Customer Ratings & Reviews

Upon boxing, this is a very good looking product. Setup can be a bit cumbersome (smartphone, tablet, and computer). Music services are limited (it is a Microsoft branded item). Speakers sound really good. Other functions I love are that you can adjust the volume manually by touching the top ring, and if cortana does not respont to commands you can touch the top light ring and force it. Only real problem is Cortana, for the most part it when giving commands it doesn't do so well. Microsoft has some work to do in order to be on par with the competitors, but its not that far off.

I like listening to music while I cook or do stuff around the kitchen. This speaker is small and good looking enough to look awesome on my counter top. The speaker it self fills the kitchen with sound at 50% so it’s pretty loud for the size. The fact that it has a built in assistant is a big plus for me!! Every useful to turn on my music using just my voice since my Spotify account is connected to it. So far I haven’t found anything bad about this product, the fact that it dropped down to 99.99$ is a steal in my opinion!!!

I love the ability to set reminders, call on skype.. I got this as a gift from my wife who bought it from bestbuy.. The sound is fantastic for 100$ and the Bluetooth is very convenient. I love it that Cortana can speak so much better and also blow the pants (for sound) off the alexa that my friend has. Sonos was expensive also no Bluetooth so this is what my wife went with "thankfully". I haven't looked at automating my home yet so the supposed lack of "skills", I can't comment about. I usually play music over Bluetooth from youtube.. Spotify will only work with premium.. I heart radio is meh.. but I love the value it still brings to the table. I am very happy with this speaker.

I was given the chance to review the Harman Kardon speaker powered by Cortana. Out of the box, Invoke looks great. Quality materials used instead of cheap looking plastic, the grating looks beautifully crafted aluminum. the base is a good weight so you don't feel uneasy that it will tip over. The power supply is a bit bulky so plugging it into a surge protector might be a bit difficult if all the outlets are used. The sound quality of the speaker sound crisp and clear and the bass has a decent amount of power behind it but that's where it ends unfortunately. Setup didn't go exactly as smooth as i thought it would, I had to manually setup the wifi connection. The cortana app is a little but cumbersome if you're not use to it. I was a bit disappointed with how much you can do with it. Remember this is only a bluetooth speaker and a Cortana Assistant, I was expecting home automation capabilities but the Invoke does not have this as a feature. Cortana is not the easiest to use. The command take some getting use to, I was able to start playing music but was not able to stop it through voice. Right now the Invoke can only use 3 music services iheart radio, Spotify and one more that doesn't come to mind at the moment but with Spotify, you need a subscription to be able to use it. In, closing it's a great speaker but that's all I like about it.

This Invoke is a new player in the arena occupied by the Echo and Google Home devices, and it's not likely to make much of a ripple unless you want better quality sound for your money. The Invoke is being sold for about half of the intended original retail, which is good since the competition has also done that. It was very easy to set up with the Android app, and was online with my wifi in a minute. It has nice bass and clear midrange and highs, with volume levels controlled by your voice or a rotating ring at the top. There is also a lighted button for stopping what's playing, or cueing up a random "surprise" bit of trivia or info. Sadly, I didn't see any way for the Cortana interface to be able to access and play a music library in anything connected to your home wifi. Selling subscriptions is the current trend, links to a paid Spotify or iHeart Radio subscription are built-in, hopefully more choices to come. It won't work with your Amazon music (surprise!) or a Google music account. You can ask it to play free music on iHeart and TuneIn. You can make and take phone calls with a matched Skype account with credits. It will also dial places for free that you ask it to by a web search or giving it a number to call. The caller ID from the Invoke shows "Private Number" so some businesses. homes and cell phones would reject the call. This is a catch-up on the Google Home which added the phone calling features recently. I wasn't blown away by any difference in Cortana's ability to find info on the web by your voice query. It covers the basics--sports, weather, news, calculator...but other than the superior audio quality that Harman-Kardon is known for the Invoke doesn't seem to break any new ground. It *does* sound better than the full-size Echo.

