The best in audio quality.
Google is taking a two-pronged approach for its latest smart speaker. It is both a “speaker first” and at the same time the first speaker “built for Gemini.” With better audio quality and better local AI processing, this is the speaker of the future.
Advantages
- Beautiful design and construction.
- The quality of the speakers is downright impressive.
- They can be used as surround sound speakers for TV.
- Understand complex requests without problems
- Deep integration into the Google Home ecosystem
- A Thread Edge Router with Matter Holder
Cons
- USB-C cable is wired
- Some responses are very slow.
The speaker anywhere
Nest Mini was designed to give you instant access to Google Assistant anywhere in your home and also doubles as an impressive little speaker that can be easily mounted on any wall. Unfortunately, it is outdated and no longer for sale, and many Gemini commands can be quite slow.
Advantages
- Excellent value (if you can still find one)
- Mounting hole built into the back
- tiny size
Cons
- Assistant/Gemini slow responses
- Sound quality is not great (especially bass)
- Patented cylindrical plug power connector
Google’s Nest Mini speaker was announced alongside the Pixel 4, which should give you a good idea of how old the speaker is at this point. While smart home speakers were never designed to be updated annually like phones are, the Nest Mini’s hardware is showing its age in the Gemini was. Most commands take a considerable amount of time to process, and since the audio quality was never top-notch to begin with, you’re probably considering an upgrade at this point anyway.
That’s where the Google Home Speaker comes into play. Google has dropped the Nest name for its latest speaker, opting for Gemini integration and a powerful new speaker system. At $99, it’s double the price of the Nest Mini when it launched, and while it’s certainly a great upgrade for all Nest Mini owners, there may still be some reasons to keep that Nest Mini in the right room.
Google Home Speaker (2026) vs. Nest Mini: Design
My favorite feature of the Nest Mini was, without a doubt, the mounting hole on the back. This clever little dimple allows it to be hung on any wall, discreetly adding a speaker to any room you desire. Whether you had the cable hanging freely (like in the image above) or went more professional and hidden it, the Nest Mini was a great addition to any room.
The Google Home Speaker doesn’t have this mounting hole, so it’s not easy to hang on the wall, but it’s a great addition to any shelf or nightstand thanks to its homey texture and colors. It uses a similar textile look to the Nest Mini, plus the same LED volume adjustment buttons on top and a thick rubber non-stick pad on the bottom to prevent sliding or bumping.
You’ll also find a hardware mute switch on the bottom of both speakers, so you can feel confident in your privacy if you just want them to act as speakers (and not a Gemini-powered assistant).
While you’re talking to the Nest Mini, a series of LEDs light up at the top to let you know it’s listening or processing a command. The Google Home Speaker improves this a bit with an LED ring at the bottom, which features a unique glow that’s more obvious than the Nest Mini, which is particularly important as it tends to blend well with shelf decor.
Both speakers feature poor power wiring options, which is more than a little annoying. The Nest Mini featured a patented cylindrical plug, which meant you needed to buy a new charger if something happened to it. The Google Home Speaker uses a USB-C charging brick, but the cable is connected to the speaker, so you’ll probably have to buy a a completely new one If something happens to this one.
Both cords are about the same length (~6.5 feet), and since they are proprietary or non-replaceable, you’ll need to choose a location near an outlet or extension cord.
Google Home Speaker (2026) vs Nest Mini: Sound quality and connectivity
Although the Nest Mini’s sound quality was an improvement over the original Google Home Mini speaker, neither model offered stellar sound. They were simply too small for that. This time around, Google Home Speaker substantially improves audio quality and does so without drastically altering the speaker’s footprint.
That’s because while the Google Home speaker is about twice as tall as the Nest Mini speaker (42mm vs. 86mm), it’s also about the same diameter (96mm vs. 106mm). It’s a very easy size to store on a bookshelf or in an equally small space (as shown in the photo above).
Google Home Speaker also features a 58mm full-range omnidirectional audio driver, delivering 360-degree audio that sounds great no matter where the “front” of the speaker is. The Nest Mini features a similar 360-degree design, but the 40mm driver and substantially lighter weight (181g vs. 408g) mean the Google Home Speaker’s bass quality simply sounds better.
Both speakers support the Google Cast protocol and multi-room speaker capability, so you can stream almost any audio source to them, but the Google Home Speaker supports Google’s new surround sound mode. That allows you to connect multiple Google Home speakers to your Google TV streamer for surround sound while watching TV, giving you a great way to ditch the sound bar (or an older wired audio system) for something fancier.
Google Home Speaker also supports faster wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi 6 (Nest Mini is Wi-Fi 5), better Bluetooth quality via Bluetooth 5.4 (compared to Bluetooth 5.0 on Nest Mini), and full support like Thread Hub for Connectivity of matter.
That last part ensures that the Google Home Speaker is a better choice for smart home connectivity, allowing newer smart home devices to connect over a local Thread network for faster local commands.
Google Home Speaker (2026) vs. Nest Mini: AI capabilities and specs
The Nest Mini launched as a primarily cloud-focused computing device, often offloading even the most basic commands to Google Assistant in the cloud. Over time, as Google migrated many commands to Gemini, the Nest Mini started to feel slower and slower.
The Google Home Speaker was created to help solve this problem, but it doesn’t do it as well as I expected. The newer 2.0 GHz CPU with a built-in NPU is designed to process more tasks and commands locally, but my experience with the speaker has shown that Google still offloads many commands to the cloud.
|
Category |
Google Home Speaker |
Mini Nest |
|---|---|---|
|
Spokesman |
58mm full range omnidirectional driver |
360-degree sound with 40mm driver |
|
Microphone |
3 far-field microphones, |
3 far-field microphones, |
|
Dimensions |
86.6mm/3.4in high x 107mm/4.2in diameter |
42mm/1.65in high x 98mm/3.85mm diameter |
|
Weight |
396g |
181g |
|
power adapter |
30W USB-C Charger for PC/PPS |
15W Cylindrical Plug Adapter |
|
RAM |
1GB LPDDR4 |
1GB RAM |
|
Storage |
4GB EMMC |
4GB EMMC |
|
Processor |
2.0GHz quad-core A55 with NPU |
1.4Ghz quad-core A53 with ML hardware engine |
|
Connectivity |
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, Thread 1.3 edge router (2.4 GHz), Matter, Google Cast |
Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, Google Cast |
|
Flag |
Worldwide: hazelnut, porcelain US Exclusive: Jade, Berry |
Chalk, Charcoal, Coral, Sky |
This results in a speaker that executes many commands quickly (and some almost instantly), but some commands are still absurdly slow. Even simple commands, like setting a timer, can take 20 seconds or more to execute if something goes wrong. While this is likely just a bug that occurs with the Google Home Speaker at launch, it still shows that Google doesn’t maintain as many local commands as I would like.
Since both devices are compatible with Gemini, there is no functional difference in the ability of these speakers to use Google’s AI-powered assistant. The difference is mainly due to speed, something I hope Google continues to improve and tweak the new speaker with future software updates.
Google Home Speaker (2026) vs Nest Mini: Which Should You Buy?
While newer isn’t always better (especially when it costs twice as much), Google no longer sells the Nest Mini. You can always pick up a second hand unit on ebay and try your luck, especially if you just want a small speaker to hang on the wall.
Otherwise, the Google Home Speaker is an easy choice. It has substantially better audio quality, Matter and Thread support, Wi-Fi 6, newer Bluetooth for better audio quality, surround sound support with Google TV Streamers, and a better processor for faster smart home and Gemini queries.
