The best Alexa speakers of 2021: the top smart speakers to control your home

Date:
Thu, 22 Jul 2021 14:09:17 +0000

Description:
From Amazon to Sonos, these are the best smart speakers to bring Alexa into your smart home.

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Looking for the best Alexa speaker of 2021? Youre in the right place. Anyone whos tried Amazons voice assistant will probably admit that Alexa is now just as much a part of their household as their pets. Which means it pays to find the best Alexa speaker for you.

The best Alexa speaker is a great way to bring together all your smart home devices into one central hub, as well as playing your favorite tunes. From telling you the weather forecast and playing music to setting timers and switching on your smart lights using just your voice, theres something irresistible about Amazon Echo s smart voice assistant.

But Alexa has changed. For years you could only get the AI voice assistant to answer simple questions or play music on Amazons speakers which left a lot
to be desired for audiophiles. But Alexa is flourishing. As well as a massively expanding Alexa Skills set, constant upgrades are being made to sound quality.

This can be seen in Amazons Alexa set of speakers, like the audio-focused
Echo Studio through to the latest versions of the Echo and Echo Dot . It
might have been an afterthought before, but now Amazon is increasingly
focused on giving users a better-sounding experience.

However, you dont have to buy an Amazon product to bring Alexa into your
home. Brands like Sonos, Bose and Yamaha all offer fantastic audio quality,
as well as integration with Amazons must-have smart assistant.

Theres a huge range of Alexa speakers on offer today. But before buying, ask yourself what you really want one for. An alarm clock? A desktop gadget? An intercom-style video call device? Or a full-blown home cinema system? All of these products and more now come under Alexas control as the smart speaker matures. But some devices are definitely geared up for different preferences.

In this guide youll find our selection of the best Alexa speakers you can buy today, including those from the Echo range and beyond. Looking for more voice assistant options? Check out the best smart speakers of 2021 (Image credit: Sonos) 1. Sonos One

A spectacular Alexa smart speaker with a warm, precise soundstage Fabulous sound quality Hi-Res Audio Expensive Setup takes a while

Is this the best smart speaker ? After years pushing its own multi-room home audio system, Sonos went and produced the spectacular Sonos One, complete
with touch-sensitive controls, two Class-D digital amplifiers, one mid-woofer and one tweeter, its soundstage is punchy, energetic and bassy.

Its easy to set-up, with a nifty Trueplay Tuning process (which requires you to take your phone around the room while it plays test sounds), while a new update has just added Hi-Res Audio to the mix. Its so good as a standalone speaker that you can even buy it without Alexa .

Read more: Sonos One review

[Update: If you're looking for an Alexa speaker you can take on the go,
check out the Sonos Move , or the more recent Sonos Roam . Both portable speakers deliver all the smarts of Alexa without being confined to your
home.] (Image credit: Amazon) 2. Amazon Echo Studio

Alexa for audiophiles Dolby Atmos immersive sound Easy setup Large size won't suit all 3D audio is so-so

Amazons first high-end smart speaker for home cinemas is its best-sounding Echo so far. One of the most powerful speakers youll find for the money at 330W, buy two Amazon Echo Studio speakers and you can set them up in the
Alexa app to create an immersive home cinema system.

Its a seriously impressive Alexa speaker, though to get the best from it consider becoming a subscriber to Amazon Music HD . Our only complaint is
that its up-mixing of stereo tracks to Dolby Atmos is inconsistent.

Read more: Amazon Echo Studio review The best Dolby Atmos speakers you can buy (Image credit: Amazon) 3. Amazon Echo (2020)

A complete overhaul of Amazons flagship smart speaker Futuristic look Improved, adaptive sound Alexa responds faster Max volume level isnt loud enough

The new Amazon Echo is a serious step up from its predecessors, even if it still doesn't have the best sound of all the Alexa speakers you can buy. Add to that the built-in Zigbee smart home hub and a new AZ1 neural edge
processor that will reduce the time it takes for Alexa to respond to
commands, and youve got the recipe for the best Echo design yet.

Of course, while the hardware is all new, its still the same ol Alexa under the hood. Alexa will still be able to answer your basic questions or make calls within your country of residence, as well as control any number of
smart devices you have around your home.

Read more: Amazon Echo (2020) review (Image credit: Amazon) 4. Amazon Echo Dot (2020)

A smart home gateway with improved audio quality Space-age aesthetic Easy setup and integration Directional, shallow sound No Zigbee hub inside

The Amazon Echo Dot has always been the best option for those who arent sure about smart home tech and want to take the first step. This Alexa speaker provides a place for the voice assistant to live inside your home and packs
in enough sound performance to fill a room. All that for under $50 / 50 / AU$80 and its easy to see why its long been one of the most popular smart speakers on the market.

In some of those ways, the Amazon Echo Dot (2020) lives up to the legacy set down by all of the previous Echo Dot devices its small, decently loud and, thanks to Alexa, its pretty smart, too.

Read more: Amazon Echo Dot (2020) review (Image credit: Amazon) 5. Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (2020)

We love the new-look Echo Dot with Clock Great design Clear timepiece Weak bass frequencies No 360-degree audio

Theres not much to get excited about on this, the newest version of the Echo Dot Alexa speaker. That is, unless the question you ask most frequently of Alexa is whats the time?

