I’ve been testing Gemini for Home since last year. Up until now, Gemini could only run on Google Home and Nest devices originally designed for Google Assistant. I considered Gemini to be an upgrade over Assistant, but one thought remained — what would a Google Home speaker built specifically for Gemini look like? After over a week of testing the new Google Home Speaker, I finally have the answer.

The Google Home Speaker is something of a hybrid of the Nest Mini and Nest Audio speakers it’s replacing in terms of feature set. The smart speaker comes with a $99 price tag and an upgraded processor complete with a separate neural processing unit (NPU) for AI-related tasks. Of course, the Home Speaker is dependent on Gemini features running in the cloud.

If you’re due for a new smart speaker, the Google Home Speaker is outstanding. The more you use Gemini and Google Nest accessories, the better it gets.

Google’s Home Speaker kept my phone in my pocket

Gemini answered questions I’d usually use Google Search for

Credit: Brady Snyder / MakeUseOf

The Google Home Speaker doesn’t have a screen, so the primary way of interacting with it is using your voice. There is a glowing ring along the bottom of the Home Speaker, but I’m not a fan of it. The light is gorgeous when the speaker is roughly at eye-level, but when you’re standing, it’s difficult to see. The speaker lights up when it hears a “Hey Google” wake phrase, and I found myself leaning over to check if it heard me.

Theoretically, every supported smart speaker or device should provide the same Gemini for Home experience. All the important processing happens in the cloud, after all. If you’ve used an older Google Home or Nest device, you know this isn’t the case. Older and weaker hardware, like a Google Home Hub or Nest Mini, is slower to respond to requests using Gemini. The Google Home Speaker is designed to solve this problem with a new quad-core A55 2.0GHz processor and an NPU.

My Home Speaker review unit met the mark on most occasions. The best way to use it is to imagine you’ll never get a “Sorry, I can’t do that” or “I found some Google Search results that might help” message in response to a query. Ask anything, without fear of Gemini or the Home Speaker failing. To be clear, it will fail at something. But more often than not, it’ll impress you with how much it can do.

I found that the Home Speaker was able to answer conversational requests that I would’ve used Google Search for in the past. When my partner and I were trying to figure out when the local grocery store closed for the night, I asked my Home Speaker. Sure enough, it provided the correct answer. That inspired me to ask the Home Speaker what’s special about each of the three locations of my favorite coffee chain near me. It explained that one location has a lakefront view, another has a patio garden, and the third has a large indoor study area — it was all right.

Give the Home Speaker access to a Google Home ecosystem of smart home accessories, and it’s even better. I was able to ask the smart speaker when a package got delivered, and it read off the times UPS, FedEx, or Amazon individually delivered packages using Nest camera recordings. I could give a complex command to the Home Speaker adjusting my Nest Thermostat’s presets, and it handled the job with flying colors.

Integration with Google software and your phone was weaker. I couldn’t reliably get the Home Speaker to manage to-do lists or share things with others, even after setting up Voice Match and personalized features. I don’t use these features very often, but if you do, expect the Home Speaker to be less reliable than it is for home control.

The hardware isn’t half bad for $100

It won’t replace my other speakers, but it’s solid in a pinch

As a speaker, it’s a mixed bag. If you’re coming from a Nest Mini, it’ll be an upgrade. From a Nest Audio, it’ll be a downgrade. The Google Home Speaker falls in the same class as smart speakers like the HomePod Mini, for better or worse. One positive is that the Home Speaker’s omnidirectional driver fires sound out in all directions, so you can place it where it fits best in your home. The four color options — Porcelain, Hazel, Jade, and Berry — help the Home Speaker blend in.

The audio hardware is headlined by a full-range 58mm driver. The “full range” descriptor might sound like a good thing, but it’s really not. It means that rather than having a woofer and tweeter each handling different frequencies, a single driver has to produce all the Home Speaker’s sound. In other words, the Home Speaker’s sound quality won’t sound as rich as speakers like the Nest Audio or Google Home Max.

Credit: Brady Snyder / MakeUseOf

There is a physical mute switch for the Home Speaker, and the factory reset process is simple. Plus, it has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Thread Border Router support. However, the buttons on the top of the speaker only light up when you tap them. Another disappointment is the power cable — it ends in USB-C, but it’s hardwired to the speaker itself. Three far-field microphones ensure the Home Speaker can hear you, even with music playing.

Home Speaker is a no-brainer for Nest users

Gemini for Home ties all my smart home accessories together

Credit: Brady Snyder / MakeUseOf

The Google Home Speaker is fit for power users who use their voice to control all kinds of smart home accessories. These users are reciting tens, if not hundreds, of commands daily. The speed and processing advantages offered by the Home Speaker make an impact at that kind of scale. For everyone else, though, it’s not a must-buy upgrade.

I know I wouldn’t buy a Google Home Speaker personally. I have a Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max that can do everything this new speaker can, just a bit slower.

Brand

Google

Dimensions

3.4 height x 4.2 diameter (inches)

Audio

58 mm full-range driver

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4 GHz/5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.4, Thread 1.3 border router (2.4 GHz)

Colors

Hazel, Porcelain, Jade, Berry

SMART ASSISTANTS

Gemini

The Google Home Speaker is a tiny, 360-degree smart speaker powered by Gemini for Home. It includes a quad-core processor paired with an NPU and a gigabyte of RAM. It can manage your entire smart home with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Thread Border Router support. If you don’t already have a Home or Nest speaker, this is the one to get.