GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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Smart speakers have spent the past few years searching for a compelling second act. Beyond music, timers, and controlling your lights, they’ve struggled to justify taking up space on the kitchen counter. AI promised to change that.
Amazon debuted its new hardware powered by a revamped Alexa last fall, and now it’s finally Google’s turn. The Google Home Speaker is the company’s first new smart speaker in six years and its first “built for Gemini.” After years of neglect, Google appears to be finally getting serious about the smart home — again. The new speaker is the clearest sign yet. Gemini for Home, however, still feels unfinished.
Hardware highs
As a piece of hardware, the $99.99 Google Home Speaker 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.
The Echo Dot Max, HomePod Mini, and Google Home Speaker. With its clean look, subtle light ring, and soft green shade, the Home Speaker’s design is my favorite of the three. Along with green (jade), pictured, it also comes in red (berry), white (porcelain), and black (hazel).
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’s HomePod Mini and Amazon’s Echo Dot Max offer. (Oh, and while the cable finally uses USB-C for the wall brick, it’s not removable from the speaker itself, which is an issue if you want a longer cable run or if it ever starts to fray.)
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 — for example, when using two speakers under a TV in a dark room — 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.
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