This is a great speaker. The design, manufacturing and quality of materials is fantastic. The sound quality is crisp, clear and good range across highs, mids and lows. I have both this and the Amazon Echo 2, both are good but from an audio quality perspective, this is quite a bit better. Crank up the echo and it will start distorting at volume. The Invoke is clear at volume. With 3 subs and 3 tweeters, it will fill a room with sound. With skype calling (to other skype users or to mobile/land lines), my voice is clear and sounds good as does the other party. As for features, the Echo is more feature rich out of the box, but the Invoke is no slouch. It can control lighting, Nest thermostats, etc. It can provide weather, news, play premium music/pod casts, etc. (Spotify, I heart radio, TuneIn), play games/trivia, provide interesting facts, run timers, reminders, calendar updates, etc. For the most part it's very similar to Echo and Google Home on most basic features. The advantage of Echo over this is stuff like flash briefings, drop in on other echo devices, play to (like Amazon TV) and a ton more skills. However, Amazon and Msft have announced a collaboration project to make Alexa available on Cortana devices and Cortana available on Echo devices at which point you should have parity on most features and skills. I think given the superior audio quality of this compared to Echo or Google Home, this is a better unit. So, if you are vested in the Msft ecosystem (Win 10 PC, Cortana on your phone, etc.), this is a killer product. If you are vested in Amazon, Echo might be a better device in the short term and if you are vested in Google (using google calendars, google apps, Chromebook, etc.) then Google Home might be the best for you.

Not crazy about this. The speaker or whoever didn’t or doesn’t recognize my voice consistently. You end up getting mad at no one. Or you end up giving up and then you have water your money

Of all of the current voice assistant speaker devices out there, the Invoke has the best build quality and sound. It's very classy looking and is very heavy, ensuring it won't be knocked over easily on a desk. The lights on top are subtle. The overall unit looks and feels great and fits in with all of the tech toys on my desk. Sound quality as a bluetooth speaker is top-notch. I have a few BT speakers and the Invoke is now my go-to. It's rich, room filling and well balanced. The top acts as a volume ring which makes quick changes easy. As a voice assistant, its uses seem limited. Unless you're fully invested in the Outlook/Cortana ecosystem, the Invoke will be of little use to you. I use GMail for personal use and Outlook365 for work (I couldn't get my work account to work with the speaker, which would have been nice for my calendar) so there is little integration with my personal data. It also works with Groove music and Spotify, where I generally use Amazon Music, so not much help there, either. Again, as a BT speaker though, the sound is outstanding. It does integrate with my Samsung SmartThings home automation, so that's a plus. It may inspire me to play around with Cortana more, but I do wish I could, at the least, use it for Amazon music.

The Invoke is a pretty powerful speaker. The sound fills a large room quite well. If you intend to just use this by connecting your phone and linking the Bluetooth to listen to music, I don’t think you will be disappointed. As a bonus, it has Microsoft’s Cortona built in. Similar to Alexa and Google, you can ask it questions or tell it to play a certain genre of music and it will find the best match using IHeartRadio, Spotify, and TuneIn. If you prefer other apps such as Pandora or SiriusXM from your phone, you can also listen to them through a Bluetooth connection. A feature I liked with Cortana was being able to tell it to set a reminder/schedule and when its ready it will not only announce it through the speaker but it will also appear as a pop-up on my phone. This is handy if I am not in the same room as the Invoke at the time and I don’t hear the alarm. However, one negative I noticed over the past few days is Cortana not always hearing/recognizing my wife and 7 year old daughters voice when they say ‘Hey, Cortana’. It has no problem hearing me at any distance, so I am not sure why it only hears them half the time. Overall, it has a great sound quality I would recommend it.

I already had an Amazon Echo in my kitchen and an Amazon Echo Dot connected to my Bose Wave system in my living room. But I read good things about the sound quality on the Invoke and thought I would give it a try. I like it so much that I bought a second one. I now use each in my kitchen and living room. I’ve moved the Amazon Echo to the guest bedroom where nobody really has to hear the lower quality sound. Cortana works pretty well, well enough to do what I need like play music, tell me the weather, and answer random questions that my kids have. She does those just as well as Alexa did on the Echo but with better audio.

I have used my fair share of these smart assistants from Apple (Siri), Google ( Google assistant), Samsung( Bixby) and Microsoft ( Cortana). I would rank from best to worse this way, Siri, Google assistant, Cortana, Bixby. Siri and Google is well rounded and my only issue with Cortana is it lacks support of features. It's the newest of the bunch except for Bixby which is why I hope Microsoft helps it grows. Not going into details of Cortana since it basically works like Google assistant or Siri. As far as it's functionality goes it works like what I have heard about Amazon Alexa and the echo goes. It's an assistant which you can ask for the weather, play music or control some smart things around the house. It also works as a speaker and this is honestly its best selling point. I've heard music from the echo and the Google home speaker thingy but this easily sounds the best out of the bunch. If Microsoft can grow Cortana it will be a great product.

