecosystem – and its potential frailties – in quite the same way.
The core function is unchanged, however, and you’ll use a smart speaker to check the weather, set timers, control other smart home devices, play your favorite music and plenty more. And it’s still obviously paramount to pick the right option for your needs, which is where this guide comes in.
Below, we’ve listed only the very top options from our dedicated reviews, covering all shapes and sizes and a range of price points. You can get a traditional speaker, one with a display, or one that doubles as something else, like a bedside alarm clock. The choice is yours.
The best smart speakers to buy
Best overall smart speaker: Sonos One
Buy now: Amazon, sonos.com | $199 / £199
When the Sonos One first touched down, it was easily the best-sounding smart speaker. That’s not the case now, as a number of high-end audio brands have entered the space, but, with it also hosting Alexa, Google Assistant and offering AirPlay 2 support, it’s the most well-rounded of the pack.
However, as we noted just above, having broad smart assistant support won’t be quite as big a selling point in the Matter smart home, so the One’s time at the top could be under threat in 2023.
Still, with this model, you’re getting a great option in both the short and long term, and it’s greatly improved over its predecessor, featuring a better processor, more memory and support for Bluetooth LE.
As a Sonos speaker in a wider multi-room setup, it’s also fantastic. For such a compact device, it really can fill a room, with a lovely, balanced and clear sound, as well as punchy bass. Nothing to disappoint here. The Sonos One looks the part, too, with a classy design that’ll sit well if you already have Sonos speakers dotted about your home, coming in two finishes – black or white.
On the balance of versatility, sound quality and price, the Sonos One is the top dog in our book.
What we love
- Supports both Google Assistant and Alexa
- Deep bass, great sound
- Loads of streaming options, including AirPlay 2
What we don’t love
- Microphones need improvement, especially for Google Assistant
- A handful of Google Assistant/Alexa features are missing
Read our full Sonos One review.
Also consider: Sonos Move
Sonos’ first Bluetooth speaker went live a few years ago now, and, if your budget stretches beyond the cost of a One, then the Sonos Move is a fantastic-sounding smart speaker with plenty of features to set it apart from its Sonos stablemates.
It’s a speaker of two parts. Indoors, it connects to your Wi-Fi like a regular Sonos speaker and behaves just like a Sonos One: there’s Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, AirPlay 2 support, and it will easily slip into your multi-room system.
Tap the Bluetooth button on the back though, and you’re free to roam, with up to 10 hours of battery life to play with. The Move also has Automatic Trueplay, which will automatically optimize its sound for the space around it.
Best Alexa smart speaker: Amazon Echo Studio
Buy now: Amazon | $199 / £189
It took Amazon a few years, but, back in 2019, it finally made an Echo that sounded great – the Echo studio. Offering spacious sound with impressive detail (certainly for an Echo speaker), the Studio is still the pick of the bunch when it comes to dedicated Alexa speakers.
It also cranks things up a notch with Amazon Music HD and a small (but growing) catalog of 3D audio tracks. These use Dolby Atmos Music and Sony 360 Reality Audio codecs for enveloping sound. It works with some songs better than others, and, even without 3D audio, the Studio is still a fantastic-sounding smart speaker with Alexa living inside.
It boasts three 5cm midrange speakers, a 25mm forward-firing tweeter, a 5cm upward-firing midrange speaker (which helps with that 3D audio), and a downward-firing 5.25-inch bass driver.
For the most part, the Echo Studio is just a regular Echo that’s been massively beefed up in the acoustics department. That means you can call on Alexa for all your usual queries and voice commands, and it means integration with all of your smart home devices too.
This being a first-party speaker, it also guarantees to get all the new features before other third-party speakers.
It also functions as a Zigbee smart home hub, which allows you to connect supported Zigbee devices direct to the Studio, as opposed to via a bridge/hub of their own – Philips Hue lights, for example, can be directly controlled by the Studio.
However, despite getting a new white color and a spatial audio update in 2022, it still doesn’t feature a Thread radio, meaning it won’t act as a border router in the new-age smart home (though our alternative pick below can).
The Echo Studio can also perform as a Dolby Atmos speaker for your TV, but only with Fire TV devices. You can also hook up two Echo Studio speakers with an Echo Sub for the fully-loaded home theater setup.
What we love
- Powerful sound
- Works as a Dolby Atmos TV speaker
- Hi-res audio
What we don’t love
- Bass is sometimes hit and miss
- 3D audio isn’t perfect
- No Thread support
Read our full Amazon Echo Studio review.
