Google Home Speaker brings Gemini to the kitchen shelf

On the kitchen shelf, Google's new rounded speaker sits between two familiar sizes: The €120 Google Home Speaker is designed to stream music and bring Gemini for Home to the smart home. Following the Nest Hub 2 in 2021, it is once again a standalone audio system without a display. Berti Kolbow-Lehradt tested the device in everyday use.

The Wi-Fi speaker — that is, a speaker connected to the wireless home network — measures 86.6 millimeters in height and 107 millimeters in diameter. This puts it between Google's Nest Mini and Nest Audio in terms of size and price. Instead of a single status indicator on the back, a ring of LEDs around the base lights up: It signals whether the speaker is listening, processing a request or responding.

The most noticeable weakness lies beneath the fabric. According to the test, the coarse-weave covering is not tight enough and shifts when touched. As a result, the three touch-sensitive controls for volume up, volume down, playback and pausing cannot always be pressed reliably; occasionally, the device registers a double press. The switch for the microphones, by contrast, provides the familiar clear feedback.

In concrete terms, this changes Google's offering for people who want to use Gemini in the smart home by voice: They get a standalone speaker in the gap between the Nest Mini and Nest Audio, without relying on a display. Music streaming and AI chat are combined in one device whose visible light ring indicates its current status.

The new speaker does not come without a step backward. Its 1.5-meter cable ends in a USB-C plug, but is permanently attached to the housing. The predecessors had plug-in cables that were easier to replace. How appealing the sound and Gemini for Home are overall in daily use is examined by the hands-on test in comparison with Amazon's Alexa+ and Apple's older HomePod Mini.