With the development of science and technology, the home appliances in our lives are becoming more and more intelligent. Many products are now connected to the Internet. Everything is interconnected. Using big data can provide us with better services, and then we have begun to take care of them. It is called "smart home". Whether it is TVs, washing machines, air conditioners, and even speakers in our homes, they are all called smart home products.
Today we are going to talk about the three hottest smart speaker products on the market. Their price is no more than 200 yuan. They are Xiaomi’s Xiaoai speaker mini, priced at 169 yuan (ordered on JD.com, 199 Yuan); Ali's Tmall Elf sugar cubes are priced at 89 yuan; Baidu's Xiaodu smart speakers are priced at 89 yuan.Let’s take a look at their experience.
1. Appearance
First, let’s take a look at the appearance of the three smart speakers. The three speakers are small in size, and all use a more versatile white as the main color. It is worth mentioning that the color of the Tmall Elf sugar cube is not pure. White, a little off-white, similar to the classic retro white of the cherry mechanical keyboard. They are also more harmonious when placed in the home environment, and they all look very simple and beautiful.
Let's take a look at this Xiao Ai speaker mini from Xiaomi first. It uses a nearly square rounded rectangle design. At first glance, it is difficult to see that it is a speaker. The appearance is more like a miniature rice cooker or a control center or a docking station. Reminds me of my USB docking station. Only when you turn it over will you know that the speaker is at the bottom, so if you don't tell you, you can hardly imagine that it is a speaker, and its shape is very different from what we traditionally recognize.
On the top center disc integrates 4 control buttons, including volume +-, microphone disable and playback pause buttons. A hidden breathing light is also integrated in the center, which changes colors according to different states. Four microphones are integrated around the top to capture the user's voice. The overall appearance is relatively round and compact, with a three-digit size of 90X90X50 (mm) and a weight of 210g, which is also very convenient to carry. On the front is the Xiaomi logo.
Let's look at the smart speaker of Tmall Elf Sugar. It uses a rectangular parallelepiped design and looks similar to a bedside alarm clock. At first glance, it looks more consistent with the speakers in our traditional impression. There are many small round holes arranged in the front for sound transmission through the arrangement of the round holes. The combination with the built-in orange dust net can vaguely see that it is a Tmall Logo shape, and this design looks more dynamic and lively.
The volume control buttons and microphone disable buttons are arranged in sequence directly above. The buttons also have a circle of LED lights, which will emit different colors of light according to the working status, and will become brighter and darker when the volume is increased or decreased. There is also a faint dot matrix Tmall logo on the top, and two linear microphones on the top. Behind it is the name of the Tmall Elf and the modeling hole. The measurements are 124 X 59 X 65 (mm) and the weight is 265g.
Finally, Xiaodu smart speakers. It is cylindrical as a whole, similar in appearance to Apple's HomePod, and the size is about the size of a can of Coke. The measurements are 90 X 90 X 102.4 (mm), and the weight is the heaviest of the three, 280g. Different from the other two speakers, Xiaodu uses two materials as a combination. The upper and lower parts are designed in gray fabric and the middle is wrapped in white plastic. This matching design looks a lot more stable than the other two. It has a lively and lovely feeling, and the stain resistance of the fabric is relatively poor.
The button control is also designed on the top. Like the Xiao Ai speaker mini, there are volume +-, microphone disable button and play pause button. In the middle is the hidden Baidu "Bear's Paw" Logo breathing light, which also changes colors according to different states. There are also 6 pickup microphones hidden under the fabric mesh around the buttons. At the bottom is the speaker. It has a full-range sounding unit and 2 passive low-frequency units. Compared with the other two speakers, only one full-range unit is configured in terms of sound quality. There is a certain guarantee, we will talk about the details later.
Talk about some small details of the three speakers. As for the charging interface, the mini version of Xiaoai Speaker is equipped with the Micro USB charging port that is more common on smart phones, while the other two are round charging ports. In this respect, Xiao Ai Speaker Mini is undoubtedly better and more versatile.
As for the length of the charger cable, Xiaodu is more conscientious. Xiaoai speaker mini and Tmall Elf cube sugar are about 1.2 meters and 1.23 meters, while Xiaodu speaker is about 1.53 meters, so you can put it in the home environment, Xiaodu can place it as much as you want. They do not have to worry too much about the situation that the power supply cannot reach.
The other three smart speakers all have heat in the "standby" state. Tmall Elf sugar cubes and Xiaodu are just warm, while Xiaoai speaker mini is a bit "hot", and you can obviously feel hot in the top control area. This may be caused by too small internal components and too much concentration.
2. Networking and configuration
The three speakers are all products produced by Internet giants, so the first use of networking configuration is relatively complete and simple, and the connection methods are the same. You need to download your own speaker APP for networking configuration, and the steps are generally general. In the same way, the operation is relatively easy, and the configuration connection can be completed by only three or two without beating.
3. APP interface and ecology
The APP page design styles of the three speakers are very similar, and the function listings are also very similar. It seems that the front-end page design style orientations of the Internet giants are generally the same.