Oh don’t even look at this product. Drove me crazy and the voice recognition stinks. I wouldn’t want one if they paid me

The Harmon Kardon Invoke is similar to many products that allow you to use voice control to handle Smart Home devices from locks, to thermostats and many others. It also can interface with items I already have such as Smart Things. It is simple to set up and pair with your phone or a computer – I did both without any problems. The sound from the speaker is fantastic. You can also make phone calls via Skype. You can ask for songs like I did to play something for example like harmonica music and Invoke will find something and play it for free on iHeartRadio etc. Invoke will also find individual songs. If you need a quick fact, ask Invoke and it will look it up and tell you the answer – nice when doing crossword puzzles when I get stuck. I was able to connect it to use it via voice to change temperatures on my Honeywell thermostat. The possibilities are endless. It is priced similar to other devices but I found it’s construction more solid than others as well as the ability to recognize what I say is excellent even when the dehumidifier is running near it. I do recommend this product.

Extremely difficult to set up and cannot be simply used as a speaker.

The first week after release was a bit hard, as it seemed like there was some functionality that did not work quite right, but the weeks since then have been great with the Invoke speaker. Cortana works really well and has been improving over the past weeks significantly and the audio quality of the Invoke is unmatched when compared to other personal assistant speakers like Alexa and Google Home. This is an excellent device that deserves much better marketing.

Could not connect to our home network or our iPhones. Returned the product.

So I unboxed this thing and it's pretty impressive for a speaker. I honestly didn't think I had any use for one, but since I was able to review it, I accepted. First off, it was a pain to get Cortana to see the speaker. My desktop version of Windows 10 kept giving me an error when I tried to connect with my existing outlook.com account. I ended up creating a second outlook email account to go around the error. Once done, I had to move the speaker from the living room to the office for it to see my network. Don't ask me why, my house runs tv on 4 Rokus with no issues. Anyway, I moved it, got Cortana installed and running, then moved it back to the living room where it works like a champ. I'm able to ask the weather or turn on KGB-FM online from San Diego and listen to classic rock on Iheart radio, You have the choice of Iheartradio, spotify and one other. Two of my favorites, KLOS and KGB are on Iheart, so that was an easy choice. I also find it great to use when I'm watching tv. A question about a show or actor/actress crosses my mind and I can just ask Cortana. Best of all, I can have her/it add doctor's appointments and school due dates to my calendar. I can see how this is going to simplify some things for me.

The sound quality of this speaker is awesome. When I ask Cortana a question, the voice clarity is extremely clear. My other voice enabled speakers don't sound as crisp as this speaker. The setup process was a bit tricky. Everything was smooth until it needed to install an update. After finally getting it to work, it's been great. The mic on the speaker can hear me from across the room with no problems. When playing music I have to use it in Bluetooth Mode, because Cortana only supports iHeartRadio, Spotify, and TuneIn. I have to play music from my Google Music and Amazon Music via Bluetooth. I'm also unable to add events to my Google Calendar. It'll only add them to my Outlook account. I couldn't find a way to change it, so I'm not sure if Microsoft supports other accounts besides their own. Overall the sound of the speaker makes up for some of Cortana's short comings.

I have been using the device for approximately 2 weeks now. If you are a user of Cortana this is the device for you. Sound from this device is excellent and as good as I have heard from any similar device. The only drawback is there aren't as many skills as the Alexa currently, but I see this changing quickly.

The Harman/kardon - Invoke speaker is amazing. Easy setup, awesome sound quality, and built in Cortana assistant. Voice commands and the integration with microsoft services like Skype make this speaker the perfect office companion. I use Skype for office meetings regularly, and using the Harman/kardon speaker allows me to be hands free on the call while providing superior sound quality and voice clarity. I love listening to music on this speaker. The sound is quality really brings your music to life. The speaker is great for playing music while entertaining. I would recommend to anyone looking for a great bluetooth speaker system with built in smart features.