Google’s new smart speaker takes the lead

Impressive sound for its small form. It seems a little more human than competitors. The color options are fun. Geminis are helpful and intelligent.

Some Assistant features are hidden behind paywalls. Works best if you purchase or have purchased multiple Google devices for your home. Colored options are for the United States only.

Google has always has taken a slow and steady approach to smart speakers. Rather than releasing multiple new versions every year or two (looking at you, Amazon), the company kept a small lineup and waited years between models. Yes, it took six years to see a new version of a Google smart speaker.

The new Google Home Speaker arrives 10 years after the original Google Home. It doesn’t look like the original, but instead adopts a familiar design from competitors like the HomePod Minishort and round in stature.

It is designed around Google Gemini instead of Google Assistant, and works well for what it is. It’s easy to control smart devices and can be used as a stereo pair or surround sound if you have a Google TV Streamerand has a quick response time to questions. The new Gemini assistant is a little smarter and seems more human than Alexa+. If I had to choose a favorite from this new generation of smart speakers, this would be it. It’s a shame, however, that some of its best features are behind a paywall.

Cloth Orb

This might look like a HomePod Minibut the color options give a distinct Google feel. It’s a shame, however, that shades like Jade and Berry (pictured above) are exclusive to the United States. The rest of the world is stuck with Hazel and Porcelain.

There’s a new light ring at the bottom of the speaker that’s reminiscent of the Amazon Echo’s light ring, although it shows more colors than just shades of blue. When you press the top of the device, two white dots appear along the edges to indicate exactly where to press to adjust the volume. You can also press the top to pause and play media content. There are a handful of new voices to choose from, all of which sound much more human than the Google Assistant.

The big appeal of the Google Home speaker is that it is designed with the Gemini wizard and all the improvements made by major language models over the last few years. This means you can speak to him more naturally, string together more commands in the same breath and even correct a mistake in your request: Gemini will always understand. Gemini is available on every Google smart speaker as membership experiencebut that’s the default here, and there are additional benefits exclusive to the latest device.

Some of these benefits are locked behind a subscription. THE subscription levels also include Google’s video storage plans for its video doorbells And security camerasso it’s a better purchase than just paying for an assistant, but it’s still a cost that didn’t exist before. You can get the base level of Google Home Premium with a six-month free trial, and after that it’s $10 a month, which includes 30 days of event history, smart alerts, the ability to ask Assistant to create specific routines, and access to Gemini Live, the conversational experience that lets you talk one-on-one with Gemini without needing to use wake words. The Advanced tier ($20 per month) gives you 24/7 video history, six months of video event history, searchable video history, daily summaries of what happened in your home, and much more.

Gemini has done a really good job with more conversational commands, although you still need to be specific with some requests. For example, my three-story townhouse has two smart thermostatsone for the highest floor and another for the two lower floors. I asked to turn on the air conditioning, which Gemini immediately did, but he didn’t ask me to specify which one and decided it was time for the upstairs air conditioning to shine. It also defaulted to Eco mode, so I had to request that the thermostats be set to 75 degrees instead of the 70 degrees. Still, I was able to casually say, “Can you set the temperature in the living room to 75, and upstairs too?” and he applied it to both smart thermostats.

Gemini Live is another way to chat with the Google Home speaker (it’s only available on some older devices). You’ll tell the speaker “Hey Google, let’s talk” and it will activate a conversational mode that will discuss with you whatever topics you bring up. I had a conversation with Gemini about my 3 year old’s sleep schedule, how to treat scalp sunburn (you’ll never guess what I had this weekend), and asked for a recap of the previous night’s episode. love island (although Gemini doesn’t yet have a recap of the episode that premiered just hours before).

Gemini would also ask follow-up questions on each topic to keep the conversation going, but would change gears depending on what topic I introduced. It works as expected, but I’m not sure how useful it is in the home context: you’re more likely to use something like this on your smartphone. It’s just not my favorite way to learn or discuss new information, but audio learners might really enjoy it.

I was excited to ask Gemini what he sees in the house via my Google security camerasbut the experience didn’t impress me as much as I hoped. Time and time again I asked questions like if the car was in the garage, and Gemini said it didn’t have access to that information or that I needed to upgrade my subscription level to get the answer (you need Google Home Advanced).

Echo chamber

Google and Amazon makes the same movement at approximately the same time: a new small-sized smart speaker that promises the sound quality of larger speakers, retailing for $100. Smaller speakers like previous Echo Dot models and the Google Home Mini are popular because they can be placed anywhere, whether on a crowded shelf or in a corner of the kitchen, but they were also much cheaper.

I tested the Google Home speaker alongside the Amazon Echo Dot Max and the sound quality was very similar. The music was surprisingly similar on both speakers, with the piano keys of Jack’s Mannequin’s “Dark Blue” coming through well and the softer tones of “Fast Car” easy to discern. The biggest difference was in the smart speaker itself: “Play ‘Fast Car'” prompted Google to ask me which version of the song I wanted, while Alexa incorrectly assumed I wanted the newer Luke Combs version. The Google Home speaker has one fewer microphone than the Echo Dot Max, three versus four, but I found that it still heard me over music or its own voice.

Neither smart speaker was able to properly navigate my calendar to find my son’s clearly labeled first day of school when I asked. Gemini found the next summer Friday marked on my calendar while Alexa turned off its listening ring after I asked the same question. (This happened twice, so maybe Alexa hates Fridays.) Google also easily moved around and added invitations to the calendar I’d discussed with it, and when I asked that we add swimming with friends on Wednesday, Gemini prompted me to confirm the exact time before it immediately appeared on my Google Calendar.

Overall, it’s a capable smart speaker, especially for its size. The good thing is that the Google Home Speaker is also a Matter center and is compatible with The matter comes before the wire to connect just about any modern smart home device. I like the range of features and the slightly better experience than Alexa+, and Google continues to make beautiful devices that I don’t mind placing in my home. It helps that my living room is in shades of red and orange; the Berry speaker seems like it was always meant to be there.