Although the overall style is similar, the design orientation and content of the three APP pages are still somewhat different. I would also like to mention here that all three speakers can only be configured for networking under the 2.4G network. If your mobile phone is connected to the 5G network at home, you need to switch to successfully complete the configuration.
Let me talk about the mini version of Xiaoai speakers. In the Xiaoai Speaker APP, there are 4 tab categories at the bottom, homepage, smart home, skills and mine. On the homepage, there are audio categories. In terms of music, the copyright resources of QQ Music are also accessed. In other content, content such as Get and Uncle Kai's storytelling are also accessed. Other mainstream audio platforms like Dragonfly FM, Penguin FM, etc. are also readily available.
In terms of music content, I also searched for several tracks or albums that I usually listen to. In theory, some resources on QQ music should be able to be presented here, but the resource matching is not too perfect. First of all, the APP can only search by artist name or song name, but cannot search for albums. Even in the case of voice commands, a small number of songs cannot accurately provide the desired version.
In the smart home label, it is an important entry in the Xiaomi ecosystem, where you can access Xiaomi's own smart devices and third-party smart devices, and there are more than 30 third-party brands supported. I have connected the Roborock floor sweeping robot here, and can also use speakers to control it. As for the experience, we will talk about it later.
The third tab is the Skill Center, which is equivalent to a collection of tutorials and guides. It shows what the Xiao Ai Speaker Mini can do by category, which skills it will use, and the content is very rich, basically covering To meet the needs of our lives.
The last one is my label, which can be used to configure and change the settings of the speakers in detail.
The next thing I’m going to talk about is the Tmall Genie. Its page layout is roughly the same as that of the Xiao Ai Speaker Mini. The home page is also the audio category. The music resource accesses Xiami Music. Compared to the Xiao Ai Speaker Mini’s search and content The presentation of the feedback is much more normal. I also tested multiple music tracks, and there is no problem. The feedback is all normal.
The second label is the skill label. Like the Xiao Ai speaker mini, you can also see some of the command functions we need, and show what the speaker will do. The content covered is also very rich.
The third tab is similar to a chat window, which can record the content of the conversation with the Tmall Genie. You can also customize the content for the specified questions and answers below. You can also call your contacts and so on. In the AI laboratory, we also recommend some of the more commonly used voice commands in our daily life, and also tell you what it can do.
The fourth tab is the mall, which basically contains some products related to smart devices. As a part of the IoT ecosystem, the Tmall wizard with Tmall attributes is definitely indispensable. As the entrance to the Internet of Things, It also wants users to generate consumption and make users sticky, so as to further expand their market share.
The fifth tab is mine, which also shows that Tmall Genie can support the control of smart homes. As an Alibaba product, relying on Tmall’s powerful resource advantage, Tmall Genie can only support home brands and equipment. The richness of not only the furniture and home appliances brands we are familiar with every day, but also some small brand products are also supported. There are also the unique life service content of Tmall Elf below, such as simple shopping and recharge of phone bills by recording voiceprints.
Finally, Xiaodu Speaker, his page layout design is basically the same as that of Tmall Genie, but with my label. Because the music resources are also connected to QQ music and their own Xiaodu music. There is no problem with the richness of resources, and some mainstream streaming media platforms support it.
Similar to the problem of Xiao Ai Speaker Mini, the search is not perfect, and the number of albums matched by the searched artist can only be displayed at most 5 albums.
There is also a built-in mall in the APP, but it is placed in the smart home tab, and the purchase jump is a product in the Jingdong Mall. It is also possible to add smart devices of third-party brands, and there are many brands supported.
I need to complain here. When adding a smart device, because there is no search bar, there are too many brands involved, so when adding a device, you can only slide the list to find the brand you want to add. It is really hard to find. Hope to increase the search bar in future version updates.
Voice wake-up and interactive experience
The so-called smart speaker is whether it can understand the user's expression well, so as to feedback the best results, and be "thinking", which is truly intelligent, rather than understanding the literal meaning. The three speakers have their own merits after the experience.
First of all, from the perspective of wake-up and feedback results, the mini version of Xiaoai speakers is poor. First of all, it does not support continuous conversations under one command. Every time a control command is issued, it must be re-awakened to say "Little Ai", and it can only do one question and one answer.
Both the Tmall Genie and Xiaodu speakers support the Beta version of continuous dialogue mode. After a wake-up, you can have multiple questions and answers within a short period of time, achieving the effect of multiple questions and multiple answers, which looks a bit like we are in Communicate with "people" instead of feeling like talking to an object like the mini speaker. In terms of wake-up response speed, the Xiao Ai speaker mini always has a delay of about half a second, and it always feels half a beat slow, the experience is not very good, and I always think it seems to be stuck. In addition, in terms of the semantics of voice command recognition, Tmall Elf and Xiaodu are much better than Xiaoai Speaker Mini. For example, I want to listen to a song by a certain singer, a song with a slower rhythm. Both Tmall Elf and Xiaodu can A good understanding and feedback of a relatively correct song to play, while the Xiao Ai speaker mini has a lot of difference in semantic recognition, and the probability of error is higher than that of the other two speakers. It is often the semantic error that leads to feedback. Did not find the desired song.
