Ever wished you could place an Amazon order without lifting a finger? No? What about playing music from your favourite band just by saying their name? Still not interested? Then surely you want to know what the weather is going to be like today, or what time the local supermarket closes. If you like the idea of a smart home assistant that can help you with all that and more, then you should think about buying a smart speaker.
Read on and we'll explain which smart speakers will work best for you, and run through everything you need to know about the different brands and types on the market. And if you already know everything there is to know and just want to buy one right away, then simply scroll past our buying guide and dive into our top picks.
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How to choose the best smart speaker for you
Why should I buy a smart speaker?
Unlike Bluetooth or wireless speakers that need to be controlled via a smartphone or tablet, a smart speaker is a far more versatile choice. Whether you're lying on the sofa or cooking in the kitchen, you're in control: you can pause and play your music, choose a new artist or genre, ask for a news update, or even add products to a weekly shopping list, all with a set of simple voice commands.
In short, you can ask them anything you'd otherwise ask your smartphone's assistant, such as Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa.
How does a smart speaker work?
Smart speakers need to be woken with a wake word – such as 'Alexa' or 'Ok, Google'– before you can ask questions or issue commands. These instructions can be as simple as asking the time, or what the weather will be like, but you can also ask for more specific facts and details, such as asking your assistant basic maths questions, to perform conversions from ounces to grams, or just to find out opening times for a local store.
If you also subscribe to a music streaming service such as Spotify, then you can play music simply by searching by artist, album or track name, genre or year.
And as the name suggests, smart speakers can also be used to control your smart home appliances. So, if you've got a Philips Hue bulb (or preferably several) you can adjust the brightness, colour and power all with a simple voice command.
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What features should I look out for, and does size matter?
Smart speakers come in all shapes and sizes. The Amazon Echo Show is the biggest of them all. Its features a 7in touchscreen, a large speaker, a 5 megapixel front camera, and looks rather like a digital photo frame. At the other end of the scale, there's the Amazon Echo Dot and Home Mini, both of which are tiny devices which will fit unobtrusively anywhere around the house – these have multiple microphones to hear you from across the room, and a small, basic internal speaker. Then there's the likes of Sonos' One, which is roughly around the size of a bag of flour – still small enough to sit unobtrusively on a side table, but has amplification and drivers big enough to fill a room with full-bodied, crisp-sounding music.
It all depends on what you're looking for. If you want a speaker with competent sonic capabilities, then size does matter – if you want to enjoy your music then you'll need to look at Google and Amazon's mid-sized devices, and if you want the very best then you'll want something like the Sonos One with Amazon's Alexa built-in. If, however, music isn't your top priority, or you just want to have access to your virtual assistant in every room in the house, then the Google Home Mini or Echo Dot are a lot cheaper, smaller and take up barely any room at all.
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Which voice assistant is best? Amazon Alexa vs Google Assistant vs Apple Siri
There's no right or wrong answer here, as it all depends on what you use more often, or what you're used to.
If you're an Amazon Prime member, an Amazon Alexa device would make more sense, as it'll connect with your Amazon account and allow you to place orders on a whim. If however you've got an Android phone and have got used to Google Assistant (or Google Now), then you'll probably prefer a Google-enabled product.
Regardless of your affiliation, one current big plus point for Amazon's Echo devices is the Drop In function. This allows you to call any Echo in your home (or someone else's) and use it like an intercom. You have to actively allow specific contacts in your address book via the Alexa app - as it could otherwise be quite annoying having people pipe up anywhere in your home without warning – but if you want to quickly chat with someone in any room with an Echo device, hands-free, then it's quite brilliant.
Google's Home family will eventually allow you to make phonecalls, but this feature won't be live in the UK until 2018. And so far, there's no hint of Google copying Amazon's Drop In feature, so you won't be able to call specific Home devices.
There's also Apple's HomePod with Siri, but at the time of writing that hasn't yet been released. If you're a big Apple fan, then it might be worth holding out for HomePod as that's expected in early 2018.
Speakers with different virtual assistants can be used on the same Wi-Fi network, however, if you want a multi-room setup, you'll want to ensure all your speakers run on the same service (i.e. all using Amazon Alexa) – they'll talk to you, but they won't talk to each other, sadly.
There is one option which doesn't leave you tied to one specific voice assistant, however. Currently, only one speaker we know of supports multiple voice asssistants, and that's the Sonos One. Amazon Alexa is supported now, but Google and Sonos will be adding support for Google Assistant at some point in 2018.
Is a smart speaker always listening to everything I say?
By its very nature, a smart speaker 'listens' to everything you're saying, as it needs to be ready to pick up a voice command. You can, however, disable the automatic voice detection by turning off the mic through a hardware switch found on the device.
So, if you're worried about your privacy, or are talking about something you believe is of a particularly sensitive nature, then simply toggle the mute switch - just remember to toggle it back on again if you want to interact with the speaker hands-free.
In practice, you may find yourself disabling the microphones during phonecalls or video calls, as these voice assistants can tend to be triggered by any speech which sounds like their wake word. When confronted by everyday noise and conversation, they may occasionally pipe up and start listening for commands (and responding) when they're not meant to, which can be annoying.
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The best smart speakers in the UK
Google Home Mini: The smallest (and cheapest) Google Assistant speaker
Price when reviewed: £49 - Buy now from Currys
The Home Mini is the cheapest, most compact Google Assistant-powered smart speaker. The design is just great: it features small LED lights under the fabric, a mute switch and its beautiful design means it'll blend into the background without drawing attention to itself. It doesn't sound anywhere near as good as the large Google Home variant, but the Home Mini is certainly a fantastic product.
