There is no dearth of smart speakers in the consumer market. Almost every brand has jumped on the smart devices trend, but they aren’t quite as popular as the likes of Google Home or Amazon Echo Dot. Marq Smart Home Speaker is yet another smart speaker that is manufactured in India and makes some astounding claims regarding its capabilities. Read Marq Smart Home Speaker Review to find if it measures up to its claims about being the best smart speaker in India.
Marq Smart Home Speaker Review: Design
Marq Smart Home Speaker isn’t very unique in terms of design. It has a cylindrical shape with a slight curve around the edges to make it “aesthetically” pleasant. Its design is completely plastic with a fabric wrapping around the body like you see on expensive smart speakers along with a rubberized top area that houses all the controls. The color scheme is prone to attracting dirt that lodges in the crevices of the fabric and the rubberized base. It is very tiny in size and can be placed on a table or shelf without taking up too much space.
There are four tiny LEDs, two-volume adjustment buttons, and a mic on/off switch on the top of the Marq Smart Home Speaker. Dedicated mute buttons in smart speakers are a necessity know as we very well understand Marq Smart Home Speaker does not have any kind of lighting around the base like the Amazon Echo Dot and it can be a little difficult to locate in darkness.
Connectivity
Marq Smart Home Speaker uses the MediaTek MT8516 kit that has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in, both of which can be used to connect to this smart speaker. There are two far-field microphones positioned on the top that can accept voice commands even from a distance. The Marq Smart Home Speaker comes with a power adapter that plugs into the connector port on the backside. There is no auxiliary port on the back which means you can only play music wirelessly with this best budget smart speaker.
Sound Quality
Marq Smart Home Speaker boasts of having double the bass compared to other smart speakers. In reality, it is a 6W speaker that doesn’t outshine many smart speakers in terms of audio quality or even the bass. The MI smart speaker is slightly expensive but has a 12W speaker with a mono output that is more pleasant to hear than this one. The Marq Smart Home Speaker sounds good but you cannot expect it to supply intense bass with such a timid speaker system. You can expect a decent audio experience from this smart speaker and it is audible enough inside a small-sized room.
Jio Saavn’s subscription of 3 months validity is bundled with the smart speaker and lets you listen to millions of songs ad-free without any ads in between. If you wish to use any other popular music streaming service such as Spotify, Wynk music, Gaana, etc, you can make them your default music app for the MarQ SmartHome Speaker as well.
Smart Features
MarQ SmartHome Speaker ships with a built-in Google voice assistant that acts as your smart voice companion for monitoring devices and answering your commands with a befitting search result. The processor used inside the MarQ SmartHome Speaker is powerful enough and does not lag much in day-to-day usage. The two far-field microphones present on this smart speaker capture the voice clearly but their efficiency fades after a couple of meters. If you compare it with Google Nest mini in terms of microphone performance, the Nest mini surfaces as a far better alternative.
The best part about the MarQ SmartHome Speaker is that it accepts voice commands in the Hindi language too. Google voice assistant quickly supplies the answers to the voice search queries in Hindi and makes it possible for users to have an alternative in terms of language preference of voice commands. You can ask this smart speaker to play songs, get weather updates, news, and can access your personalized schedule, and set reminders, alarms, and timers.
The speaker can be controlled using the Google Home app and it does not have a separate app because Google voice assistant support is baked into it. You won’t find any pestering issues in the Google Home App and it can be used to customize a few aspects of the MarQ SmartHome Speaker.
MarQ SmartHome Speaker is compatible with smart devices from many brands including Syska, D-Link, TP-Link, Oakter, Wipro, Philips, Orvibo, Anchor by Panasonic, and many more. Controlling all kinds of smart appliances is possible via the smart speaker without jumping into the dedicated app for each of the smart devices installed at your residence.
Also, read Top 10 Smart Speakers 2021.
Problematic Areas
MarQ SmartHome Speaker presents itself as a superior smart speaker but has a lot to fix before it can back those claims. The firmware update of the MarQ SmartHome Speaker is almost two years old and the device hasn’t received any update which makes it sluggish as well as potentially insecure. The far-field microphones are also lackluster and fail to recognize commands clearly and often return incorrect search results. These pain points along with a design that acts as a dust and dirt magnet.
PricingÂ
MarQ SmartHome Speaker retails for 3499 INR, a price at which there are numerous other enticing and bankable smart speakers in the market. The price isn’t justified when you have the options such as Mi Smart speaker with a premium build and far-better audio quality for just 500 INR more. The MarQ SmartHome Speaker should be priced somewhere in the range of 2000-3000 because there are numerous cheaper and identical alternatives in the market now.
Should you buy the MarQ Smart Home Speaker?
MarQ SmartHome Speaker offers good audio quality and a hassle-free initial setup. If you need something more powerful in contrast to the Google Home mini, then it is a good choice for you. But if you wish to have a smart speaker that can actually hear you across the room and has much better design and voice capturing capabilities, there are plenty of options to choose from.
The Mi smart speaker has way better audio quality than the MarQ SmartHome Speaker and isn’t that expensive if you compare the current pricing of both these speakers. Buying the MarQ SmartHome Speaker for 3500 INR may have been a tremendous deal two years back but the absence of firmware updates and the unwavering pricing of this smart speaker makes it a difficult recommendation.