Amazon Echo (4th Gen) vs Apple HomePod (1st generation)

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Echo (4th Gen) compared with HomePod (1st generation)

	AmazonEcho (4th Gen)	AppleHomePod (1st generation)
Overview
Released
Released	October 2020	February 2018
Sound
Type
Type	Speaker	Speaker
Channels
Channels	Stereo	–
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos	No	Yes
Drivers
Drivers	One 3.0″ (76.2 mm) upward-firing neodymium woofer and two 0.8″ (20 mm) tweeters	High-excursion woofer; seven horn-loaded tweeters
Amplifiers
Amplifiers	–	Custom amplifier for the woofer and a separate custom amplifier for each tweeter
Audio formats
Audio formats	Dolby processing for stereo sound	Dolby Atmos home cinema with Apple TV 4K was added in software 14.2; Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Apple Music lossless playback were added in 15.1
Room tuning
Room tuning	Automatically senses the room's acoustics and adjusts playback	Direct and ambient audio beamforming; computational audio for real-time tuning; internal low-frequency calibration microphone for automatic bass correction; Apple A8 processor
Connections
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	Yes	No
AirPlay
AirPlay	No	Yes
Voice assistants
Voice assistants	Alexa	Siri
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi	Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz); eero Built-in mesh extender; Zigbee, Matter and Thread border router; Amazon Sidewalk	802.11ac with MIMO
Bluetooth
Bluetooth	A2DP (to and from the speaker) and AVRCP; direct control of Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh devices	Bluetooth 5.0 radio; no Bluetooth audio streaming (TechRadar)
Ports
Ports	Power; 3.5 mm audio jack (The Verge)	Mains power cable; no analogue audio input (TechRadar)
Streaming
Streaming	Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and others through Alexa; Bluetooth	Apple Music, iTunes purchases, iCloud Music Library with an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription, supported third-party services, radio and podcasts; AirPlay from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV or Mac
Multi-room
Multi-room	Multi-room music with compatible Echo devices; stereo pair with a second Echo; home cinema with a compatible Fire TV	AirPlay 2 multi-room audio and stereo pairing with another original HomePod were added in iOS 11.4 after launch
App
App	Alexa app (Fire OS, Android and iOS)	Home app; initial setup requires a compatible Apple mobile device and Wi-Fi internet access
Design
Weight
Weight	0.97 kg (better)	2.5 kg
Controls
Controls	Buttons for volume up, volume down, microphone off and action (The Verge); AZ1 Neural Edge processor	Tap to play or pause, double-tap to skip, triple-tap to skip back; touch and hold for Siri; tap or hold + or – for volume
Microphones
Microphones	Button disconnects the microphones	Six-microphone array for far-field Siri; separate internal low-frequency calibration microphone
Size
Size	144 × 144 × 133 mm	172 mm high, 142 mm wide
Colours
Colours	Charcoal, Glacier White, Twilight Blue	Space Grey, White
In the box
In the box	Echo (4th Gen), 30 W power adapter, quick start guide	HomePod, documentation