Gadgetory

what's up prizefighters i'm brian tong in the smart speaker space just got hotter it's a prizefight push out between the apples home pods and the google home max let's get it on round one is design apple's home pod looks like a lot of things it could be a roll of toilet paper or a cat scratching post but in the setting of a living room it looks a nice it's like real nice and you could pretty much put it anywhere it has this hard spongy outside but it's screen at the top for the siri rainbow swirl you'll rarely ever see it and it's tap tap tappy touch controls for volume instead of elegantly moving around in a circle to turn it up or down is a Miss now the Google home max is a beast in size that takes up more than twice the space of a home pot and it just screams at you saying I'm a big bad speaker it also has a solid weight and a smooth rounded design its touch and swipe controls at the top are nicer to use and I'm a fan of its visual cue through the speaker when you're talking to it both of these look great in person but if I had to pick one just on looks I'm giving around one to home pod and your cats are probably gonna like that too next round is sound when I first played music from the home pod I was impressed a full sound with deep Basin boom that you would never expect to come out of speaker this size it really fills most rooms and sounds great then I put it up to the Google home max and although the home max may not hit as low its sound was more balanced with clear highs and details and vocal tracts that you can't get from the home pod now at times the home pod sounded just a little muddier compared to the Google home max the sound quality of a speaker you like tends to really match the genres of music you listen to but after putting them side-by-side I lean towards the Google home max overall even if I love my bass heavy tracks the other thing to consider is the home pod delivers full 360-degree sound and that sound quality stayed consistent no matter where you stood that's important if this is being placed in the middle of a room the Google home max sound quality changes once you move to the side or even behind it because it's only being pushed out from one direction if it's against the wall well you know what that won't matter if I'm gonna kick back dinner party I'm probably picking home pot but if I'm using this to listen to music on a daily basis I'm going Google home max so you know what this round is subjective we're calling it a tie next up round three is the voice assistant I don't need to tell you this but Siri isn't even remotely close to the level of the Google assistant sure they can both do things like weather sports and general knowledge well hold on hey Siri tell me more about Bruce Lee Bruce Lee is a town in West Baton Rouge Parish Louisiana United States hey Google tell me more about Bruce Lee according to Wikipedia lee Jun fan known professionally as Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American actor film director martial artist martial arts instructor philosopher and founder of the martial art Jeet Kune Do one of the wushu or kung-fu styles now Google home supports multiple users and can identify individual voices and let them manage their own calendar flights to-do lists and more the home pot is limited to one person and one person only to make reminders notes and checking messages now if you don't turn personal requests off other people can access those apps of yours as well so you would think both these smart speakers can handle calendars that's easy enough right hey Google at my basketball game at 5 p.m. on February 28th alright basketball game on the 28th of February at 5:00 p.m. do you want to save this yes ok it's on your calendar hey Siri add my basketball game at 5 p.m. on February the 28th I can access your calendar here sorry about that nope the Google home is smarter because it has the brains of Google inside it you can string two commands together it can dictate recipes and wait for you step by step and even tune a freaking guitar and we still haven't even touch on all the other things it can do like support different streaming music services with your voice like Spotify and Pandora or throw content onto a chromecast connected to your TV the home pod is really an Apple music speaker with a Syria that's not even as smart as the one in your iPhone Google takes round three by a landslide next round at the smart home we're not trying to beat up on apple here but you know what they're trailing once again Apple does support smart devices with everything ranging from light bulb to switches and thermostats but it's not long enough and they're still missing key partners that have established themselves a long time ago got a nest thermostat or been part of the nest ecosystem for years that's not supportive oh how about the logitech harmony hub they'll let you control your home theater switch between inputs and tell you to do things from watching TV or play my ps4 that's not supporting either home kid is improving and has moved away from forcing partners to have a physical Hardware chip for authentication to a software based system that brought on devices like Life X and even more Wemo is finally compatible with an additional $40 hub that talks to all your Wemo devices and home kid but Apple is still behind big time round 4 goes to Google the final round that decides it all is features we know there's no bluetooth streaming from any non iPhone to the home pod you can't even set it up without an iPhone running iOS 11 apples the honey badger of Tech and they don't give a the Google home max lets anyone stream to it over Bluetooth if you're talking ports the whole pod has no ports whatsoever not deaf the home max has a mic mute switch a USB C port and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack where's the 3.5 millimeter jack on the home pod I'm actually more mad at myself for even asking the question you can stream music services like Spotify and Pandora and more to the home pod through airplay on your phone but the Google home max has native support directly from the speaker the home max already supports using two speakers for stereo sound and also supports multi room audio on its launch we're still waiting for the same promises from the home pod in Apple's AirPlay to in the final and another brutal round this one goes to the goose so let's break down all five rounds the home pod jumped out early you can really call round to a toss up but after that the Google went on a tear taking the next three rounds the Google home match takes this battle and is your prize fight winner Apple delivered with their promise of great sound but there's more to it than that for Smart speakers and Cupertino they've got a whole lot of catching up to do so what do you want from a smart speaker ultimately the final decision always comes down to you i'm brian tong thanks for watching and we'll catch you guys next time for another prizefight you