In terms of the voice control of playing songs, I like the setting method of Tmall Genie the most. It supports voice control of the previous song and the next song at any time while playing the song. You can switch the song by just saying "next, next song" to it. , Very convenient. The other two speakers can only switch songs after re-waking up, which is more troublesome and inhumane.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that Tmall Genie is the exclusive copyright resource of "Xiaoshuo 2018", and can also support the playback of music that is not copyrighted on Xiami.
Music playback effect
Speaking of songs, let's talk about sound quality, let's talk about the sound unit configuration of the next three speakers.
The Xiaoai speaker mini uses a 1.5-inch full-range single speaker with 2W power, and the official claims to adopt an innovative 3D sound radiation simulation bottom structure design;
Tmall Genie uses a 1.5-inch 3W power full-range single speaker, which officially claims to have obtained DTS sound certification and has been professionally tuned by the Golden Ear of the Acoustic Laboratory;
The Xiaodu speaker uses a 1.75 inch 5W power speaker configuration with 1 full frequency + 2 passive low frequency radiators, and supports a 360° ring sound field.
It seems that the three speakers all have a good configuration, and they all sound good, but the actual listening experience is really different. Through comparison, it is found that Xiaodu’s playback effect is the best. With the sound wave reflection cone design, Xiaodu speakers provide a 360° no dead angle listening experience. The Xiaodu speakers equipped with 1 full frequency + 2 passive low frequency radiators are indeed effective. The sound field is more rich and full, and the bass is more full and powerful. The power of 5W also makes it the largest volume among the three speakers. The second is the Tmall Elf sugar cube, which adopts the design of front sound and the support of DTS certified sound effect. It also has excellent sound performance. The human voice is clear and bright, and the sound effect is clear and clean. Although the low frequency is not as full as small, it is also There are no obvious defects.
The worst is the Mi Speaker Mini. Due to its volume structure, the volume is the smallest among the three speakers, and the sound is very thin when playing music. Due to the design of the bottom output, the sound produced is relatively dull. , Not transparent.
Smart home control and life services
Next is the control of smart home appliances. All three speakers support tripartite smart home binding. In terms of the number of smart home support, the three speakers are also different. Most of the Xiaoai smart speakers control products in the Xiaomi ecological chain, and the number of products supported is not too much, and there are only more than 40 third-party brand support. On the other hand, Tmall Genie conducts in-depth cooperation with major manufacturers. Currently, it supports 300+ home appliance brands and has more than 70 million access devices. Xiaodu speakers currently support 200+ home appliance brands. From the perspective of platform advantages, Tmall Genie still has a strong platform resource advantage in terms of the number of support and growth rate, while the other two are limited by their own ecosystem, and the controllable equipment will be similar to that of Tmall Genie. difference.
I happened to have a sweeping robot next to me. I used the same command "make the robot sweep the floor and let the robot recharge" to control the robot with three speakers. In the end, I found that Xiaomi still has the best control over its own ecological chain products, which is indirect semantics. The commands can be well recognized and executed, and the Tmall Genie can also control the robot better, but the semantic commands should be more straightforward. For example, smart means charging the robot, but not recharging. Although the Xiaodu speaker has been bound to the account and device, the smart home cannot be detected.
Next, I tested the functions of ordering takeaways and charging phone bills, and found that only Tmall Genie has this function. Relying on the powerful resources of Tmall, it can do simple shopping, ordering takeaways, and charging phone bills. However, it needs to be mentioned here that the voiceprint payment function needs to be recorded in advance, but the other two speakers do not support it.
If you are always forgetful and don’t know where to put your phone, it is also supported to find the three speakers with the function of the phone. Of course, if your phone is set to mute, it will be more embarrassing...
Summarize
After several days of use, it is found that the three speakers have their own characteristics and characteristics, but there are also imperfect places.
With years of deployment in the field of smart home, Xiaomi already has a relatively strong ecological chain. From a thermometer to a TV air conditioner, it can be linked with smart speakers. If you are a Xiaomi user and have many devices at home All of them are products of the Mijia ecological chain, so it is undoubtedly the best choice for you to choose the Mi Speaker Mini.
With the powerful resource integration capabilities of Alibaba and Tmall, Tmall Elf is also doing impressively in the field of smart home, integrating its own advantages and characteristics into the product, and shopping on speakers, what seemed impossible before, The recharge function can be realized in the speaker, which also allows you to experience a different shopping experience.
Baidu relies on years of accumulation of technology in the field of artificial intelligence search, and the voice interaction of smart speakers is also the smartest one. There are no other two comprehensive improvements in smart home control and product layout. I hope Baidu will catch up as soon as possible.
Although these three speakers are far from "smart" in my opinion, there are still imperfections in the algorithm of voice interaction. But in any case, the gradual popularity of smart speakers has also allowed more and more users to have more awareness of the interaction of home appliances. It is also that smart speakers have become popular, and more and more smart home lives have entered our lives, and our lives will become more intelligent and convenient in the future.