Also consider: Amazon Echo (4th-gen)
The latest Amazon Echo has a 3.0-inch woofer, dual-firing tweeters, Dolby stereo sound capabilities and can adapt to its surroundings (like the Echo Studio).
But it’s not just about the music and the acoustics. Amazon’s 4th-gen Echo is part of its smartest lineup yet. It is powered by Amazon’s first-generation AZ1 Neural Edge processor, which Amazon describes as “an all-new silicon module that’s purpose-built for accelerating machine learning applications.”
As we mentioned above, it’s also the only current Echo device to feature a Thread radio, which allows it to act as a Thread border router.
Best Google smart speaker: Google Nest Mini
Buy now: store.google.com | $49 / £49
If you’re looking to get in on the ground floor with Google Assistant, the Nest Mini (previously known as Google Home Mini) is where you should start. And while we’re listing the recommended retail price above, you’ll often find it on offer for much less.
The Nest Mini is a neat little smart speaker for those who want to build their smart home without breaking the bank, and, the new and improved model, which boosts super sound quality and responsiveness, is an incredible value proposition.
It also now comes with a hook in the back for wall mounting, although it’s hard to find a good spot to hang this on your wall with that cable dangling down. Plus, there are some audio tricks: you can pair together for stereo sound, or transfer music from one speaker to another by saying, “Hey Google, move the music to the kitchen speaker” and so on.
They can also be teamed up with other Google Home speakers as part of a multi-room music system.
There’s an ultrasound feature that’s supposed to sense when your hand is near while music is playing and light up the touch controls, but we found this barely responsive in our testing. Those niggles aside, this is a must-have speaker for any smart home.
What we love
- On-device controls
- Good (but not great) sound
- Easy mounting option
What we don’t love
- No audio jack
- The hover feature doesn’t work
- Dangling wire is a major design flaw
Read our full Google Nest Mini review.
Also consider: Google Nest Audio
The latest Google smart speaker and the natural successor to the discontinued Google Home – the Nest Audio – was revealed a couple of years ago.
It boasts a form factor and design that seemingly sits it in between the Nest Mini and the also-discontinued Google Home Max.
Google says that it boasts 50% more bass and 75% more volume than the original Google Home, thanks to a revamped 19mm tweeter and a 75mm mid-woofer.
Best Apple smart speaker: Apple HomePod Mini
Buy now: apple.com | $99 / £99
The Apple HomePod Mini may not offer the same audio clout as its bigger brother, but, for its size, it packs an incredibly impressive punch in terms of music playback. And, perhaps more importantly, takes Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem to the next level by boosting the connectivity on offer.
As well as being a music-focused smart speaker, the HomePod Mini also has advanced smart home features. It can operate as a HomeKit Hub and, in a major boost for HomeKit users, also packs in a Thread radio, which makes it one of the relatively few devices to be able to act as a border router in the Matter smart home.
While the Mini doesn’t reach the dizzy heights of the original HomePod for sound quality (and neither should it with a $99 / £99 price tag), it’s a smart speaker that – unlike the similarly sized variants from Google and Amazon – can be used for much more than digital assistance and smart home controls.
The fairer comparison is with smart speakers in its price – rather than size – bracket; so, again, we should mention the Echo 4th-gen or the Nest Audio.
It actually performs very well against its rivals; albeit it is neither as loud nor as bass-rich as the larger Echo. In fact, it actually holds up pretty well against the Sonos One, which is double the price.
While the HomePod was a device built around Apple Music, it’s since opened up to play nice with others – chiefly, Spotify, which now has voice control using Siri.
There’s also AirPlay 2, which has now expanded across loads of speakers, letting you loop the HomePod into a multi-room setup for home-filling sound.
What we love
- Decent audio quality
- Can act as a Thread border router
- Great price point
What we don’t love
- Siri still lacks some smarts
- Apple Music is prioritized
- No love for Android users
Read our full Apple HomePod Mini review.
Also consider: Apple HomePod (2023)
After discontinuing the original model and allowing the HomePod Mini to sit alone for a couple of years, Apple recently retooled its marquee smart speaker and reduced the asking price to $299 / £299.
In truth, though, there’s not a whole lot different with the second-gen HomePod, with Apple keeping roughly the same design. There are now five tweeters instead of seven, and the touch display on top is now edge-to-edge, but you’re unlikely to really spot the differences at first glance.
The slightly more compelling upgrade is the second-gen HomePod’s ability to act as a Thread border router, with the first simply offering basic Thread support. There are also new sensors for measuring temperature and humidity, with the processing now performed by the Apple S7 chip, meaning things run a little smoother.
It’s naturally much better sounding than the HomePod Mini, but, at least from a value perspective, we think more people will be better served with the smaller variant.
