This smart home device is basically Google's answer to Amazon's extremely popular Echo device and for the most part they are incredibly similar. Both will help you with various tasks and answer questions about weather, news, sports, etc.

Stylish – will blend into home nicely; Dozens of features; Can stream content straight to your TV (YouTube & Netflix; Connects with other smart home devices; Customizable design

More expensive than Echo Dot; Average audio quality; Need Google Audio device to connect with other speakers

When I tried an Amazon Echo a few months ago, my main problem was Amazon's lack of an ecosystem. Amazon doesn't really make productivity apps-or any apps at all outside of media and shopping. Pretty much everything you asked "Alexa" to do got dumped into the Echo app.

The "OK Google" hotword performance is absolutely incredible; It always answers, and all your other hotword capable devices hive mind together to intelligently pick a single device to respond to you, A great media product; For audio there's a loud, crisp speaker, and a great mesh audio capability.

Most of my favorite voice commands from the Google app don't work-no reminders; messages; or creating calendar events; Do you want to know exactly what voice commands are supported for each service and function Nobody knows!

There's little question that some sort of voice response device that controls a home tech ecosystem is inevitable. Google Home is the best of them today: The best physical design, the best database behind it, the most "natural" because it can retain the context of the last couple of exchanges.

Attractive design; "conversational" search; backed by Google's immense database

Large power brick; conversational search is still limited

Wildly intelligent and supremely versatile in the ways in which it can be used, Google Home is a solid smart speaker. It's not as integrated with Google's own services as we'd like, and the Google Home has some room to improve in terms of audio quality, but it's come a long way since launch.

Customizable base; Massive song library; Expanding hardware ecosystem

Missing Google's own services; Phrasing needs to be precise; Google Cast support needs work

It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised by a product. I had the opportunity to play around with the iFrogz Impulse Duo dual driver wireless Bluetooth headphones (not an easy title to get your tongue around).

OK, now this is clever. That was my reaction when I asked Google Home , "What's the temperature inside" and it replied, "It's currently 73 degrees, but the Nest is set to 65." Google's hyper-aware, voice-activated speaker dishes up a lot of surprising answers, and it's smarter, better sounding, and...