Jordan O'BrienIf you can’t beat them, join them. At least that’s the approach being taken by Panasonic with the SC-GA10 – a new smart speaker that hopes to take on the likes of the Google Home and Amazon Echo.
Panasonic’s SC-GA10 is a new smart speaker on the block and the AI of choice is none other than the Google Assistant. Up until now users could only find the Google Assistant on the Google Home, limiting consumer choice in terms of sound quality. Now Panasonic promises a better smart speaker, one with the sound quality that users will actually want.
Packing in two 20mm soft-dome tweeters placed at a 45° angle, Panasonic claims that this speaker enjoys a full 180° sound field. The 8cm woofer is also equipped with dual voice coils which promise a more robust bass, as well as a long reflex port.
An improvement in sound quality over the Amazon Echo was exactly what Google promised when it announced the Google Home. Clearly for audiophiles the audio just isn’t quite up to scratch on the device that eventually launched. Panasonic’s expertise in the audio space should ensure that the SC-GA10 fares much better.
To ensure that audiophiles get the very most out of the SC-GA10, Panasonic has made it possible to manually set the EQs. This is something currently not offered by either the Amazon Echo or Google Home, so is definitely a welcome addition. There are preset EQs also present for those who would rather things work straight out of the box.
The Panasonic SC-GA10 should be capable of everything users have come to expect from the Google Home. That includes making calendar appointments, playing music from the likes of Spotify, Google Play Music and Deezer, performing simple web searches, and even casting videos to Chromecast-enabled devices.
Thanks to the Chromecast compatibility found on the SC-GA10, users can even take advantage of the multi-room capabilities of the Google Home. That means those who already own a Google Home can still pick up a Panasonic SC-GA10 and get the optimal experience. Maybe just relegate the Google Home to the bedroom?
The smart speaker space is becoming increasingly crowded, with Google and Amazon currently dominating the entire market. That likely won’t last very long, with Apple and Samsung set to enter the market at some point in the future, while Sonos has also made its intentions clear.
Panasonic has yet to confirm how much the audio enhancements will cost, although it’s safe to say this will be more expensive than the Google Home, which can often be found for £99 on sale. The company did confirm that its smart speaker will hit retailers in early 2018, however.