

If you can’t find a recipe using your voice, you can send compatible recipes from your phone to your Nest Hub Max right from the search results. Read more about the smart displays we recommend What’s more, the key feature of smart displays is that they’re purpose-built to display things and allow interaction chiefly through voice commands, via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa-a huge help if you’ve just massaged salt into every nook and cranny of a raw chicken and are wondering what the next step is. But an iPad doesn’t have a bunch of powerful speakers built in, so it doesn’t sound as good it's also far more expensive, so putting it in the line of fire in a kitchen is risky. Well, you could, and you’d be able to call up anything you like and have it displayed on the iPad’s screen. But if you’re excited about smart-home technology, would enjoy some support while you cook, and are comfortable being flexible with your recipes, we recommend the Google Nest Hub Max for its clean, intuitive recipe interface, fast response times, and workhorse search capabilities.Ī smart display looks like a tablet mounted on a speaker, which might prompt you to wonder why you couldn’t just prop an iPad on the counter for the same purpose. Jackson’s reading of the best-selling children’s book parody Go the Fuck to Sleep.

The technology is far from perfect (more on that below), and you have to be prepared for the occasional detour-you know, like when I asked Alexa to read a recipe and was instead treated to Samuel L. But after testing a Google Nest Hub Max and an Amazon Echo Show in my kitchen over the course of a month, I’m surprised to say they truly made cooking easier and more seamless, and thus more enjoyable. For me, being in the kitchen is all about getting away from screens, so I was skeptical that I would enjoy cooking with a smart display-a device that combines a smart speaker with a touchscreen.
