TALKING HEADS

2020’s voice assistant speakers aren’t just getting smarter by the day, they’re also ready to fill up your room with excellent sound as they optimise your day-to-day living – even if you don’t have a smart home to match just yet

HOMEPOD MINI

For those who exist within the Apple universe, investing in a HomePod Mini is a no-brainer. A more affordable option than the larger HomePod, it also fits seamlessly into your tech grid. It can take calls; pick up any song playing off Apple Music on your iPhone (if you bring the two close enough); pair with another HomePod for stereo sound; create an in-house intercom system. And it can do it all with excellent sound, a combination of top-of-the-line hardware, software and design that allows for 360-degree sound radiating from the bottom of the speaker. Of course, there’s Siri, smarter than ever, who can identify multiple voices and knows who needs to listen to A World Of Calm every night.

AMAZON ECHO (2020)

Amazon’s trusty Echo gets a radical design upgrade – it looks like a bowling ball now, with a colour ring at the bottom that gives it an ethereal quality. Alexa is still built into the cloud and diligently acquiring new skills – 30,000 and counting, which includes paying your bills. The 4th-gen Echo gives it the audio output to match, with a 76.2mm woofer and two 20mm tweeters. The Alexa app is compatible with Fire OS, Android and iOS devices, can stream music from pretty much every platform out there, and is ready to voice control your home – when you are