Google unveiled last Oct.11 their bid for the slowly growing market for voice-activated smart speakers. The Google Home Max seem to be beating the rest of the competition with better speakers, a smarter virtual assistant, and control features.

Home speakers with a smart brain feature is the next step to making homes look tech savvy. Apple's Homepod and Google's Home Max will be releasing this December for a Holiday season treat. At first glance, the Homepod takes the cake since it just speaks Apple tech all over it. On the other hand, the Home Max looks like this unassuming block that can pass as part of the home décor.

The sound quality of the Home Max and the Homepod is no doubt top-tier. The Verge compared the two smart speakers ending up having the two tied for their performance. It is the preference of the user on how he wants to hear his music. The Home Max emphasizes on using a lot of bass with two tweeters and two 4.5-inch woofers. The balanced sound that comes out of the speaker is exceptional. Even at loud stereo settings, the sound is well balanced and crystal clear.

The Home Max is smart enough to study its own surroundings, and choose on its own the best way to set its equalizer. Different parts of the home have different kinds of acoustics and this will be readily analyzed by the Home Max. Apple's Homepod offers that same feature. The Home Max however has a noise isolating array. This means outdoor use of the smart speaker will still yield good results in terms of optimal reverb and sound.

Siri and Google Assistant are going toe-to-toe again in the battle of the smart speakers. Siri can do the simple tasks but the Google Assistant, with the help of Nest Hello can do extended functions. Some of which is relaying the doorbell ring to the user. With nest equipped, the Home Max will run a facial recognition system through its library and tell the user the person knocking on the door. By saying "Hey Google, goodnight," Home Max will automatically arm the security system of the house.

With a $400 price tag on Home Max against Homepod's $350, the last thing the Google smart speaker offers is that it supports a handful of music services like Google Play Music, Spotify Premium, Pandora, and YouTube Music. The Homepod only has Apple Music.