Google home speaker review

Google Home speaker: Getting started

• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Thread
• Ecosystem: Google Home

It’s been nearly six years, not including smart displays, and nearly five years, including smart displays, since Google last released a smart speaker. Now, the company is back with Google Home speakers designed for its new smart assistant, Google Gemini for Home.

Is this the model that will bring Google back to the top, or will it still lag behind Amazon and Apple in audio quality and features? Read my full review to learn more.

design and build

• Captive power cable
• Available in 4 colors (2 colors in UK)
• neat touch controls

Google’s older smart speakers were sold as Nest products, but a lot has changed in the last five or six years. Now, Google doesn’t seem to have any interest in continuing with the Nest name, so the Nest name has been retired and only the Google Home Speaker will be offered in its place.

The new speaker sits somewhere between the old Nest Mini and Nest Audio. In terms of appearance and price, the Google Home Speaker is a direct competitor to the Amazon Echo Dot Max and Apple HomePod mini.

That means the price is commensurate, and the days of ultra-cheap audio-only speakers are over, with the Google Home Speaker priced at $99.99/£99.99.

If you live in the US, you’re in luck because you have four colors to choose from: red, green, white, and gray. In the UK, where I’m reviewing, they only come in white and grey, a decidedly dull choice.

When it comes to design, Google is playing it safe, and that’s not a bad thing. The mushroom-shaped speaker is wrapped in a soft mesh finish, very similar to its competitors. It looks more like an inflated Nest Mini.

It’s clean, unobtrusive, and easy to place. My only complaint about this design is the captive power cable that ends in USB-C. I would have preferred a replaceable cable.

The microphone mute switch is located next to the power button and is a little hard to reach, especially compared to the Echo Dot Max’s front-center privacy button.

The light bar around the base changes color to indicate what’s happening. White when listening, blue when Gemini is responding, and yellow when the microphone is off.

There are no physical buttons, but you can tap the top to stop responding, silence alarms, or pause music. Standard controls do not support shortcuts for skipping or going back tracks. Tap twice to skip forward, tap three times to go back.

Tapping on either side will light up two small LEDs on each side. The right one will increase the volume, and the left one will decrease the volume. The brightness of the main light ring accurately reflects the current volume level.

Features

• Run Gemini for home use
• can be quite slow
• Good at general questions, but some interactions can be frustrating.

Powered by Gemini for Home, this speaker is designed for the new GenAI voice assistant. Includes 6 months of Google Home Standard for peace of mind. Usually $10/£8/month or $100/£80/year. This includes 30 days of Nest camera history, intelligent alerts, Gemini Live, and in-app routine creation help. Step up to Google Home Advanced for £20/16/month or £200/160/year and also get 60 days of event history, 24/7 recording from wired cameras, and AI-powered video search.

That all sounds good, but when I tried using Gemini for Home, it wasn’t as good as Alexa+. Before you start, turn on Continuous Conversation so you don’t have to keep saying “Ok Google” every time. I found that I needed a lot of follow-up questions, so please use them.

One of the main problems is that Gemini is not tailored to different locations. Ask “Hey Google, what can I do for you?” And you suggested setting the thermostat to 72, which is complete nonsense if you use Celsius.

Gemini’s memory is also unstable. When I first tested Gemini for Home on my Nest Hub, I asked to remember that my wife is a vegetarian. After a few tries, I remembered. A few weeks later, I connected my Google Home speaker and asked it to recommend a chicken dish for me and my wife, which Gemini happily obliged.

I asked Gemini what he knew about his wife and he said there was a note that said she was a vegetarian. So, when I asked again, I received an accurate answer and was able to suggest dishes that would go well with both of us. How and when Gemini decides to access that information is a little unclear to me.

Gemini for Home also falls short when it comes to handling documents. Alexa+ can process PDFs and documents. Gemini suggested uploading the file to the chat. When I asked how to do that, I was told that it wasn’t possible, but that I could try reading the PDF out loud. No, thank you.

The speaker interrupted and asked me to rate the interaction. I was “minus 10 billion.” Gemini taught me what I could do about it. Sadly, understanding what I was saying was not one of the problems.

A quick test for Dangerous AI: Ask how many letters are in a word. When I asked how many “M’s” there were in “mammal,” I got the strange answer that there are 3 megaseconds in the word “mammal.” When I asked for an explanation, I received an even more infuriating response.

