The Google Home Speaker was officially announced last week, and this morning, Google lifted the review embargo for the new speaker. I’ve been using it for about a week now, and I can agree with others who received the device early. The biggest downside with this speaker is indeed the non-removable charging cable.
Google decided to go with a USB-C cable and a smaller USB-C wall wart compared to what they sell for the Pixel, but unfortunately, it is not removable from the speaker. Which some people are not to happy with.
To Google’s credit, they did make the cable pretty lengthy at about 5 feet long. Which is probably plenty of space for most people. But it being removable like the previous Google Nest speakers, like the Nest Mini, would have definitely been a nice feature.
Google Home Speaker pre-orders are available now, for $99
The Google Home Speaker does cost $99, which is a sizable price increase from the Google Home Mini (later known as the Google Nest Mini), but keep in mind that the Nest Mini originally came out a decade ago. So to see it double in price is not very surprising. Not to mention that it has far better audio and Gemini included.
Having Gemini included here is actually really big. No longer do you have to think about giving Google Assistant the correct command; Gemini can understand context and know what you meant to say. You can even interrupt Gemini, something you couldn’t do with Google Assistant. That alone is worth the upgrade in my book. Since getting the Google Home Speaker, I’ve been using Gemini way more than I normally would. Asking it things that I would have just picked up my phone and asked Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI. And that’s what Google wants.
The post The Google Home Speaker Has One Big Design Mistake, but Gemini Makes Up for It appeared first on Android Headlines.
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