{"id":91999,"date":"2026-07-01T12:49:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/91999\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:49:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:49:22","slug":"google-home-speaker-review-nice-hardware-but-gemini-for-home-is-a-work-in-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/91999\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Home Speaker review: nice hardware, but Gemini for Home is a work in progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smart speakers have spent the past few years searching for a compelling second act. Beyond music, timers, and controlling your lights, they\u2019ve struggled to justify taking up space on the kitchen counter. AI promised to change that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon debuted its new hardware powered by a revamped Alexa<\/a> last fall, and now it\u2019s finally Google\u2019s turn. The Google Home Speaker is the company\u2019s first new smart speaker in six years and its first \u201cbuilt for Gemini.\u201d<\/a> After years of neglect, Google appears to be finally getting serious about the smart home \u2014 again. The new speaker is the clearest sign yet. Gemini for Home<\/a>, however, still feels unfinished.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

$98<\/p>\n

The GoodGood sound for its sizeAppealing designGemini\u2019s conversational understanding is impressiveA smart home controller for Matter and ThreadCan pair with the Google TV StreamerThe BadGemini is slow and unreliableSeveral features are paywalled Doesn\u2019t sound as good as the Nest Audio it replaces<\/p>\n

As a piece of hardware, the $99.99 Google Home Speaker<\/a> is a delightful device. It is the Goldilocks of smart speakers: big enough to sound good, small enough to blend into a room, attractive without drawing attention, and inexpensive enough to consider buying more than one.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Echo Dot Max, HomePod Mini, and Google Home Speaker. With its clean look, subtle light ring, and soft green shade, the Home Speaker\u2019s design is my favorite of the three. Along with green (jade), pictured, it also comes in red (berry), white (porcelain), and black (hazel).<\/p>\n

The Home Speaker fits in seamlessly everywhere I tested it: bedside table, kitchen counter, or two paired under the TV. The soft green jade color blends in without being dull. My only disappointment is the lack of a color-matched cable, something both Apple\u2019s HomePod Mini and Amazon\u2019s Echo Dot Max offer. (Oh, and while the cable finally uses USB-C for the wall brick, it\u2019s not removable from the speaker itself, which is an issue if you want a longer cable run or if it ever starts to fray.)<\/p>\n

There are no visible controls to mar the mesh fabric-covered body, and the activity indicator light ring encircling the base is subtle enough not to be distracting. If it is \u2014 for example, when using two speakers under a TV in a dark room \u2014 you can turn the light off in settings, something no other speaker offers. The invisible controls, which frustrated me on previous Google speakers, are much more responsive. A tap on top stops or starts the sound or quickly shuts up the assistant, and a tap on either side raises or lowers the volume, with faint glowing white dots to show you hit the right spot.<\/p>\n

1\/4The Google Home Speaker is a slightly flattened sphere, about the size of a softball.<\/p>\n

As my colleague David Pierce wrote in his hands-on with the speaker<\/a>, the sound is good for its softball size. I enjoyed listening to music and podcasts on it. As expected, side by side with the Nest Audio<\/a> \u2014 Google\u2019s larger, previous-generation speaker, which was also priced at $99.99 \u2014 the Home Speaker doesn\u2019t sound as good. The Audio had both a woofer and a tweeter; the new speaker has just a single driver, and its bass is thinner since it\u2019s smaller. But the smaller size makes it easier to find a spot for it around the home. It does offer 360-degree sound, which the Audio didn\u2019t, and it\u2019s a huge upgrade to the smaller, prior-gen Nest Mini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had two review units, so I was able to test the Home Speaker\u2019s stereo pairing feature, and it was a significant upgrade. At 80 percent volume, the new Taylor Swift song was clear, crisp, and super loud \u2014 house-filling loud. Bass, however, is barely there; Bad Bunny and Rosal\u00eda\u2019s vocals soar in \u201cLa Noche de Anoche,\u201d but when the boom is supposed to come in, it\u2019s more like a bump.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Home Speaker can act as audio output devices for the Google TV Streamer. But yes, my Sonos Arc sounds much better. It also cost a lot more.<\/p>\n

