Yandex Station - smart speaker with voice assistant Alice

It all started a little over a year ago, in July 2018, when the first hardware device of the Yandex company was presented - the YNDX.Station smart speaker was released under the symbol YNDX-0001. But before we had time to be properly surprised, devices of the YNDX series, equipped with the proprietary Alice voice assistant (or oriented to work with it), fell like a cornucopia. And now, to test the next new product, I’m bringing home the “full Yandex package” - it contains the first Yandex.Station, and elements of a smart home, and devices with Alice from other Russian developers. Unless there is Yandex.Phone. But there is something else...

We have already talked about almost all of these devices. Some of them aroused admiration, some - restrained skepticism, but one way or another we have to admit that Yandex branded devices have not become a curiosity, produced in single copies only for participation in exhibitions and broadcast in the media. Yandex does not disclose exact data on the number of devices sold, talking only about the amount of sales - for the first half of the year, revenue from the sale of gadgets amounted to 413 million rubles. However, for now they bring Yandex a loss, which, in turn, amounts to 293 million rubles. According to estimates by the analytical company Canalys, the volume of deliveries of Yandex.Station amounted to about 100 thousand units over the entire period - this is unconfirmed data, but even if it is doubled, the result is still very good. At the same time, the cost of Yandex.Station has even increased this year - from 9,990 to 10,990 rubles, but this does not interfere with its popularity. According to representatives of retail chains, sales of Yandex.Station continue to grow.

So what else do I have in my package and why do I remember in such detail how the history of Yandex brand devices began? Because I have to get acquainted with a new product - YNDX-0004, and you, of course, already guessed that this is the younger sister of the first Station - Yandex.Station Mini.

Unpacking Yandex Station

The box with the Station is of decent dimensions - approximately 20 by 30 centimeters, weighs about 4 kilograms. Contents of the box: the speaker itself, power supply, HDMI cable, small instructions and a sheet with promotional codes for Amediateka and ivi.

For safety during transportation, foam rubber sides are glued inside the box, which will protect the device from vibrations and damage when delivered to various cities in our country. We transported several boxes of Stations in the trunk of a car over a distance of more than 300 kilometers on Russian roads, and none of them were damaged.

The device itself is also quite large, measuring 23 centimeters in height and weighing just under 3 kilograms. The shape of the case is a parallelepiped with rounded corners, measuring 14 by 14 centimeters at the end. The speaker's textile casing is removable and black; in the future, white and purple colors will be available. If we remove this textile covering, we will see all 5 speakers of the Station: two high-frequency speakers, two passive radiators and a down-firing subwoofer.

At the upper end of the speaker there is a round recess of 7 millimeters, in which a block with microphones and buttons, shaped like a hockey puck, is “recessed”. The side surface of this “puck” rotates in both directions - this is how the volume is adjusted. There are only two buttons: hardware mute of the microphone and calling Alice. The recess itself acts as a light indicator - it glows green and orange when we adjust the volume, and purple when the Station receives and processes the request. On the rear edge of the case there is a heatsink and two inputs: power and HDMI.

The Station does not have a built-in battery; it only works from the mains. After plugging in the gadget, it is configured using the Yandex mobile application. You need to bring the phone with the application running closer to the Station, select your Wi-Fi network in the application and enter the password for it. A special sound is played, after which the speaker connects to the Internet and immediately begins downloading updates. Installing the update is a rather long process; it took us more than 10 minutes. After installing the updates, Alice says a cheerful greeting, and you can finally start using the speaker!

Specifications

Voice recognition

The smart device from Yandex hears the user's voice using an array of 7 microphones built into the top of the speaker. The microphones are located in a circle, and therefore the Station hears in all 360 degrees. Thanks to noise reduction algorithms that cut out various background sounds, the speaker picks up voices even when music or a movie is on.

Voice to text recognition is carried out by programs based on neural networks running on Yandex servers, so the Station requires a constant connection to the Internet. That is, the recognition process works as follows: The Station hears the keyword “Alice” → the microphones record your next command → the speaker sends the audio file to the server → the program on the server “converts” the audio into text → the text is returned to the Station.

This technology has been well tested by Yandex during the year of work of the Alice assistant in the Yandex and Yandex.Browser mobile applications. During this time, the Russian IT company collected enough data to train its neural networks to recognize all dialects and accents of the Russian language with any intonation, even if the user’s diction is poor. The combination of this technology with 7 microphones in the Station gives amazing accuracy and speed of voice recognition. It is not surprising that when a person communicates with the Station for the first time, he experiences genuine delight - such an understanding of his voice is amazing and seems like something magical.