Best budget smart speaker: Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation)
Buy now: Amazon | $49.99 / £4.99
Though you could technically save even more cash by opting for the Echo Dot 4, the newer fifth-gen is still very reasonably priced – and our pick for the best budget smart speaker around.
For the price of one swanky smart speaker, you can have multiple Echo Dots around your flat or house, in every room. And if you have children, you can also pick up the Kids Edition, which includes new safety features, requires kids to say “please” when making requests and has various friendly animal designs.
Considering the Dot and Dot with Clock are routinely featured in sales, it’s easy to score a great deal here for some very new hardware. The design is the same spherical one, but upgrading will provide you with the new lightning-quick internal processor, the Dot’s ability to act as an access point in an Eero mesh system and also improved routines thanks to the built-in temperature sensor.
You can also still connect two for stereo sound, or use them as part of an Echo multi-room setup. Amazon has fancier speakers, sure, but, if you want to turn your smart lights on and off, and you only have a few different connected gadgets, this is really all you need.
What we love
- The sound quality is surprisingly good
- Can be placed anywhere
- Value is unrivaled
What we don’t love
- The bass is lacking slightly
- Clock edition should come as standard
- The 3.5mm audio jack has been removed
Read our full Amazon Echo Dot (5th generation) review.
Best smart speaker with a screen: Google Nest Hub
Buy now: store.google.com | $89.99 / $79.99
The Nest Hub is like having a screen for your Google Home speaker – actually, that’s exactly what it is. The Google Assistant behaves just the same, but you now have a visual layer, which can be more useful with things like viewing the weather forecast, cinema showtimes and more.
It also means you can watch YouTube and other media on it, while also controlling your smart home using the Home View dashboard.
One of its better features is Home View. A quick swipe down from the top will give you a top-down look at your entire smart home. You can check the status of your lights and even control them. Simple and easy.
The sound quality is so-so – a little more bassy than the Nest Audio and Nest Mini, but still not great for music. It’s also very small, and note the lack of a camera here, too, something you’ll find on third-party Google Smart Displays.
The latest, 2nd-gen, Nest Hub features the same camera-less, 7-inch form factor as the original but sports a few design refinements.
Packing a revamped chip for a faster Google Assistant, a third mic for better listening, and 50% more bass for music listening, the latest Nest Hub also has a temperature sensor, and Google’s Soli gesture technology inside its diminutive design.
Soli is a radar-based gesture recognition system that, on the Nest Hub, allows you to tap the air to pause and resume media on the device. It also enables the device’s sleep sensing capabilities, able to monitor chest rise and fall unobtrusively. The accuracy compared to trackers is excellent, too, based on our testing.
It’s also capable of being a Thread border router in your smart home setup – the same capability as Apple’s HomePod range and the Amazon Echo 4. The Thread radio on the device isn’t yet activated, but, with Matter 1.0 now in the wild, expect this in early 2023.
What we love
- Great display
- Extra smart home touchscreen controls
- Clever sleep tracking
What we don’t love
- The sound quality isn’t brilliant
- Matter/Thread support hasn’t fully rolled out yet
Read our full Nest Hub review
Also consider: Amazon Echo Show 8
Amazon has finally hit the sweet spot with its Echo Show 8, offering the best of Alexa on screen in an 8-inch display.
If you’re team Alexa, this is the smart display you want, unless you want a Zigbee radio – in which case go for the larger Echo Show 10 and its movable base. Otherwise, we think the middle child of the Show family is the high achiever.
Best smart speaker soundbar: Sonos Arc
Buy now: sonos.com | $799 / £799
The Sonos Arc soundbar offers Dolby Atmos surround sound and also HDMI connectivity (ARC or eARC) and 270-degree multi-directional sound from that curved grille.
Coming in matte black or white, it’s a step up from the hugely popular Sonos Beam and entry-level Sonos Ray, offering a dedicated TV speaker that isn’t just Atmos-equipped, but also stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 friendly, too.
- Compared:Sonos Beam v Sonos Arc
Featuring 11 drivers in total; eight elliptical woofers and three angled silk-dome tweeters, the Arc uses Sonos Trueplay software to make sure you get the optimum sound for your room and setup.
If you want to get a decent impression of home cinema sound without the upheaval a more usual surround-sound system can cause, and especially if you’ve some Sonos equipment already, the Arc is a very welcome addition to the Sonos portfolio.
Whether your voice assistant of choice is Google Assistant or Alexa, the Sonos Arc has you covered, and it’s also an AirPlay 2 speaker, as well.
