I waited six years for the Google Home Speaker — and it wasn't worth it

For the first time in almost six years, we finally have a new Google-made smart speaker. As someone who uses Google Home and has long preferred Google Assistant (and now Gemini) over Alexa, I’m thrilled. I’ve been impatiently waiting for Google to refresh its smart speaker portfolio, and the Home Speaker does precisely that.

And Google is going all-in on this refresh. The company officially discontinued the Nest Mini and Nest Audio, making the Google Home Speaker the only Google speaker option going forward. As such, it had better be great.

If you’re looking to get your first Google smart speaker or need another one to join your existing models, the Google Home Speaker is a good, perfectly serviceable option. But was it worth waiting over half a decade for? I’m not so sure.

What I like about the Google Home Speaker

I know that sounds like a downer of an intro, but there is a lot that I really do like about the Google Home Speaker — starting with its design.

The Google Home Speaker is a bit larger than the super-compact Nest Mini yet significantly smaller than the Nest Audio. You probably won’t see any nifty wall mounts for the Home Speaker like there are for the Nest Mini, but it easily fits on any desk/table/nightstand. And despite its size, the Home Speaker doubles as a Thread border router for Matter smart home devices (something the larger Nest Audio doesn’t support). I also really appreciate the rubber base, which is super grippy and keeps the Home Speaker from moving around.

There are three touch control areas on the top of the Home Speaker: tapping the left turns the volume down, tapping the right turns it up, and tapping the middle pauses/resumes whatever you’re currently listening to. It’s the same control scheme from previous Nest speakers, and it works just as well here.

What also works well are the colors. You’ve got standard black and white options (Hazel and Porcelain, respectively), but also a bright red Berry and a calming green Jade. The Jade color is what I have, and I absolutely love it — partly because it matches the walls in my bedroom almost perfectly. I’d love to see even more colors down the road, but this is a great start nonetheless.

I think that the Google Home Speaker sounds pretty good, especially considering how small it is. There’s just a single 58mm driver pumping out all of the audio, and for day-to-day use, I’ve been happy with it. To my ears, the Home Speaker produces fairly solid bass and really clear midtones. I mostly use my Home Speaker to play rain sounds at night and ask random Gemini questions throughout the day, but whenever I’ve used it to play music or a podcast, I’ve been pleased with the results.

The speaker also gets really loud. Even at 50% volume, it easily fills up my bedroom and can be heard down the hall in the kitchen and living room. Audio gets a bit distorted as you creep into the 70% and higher range, but I really appreciate having so much volume in such a compact package.

Also unique to the Home Speaker is the ability to pair two Home Speakers with the Google TV Streamer for a plug-and-play upgrade to your TV’s sound (with spatial audio support, too). It’s frustrating that this functionality isn’t available for the Nest Audio, seemingly for no other reason than to push people toward the Home Speaker, but it’s nice to have the option nonetheless.

Finally, there’s Gemini. Google’s AI has worked very well in my testing. That’s not surprising since Gemini on the Home Speaker isn’t any different than Gemini on older Google Home speakers, but it’s also not a bad thing. Gemini responds quickly, is (usually) accurate, and can answer a much wider array of questions than Google Assistant ever could.

It’s worth noting that some Gemini features (such as Gemini Live and Ask Home) are locked behind a Google Home Premium subscription, but that’s not unique to the Home Speaker — it’s something you’ll have to contend with on any Google speaker with Gemini.

My three biggest issues with the Home Speaker

To recap, we’re working with an excellent design, good sound quality, and a great Gemini experience. If that’s all true of the Google Home Speaker, what gives for how I started this review? It’s because everything that works well about the Home Speaker is also working against it.

We’ll start once again with the design. As much as I love the Home Speaker itself, I hate its power cable. Google went with an integrated cable design, meaning the end that connects to the speaker is permanently attached. So, if the cable isn’t long enough or becomes damaged, you’re basically out of luck. What’s even more frustrating is that the Nest Audio did have a removable power cable, but for whatever reason, we don’t get one with the Home Speaker.

Then there’s sound quality. The Google Home Speaker sounds good for what it is, but as a replacement for the Nest Audio, it’s an unquestionable downgrade. As a reminder, the Nest Audio had two drivers compared to the Home Speaker’s one — including a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter. While I no longer have my Nest Audio, SoundGuys did a really nice job comparing the two in the video above.

To be fair, the Nest Audio is physically larger than the Home Speaker, so it makes sense that it would sound better — and you might argue that makes any comparison unfair. But considering the Nest Audio had the same $99 retail price as the Google Home Speaker — and that Google replaced the Nest Audio with the Home Speaker — I think the comparison is more than valid.

And then we have Gemini. Gemini is great on the Google Home Speaker, but it’s also great on the Nest Audio, Nest Mini, Nest Hub, and all other older Google speakers/displays. When you buy the Home Speaker, its Gemini version isn’t any different from what Google started rolling out last October.

That’s an excellent commitment to updating older devices, and I don’t want to suggest otherwise. However, when that’s the case, the Google Home Speaker needs to do something else to stand out from the Google speakers that have come before it. And, ultimately, it just doesn’t.

Should you buy the Google Home Speaker?

If that leaves you feeling confused or conflicted about the Google Home Speaker, welcome to my thoughts exactly.

The Google Home Speaker isn’t a bad product. It replaced a 4th-generation Amazon Echo in my bedroom, and for what I want out of a smart speaker — something that’s compact and integrates with my other Google Home devices — it’s a perfect fit. And if you find yourself in a similar position, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the Google Home Speaker.

However, looking beyond people who are committed to Google Home and need additional smart speakers, the Google Home Speaker becomes a much harder recommendation.

If you were thinking about upgrading your old Nest Audio, the Home Speaker isn’t a suitable replacement. It doesn’t have any Gemini capabilities that your Nest Audio doesn’t already have, and it sounds worse, too. If you aren’t married to Google Home, Amazon’s Echo range is much broader, including options that are cheaper than the Home Speaker and ones with better audio quality for the same price — the Amazon Echo Dot Max is particularly tempting ($99.99 at Amazon). And if you want a more sophisticated soundstage in an even smaller footprint (and are all-in on Apple), the HomePod Mini is right there ($99.99 at Best Buy).

More than anything, what worries me about the Google Home Speaker is what it represents for Google’s smart home ambitions as a whole. We’ve gone from the Nest Mini being the cheap entry point, and the Nest Audio being the more premium yet still affordable option, to the Google Home Speaker trying to fill those two positions and doing a worse job at both.

Combined with the six-year wait we had to endure for the Home Speaker, even if it’s far from a complete failure, the end result is still disappointing. It’s a fine addition to the Google Home lineup, but not much more.