The Harman Kardon Allure is a powerful little speaker with the added convenience of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Power isn't everything, though, and while it can really fill a room with sound, that sound isn't particularly balanced and tends to lack clean high-mid and high frequency presence.

Supports Amazon Alexa voice control; Loud for its size; Attractive design

Audio lacks high-mid presence to balance bass; Cannot control Spotify with Alexa

As I had mentioned in my Echo Spot review last week, Alexa has been out for quite a few years now and in that timeframe Amazon was released a slew of their Echo devices. With them being under the Amazon umbrella so to speak you are getting the best support from them.

Great sound and very responsive and quick in responding Alexa to commands. Only flaw is that while portable, some sort of handle would be nice.

Sound and responsiveness

Wish it had a "handle.

This product does not work with Alexa I have tried 7 times to talk to Alexa but nothing happens In the first week it worked intermittently but now does not work at all It can only play Bluetooth music from my iPhone It is totally useless compared to the amazon Echo

After kicking-off the smartspeaker trend with its own Echo series of Alexa-enabled audio gear, Amazon has handed over the reins to its voice-controlled helper to third parties.

Amazon Alexa on board; Built-in light; Powerful sound

Design splits opinion

rubbish product.bluetooth do not work at all and also Alexa can not hear you clearly so you have to go very close to it

The smart speaker segment has only recently begun gaining traction in India, ever since Amazon officially launched its Echo line of speakers last October , followed by Google with its Home series of smart speakers earlier this month.

Eye-catching design; Powerful bass; Warm sonic signature

Touch buttons aren't very responsive; Bass can be overpowering; A bit expensive

ImageTagInstance gallery-5e041163-9a3b-4042-89ed-03c70c2b08fc Harman Kardon has long been a respected name in audio, best known for its high-end car and home speaker systems. Of course, the company has also been in the Bluetooth speaker market for a long time, but it was only recently when it stepped into smart speaker territory. The Harman Kardon Allure is the company's latest smart speaker, offering Wi-Fi music streaming and Alexa integration. It has some sexy looks and promises even more attractive sound, but at a price of $250, is it a speaker worth getting?Design and Controls ImageTagInstance gallery-93af439e-2133-45a8-902e-541c6fc87275 The Harman/Kardon Allure is indeed quite alluring. The thick plastic-encased top portion of the device allows the device to emit circling blue hues from within for Alexa, white for music playback, and red when Alexa is muted. The bottom half is covered in a finely textured metal speaker grill, and on the bottom is the exposed, downward-facing subwo...

Beautiful, classy design; Loud, balanced sound with a punchy subwoofer; Alexa integration adds value;

Highs can get a bit sloppy at higher volumes; Portable alternatives can be enticing;

One of the growing trends of the year is voice control. Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana and Apple's Siri are all facing off to control your devices by chatting to you, and we're seeing other tech brands choosing sides.

Harman's new smart speaker is the latest to choose Alexa over her voice-control rivals.

Harman Kardon is experimenting with all the major (non-Siri) voice assistants. The Harman Kardon Invoke isn't our favorite smart speaker, but it's the only one with Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant. JBL, a subsidiary of Harman, has has a stronger showing with its Google Assistant-equipped Link 10 and Link 300. The $249.95 Allure, reviewed here, is Harman Kardon's take on Amazon Alexa. It's attractive and very powerful for its size and price, but we've heard better audio quality elsewhere. Design The Allure ($149.00 at Amazon) looks like a smoky version of the Harman Kardon Aura, or the subwoofer included with the company's iconic SoundSticks desktop speakers. It's a rounded cylinder measuring 7.6 inches tall and 6.5 inches wide, with a top half covered in dark gray transparent plastic and a bottom half consisting of metal speaker grille. Unlike the Aura and SoundSticks subwoofer, the Allure is only see-through around the sides of the top half. An opaque, dark gray cylinder sits...

The Harman Kardon Allure is a powerful Alexa-equipped smart speaker with an eye-catching design and a very bass-heavy sound.

Supports Amazon Alexa voice control; Loud for its size; Attractive design

Audio lacks high-mid presence to balance bass; Cannot control Spotify with Alexa