Smart speakers can make your life easier if you have all the smart home fixings in your house. The problem can be which ones to buy, but also which ecosystem to buy into. My house, for instance, has been mostly Alexa, but is it worth giving another smart home ecosystem a try? I took the newest Google Home Speaker for a try to see if it is worth it.
The mid-range speaker
Knowing where to start can be hard, and this is because even in the same range there can be multiple models. Google has simplified this, as previously you had the Google Nest Audio, there’s the Google Home Mini, and more. The new Google Home Speaker, at least so far, appears to be it. With this, they have made one kinda slap bang in the middle, with a way better sound than the Home Mini, but it’s not as good as the Nest Audio. The Nest Audio in many ways was a smart speaker, but the Google Home Speaker is much more.
If you are using this little beast for your jams, then it does a solid job. For quietish music in the background or some music to be played, it does the trick. This isn’t going to be the main speaker in your house if you want to host house parties with high fidelity music, but it’s certainly good enough for most of my day-to-day use with some seriously solid bass.
What does the Google Home Speaker offer?
The newest speaker offers a lot more. The first is that it works as a Thread border router, so your Thread and Matter gets a lot easier for smart home shenanigans. On top of that, it supports the newer Wi-Fi 6, which is always helpful if you need faster response times for that clever home.
It also does Gemini processing on the device itself. This allows it to be that little bit faster as opposed to having to send everything to the cloud. If you want to use some of the features, but don’t want the mic on, there is one button near the bottom of the unit, that if you slide it, it turns the mic off. I don’t see myself needing that, but it’s there if you want it.
Another cool feature is that if you have two of these, then you can sync them for capital audio to make your home TV setup fancier at a damn reasonable price. The speaker’s design is a slightly flattened ball shape that has a nice mesh finish all the way around. The mesh itself is actually a movable mesh material, as opposed to plastic designed to look like mesh. This is a huge deal as it makes the unit look nice and will fit most rooms’ aesthetics.
The one minor drawback I am struggling to move past, is the USB-C cable is permanently fixed to the unit. So if that cable gets damaged, then you will need to replace the unit. On the plus side, unlike too many devices these days, it does have a USB-C to AC adapter in the box.
Should you get one of the new Google Home Speakers?
Honestly, it’s a damn good device. The sound quality is solid for the price, the smart features work well, and on the whole it’s a well-designed device. If you are starting your smart home setup, then this is a great starting point. But I am hoping that Google does offer a new wider range, so you can have the lower and higher quality devices depending on the room you need them for.
