The best smart speakers from the biggest brands

Amazon's Echo Dot speaker gets great reviews, and demonstrates how consistently this speaker performs, generation after generation. Indeed, this is the fifth iteration of the Echo Dot this time it and comes with an added bonus — a clock face.

As always with the Echo Dot, you control your music and stream songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and other services via voice commands. The Echo Dot produces rich, stereo sound that fills your home with music.

Of course, it's not all about music with the Echo Dot. You can also ask Alexa to answer questions, read the news, check the weather, set alarms, create a shopping list, control compatible smart home devices, and much more. 

If nothing else, you'll get hours of entertainment just from talking to Alexa. She's got an answer for (almost) everything.

First and foremost, you want a speaker that can fill your home with music. The Sonos One has you covered. Its Trueplay software measures the acoustics of the room and fine-tunes the speaker accordingly. In fact. it can fill not one, but two rooms with rich audio. That means serious good vibes in your home.

It has two Class-D amplifiers that deliver continuous sound without any interruption or dropouts. And a 3.5-inch mid-woofer is designed for deep, resonating bass. If you're serious about your tunes, take note. Sonos likes to boast that the One is the smart speaker for true music lovers.

You can control everything using the Sonos app, which consolidates all of your music libraries and playlists. The speaker can also be connected to any smart assistant-enabled devices for voice control.

The Google Nest Audio is Google's mid-point offering that sits between the Home Mini and the discontinued Home Max — a beautifully minimalistic speaker that Android users are sure to love.

The Nest Audio produces well-balanced, rich audio — though some reviewers say the bass could use a little work. It also has better-than-ever Google Assistant integration, which is kind of the point with this speaker. Indeed, if you're already a Google Assistant user, the Nest Audio won't let you down.  

Of course, it's designed to be just one part of the bigger Google Nest ecosystem, so it will suit anyone who's already got Google Nest devices, or whose home will soon be upgraded with Google-powered tech.

At this price, the size, convenience, and sound quality of the Google Nest Audio easily rivals Amazon's Alexa-compatible speakers. It's a steal at this price.

While some Apple users will understandably opt for the bigger HomePod, we like the smaller, very affordable HomePod Mini. It's uncharacteristically affordable by Apple standards. And in terms of quality and smart features, we think the HomePod Mini is actually a step up.

If you're an Apple user, it's impressively fast to get up and running. Just hold your iPhone or iPad in its general vicinity and it will connect and sync instantly. And in true Apple style, it's, well, stylish — an attractive, modern design that delivers pristine sound quality.

Where it may fall short is the actual smart features. You get Siri — the voice assistant of choice for many people — but some reviewers have noted that controlling your smart home via its voice command isn't exactly flawless. Like all Apple products, it's best used as part of a system of devices.

No "best speaker" roundup would be complete without Bose, one of the best names in premium audio. The Bose Smart Speaker 500 is a case in point — an audiophile-friendly speaker that matches sound quality with tech smarts.

More than anything, it's about top quality audio. It has two custom speakers that point in opposite directions, achieving a stereo sound without the need for doubling up. It creates a wide, all-immersive soundstage and connects to a variety of streaming services, including Spotify and Amazon Music.

Or maybe you prefer the radio? No problem. The Bose Smart Speaker 500 has preset buttons that allow you to access your favourite stations with one touch. You can talk to Alexa or Google Assistant (both built in) while the music is playing loudly, thanks to eight highly-sensitive microphones in the speaker.

While many homes have the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, fewer listeners are as familiar with the Amazon Echo Studio. It’s Amazon’s attempt at an audiophile-quality smart speaker. While it doesn’t match the quality of the most serious audio brands (few smart speakers do), the sound is very good indeed.

It supports a range of audio tech formats — such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 Reality Audio — and delivers 3D audio. The 3D sound comes via a combination of directional-firing speakers. Hi-res tunes come courtesy of Amazon Music HD, though that requires a subscription.

Where the Amazon Echo Studio really excels is being hooked up to a home cinema set-up — particularly when you have two Echo Studios and Amazon Fire all connected at once. Being an Amazon device, the Echo Studio also gives you the very best of Alexa and smart home control.

The Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 looks less impressive than its rivals, but it provides high-quality sound. Indeed, it performs way beyond its small stature. The bass is powerful, while the mids and highs are well balanced and the lows are pleasingly crisp. It sounds like a much bigger system, though for true stereo sound you'll need to connect it to a second speaker.

The Beoplay A1 is controlled by an excellent, highly-intuitive app, which gives you the option to cycle through EQ levels and listening modes — the most impressive customisation on this list.

One negative point is that Alexa is limited. Because it's Bluetooth rather than wireless, you need to connect the speaker to a smartphone to use Alexa, and it can't access all of Alexa's features, such as streaming. For most partygoers, however, that's unlikely to be a dealbreaker.