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Google is relaunching its smart speaker ecosystem for the “Gemini era,” as it has stated so many times with recent products. While I’m not entirely convinced that this new speaker is a truly revolutionary Gemini-powered speaker compared to existing Google and Nest speakers, the overall quality of the Google Home Speaker is excellent value for $99.
Whether you’re looking for a new speaker to play music that understands basic commands or want an additional speaker to enhance your smart home, this is a solid option with some annoying software issues that will hopefully be fixed in the near future.
Google Home Speaker price, availability and specifications
The Google Home Speaker 2026 is Google’s first smart speaker designed “from the ground up for Gemini.” It’s the first Google speaker to include an NPU suitable for AI processing, an upgrade from the ML processors in recent Nest releases. It sells for $99 and is available in two colors globally: Hazel and Porcelain, while US customers can also choose between Berry or Jade varieties. My review unit is Jade.
Google includes 6 months of free Google Home Premium ($60 value) when you purchase a Google Home Speaker before September 30, 2026.
|
category |
Google Home Speaker |
|---|---|
|
Spokesman |
58mm full range omnidirectional driver |
|
Microphone |
3 far-field microphones, |
|
Dimensions |
86.6mm/3.4in high x 107mm/4.2in diameter |
|
Weight |
396g |
|
power adapter |
30W USB-C Charger for PC/PPS |
|
RAM |
1GB LPDDR4 |
|
Storage |
4GB EMMC |
|
Processor |
2.0GHz quad-core A55 with NPU |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, Thread 1.3 Edge Router (2.4 GHz), Matter |
|
Flag |
Worldwide: hazelnut, porcelain US Exclusive: Jade, Berry |
Mainly the right priorities
For the past few years, Google has used the Nest brand for its smart speakers, but I’ve rarely called them that. Whether he Mini Nest or one of the Nest Center smart displays, in my home we always refer to them audibly as the Google speaker or the Google display.
So I think it makes a lot more sense to continue using the Google name as proper branding, and I know I’m not the only person who calls their smart speaker “Google” in one way or another. Fortunately, Google rectified the name without ruining the excellent design and feng shui character of the Nest line of smart speakers.
The 2026 speaker is still covered in a homely fabric that looks elegant and unobtrusive on a shelf. It is the ideal size between the small Nest Mini and the gigantic Max Google Home speaker, with appropriately sized audio components. It even has a cute little glowing light underneath that makes you feel more like you’re talking to a smart little robot than mumbling into a speaker.
But I don’t understand why Google speakers almost always seem to have some strange problem with the power cables. Previous models used barrel plugs and proprietary chargers, creating unnecessary electronic waste. This model uses a standard 30W Google USB-C charger, but the cable is connected to the speaker, meaning you’ll have to splice it in when it eventually breaks or throw away the speaker and buy a new one. Dumb.
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Since it is a little smaller than the Nest Audio speaker (yes, there have been many options over the years), the audio quality will not be as good, but the advantage of the Google Home Speaker is that its speaker is omnidirectional. Depending on how you want to mount it, this could make a big difference.
You can also use Google Home Speaker together with a Google TV Streamer to create a surround sound setup, which is a great feature that I’m glad Google finally adopted from the Amazon Echo and Fire TV devices.
I’m not exactly an audiophile and don’t care much about top-notch sound, so I found these speakers ideal as they are a noticeable improvement over the Nest Minis I have at home. Nest Audio fans should stick with them unless they have problems using the Gemini.
And while “built for Gemini” should be the current Upgrading the Google Home Speaker over any other Nest or Google speaker, my experience with it has been extremely inconsistent. If I ask it to turn the lights on or off, check my cameras, or even what the weather will be next week, the responses usually take about 1 second to process. For the most part, it’s much faster than the other Google speakers in my house.
But some commands are strangely slow. Setting a timer, for example, typically takes 20 to 25 seconds of processing time before receiving a response “OK, setting a timer.” Asking him to add bananas to my shopping list also takes about 5-10 seconds. This strange behavior persists during reboots, so I don’t know what to do about it. Clearly, the speaker is not doing as much local processing for simple commands like this as I expected. Google is aware of the problems (such as I’m not the only one who experiences them.), and I will update this review if they are resolved.
This is particularly annoying because all the other features I used over the past week were excellent. Gemini allows you to chain multiple commands or even voice complex commands, while Assistant can only execute one at a time. For example, you can ask him to “turn off all the lights except “Stop the bedroom light,” an order I give every night as I go to bed to read.
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This isn’t particularly unique to this new speaker, as Gemini has been rolled out to even the older Google Home speaker from 2016 (which is still in operation in my house), but this speaker will certainly be supported for years to come, while older speakers will eventually receive an end-of-life update.
At some point, Google had locked several features behind the annoying Voice Match feature. I don’t want to use Voice Match, but I (and other people in my house) do want to check my calendar, and Google finally lets users do that on their smart speakers.
This speaker also seems to understand commands, including simple ones like “stop” when a timer goes off, while I swear half of my other speakers ignore my commands half the time. Maybe time will turn this into a nice paperweight too, but for now it’s pretty good.
Should you buy it?
The Google Home Speaker 2026 is a generally good little product that offers excellent audio quality in an attractive design, with a virtual assistant that really seems to understand you. The processing time is strangely long for some simple commands (like setting a timer), but this is almost certainly a bug rather than a product defect.
If Google can reduce the processing time of some commands, this will be my speaker recommendation for the future. In my experience, the Gemini has been great for smart home commands, and has far more understanding of any other type of command than the Assistant has over the last half decade, and that’s really all I want from a smart speaker, anyway.
