- Over the past few years,
smart home devices have been getting even smarter
and that means adding voice control.
And in the same vein, smart home consoles
have been adding displays
so you can actually see what you're doing
when you control your home.
But which one of these consoles is the best?
Well, we're about to find out.
(explosion)
Today we've got three battles,
device control, communication, and display functionality.
And here, we've got our contestants.
The Amazon Echo Show 2, the Lenovo Smart Display,
the Google Home Hub and the Apple HomePod.
Actually, we're just gonna eliminate the HomePod
straight out of the gate.
Our first battle is device control,
we're gonna see how well these smart home consoles
control the devices in our home.
Hey Alexa, turn on living room lights.
(buzzer zaps)
Alexa, turn off family room lights.
(bell dings)
Okay there we go, finally.
As you can see, you have to be really specific
with Alexa when you name your devices within the app.
Otherwise, they're just not going to work.
Alexa, play Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
- [Alexa] Getting The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
from Prime Video.
(bell dings) (video begins playing)
- Show me Amazon Cloud Camera.
- [Alexa] Sorry, I didn't find the device named
Amazon Cloud Camera.
(buzzer zaps)
- Hey Google, can you turn on the living room lights?
- [Google] You got it! (bell dings)
Turning on two lights.
- Hey Google, play SNL on the TV.
- [Google] Sure, Saturday Night Live from YouTube TV,
playing on living room TV.
(bell dings) (video begins playing)
- Hey Google, show me living room feed.
- [Google] Okay, streaming the living room
on living room display.
(bell dings)
- Three out of three, that was a lot easier
and way, way less time and setup
than with the Amazon Echo Show.
Lastly, we got the Google Home Hub.
Hey Google, turn on living room lights.
- [Google] Sure, turning two lights on.
(bell dings)
- Nice, play SNL on the living room TV.
- [Google] Sure, Saturday Night Live from YouTube TV
playing on living room TV.
(bell dings) (video begins playing)
- Hey Google, show me living room feed.
- [Google] You got it!
Streaming the living room. (bell dings)
The performance between the Lenovo Smart Display
and the Google Home Hub was pretty similar.
But, the Google Home Hub wins this battle
because its response times were just a tad quicker.
For our second battle,
we're going to check how well these Smart Home consoles work
as communication devices.
As in, how good are they as an alternative
to a landline?
Hey Alexa, call Adam.
Hey, we can see Adam!
And he's just in that other room over there!
- Yeah, I love it!
- Yeah, you're in your closet, nice!
Next up we have the Lenovo Smart Display.
Hey Google, call Adam.
- [Google] Making a video call to Adam Clark Estes.
- Ah, there we go!
Hey dude!
Last up, we have the Google Home Hub.
Hey Google, call Adam.
- [Google] Making an audio call
to Adam Clark Estes on Duo.
(device ringing)
- Hey dude!
- [Adam] Hello!
- Hey, no video this time because the Google Home Hub
doesn't have a camera!
- [Adam] You can't see me?
- Nope.
The winner of our second battle
is the Amazon Echo Show 2.
You get great video quality on calls,
plus you can send messages.
That's something that Google Assistant can't quite do yet.
So, for our final battle,
we're going to see how well these home consoles
utilize their screens.
Hey Alexa, can you show me a cheese omelet recipe?
- [Alexa] Okay, for cheese omelet here's a few recipes.
- So here we have a recipe for a cheese omelet.
- [Alexa] Step one, beat eggs in a bowl with a whisk.
- Okay.
- [Alexa] Add milk and season with salt and white pepper.
- So, that's a little hectic.
There's a lot of things to do in just step one.
And, even though I can control it with my voice,
what's the point of having a display,
if you're just going to throw a bunch of text at me?
Next up, we have the Lenovo Smart Display.
Hey Google, show me a recipe for a cheese omelet.
- [Google] Okay, here are some recipes.
- Uh, let's go with this one.
- [Google] There are three ingredients.
You can ask for the next ingredient
or skip to the instructions.
- Hey Google, show me a video on Youtube for cheese omelet.
- [Google] Alright, showing on YouTube
for cheese omelet videos.
- One of the first recipes
and or techniques that was taught to me
at cooking school was how to make a proper cheese omelet.
- So, with the Google Assistant,
cooking is just a little more intuitive.
Finally, we got the Google Home Hub.
Hey Google, show me a recipe for a cheese omelet.
- [Google] Okay, here are some recipes.
- Wow, that is much faster.
I'll pull up this one.
Hey Google, start cooking.
- [Google] There are three ingredients.
You can ask for the next ingredients
or skip to the instructions.
- Hey Google, pull up a Jamie Oliver cheese omelet video
on YouTube.
- [Google] No problem.
Playing Jamie Oliver cheese omelet videos on YouTube.
- Hi guys, welcome to the Ministry of Food!
We're going to make omelets!
Omelets are fantastic!
They're cheap, they're flexible –
- So, while Google Assistant works pretty much the same
on the Lenovo Smart Display and the Google Home Hub,
it's noticeably faster on the Home Hub
and I feel like the smaller screen
actually makes better use of the format.
There can be only one winner
and while the Amazon Echo Show 2 is great
and it's good for communication,
Google Assistant is much more natural to interact with.
And, while the Lenovo Smart Display is a solid device,
the Google Home Hub is just way more elegant to use.
It won most of our battles and for most people,
this should be their smart home console of choice.