Google’s new Home Speaker is a hardware win held back by shaky AI

As a piece of hardware, the Home Speaker is a significant improvement over its predecessors. Its flattened, softball-sized design feels premium, and it manages to blend into kitchen counters or bedside tables without drawing attention. The device features an intuitive light ring and responsive touch controls, and while it lacks the deep bass of larger units like the Nest Audio, it delivers clear, room-filling sound that holds its own against rivals like the HomePod Mini.

However, the user experience falters once you start interacting with Gemini for Home. Despite being marketed as a conversational leap forward, the assistant is frequently slow, often taking up to 10 seconds to execute simple commands like adjusting lights. It suffers from inconsistency, occasionally hallucinating responses or failing to recognize basic requests that older, rigid systems handled with ease. With key features locked behind a $10-to-$20 monthly subscription, the Home Speaker currently feels like a promising foundation waiting for a software update to match its hardware potential.