What we love
- Superb audio performance
- Dolby Atmos
- HDMI options
What we don’t love
- Expensive
- Your TV’s HDMI might not be compatible
Read our full Sonos Arc review
Also consider: Roku Streambar
Roku’s Streambar is a compact smart soundbar that comes in less than half the length of the company’s previous TV speaker, the Smart Soundbar; 14 inches compared to 32.
It’s a brilliant ‘two birds with one stone’ device. Not only will it make your dumb TV smart, but it also solves the biggest issue that even the best modern TVs have – tinny sound.
The Streambar will hugely enhance your TV’s audio and, because there’s also an array of music streaming options on board, it also adds a third element to its arsenal; that of being a decent speaker too.
Smart speakers: What you need to know
Before coughing up for your first (or next) smart speaker, it’s worth spending a bit of time doing your research. Here are the big things to know…
How much should you spend?
Price is possibly the biggest concern. You can easily jump in at the very low end with an Amazon Echo Dot or a Google Nest Mini, which you can find for around $50 / £50. It’s a really quick and easy way into smart speakers if you’re not sure, on a budget, or are a smart home beginner.
These tiny speakers don’t offer the best sound, though both Amazon and Google have made strides in quality. For those who want to listen to your music, you’ll need to go for something bigger.
There are also the mid-range Amazon Echo and Nest Audio speakers. These come in closer to $100 / £100.
The basic functionality here is the same as the mini speakers, but they come with better microphones that are better at hearing you. They also have perfectly adequate sound, but, if you want high-end sound, you’ll need to spring for something even more expensive.
Smart speaker sound quality
How important the speaker element of the device is will differ from person to person. More and more audio experts are getting involved now, collaborating with the tech giants, and so the sound quality is drastically improving – which is obviously important when it comes to music.
The Echo Studio, Google Nest Hub Max, Sonos Move, Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin and Bose Home Speaker 500 are all big on audio quality – so there’s something out there for everyone.
For supplementary smart speakers around the house, this might be less important, but you want to get that main kitchen/living room choice right.
Matter, Thread and choosing an assistant
We alluded to this up top, but the previous big decision you had to make between the core smart assistants – Google, Alexa and Siri – is now a dwindling factor due to the arrival of Matter.
Choosing the one you think you’ll prefer is still certainly a consideration, and companies will still be rolling out exclusive features, after all. However, moving forward, the idea is that all devices in the smart home will at least be able to link up seamlessly.
- Comparison: Alexa v Google Assistant
So, on paper, there’ll be no more gatekeeping, which means you’ll be able to own both an Amazon speaker and a Google doorbell, say, and everything will work together. Previously, it was one or the other, unless you were willing to live through a disjointed experience.
Even in the Matter utopia, however, as we say, there are still decisions to make.
Since Matter works over Thread – a mesh networking protocol – you’ll want at least one device in your home that has the ability to be a Thread border router (which we’ve listed in our linked guide).
There are various types of products that act as Thread border routers, thankfully, and not just the non-descript white-box hubs that previously linked the smart home. Some you may already have in your home, and, as you’ll have noticed, some of the speakers we’ve listed above already offer support.
You can read all about the best Matter devices and controllers in our full guide.
Is it multi-room music compatible?
Many of the best smart speakers can form part of a wireless speaker multi-room audio system.
Obviously, as mentioned above, brand-specific speakers such as those from Sonos and Apple also live inside their own native multi-room platform – along with the platform the smart home ecosystem that their voice assistant makes them part of.
But, did you know that you can set up an Alexa Echo multi-room audio system or configure your Google or Nest smart speakers for multi-room music?
They’re both super simple to set up and offer an affordable ticket to the multi-room party.
What about smart displays?
Smart displays hold plenty of advantages over traditional speakers – and there are now tons of options from Google, Amazon and even Facebook.
But why would you pick one over a regular speaker? Well, they make a lot of sense in certain locations around the house – just maybe not under the TV. For instance, a kitchen is a great place for these, as you can take a look at recipes and follow along.
It also gives you quick access to information with visuals so you can see a week’s worth of weather forecasts, YouTube videos, feeds from security cameras and video doorbells, touchscreen controls for smart home devices, video calls and a whole lot more.
Smart speakers with displays also add interactivity. You can use your fingers to swipe and tap through results from your assistant, rather than having to listen to a bunch of options. For the right person, it can be much quicker to use.
These smart speakers with displays have some big caveats, though. The audio quality isn’t as good as other smart speakers, largely because all the speakers are facing in one direction, but they’re getting better all the time, and the larger Echo Shows and the Nest Hub Max are actually decent for playing music.