A fourth grader reviews the Amazon Alexa Echo Dot and Google Home Mini
Editor's Note: You've probably seen the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini critiqued from every direction by adults, but we were wondering what a kid thinks of these new, ubiquitous smart speakers and their virtual assistants. So we asked Verge transportation editor Tamara Warren's son, Benicio, to give us his take. (You might remember Benicio's reviews of the Nintendo Switch, the Parrot Mambo and Tynker, and the Tesla Model X.) Enjoy! — Dan Seifert
I recently got the Amazon Alexa Echo Dot and Google Home Mini to review. These machines can do many things to help you in your home when you feel like being lazy and not getting out of bed. Both companies made these great home assistants, and I wanted to look at the similarities and differences.
The first thing you have to do is set them up with an iPhone or whatever screen you use to download apps. I set both of the machines up in my bedroom. It was easier to set up the Google Home Mini because you only need your voice and a few other things like your name and Wi-Fi. Alexa, on the other hand, was harder to set up because you had to put in way more information besides your name, but also where you live, what room you are using it in, and you have to have an Amazon account. You have to have set it up on an app for both Alexa and Google. It bothers me that you have to use an app because you have to set up everything, like how to turn the lights on and off, even though I didn't end up doing that function. And then when the assistants get confused, both always says something like, "I can't do that but I can keep learning." It's annoying.
For the setup, you have to insert your voice, but Alexa also listened to other people besides me, so there was really no point in doing that. (When Alexa heard me proofread this article out loud, it said "That's not nice to say.") But after setup, both of the machines knew basically the same things about me.
Let's start with the Google Home Mini. I'm a baseball freak so of course I'm going to talk to Google about baseball. I love getting old baseball cards and playing baseball trivia with my dad. But when I was playing baseball trivia with Google, the machine only played one question for each round. It also sometimes repeated the question, when I just wanted to continue the round and have a new challenge.
I also played baseball trivia with Alexa. It always played five questions for each round, which I think is better, but not the best amount of questions. I think there should be at least 10 questions per round because that would give you a lot of chances to get the question correct.
When it comes to baseball trivia, Alexa is more fun to use because it continued to ask me trivia questions without asking if I wanted to continue the game. Google would stop after each trivia question to restart the game. It felt almost as if I was interacting with a person with Alexa. I would rather talk to Alexa because it has more updated information about what is happening in the world. Like if it existed in 2007, you could ask, "Has anybody beat Hank Aaron's home run record?" and it would say, "On August 7, 2007 Barry Bonds hit his 713th homerun." (But I do not count it because he took steroids). Google also does those things, but Alexa feels nicer to talk to.
Alexa can listen to any other person that wants to talk to Alexa and ask a question. I had a friend over at my house and Alexa understood my friend's voice if he asked a question. I used Alexa to play jazz as I read before bed and listened to it to help me fall asleep. I used Alexa more than Google because I think that saying and listening to Alexa is more comforting to me than Google is.
I am in fourth grade and I have homework. Both of the systems helped me with math when I needed to double check the answers. But sometimes if you ask it a really long question, it might not catch everything you were saying and you have to ask the question again. I used the assistants to help check a multiplication problem that was in my math homework. If I got it wrong at school, I would have to redo that problem while the rest of the class went outside to play, and going outside to play is very important to me. My mom said it is cheating to have Google and Alexa do my homework, but I don't think it is when it is a part of this review.
Both of the machines understand me well and know who I am. If you want the machines to remember something about you, all you have to do is tell the machine to remember what you are about to say. Alexa, for example, can help you get up in the mornings. I used it to help me from drifting off again after my dad wakes me up for school.
I think that Alexa has a better look to it, because it looks good with the black and when Alexa is listening it lights up blue. Google on the other hand was pretty nice, but not as good looking. It has a white speaker but only lights up with four colorful lights when it is listening to you.
One of the really annoying things I noticed with Alexa I noticed is that it sometimes talks when you just want it to be quiet. When I was tired at night and was about to go to bed, I asked Alexa a question, and it always gave me too much information instead of the simple answer I wanted.
Sometimes Alexa and Google can be funny.
Once I said, "I farted" and Alexa said, " You can blame me, I don't really care." When I said the same thing again Alexa was silent, but then one person started clapping and then a whole bunch of people were clapping. The clapping was coming from Alexa.
I asked Google, "Am I your favorite person?" and Google said back to me "You just beat Beyonce." That was one of my favorite things that I heard from the machines.
But some of Google's jokes are kind of dumb. There was one I liked, "If you're lucky and you cross your fingers while you're having surgery, you're brave, or maybe it's just super stitching."
I asked Alexa to tell me the top ten jokes. It said some jokes weren't appropriate for someone my age. But why would you tell inappropriate jokes in the first place? That's a con for Alexa.
Do you know what my favorite thing that Alexa and Google did? They had a conversation! I said to Alexa, "Say hi to Google," and I told Google to say hi to Alexa. So Alexa said, "Hi" and Google said hi back and Alexa said "Want to be friends?" and Google said "Sure." It was kind of crazy, so I tried it again but you had to say something specific that they would listen to in order to start a really deep conversation. An example is that they were basically talking for a long time about one specific topic that I told them to talk about, like friendship.
After spending a little over a week with these machines I now want a smart speaker. I would want to use a machine to have fun with, play baseball trivia, help me with my homework, or listen to music on because music helps me calm down before going to sleep and is nicer to wake up to than my dad yelling at me to get ready for the 7AM bus to school. They both have their good qualities and bad ones, but both machines are efficient. I already miss their presence in my room.
