Table of Content
However, the Echo Show 5 at first glance is aimed more as a smart alarm clock than an out-and-out smart display. Despite the apparent targetting of the Lenovo Smart Alarm Clock, it really has much more in common with the Google Nest Hub. Apart from only Echo Show 5 offering a traditional web browser and a video streaming app, the two devices have apps that provide identical services. The specific apps you use and the other devices you own will determine which smart display will perform the best for you. I've found my phone more convenient than digital displays for talking with relatives face-to-digital-face, so I don't take too many points away for the fact that the Nest Hub lacks a camera. The most important feature for these smart displays, which promise a light-touch way to organize your day, is how much information they can put forward and how easily.
Other features include automatically switching off at night-time, and a dedicated 'Downtime Mode' to prevent it distracting users - so, for homework or freelancers, basically. The Home Hub is 7 inches wide and 4.65 inches high and weighs just 16.9 ounces, while the bulkier Echo Show is 9.7 inches wide and 6.9 inches high and weighs in at 3.9 pounds. If you have limited space on your counter or nightstand, the new Show may be a bit harder to squeeze in. (That said, the device is still compact and sturdy enough that I was comfortable mounting it on my bedpost and a small corner of my desk. Every editorial product is independently selected, though we may be compensated or receive an affiliate commission if you buy something through our links.
What is a smart voice assistant?
The Nest Hub’s screen is too small for most to watch videos comfortably. You can, however, watch YouTube videos with the Nest Hub, something you can’t do with Echo smart displays. The Nest Hub has a 7-inch touchscreen display with a single full-range speaker. The 1,024 x 600-resolution display has capacitive touch sensors, and a two-microphone array uses far-field voice recognition for hands-free operation of the Hub and connected smart home devices.
The value of Google Assistant is its natural language recognition and that you can issue several commands without having to say the “Hey Google” wake phrase each time. As we’ll explain below, that’s one of the major benefits that Google has over its rival. If you try to ask “Alexa, turn on the lights and tell me what the weather forecast is for tomorrow”, you’ll find that it’ll only deal with one of the things you’ve asked.
Integration & set up
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. But only a small portion of those skills are enhanced by the Show’s display, so that’s probably not what you’ll be spending most of your time doing with the Show. If you are happy to stay on the Google path, then be sure to check out our Google Home Essentials series, designed to help you get the most from your Google-integrated smart home. Conversely, this makes the Echo Show 5 more complicated, therefore less easy to use.
You can even give it a whack to put it into snooze mode once the alarm goes off, and it also has a sunrise mode that gradually dials up the brightness on the display. Google also introduced a welcome quality of life feature to Google Assistant this spring. When an alarm goes off, you can simply say "Stop," instead of "Hey Google, stop." It's a user-friendly nod to expediency and getting out of its own way that anyone can appreciate.
Echo Show 5 (2nd Gen) vs. Nest Hub (2nd Gen): Design
Once you’ve peppered a few smart speakers around the house so you can talk to them wherever you are, you’ll feel like you’re living in a sci-fi movie. The Echo Show has a built-in 5-megapixel camera, which you can use to video call other Alexa devices , or to call the Alexa app on a friend’s phone. Swiping down from the top of the screen brings up a dashboard for monitoring and controlling your various smart devices, organized by category and by room. Whereas the Nest Hub relies on the Google Home app to get connected, the Echo Show 5 has you set up everything from the smart display itself. It does make the set up process feel a little jarring compared to the pretty seamless Google Home and Nest Hub app-based set up. In addition, the Echo Show is also a built-in Zigbee smart hub, giving you an additional option for connecting devices even if they aren’t compatible with Alexa.
Of course, the Google Nest Hub is much easier to get a hold of thanks to an earlier launch and less control exerted by Google on where you can buy it. You can get the Nest Hub from stores like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target for around $80 on sale. I wouldn’t suggest using the browser all too much, the small screen is pretty responsive but sometimes I found taps to be a little sluggish to register. Scrolling can be a little tiresome as a result of the slow scroll speed.
It might not seem like a lot, but it does make activities like streaming YouTube videos and following recipes more convenient. The resolution is also better on the Nest Hub, so you'll be able to see more details when watching shows and movies. The Nest Hub lacks a camera, but you can still accept video calls and use voice chat. The Nest Hub Max is the only first-party Google smart display capable of making full video calls, both sending and receiving video. You can make Google Duo calls to other Google users with either smart display, and join both Google Meet and Zoom conference calls with the Nest Hub Max. The Echo Show is great for staying in touch with friends and family, as you can call anyone who has the Alexa app or another Echo device.
Thanks to its overall polish, and the robustness of Google Assistant, the Google Nest Hub is the better device. With no camera, Google's smart display can't rely on the emotional lure of easy video chatting with friends and family to succeed. Yes, it supports a photo feed and it's hard to resist that steady drip of kid pictures, but this is more than just a digital photo frame. Now called the Google Nest Hub after a rebrand this spring, this 7-inch display isn't shy about putting forward its interface and the superiority of Google Assistant to win you over.
The Google Nest Hub works with Google Photos, with a “live album” feature that allows you to turn the Hub in a living photo album of a recent collection of photos. This makes the Hub well suited to serve as a picture frame when not in use. The Show 2 can also show photos, but it doesn’t have the same focus or photo rotation capabilities and doesn’t sync with Google Photos automatically.
Then there's the Echo Show 15, currently the largest first-party smart display out there. It has the biggest screen (15 inches with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution), and unlike the other smart displays it isn't designed to sit on a desk, counter, or nightstand. The Echo Show 15 is for wall-mounting, serving as a stealthy home hub that looks like a framed picture when not in use and a widget-filled control panel when active.
The hub senses ambient light brightness and color temperature and adjusts the display to match both. There’s a single speaker driver inside on both devices, which is best used for casual music playback. That said, the Nest Hub manages to offer more volume while the Echo Show 5 handles low frequencies slightly better. But the Echo Show 5 has the upper hand in the audio department because it features a 3.5mm audio jack for audio line-out. With that, the Echo Show 5 can be hooked up to a pair of external speakers. If you want to buy a smart display for either entertainment or the virtual assistant, both the Nest Hub and Echo Show 5 will be equally effective options.
No comments:
Post a Comment