That doesn’t mean Gemini for Home isn’t useful, and you can find information online. I asked (a few weeks ago) what England’s next football match was and Gemini knew it was against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I was able to create a calendar event for the event, which was only an hour long, even though the football game is nearly two hours in total.

Naturally, only Google Calendar is supported, Workspace accounts are not allowed, so I had to create a separate Gmail account just for this review.

When it comes to general questions, Gemini is decent. You can see if the central line is running and see who played a role in a movie. That’s no surprise; if there’s one thing Google does well, it’s pulling information from the web.

Smart home control is even more complex. Simple commands work well, but longer instructions can degrade functionality. I turned on the lights and asked them to switch them off after 5 minutes. The lights came on, but Gemini set the timer for five minutes instead. Splitting the request into two commands works better.

Gemini for Home allows you to combine multiple actions, such as turning on lights and fans in the same room.

A vague prompt like “It’s hot in here” should trigger an obvious correction. In my case, I first turned on the wrong device and turned on the AC unit in the Home Tech Lab. Then it worked fine on the second try and I turned on the misting fan in my office (the room where the speaker is installed with the Google Home app).

There’s no option to create routines by voice, but this feels like a huge oversight, especially since Alexa+ lets you do that.

Speed ​​is another issue. Gemini can be painfully slow, especially when you need to connect to the cloud. I would often sit there for a while and wait for a response. Google says it’s currently working on it.

Gemini for Home can search video history from compatible cameras, but only if you have the appropriate subscription. In my case, I asked to find cat videos, and after a long pause, it said, “I need Google Home Advance.”

You can pay to view the video on another device, but it’s still not as smooth as a smart display.

Overall, Gemini for Home isn’t a great user experience. Alexa+ is much better. While Siri can’t handle complex requests, Apple’s HomePod mini has its own strengths, including clever handoff tricks and a great smart home app with Apple Home.

Google Home Speaker welcomes support for threads. In other words, the speaker acts as a Thread Border Router, helping you connect Matter devices directly to your network.

sound quality

• decent bass
• omnidirectional sound
• 58mm full range driver

Inside is a 58mm full-range driver tuned for omnidirectional sound, so the audio is spread evenly throughout the room without any directionality. In theory, it’s on par with the Echo Dot Max and HomePod mini, but in practice, it delivers nearly identical results.

Spotify casting worked fine, the sound quality was great and great, but my HomePod mini supported lossless.

Omnidirectional tuning works well. Cheaper, smaller speakers often make the audio sound more direct, but this speaker fills a room more naturally.

There is no real stereo separation unless you buy two speakers and make them into a stereo pair. In Open Space by Foo Fighters, the guitar is supposed to move from left to right, but here it sounds like it’s mainly changing volume. The HomePod mini and Echo Dot Max are a little better.

Bass performance is admirable. Rage Against the Machine’s Bombtrack lands with a decent punch, and OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass remains controlled without distortion.

If you use delicate materials, the impression will be weakened. Frank Sinatra’s That’s Life overemphasizes the treble, while Hell Is for Heroes’ You Drive Me to It can become harsh at higher volumes.

The Google Home Speaker isn’t a perfect match for the old Nest Audio either, which is a bit strange considering Google hasn’t launched a proper replacement. After all, Apple has both the HomePod mini and HomePod, and Amazon has the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio, so this seems like a missed opportunity.

final thoughts

Google Home speakers have been around for a long time, but I don’t think they’re worth it. The hardware is smart and the sound is decent, but Gemini for Home isn’t great. It’s slow, inconsistent, and lacks important features that competing products already have.

Alexa+ is currently the best smart assistant for the home, and Amazon also offers more hardware options, including speakers and displays. Apple users may prefer HomePod mini for its better sound quality and iPhone-specific features

Gemini for Home is already available on existing smart speakers, and with little sign of meaningful performance breakthroughs, it’s hard to recommend the Google Home speaker.

Test method

When we publish a review, you can rest assured that it is the result of long-term testing.

Smart speakers typically exist within or even control smart home ecosystems. All these products are supposed to work in harmony. Therefore, it is impossible to use a connected speaker for a week to make a judgment.

We test smart home kits all day, every day, so we know what’s important and how a particular smart speaker compares to the alternatives you’re considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and unbiased, and of course we don’t receive direct compensation to review devices.

Learn more about our smart speaker review process.

FAQ

Official product name: Specifications