The Google Home Speaker sounds good and looks great — but it’s finicky

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. For such a small speaker, Google’s $99 device packs a punch. But ‘speaker’ is only the beginning of the job. For such a small speaker, Google’s $99 device packs a punch. But ‘speaker’ is only the beginning of the job. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Right out of the box, the new Google Home Speaker passed a couple of important tests. Even with the volume at 100 percent and music blaring out of the speaker, it quickly ducked the audio and listened every time I said “Hey, Google.” In fact, in two days of testing, the speaker’s three microphones haven’t missed a single wake word — except for the time I stage-whispered to it from the other room while trying to avoid waking up the baby, but I’m not sure that’s a fair test. I set up the speaker in the bathroom and chatted with it from the s

Jun 24, 2026 → Jun 24, 2026