Compared to the competition \u2014 the $99.99 Echo Dot Max<\/a> and the now pricier $129 HomePod Mini<\/a> \u2014 the Home Speaker came in a close third on audio quality for me (David preferred it over the Max<\/a>). Testing Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201c\u2026Ready for It?\u201d on the Max brought a hint more bass and a fuller sound, while the Mini is quieter but cleaner. The Home Speaker is loud and clear and holds its own on mids and vocals, though they stretch a little thin at times, and, as mentioned, the bass falls short \u2014 which it does on most speakers this size.<\/p>\n

This is the first Google smart speaker you can pair with a Google TV Streamer<\/a> (and only a Streamer) as an audio output. You can use just one, but adding two gets you simulated spatial audio. My experience was mostly good. The sound synced well with no dropouts. Streaming YouTube was great; the voices came through loud and clear. During a Game of Thrones re-watch, the screams of agony were suitably bone-chilling. But watching the World Cup, it sounded like the commentators were talking in a tin can, necessitating a switch back to my (much more expensive) Sonos system.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re just using your TV speakers, a pair of Home Speakers will be an upgrade. But it only works with content played through the Streamer \u2014 if you switch to another HDMI input, the audio switches away from the Home Speaker.<\/p>\n

The Home Speaker also listens well, which is an important ability for a smart speaker. It has three far-field microphones and a neural processing unit that handles background noise. It did well in every scenario I tested, hearing me even from across the room or when it was playing loud music. It was more responsive than the HomePod Mini, but a tad less than the Echo Dot Max.<\/p>\n

As with the competition, the Home Speaker is a Matter controller<\/a>, so you can use it to add and control Matter devices through Google Home. It\u2019s also the first Google Home audio speaker that can act as a Thread border router<\/a>. (It\u2019s on Thread 1.3 for now, but Google tells me it\u2019s working on supporting Thread 1.4<\/a>, which will make it easier for Thread border routers from different manufacturers to work together.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re considering a Home Speaker, the hardware is the main reason to buy one. On the software side, Gemini for Home \u2014 Google\u2019s new smart home voice assistant powered by Gemini models<\/a> and designed to be more conversational, more useful, and smarter \u2014 works on all Google Home speakers. In my testing, it was mostly the same experience on the Nest Audio, Nest Hub (2nd gen)<\/a>, and Nest Hub Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good news \u2014 Google isn\u2019t locking its newest AI features to new hardware. But it also means there\u2019s little reason to upgrade to the new speaker if you\u2019re happy with what you have.<\/p>\n

Google Home Speaker specs<\/p>\n

Price: $99.99Subscription: Starting at $10 a month, up to a 6-month free trial includedColors: Jade, berry, hazel, porcelain (jade and berry US only)Dimensions: 3.4 inches high x 4.2 inches diameterPower cable: 30W USB-C, 1.5 metersMemory: 1GBStorage: 4GBProcessor: Quad Core A55 2.0 GHz with NPUSpeaker: 58 mm full-range driver, 3 far-field microphones, 2-stage mic mute switchConnectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6, Thread 1.3 border router, Bluetooth 5.4, Matter controller<\/p>\n

As it\u2019s built for Gemini for Home, I had expected the Home Speaker to be noticeably snappier than current models, but it wasn\u2019t any faster than the Nest Audio when responding to commands. Occasionally, some requests that require the cloud took close to 10 seconds, and even local commands like \u201cTurn on the lights\u201d sometimes lagged just as long.<\/p>\n

While Gemini handled complex requests well \u2014 I asked it to turn off one room, set the thermostat, and turn on the lights in another room in one sentence \u2014 it took 10 seconds to do so. Alexa Plus completed the same request in under three. (To be fair, Alexa used to be painfully slow<\/a>, but it has improved substantially.)<\/p>\n

Speed aside, Gemini was very good with natural conversational control. I could say \u201cHey Google, I\u2019m cooking and I don\u2019t want to get too hot,\u201d and it knew to turn down the AC. \u201cHey Google, it\u2019s too dark in here,\u201d and it brightened the lights. When I said I thought there was someone outside, it offered to show my camera feed on a smart display and check my locks. These feel like genuine quality-of-life improvements because they make voice control easier.<\/p>\n

I like that you don\u2019t have to repeat \u201cHey Google\u201d during the same conversation, but Gemini has the memory of a goldfish. While following a recipe, Gemini started walking me through making a cherry tomato pasta sauce until I paused too long and it completely lost the thread.<\/p>\n

