Test: Google Home speaker – The sound is not the main strength

We’ve been waiting a long time for the smart home to really take off and after the introduction of Google Assistant and the first smart speakers a few years ago, not much has happened. Neither with Google nor with the competitors. But according to Google, that will change now, especially with the help of Gemini.

Much in common with previous smart speakers

The Google Home speaker is basically a smart speaker of exactly the same type that Google released before, with the option of sending sound from your mobile via Chromecast, which is the easiest, but it also works via bluetooth if you prefer. Of course, the speaker also has a microphone and direct connection to Google’s AI assistant Gemini. All of this also has previous models of Google’s smart speakers, so nothing new so far. In messier environments, such as when I’m fixing things in the kitchen or have other people talking in the background, it happens that the speaker can’t distinguish what I say to it. As before, there is also a physical switch at the bottom so that you can temporarily turn off the speaker’s microphones, so that it does not listen for “Hey Google”.

The speaker is ball-shaped and about the size of a grapefruit. It is thus quite compact and it is intended to fit in most places in the home. In addition, the sound is sent out in a 360-degree angle, so the speaker itself and the sound should not depend on how you place it. One of the novelties and something I really appreciate about the Google Home speaker is the light ring that now adorns the bottom of the ball. It lights up on several occasions and has a purely practical function, in that it shows what the speaker hears and does. When I say Hello Google, the ring lights up and thus confirms that it hears me. It means that, as long as I can see the speaker, I don’t have to wonder if it heard me. The light ring also pulses while Gemini is talking, when it is thinking and waiting for a response from Gemini and I change the volume, it also appears in light form.

Compact design and limited sound

The compact format of the Google Home Speaker means that the sound resources are not overwhelming. So this is more about music sounds similar to a simple kitchen radio than a real music system. The sound is a bit sharp and treble-dominant, especially at lower volumes, and if I turn it up at higher volumes, the bass is more noticeable, but still limited and unbalanced. It also doesn’t change if I connect the two Google Home Speakers I’m testing to a stereo pair. The Google Home speaker really has a more compact format and smaller speaker elements than its predecessor Nest Audio, and physical size is often decisive for sound in speakers.

Just like with the predecessors Google Nest Audio, which were in a slightly larger format, I can connect my pair of speakers to the TV so that they work as an audio system for the Google TV Streamer. It is simple in practical terms, but the result is not convincing. The speakers have a form of surround sound, but for it to be really prominent, a number of things first need to be fulfilled. I connect the speakers to the TV, plug the two cords into a socket behind the TV and then I get instructions on the TV screen. I get to specify how far apart the speakers are, on which side of the TV, but I also get instructions that they should stand a certain length from the TV itself, and it becomes more difficult, because the speaker’s power cord of only one and a half meters in combination with my TV cabinet simply limits the placement very much. I can certainly hear when the surround sound is active, but it is never particularly noticeable. There is not much that distinguishes the sound in the pair of speakers from what I already have built into the TV itself.

In addition to voice instructions, you can also control the speaker by pressing it directly. A press in the middle pauses or starts the music and a press on one of the sides lowers or raises the volume. As there is no indication of this directly on the speaker, it can be difficult to dot correctly, but when you touch the speaker, small lights will light up to guide you. The position for the volume change is on either side of where the power cable enters.

While testing the speaker, I have a couple of Google Nest cameras connected to evaluate how smart the Gemini actually is. Mobil’s big guide to Gemini for Home can be found here. (PLUS) After all, it should be able to give me reports on what is happening in the home and interpret and summarize what the cameras have seen. There, I notice both advantages and pure inaccuracies. It’s convenient to have everything gathered in the Google Home app, and although I get a lot of correct interpretations, “Erik Mörner is making the bed”, “Erik Mörner comes in with two bags”, there are also reports of “a person moving around the house while Erik is sleeping in the bedroom”, which when I double-check the video material is not correct at all.