GoKawiilBrady Snyder / Android Authority
The Google Home Speaker is here, and it’s now Google’s only smart speaker. With the Nest Mini and Nest Audio discontinued, everyone interested in a smart speaker for Google Home will be considering the new $99 orb.
While this is Google’s first smart speaker purpose-built for Gemini, the Home Speaker might not satisfy those craving a Nest Audio successor. The new speaker is half the size of the Nest Audio, and that affects the Home Speaker’s sound quality.
Specifically, the Home Speaker’s sound sits right between the Nest Mini and the Nest Audio. If you want to upgrade to a Home Speaker to get the newer processor, dedicated NPU, and the best Gemini for Home experience, you can do so without sacrificing audio performance. I changed one setting, and now my Home Speaker always plays music through the better speakers in my home.
Is the Google Home Speaker's audio hardware good enough? 56 votes Yes 32 % No 43 % Maybe 14 % Too early to call 11 %
Google’s Home Speaker has a sound quality problem
Brady Snyder / Android Authority
Smart speakers typically trade audio quality in exchange for intelligent features and affordability. Google’s Nest Mini is a great example of this. It was a $50 puck with mediocre sound that brought Google Assistant to every room in your home. You weren’t buying a Nest Mini as a high-quality speaker; you were buying it for its smarts. The Google Home Speaker sounds better than the Nest Mini — it has an audio driver that’s twice the size — but it’s a far cry from the Nest Audio or Google Home Max.
Looking at the Google Home Speaker’s hardware, it’s clear that the device is closer to the Nest Mini than the Nest Audio on the spectrum. It has a full-range 58mm driver, which means one 360-degree driver is responsible for producing as much of the frequency range as possible. While the Nest Audio has a separate 75mm woofer and 19mm tweeter, the Home Speaker uses a single driver to handle everything, just like the Nest Mini.
To be clear, the Home Speaker doesn’t sound bad. It gets louder than other smart speakers in its class, like the HomePod Mini. You just don’t get the same level of detail from the Home Speaker as you do from higher-end Google audio products. If you want to use the Home Speaker’s quad-core A55 chip and dedicated neural processing unit for smart home assistance, you can set another Google Cast-enabled audio device as the Home Speaker’s default output. This could be another Nest speaker or display, a Chromecast or Google TV Streamer, or a third-party TV, soundbar, speaker, or receiver.
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