Apple HomePod Mini vs. Amazon Echo Dot Review: Which Speaker Is Best?

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There’s a lot to like about Apple’s HomePod Mini speaker and lots to like about Amazon’s Echo speaker too. Both smart speakers have a similar spherical design and can be used for listening to music, or as a hub for your smart home setup. Both also boast easy Bluetooth pairing and promise big, room-filling sound. And both offer voice assistant support, with the Echo Dot using Alexa to answer your questions and field your content requests, while the HomePod uses Siri.

Both the HomePod Mini and the Echo Dot have their pros and cons, but if we had to pick one everyday home speaker to use, the answer is (literally) pretty clear.

Apple’s HomePod speaker came out a few years ago but it still tops the list in our book for superior audio. While the Echo Dot has decent-sized sound, we found the audio to be hollow and less sophisticated than the Apple device. Despite its small frame, the palm-sized HomePod Mini delivered surprisingly loud sound, with clear trebles, crisp mids and warm (I.e. not overpowering) bass. I live in a studio apartment and the 3.3 x 3.9-inch HomePod Mini is powerful enough to fill my entire space with music. Apple’s audio prowess is on full display here, with the HomePod somehow producing 360-like sound from one tiny, tennis ball-style speaker. You could be on the other side of the room and still feel like the music is close by.

Despite what some people think, the HomePod Mini is compatible with all music streaming services too, not just Apple Music (though Apple Music will have better sound quality thanks to lossless audio (ALAC) and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos). And while Alexa offers more skills and uses (more on that below), Apple’s Siri picked up my voice just fine when I needed to check the weather, ask for the time time, shuffle songs, etc. A big pro: it’s much simpler to make and take calls with the HomePod Mini too, as our iPhone paired easily with the device through Siri.

Of course there’s lots to love about the Echo Dot too. At 3.9 x 3.9 inches, it’s just a smidge larger than the HomePod but offers plenty of features, from serving as a music speaker, to being a smart home hub for your lights, temperature controls and more. With Alexa built-in, the Echo Dot lets you do everything from setting alarms to checking traffic patterns, while offering endless entertainment options, from news to podcasts. If you like the convenience of a voice assistant, Alexa will provide more options and answers than Siri. Alexa picked up our queries right away too, whereas we found Siri needed clarification on what we were inquiring about, on more than one occasion. You can also use Alexa to make calls through the Echo Dot, though that will involve a few extra steps involving synching your phone contacts with the Alexa app.

The main selling point of the Echo Dot vs. HomePod Mini is well, the selling price. At just $49.99 on Amazon.com, the Echo Dot is about half the price of Apple’s speaker. You can save an additional 20% with Amazon’s trade-in offer. Apple products, meantime, rarely go on sale, so you’d be hard-pressed to find the HomePod Mini at the same low price.

The verdict? When it comes to the Apple HomePod Mini vs. Amazon Echo Dot, the HomePod wins out for audio quality while the Echo Dot has a better voice assistant and a cheaper price. As a big music fan, I’m a stickler for crisp audio, so the HomePod holds the edge in my book, but casual music listeners would be hard-pressed to find anything wrong with the Echo speaker too. If you want a pint-sized speaker that delivers clear, realistic sound though, the HomePod Mini is the clear choice.