STATE OF THE ART
Does your smart speaker need a display? We put three of the best to the test to discover which one might be an essential purchase
Alexa or Google? Big or small? We pit three of the best smart home displays against each other
Smart speakers have become staples of the living room, kitchen and bedroom, and now gadget makers are looking to add something extra to the mix: a display. That means funky visuals to go along with your weather reports, music playlists, cooking timers, calendar updates and whatever else you’re getting your smart speaker to do.
It also means video from the likes of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, so
you can enjoy an episode of House of Cards or The Grand Tour while you’re making dinner. Smart home control is easier too, with buttons and sliders to prod at as well as the voice commands you might be used to.
You’ll pay more for a smart speaker with a screen attached to it, of course, and you’ll have a bigger device to try and find a place for on the mantelpiece, so is all this extra functionality worth it? Do we need smart home gadgets that show and tell when the ones that just tell have been doing perfectly fine? And if you do need a smart display, which one is the best of the lot?
Here we’re putting three of the top smart displays up against each other: the secondgeneration Amazon Echo Show with Alexa, the Google Assistant-powered Lenovo Smart Display, and the Google Home Hub, which also has Google Assistant on board. We’ve put them through their paces in all the areas that matter, from audio quality to the intelligence of the integrated apps.