Yandex assures that sending recordings of your voice to the server does not create any threats to your privacy, that all requests are encrypted and anonymized, and that no one has the opportunity to view the request history.

Note that if among your household there is a person named Alice, then you can change the keyword for calling the assistant to “Yandex”. There is no option to set your own activation phrase.

Verdict

In general, Yandex.Station looks stylish and fits well into any interior. And if you remove the casing from it, then the speaker sounds much more pleasant.

I think this device is perfect for those who love Yandex services, in particular Yandex.Music.

Oh yes, Yandex still includes some nice things in the package, but very simple ones:

• 10% discount on trips to Yandex.Taxi
• 5% discount on car sharing "Yandex.Drive"
• subscription to Yandex.Music
• free delivery when purchasing over 500 rubles in the “Take!” marketplace
• the ability to watch films without advertising on KinoPoisk
• additional 10 GB on Yandex.Disk

I think not everyone will find this useful, but it would be wrong not to mention it.

And if you remember the price tag of 9,900 rubles, then many will think about it. Is it worth taking this device?

Here you can get a discount on bonuses from the company. Roughly speaking, about 4,500 rubles were invested in this price tag. And this, for a moment, is half the cost of the device.

However, this is just a set of goodies, but nothing more. The device itself will hit your wallet hard, which means you need to weigh the pros and cons.

What I liked:

– Alice works very well, especially when it comes to music – Yandex.Station looks laconic, fits any interior – Management via Yandex.Alice is very convenient. The best when compared with competitors (who still do not have Russian language)

What I didn't like:

– Alice, although smarter than Siri, works every once in a while – The back wall heats up, so placing the speaker somewhere in the corner would not be the smartest decision – The speaker sounds fine, but it is very far from ideal (but this is a matter of taste)

Listening to music and sound quality

The Station also copes well with its main task - playing music. You can ask her to turn on a specific track or artist (“turn on Yolka - Let the Music In”), or ask her to play music by style (“turn on indie rock”) or mood (“turn on happy music”). The station perfectly understands both Russian and English names of performers and songs, for example, “turn on the Rolling Stones” or “Turn on Armin van Buuren.”

The volume can be controlled either by voice (“turn it up,” “turn the volume down”) or manually by rotating the knob at the top of the speaker. All other control occurs only by voice: skip the track “Alice, next song”, pause “Alice, pause” or resume playback “Alice, continue”. Controlling music with your voice is very convenient! You understand this from the first minutes of using this new way of interacting with electronics. It's especially great to switch tracks and change volume when your hands are full or when you're across the room. Just imagine - no remote controls are required, you control absolutely all functions of the speaker just with your voice.

The sound quality is quite consistent with the price of the speaker. The maximum volume is quite high - the specifications indicate a power of 50 watts. Mid frequencies sound good, but there are complaints about low and high frequencies, especially in comparison with high-quality branded acoustics. Vocals, guitar, and rock music sound good, but when listening to electronic music, there is a lack of high-quality bass and clear high frequencies. But it is worth remembering that the price of Yandex Station is less than ten thousand rubles, and for this money such sound is quite acceptable!

Yandex.Music remembers your musical taste.

A few words about the Yandex.Music service, which is used in the Station. It's a personalized recommendation service that remembers your music preferences. If you used the Yandex Music mobile application before purchasing the Station, then the speaker already knows your taste well. Just say “Alice, turn on the music” and you will hear one of your favorite tracks.

Other music services, such as Google Music, Apple Music or Spotify, are not supported by the Yandex speaker. But you can use the Station as a Bluetooth speaker. After connecting your phone via Bluetooth, you open any application, such as Youtube, Google or Apple Music, and listen to tracks from it on the speaker.

The set does not stand out as anything unusual

If you were expecting to see something special bundled with Yandex.Station, some special goodies from the company (like stickers from Apple) - don’t wait.

The equipment included with the device is completely ordinary: box, instructions, the speaker itself, an HDMI cable and a power supply.

Yes, the last one is especially confusing. Because the power supply is quite bulky and takes up too much space. I would not call such a solution practical, given that competitors are often powered by a regular power cable without huge “stuff.”

