Saturday, February 16, 2019

Comparing Amazon Echo Show and Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant

Have owned both voice activated screen devices for several months, and use them on a daily basis. Although the percentage of current screen owners is small, I prefer the option for several reasons. Screens nicely compliment voice experiences by reinforcing the main message of the dialog, presenting options, and providing videos and images as well.

Advantage Google Assistant?
  • More touch screen options
  • Access to YouTube
  • Visual prompts for follow-up questions
  • True search engine*
  • Baked in skills-no need to use smart phone to enable skills
  • More users world-wide and more language options
  • The ability to do some chores for you—things like screen your calls on an Android phone, or (in a feature called Duplex, which rolled out this fall) hold telephone conversations with an actual human to book a table at a restaurant or an appointment at the salon 
Advantage Amazon Echo Show?
  • Access to Amazon Marketplace for order, reorder, and shipping updates
  • More skills than Google, and the gap shows no sign of narrowing
  • Dominant market share in the United States
  • The Amazon Alexa is found in Anki Vector, LifePod, and behind the Facebook Portal
  • Acquisition of Ring and Eero indicates a major bundling initiative-one stop shopping for connected internet of things
  • More than 10 thousand employees working on Amazon voice
  • Better member support. Both send weekly e-mails touting new uses, but Amazon's is more comprehensive and more helpful
*Query: Ask both devices this question: Who is the Chief Executive Officer of Leading Age Florida? Google's answer is accurate while Alexa will tell you about the Chief Executive of Florida. The Amazon features what has been described as an action engine, telling the person what it thinks they want to hear.

Screen size, options for other voice devices, sound quality, and pricing are comparable. Both devices are constantly updated in the cloud and both have improved services over time.

My vote? Slight edge to Amazon Show.




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