Google just kicked off the next era of the smart home with its new Google Home Speaker. It costs $139.99 in Canada and it’s basically the front door to Google’s whole Gemini AI setup. Google sent over a unit in Hazel (it’s a dark grey) to try out, which has a nice earthy look to it. Canadians get a choice between Hazel and Porcelain, while our friends in the US get four colours to pick from, including two Google Store exclusives, Jade and Berry (lucky).
Here’s what stood out after spending some time with it on the desk and in the kitchen.
Pull it out of the box and your first thought is probably “that’s a slightly bigger HomePod Mini.” It’s compact, wrapped in a seamless fabric mesh, and sits on a subtle translucent base.
The thing that really catches your eye is the light bar that loops around the bottom rim. It pulses with Google’s signature colours plus some unique contextual hues depending on what it’s doing, so you always know when it’s listening or responding.
The controls are hidden, but you figure them out fast:
Setup is quick, under two minutes through the Google Home app. Once you start streaming through Apple Music or Spotify, you get a 360-degree sound that fills the space near you and would do well in a small room.
The bass is the real surprise here. It punches way above its size and easily beats out speakers like the recent Sonos Play, which is bigger. For a bedroom or home office, the depth is satisfying.
There’s one weird quirk though. Overall music volume runs out of headroom at the top end, so songs can sound a touch quiet even cranked up. And for some reason, Gemini’s voice responses come through noticeably louder than the music itself. Google does throw in basic bass and treble EQ sliders in the app if you want to tweak things.
Also, if you have a Google TV Streamer? You can turn your living room into a mini home theatre with spatial surround sound using this speaker and pair up to two of them.
The real reason to buy this thing is Gemini, which gets better by the day. If you’re already living in Google’s ecosystem, this speaker gives you fast, hands-free access to it without ever reaching for your phone or laptop.
With a Google Home subscription, you get “Continued Conversation,” so you can ask follow-up questions back to back without saying “Hey Google” every single time. It’s genuinely sharp too. During testing, asking for World Cup party appetizer ideas had Gemini whip up an organized grocery list and drop it straight into Google Keep. It just worked.
At $139.99, you’re paying a premium over something like the old Nest Mini, but the jump in sound quality and how smart this thing is makes that extra cost worth it. The volume quirk on third-party streaming apps is a minor annoyance, and honestly, the market could really use a Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max successor running this same upgraded Gemini brain (place your bets, it’s probably coming).
If you want a smart home speaker that’s always ready to help and actually sounds good doing it, the new Google Home Speaker is an easy buy for your desk or kitchen counter. Once it goes on sale, possibly during Black Friday, that might be the time to jump on one, if you can wait.
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