Like its predecessor, the Echo Dot with Clock can double as a bedside alarm, albeit one that comes with all the smarts of Alexa on board alongside the ability to control your smart home devices (via a separate Zigbee-supporting speaker).

It has undergone a rather radical design overhaul over the previous Echo Dot with Clock , sporting a space age-esque spherical design that's available in both gray and white color schemes. All the features of the previous Echo Dot with Clock remain, including a 3.5mm AUX-in port, and the blue Alexa light ring although this is now located at the bottom of the smart speaker rather than the top.

Read more: Amazon Echo Dot with Clock (2020) review (Image credit: Bose) 6. Bose Home Speaker 500

With microphones this good, Alexa will never mishear you again Sensitive microphones Excellent sound quality Pricey Hit and miss Wi-Fi setup

If youre searching for one of the the best-sounding Alexa speakers, you can stop looking. With Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa built-in, the sleek anodized aluminum Home Speaker 500 has the smarts alongside room-filling sound.

An eight microphone array, designed for near and far-field listening, lets
you talk to Alexa even when music is playing loud. However, setting the speaker up on a Wi-Fi network using the Bose Music app is harder than it should be.

Read more: Bose Home Speaker 500 review (Image credit: Amazon) 7. Amazon
Echo Spot

The best-looking Echo speaker so far is all about video chat Clear video Quirky design Video is cropped to fit screen Expensive

Pitted against the Echo Show 5 for the title of best compact smart display, the mango-sized Echo Spot Alexa speaker is the more affordable and better looking of the two.

With a round 5.5-inch screen thats about the size of a smartphone, its cute and quirky, and is designed for use anywhere in a home. Ideal to use for intercom-style video chat around the house and beyond, it crops widescreen video and zooms-in to fit faces to its circular screen, and its tiny speaker is surprisingly good.

Read more: Amazon Echo Spot review (Image credit: Yamaha) 8. Yamaha YAS-209

A smart soundbar with an immersive sonic experience Big soundstage DTS: VirtualX Expensive Not 'true' surround sound

Why shouldnt Alexa get involved with home entertainment?

Despite bringing Alexa to the living room, the headline act on this 2.1-channel soundbar is audio quality. Its got a 100W driver and 200W of
power for the entire system spread across two front-firing speakers, and a separate wireless subwoofer. Cue a big soundstage that also features crisp, clear vocals, well-integrated bass and thanks to DTS Virtual:X processing
an immersive sonic experience.

Read more: Yamaha YAS-209 review (Image credit: Sonos) 9. Sonos Move

The wireless pioneers first portable speaker and its ace : Can integrate
with a home Sonos speaker network On-the-go tunes Not as feature-rich when using Bluetooth Cant be used as rear cinema speakers

The Sonos Move is the company's first foray into portable Bluetooth speakers that launched in 2019. Since launch, it's topped our list of the best Bluetooth speaker and is perfectly suited for both indoor and outdoor listening.

The Sonos Move offers on-the-go Bluetooth play, as well as integrating with a multi-room networked speaker system over Wi-Fi. In this way, its got most of the functionality of a regular Sonos, along with the very appealing ability
to untether it from a power supply, thanks to an internal battery.

Since launch, we've seen a new and improved Sonos Move that brings improved battery life with an extra hour of charge to ensure those trips to the beach or just out of reaching distance of a plug socket are packed with quality sound as long as possible. Plus there's a new Lunar White version of the
Sonos Move gives a white/silver new look to the portable speaker, and should provide more variety.

Read more: Sonos Move review (Image credit: Amazon) 10. Echo Show 10

Amazons most advanced smart display yet Large, clear, responsive touch screen Display can rotate 360 degrees 13MP camera can be used for home security Expensive No YouTube app Audio is bass heavy

Unlike any other Amazon smart display, the Echo Show 10 Alexa speaker can follow you around the room when you move so that the screen and camera are always within your gaze, whether youre following a recipe, making a video
call or watching Netflix.

The Echo Show 10s 13MP camera pans with the screen, and also zooms automatically when youre on a video call, making sure youre front and center of the picture at all times. The camera can also be used for home security, with its live feed available through the Alexa app any time you want to check in on your abode.

Like all Amazon Echo devices, Alexa is built-in and offers a hands-free way
to set timers, shop online, follow recipes, get your burning questions answered and get the latest weather and news. As well as an audible response, the Amazon Echo Show 10 will offer up extra information on screen, too: ask for the weather forecast, for example, and itll announce the days temperature while on screen an hour-by-hour breakdown, along with the wind speed and real-feel temperature, is displayed.

Previous iterations of the Amazon Echo Show 10s have had a voice first, touch second approach. This is still the case with the newest model, although the reliance on voice has been reduced somewhat. Swipe left from the home screen and youll find shortcuts for making calls, announcements and drop-ins, as
well as for playing music and video services, setting routines and
controlling smart home gadgets.

Read more: Amazon Echo Show 10 review The best soundbars for your home
cinema system



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