Read our Google Home Mini review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Google Assistant, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 1, Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Dimensions: 42x98.4x98mm, Weight: 173g
Amazon Echo Dot: The best Amazon Alexa speaker under £50 (and it's tiny!)
Price when reviewed: £50 - Buy now from Amazon
The Echo Dot is arguably the most popular smart speaker on the market. It's Amazon's cheapest Alexa-enabled device, and with a 3.5mm jack, it can also be connected to an amplifier or set of speakers to deliver fantastic sound. Its inbuilt speaker is poor for music, but for everything else, it's ample. If you're looking for the smallest and cheapest Alexa-enabled speaker, get the Echo Dot.
Read our Amazon Echo Dot review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 1, Connectivity: Wi-Fi & 3.5mm, Dimensions: 32x84x84mm, Weight: 163g
Amazon Echo 2: The best all-round Amazon Alexa speaker under £100
Price when reviewed: £90 - Buy now from Amazon
The all-new Amazon Echo 2 is a bigger Echo Dot. It replaces the original Echo by adding Dolby Sound, shrinking in size, making it easier to place in a living room space and lets you make and receive calls from your landline. It also comes in different colours and designs. Its biggest selling point, is its sound quality, as it's larger cylinder-style design allows for bigger speakers drivers which provide drastically better audio than the Echo Dot. If you're looking to listen to music and interact with Alexa, but don't want the clutter of a Dot connected to an external speaker, then the Echo 2 is a great buy.
Read our Amazon Echo 2 review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 2, Connectivity: Wi-Fi & 3.5mm, Dimensions: 148x88x88mm, Weight: 821g
Google Home: The best-sounding Google Assistant speaker
Price when reviewed: £129 - Buy now from Currys
The Google Home smart speaker was the first to be introduced with Google Assistant built-in. The larger-sized speaker has four speaker drivers inside it to deliver a loud, rich sound - it's enough to fill a room with full-bodied sound, and a far better bet for music than the Mini. If you want to be listening to music and want the best Google Assistant device, get the Google Home.
Read our Google Home review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Google Assistant, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 4, Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Dimensions: 142.8x96.4x96.4mm, Weight: 477g
Amazon Echo Plus: The ultimate Amazon Alexa speaker – but it's not for everyone
Price when reviewed: £140 - Buy now from Amazon
If you're looking for an all-purpose Amazon Alexa-enabled smart speaker, the Echo Plus might just be the perfect companion. It features slightly more powerful drivers, a taller form-factor over the Echo 2 and improved microphones (it still has 7 of them, but better ones) so that it can pick-up your voice commands for afar. The big difference is that it has a built-in smart hub which uses the Zigbee standard, so it can coordinate smart home appliances – if you're looking to get into smart home in a big way, and you don't mind being tied to the Zigbee standard, then this may be a useful bonus. If you don't need the smart home hub, or you already have one in your home, then the original Echo and Echo 2 are a better bet.
Read our Amazon Echo Plus review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 2, Connectivity: Wi-Fi & 3.5mm, Dimensions: 235x84x84mm, Weight: 954g
Amazon Echo Show: Amazon Alexa gets a 7in touchscreen
Price when reviewed: £200 - Buy now from Amazon
The Echo Show is Amazon's largest smart speaker. It features everything that can be found in the Amazon Echo 2 but also features a 7in touchscreen display and a 5-megapixel webcam for video calls. This makes the Show quite unique amongst the current crop of smart speakers. In addition to making video calls to and from Alexa-enabled smartphones, you can also use the Echo Show to view video feeds from compatible smart home cameras. There are multiple minor benefits, too: the screen allows you to see what music is currently playing, ; view the shopping lists which Alexa has been collating for you; and you can even ask Alexa to show you trailers for the latest movies if you're trying to decide what to go and see. It's pricey, and non-too-pretty to look at, but if you can take advantage of its extra features, then the Echo Show is a great choice.
Read our Amazon Echo Show review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 2, Connectivity: Wi-Fi & Bluetooth, Dimensions: 187x187x90mm, Weight: 1,170g
Sonos One: The best sounding and most versatile smart speaker
Price when reviewed: £200 - Buy now from Amazon
The Sonos One takes its inspiration from the Play:1 speaker (it looks almost identical) and adds smart speaker functions for good measure. With two Class-D digital amplifiers, a tweeter and one mid-woofer driver, the Sonos One is the best sounding smart speaker money can currently buy – it goes seriously loud without losing composure, and can be paired with a second Sonos One to form a stereo pair. It also integrates with other Sonos speakers with its multi-room capabilities, and as it currently supports Amazon Alexa you can use it to control music playback on Sonos speakers throughout the home. The best part? Support for Google Assistant is coming sometime in 2018.
Read our Sonos One review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 2, Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Dimensions: 161.45x119.7x119.7mm, Weight: 1,850g
Ultimate Ears Megablast: The most versatile smart speaker
Price when reviewed: £270 - Buy now from Amazon
If you're looking for a smart speaker that isn't tied to a mains socket, then Ultimate Ears' Megablast is just the ticket. The IP67 water- and dust-proof design comes in six elegant shades, and has Amazon Alexa built-in with far-field microphone technology so you can chat to Alexa even while you're splashing around in the hot tub. It's the most expensive speaker here, but sound quality is on point, with four extremely powerful drivers delivering punchy bass and a beautifully warm sound.
Read our Ultimate Ear Megablast review for more details
Key specs –Voice Assistant: Amazon Alexa, Compatibility: Android and iOS, Drivers: 4, Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Dimensions: 237x88x88mm, Weight: 1,190g