Gemini Live<\/a> fixes some of this by keeping the conversation open until you tell it to stop and remembering previous chats. But this experience feels bolted on. You invoke it differently, by saying \u201cHey Google, let\u2019s chat,\u201d and unlike Gemini for Home, it can\u2019t take any actions for you (it punts them to Home); it\u2019s just for chatting with. Gemini Live is also behind a $10-a-month Google Home Premium subscription<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gemini has the memory of a goldfish<\/p>\n

For general knowledge, Gemini is excellent. It\u2019s substantially better than Google Assistant ever was. I couldn\u2019t stump it with questions about the World Cup\u2019s bewildering brackets, and I was genuinely impressed when I asked which of the matches that had already been played today were worth watching. It summarized them without revealing the score \u2014 correctly inferring that I planned to watch them.<\/p>\n

As a household assistant, it feels less dependable. Mid-cook, I\u2019d ask \u201cWhen do I add the tomatoes?\u201d only to be told Gemini couldn\u2019t answer until it verified my voice. This same thing happened fairly regularly when adding items to my shopping list \u2014 despite Google\u2019s Voice Match<\/a> being set up.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with Gemini for Home is that I can\u2019t trust it. Like most LLMs, Gemini is often confidently wrong. It announced the correct title when I asked for \u201cLa Noche de Anoche,\u201d then played an entirely different song. Then, when I told it it was wrong, it played another incorrect song.<\/p>\n

When I asked if I could change the Home Speaker\u2019s voice, it repeatedly insisted it had no alternative voice options; it does<\/a>. Then the same query on the Nest Hub Max caused it to apparently hallucinate a list of names, including Dimitrix, Impetus, Cameo, and Russell Gethy. (The actual Gemini for Home voices are named after plants.)<\/p>\n

After spending five days testing Gemini for Home in the Home Speaker, I give the edge to Alexa Plus and its Echo Dot Max.<\/p>\n

At one point, it misinterpreted a command to adjust the thermostat as a security request, telling me instead that if I wanted a summary of what was happening in my home, I needed to upgrade to Google Home Premium Advanced. It then proceeded to spell out the upgrade URL.<\/p>\n

TV controls were the least reliable. Sometimes \u201cTurn on the TV and play YouTube TV\u201d worked. Sometimes Gemini claimed content wasn\u2019t available when it was. Occasionally it announced \u201cTurning on the Living Room TV and launching ESPN,\u201d and then did nothing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen similar hiccups with Alexa Plus. They\u2019re part of the current tradeoffs that have come with replacing rigid command-and-control voice assistants with more powerful, flexible LLMs<\/a>. In the home, when these mistakes happen enough, they undermine the convenience.<\/p>\n

After spending five days testing Gemini for Home in the Home Speaker, I give the edge to Alexa Plus and its Echo Dot Max. While Gemini for Home\u2019s inference skills<\/a> were superior in my testing, Alexa Plus has narrowed the gap significantly when it comes to general knowledge. It also has better smart home controls, and I can ask it to set up routines with my voice, something Google doesn\u2019t offer.<\/p>\n

Google built the smart speaker its ecosystem needed<\/p>\n

Both let you use natural language to query and control your home and skip repeating the wake word. But Alexa handles it more smoothly and remembers context and past conversations better. I do prefer Gemini\u2019s voices. My pick, Violet \u2014 bright and British \u2014 is perfect: no-nonsense without overt personality. I\u2019ve yet to find an Alexa Plus voice I\u2019m comfortable with.<\/p>\n

What Google Home doesn\u2019t have is ads, something Amazon has introduced to its Echo Show smart displays<\/a>. But with Gemini for Home, Google is putting some voice assistant and smart home features behind a paywall for the first time<\/a>. Access to Gemini Live and Help me create<\/a>, which lets you use natural language to build smart home automations in the app, requires the $10-a-month Standard plan. The $20-a-month Advanced tier adds Home Brief and AI-powered Nest camera features<\/a> that tie into the Home Speaker.<\/p>\n

With the Home Speaker, Google built the smart speaker its ecosystem needed: good sound, a cleaner, more modern design, and the radios and processing power to anchor a modern smart home. But Gemini for Home isn\u2019t there yet as an assistant. It\u2019s easier to talk to than Google Assistant ever was, and a lot smarter. But today it\u2019s slow and less reliable. Add the subscription requirement for some of its more interesting features, and the result is a great smart speaker waiting for its AI to catch up.<\/p>\n

Photos and videos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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