Station as a TV set-top box

The station is also a Full HD TV set-top box controlled by voice.

Essentially, Yandex.Station is two devices in one: a smart speaker and a set-top box similar to Apple TV, with the ability to play video in Full HD 1080p quality. Moreover, the Station is a set-top box that does not have a remote control and is controlled only by voice. There's also nothing like Google Cast - there's no way to send a video to watch on Station from your phone.

There is no need to connect the device to the TV; it works fully in smart speaker mode. But if you have a TV, then you should try watching movies, TV series, Youtube and other videos using Yandex.Station by connecting it via HDMI. When connected to a display, the Station appears with a graphical interface. It is extremely simple: in the lower half of the screen we see the Alice logo and the recognized text of our queries, and in the upper half the search results appear. If the speaker is not accessed for a long time, it will go into standby mode and instead of this interface it will show beautiful images with panoramic views.

How to use this TV set-top box? There is no application concept here that is familiar to us, we simply say the name of the movie or series we want to watch - “Alice, play the movie Moving Up”. The station searches for the desired film in the catalogs of the services it supports: ivi, Amediateka and Kinopoisk; in the case of the film “Upward Movement”, it includes it through ivi. If the required film is not in the assortment of online cinemas, for example, “Avengers Infinity War,” then the set-top box will show the most relevant search results on the screen and offer you to select one of them by voice. Viewing control commands such as “Pause”, “Rewind 10 minutes” work perfectly.

The station finds most of its good films on ivi, but requires a separate fee for each film (the subscription covers only a small part of the ivi assortment). The station offers to open the Yandex mobile application and pay for the purchase of the film in it; prices vary from 80 to 350 rubles. It’s also not easy with TV series on Amediatek: there are several types of subscriptions, each of which covers TV series produced by a specific studio (for example, HBO or ABC), and you can buy a specific series without subscribing to the studio.

It is possible to watch illegal copies of films and TV series for free through the Yandex.Video service.

In the box with the Station there is a piece of paper with promotional codes for free “basic” ivi and Amediateka subscriptions for 2 and 3 months, respectively. If at the end of the trial period you decide to continue using these services, it will cost you from 399 rubles per month for ivi and from 599 rubles per month for Amediateka. And for those who do not want to pay for the convenience of using legal online cinemas, Yandex has left the opportunity to watch illegal copies of films through the Yandex.Video service - you need to ask Alice to find the film “.. on the network”. For example, having received the command “Play the movie Back to the Future,” the Station will offer to buy the film for 79 rubles on ivi, and upon the command “Find the movie Back to the Future on the Internet,” it will offer pirated copies from video hosting sites ok.ru, mail.ru and completely free of charge. etc.

It is difficult to say whether owners of Apple TV and Chromecast will switch to Yandex.Station as their main set-top box. Time will tell. But we can definitely say that the opportunity to watch video on demand through the Station will be actively used by those users who do not have either a Smart TV or Apple and Google set-top boxes.

⇡#Supply set

I understand perfectly well: if I wrote that Yandex.Station Mini comes in a marble box, most readers would still not notice it, since they skip this section. Indeed, what could be more boring than a packaging description (believe me, for the author too)? But in this case, I still want to say a few words about the packaging, because the designers who developed it really did their best. On the side surfaces of a small cardboard box the main capabilities of the device and examples of voice commands are listed. The image of the Yandex.Station Mini on the cover is supplemented with a stamping, making the side of the device in the photo rough to the touch, and the inner cover is greeted with the inscription: “Meet: this is your Yandex.Station Mini.” Nice attention to detail.

Inside the box, in addition to the device itself, the user will find a compact 7.5 W power adapter, a USB cable for connecting to this adapter, an accordion booklet with instructions and three sheets of branded stickers - both those who like to decorate the lid of their laptop and younger children.

And one more thing that the buyer of the Yandex.Station Mini receives, but you won’t find it inside the box - 3 months of free subscription to the Yandex.Plus service, it is activated when the device is first registered.

So should I take it or not?

If you need bonuses from Yandex (such as discounts on taxis) and you actively use the company’s services, including music, then take the Station and don’t think twice about it. The sound will more than suit you.

If you don’t need bonuses and you don’t like middle-class sound, then you don’t need a speaker.

Personally, I wouldn't take it. Yandex.Station is not worth the money.

(
21 votes, overall rating: 4.48 out of 5)