Smart speakers can be a fun and easy way to listen to music and control your smart home from any room in your house. You can ask questions and give commands using a smart assistant, without pressing any buttons.
Folks looking to choose a smart speaker for their home might be intimidated by all the options. But here at CNET, we’ve been testing voice control devices and smart speakers since they first hit the scene. We’ve considered all the important smart device features, from sound quality to the ease of installing multiple speakers. There are lots of products to choose from, but here are the very best.
What’s the best smart speaker?
Amazon Echo speakers are among the most affordable and easy to set up smart speakers out there. That’s why the fourth-generation Amazon Echo is our pick for top smart speaker overall. It’s likely to best meet the needs of most households. Though it’s a couple of years old, the device features improved sound quality over the previous generation, is compatible with an assortment of smart devices, and goes for the relatively low price of $100 (it can often be found on sale, too).
That said, the fourth-generation Echo might not be the best pick for your particular home. Almost every smart speaker allows you to control the lights, play music, ask questions, set reminders and much more with simple voice commands. The decision may simply come down to which brand you’re already invested in. If you have an affinity for a particular company’s products, whether you’re an Amazon acolyte, Apple obsessive or Google stan, picking a speaker is easy.
But for platform-agnostic folks, our top picks aside from the fourth-gen Amazon Echo, are the second-gen Google Nest Mini, the Apple HomePod Mini and the second-gen Sonos One. Find out why below.
Best smart speakers of 2023
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Google has done an admirable job of catching up to Amazon in the smart speaker race. At this point, picking between the lowest-price smart speaker devices from the two companies comes down to splitting hairs.
Google Assistant now has almost as many capabilities as Alexa, making the $50 Google Nest Mini a solid alternative to the Amazon Echo Dot if Google Assistant is your preference. Plus, per our tests, Google Assistant is slightly smarter than Alexa.
It responds more flexibly to voice commands if you can’t remember the exact name of your smart home devices, and Google’s grouped commands, called routines, work with more types of smart devices than Amazon’s similar routines.
Google Assistant can recognize multiple voices, so it’ll give you and your spouse different answers if you each ask about your calendars, though Alexa can do this now, too.
Overall, Google still has the intelligence edge, and the Google Nest Mini is a great, low-cost way to take advantage of those smarts.
Read our Google Nest Mini review.
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The Sonos One allows you to pair two units to play stereo sound or multiroom audio, but even a single speaker sounds awesome playing a wide variety of music genres.
Better yet, the Sonos One has both Alexa and Google Assistant built in — simply pick which one you’d like to use for your voice commands during setup.
On top of that, Sonos has Apple’s AirPlay 2 so you can control it with any Siri-enabled device, including your iPhone.
Add it all up and the Sonos One is a great-sounding, reasonably priced premium smart speaker that can fit into smart hub households centered on Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. That’s a tough pitch to beat.
Other smart speaker options
Those smart speakers are our favorites, but you still have lots of other options if you’re looking for something specific in audio performance.
Read our breakdown of Alexa versus Google Assistant versus Siri if you’d like to learn each one’s pros and cons, and decide on a smart home device by platform.
Note that neither the original Amazon Echo nor the Nest Audio made an appearance above because you can get the same capabilities for less with the smaller (Dot and Mini) versions. That said, if you want a smart speaker that splits the difference between affordability and premium sound, both are still solid options.
If you like the idea of always-listening help but want something more visual, check out our list of the best smart displays. Smart displays essentially combine a smart speaker with a touchscreen so you can watch videos on YouTube, make video calls, scroll through pictures and control your smart home gadgets with a touch. Amazon and Google both have several options worth considering in the category.
Read more: Best Smart Displays for 2023
Figure out what platform or features you’d like, and you should be able to quickly narrow down your options and find the best smart speaker for you and your family.
Best smart speaker FAQ
Are there any stereo smart speakers?
Yes!
Nearly every Amazon Echo smart speaker can stereo pair with another Echo speaker. The list is quite long, so take a look at Amazon’s
All of Google’s smart speakers can be stereo-paired, as long as they’re identical models. Google’s Nest Audio speaker is the best bet for stereo pairing, and a two-pack of these speakers often provides a discount off the $99-per-speaker MSRP.
You’ll be able to set up the speakers in your Google Home app and tell Google which speaker is right and which is left. Bass and treble settings are also adjustable from the Home app.
Apple’s HomePod Mini (the only smart speaker Apple currently makes), can be paired with another HomePod Mini for left and right channel stereo listening. You can also pair your HomePod Minis with your Apple TV for surround sound theater. These smaller speakers won’t blow you away, but it’s a nice extra feature.
If theater surround sound for your TV is your biggest smart speaker priority, Sonos offers the best audio quality in our opinion. Two Sonos speakers (of the same model) can be stereo-paired.
Who is the smartest voice assistant?
Today, the race is extremely close between Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa. Apple’s Siri is on the board but in a solid third place when it comes to reliability, knowledge and comprehension of human requests.
Overall, we give the edge to Google Assistant for its superior cadence, naturalistic tone and ability to understand (and answer) questions and follow up queries consistently.
That said, it’s close enough that you can safely invest in either Google Assistant or Alexa based on other preferences like speaker style, devices and compatibility with other popular smart home products.
Alexa is nearly as good as Google Assistant, so you really can’t go wrong no matter which assistant you choose. You’ll learn its quirks and how to interact with your assistant to coax the best responses and helpful information.
For fun, here’s our deep dive into each assistant’s “personality.”
Which smart speaker is loudest?
In our testing of Apple, Amazon and Google smart speakers, we think the Amazon Echo (4th gen) offers the most when it comes to sheer volume. Nest Audio is close behind with powerful sound, as well.
However, the Sonos One (2nd gen) is our current pick for best sound quality, especially if you’re considering using your speaker in a stereo pair or as a theater system for watching TV.
Read our Amazon Echo (4th gen) and Nest Audio reviews to learn more about the sound quality of these two flagship models.
Which smart speaker is best for free music?
Amazon smart speakers can play music from free or paid subscription tiers on Pandora, Spotify and other popular music streaming platforms. Additionally, if you have an Amazon Prime account, you can play music from the vast Prime Music catalog.
Google smart speakers have similar music streaming options, but while Amazon requires a paid Prime subscription for ad-free listening via Prime Music, Google includes YouTube Music Premium for free — a $10-per-month value that also offers a wide variety of ad-free music choices.
