Bose Home Speaker 500(Alexa enabled):

I had posted a few days ago about a good smart speaker. Here is my lowdown-
Google Home and Amazon Echo are pretty great with offerings starting from 5-15k.
However wasn’t impressed with Home’s Sound and Echo’s looks. 
Since we primarily wanted it to play songs and like, bought Bose Home Speaker( upcycled my old Bose in 1 day- OLX rocks!) from Amazon.
Took a while to set up on my iPhone but the sound clarity…muuaaah!

Here is a non techie’s review-
Pros
1. Amazing Sound
2. Kids are having a whale of a time. My 4 year old orders Alexa to play Spiderman all the time and is disappointed when she won’t ‘increase the volume to 1000’. 1.5 year old is also getting a hang of it..says ‘Aleta Chotata’ (translated Alexa Chodaga Tara)
3. I am revisiting my old favorites and discovering new ones- so easy to have Alexa drum up a Phil Collins or a Pharell number upon my whim 
4. AI is good. 
5. It’s able to catch my commands even when I am sitting across the room

Cons
1. Alexa is not yet fully integrated with Bose so I am unable to save my playlist/set reminders. However, it connects with Bluetooth, so I can easily play from my phone. Having said that, it plays any song/artist that I can think of
2. Is not great with Hindi songs. While it catches the name of artist perfectly,Alexa still is not playing ‘Chogada Tara’- some random firang song starts playing. So, it needs to brush up it’s Hindi skills

All in all a good buy.

 

This review is by our community member Vatsala Sharma