The Google Home Speaker is now the easiest and most affordable way to get Gemini into your smart home, but how does it perform against the device it’s meant to replace – the Nest Mini?
To clear things up, the Nest Mini is perfectly capable of offering a serviceable Gemini experience, but the image of having a fluid conversation via Gemini Live is not one you’ll get with the Nest Mini. As Google continues to expand the function of its AI model and outperform what Google Assistant was capable of, we get a new small-ish speaker, positioned as a fair replacement.
Related: Google Home Speaker review: Talk Gemini to me [Video]
In design, both devices bear some appealing similarities. Google chose to keep the fabric accents and go for a small profile, though the new Google Home Speaker is several inches taller than the Nest Mini. Top-down, the profiles are about the same, and Google chose to keep the volume adjustment just as simple, with a tap on the right or left side to adjust.
Whether it’s down to new internals or a conscious decision to make a bigger model, the larger Google Home Speaker, on the other hand, is designed to be a more prominent part of your home decor. That said, it is not a major departure from the Mini’s hidden-hardware approach. To put it into perspective
