To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
- Cheaper than Echo
- Wide IoT support
- Easy to use
- Some features unavailable in UK
Google Home is the firms feature-packed digital butler. It will help with your organisational missteps, play soothing tunes, boost your pub quiz chances, dim your lights with the power of your voice and generally take of anything you may want a smart speaker to do. But you want to know the best thing? Google Home isnt just a gimmick. Google Home is the future.
I was never sold on Amazons Echo. The idea of having some strange circular tower in my home that listened in on my every conversation didnt interest me. It doesnt help that its so insistent on promoting Amazons own shopping services, either. Google Home, thankfully, has no such motive.
The concept of the digital assistant is nothing new to Google, of course. Google Assistant and, before it, Google Now have been at our beck and call for a few years now. Googles gone all sci-fi thriller on us in 2017, though, transferring its AI consciousness into physical form. This is Google Home.
Google Home review: Price and competition
Google Home has some stiff competition in Amazons Echo, which had a five-month head start on it, certainly in UK homes. If youve already invested in Echo, Google Home might be a hard sell. The Home costs £129, whereas the new and improved Amazon Echo is currently going for £90.
Amazons digital assistant does come in even more distinct flavours, too there’s the cheaper, dinkier Echo Dot, the smart-home-focused Echo Plus, the Echo Spot and the Echo Show. Likewise, Google offers another Home alternative, in the form of the Google Home Mini.
Google Home review: Design
Of the two main systems, I prefer the look of Google Home. It looks a bit like one of those motion-activated air fresheners and, while it wont go poof! when you walk by, it does blend right in. At least, far better than Amazons stark black cylinder, and its significantly more compact, too. You can even swap out the base with a colour of your choice, for it to blend in (or stand out) even more.
As far as physical buttons go, theres just the one: a large microphone mute button on the back, should you be a little privacy-conscious and dont want Home listening in on you 24/7. Theres also a capacitive touch panel on the top, which you can use to adjust the volume with the speakers four LED indicator lights changing to a radial volume indicator as you do so or play/pause your music with a tap. A long press and Home will start listening, saving you from having to bark OK Google prior to every request.
Google Home review: Features
If youre already invested in the Google platform, youll fit right in with Home. It syncs directly to your Google account and can help manage pretty much any aspect of it, should you let it.
Ask it any question and Home will answer. Ask: Tell me about my day and it will tell you the weather, inform you of any appointments and reminders you have coming up and will give you a quick rundown of the latest news via your chosen news source. Home is also a great resource for inquisitive minds, too. How far away is the moon? 384,400km from Earth if you were curious. Google knows everything.
Its not just a gimmicky trinket, either. Where Google Home excels is in its interaction with the other tech in your home. Its Chromecast pairing is wonderfully slick, able to cast Netflix shows straight to your TV with minimal effort. Want to skip forward 30 minutes to get to the best scene? You can do that. It works with all the usual apps, too, including BBC iPlayer, Now TV, Netflix and Spotify.
Home can connect to many IoT-enabled smart devices in your home, too, and youll be dimming your lights with the power of your voice and controlling your heating with Nest in no time flat. Theres a long list of third-party devices you can connect to, from Samsung SmartThings to Philips Hue and, excitingly, anything that supports IFTTT as well.
Now, it could be my thick Lincolnshire accent, but I found Home wasnt so good at picking up a few of my commands. I was in the mood for Daft Punks Alive 2007 album on Spotify the other night, but Home insisted on playing Babybertè Live 2007 instead, whatever that is. It called me Nay-thon, too.
Another thing? Parts of the YouTube casting functionality dont yet work in the UK. Ask Google Home to play your YouTube watch later playlist, and it tells you its locked behind the paid-for YouTube Red service, something that isnt available in the UK.
One disadvantage Google Home has in comparison to Echo is that there arent quite as wide a choice of third-party integrations available. That should change over time, however, with developers able to produce their own integrations via Conversation Actions and the Conversation API.
Google Home review: Sound quality
When you link your Spotify account or Google Play Music collection, you can bark song requests at Home, but when it comes to audio quality this isnt much of a replacement for your £300 KEF Muo or £500 Zemi Aria.
Thats not to say the sound is poor far from it, in fact but I found it just a smidge too bass-heavy for my tastes. Theres not quite enough definition to pick up some of those subtle organ nuances in Hans Zimmers excellent Interstellar soundtrack, and mid-bass notes had a tendency to overwhelm rather than underpin.
Voices, for the most part, sounded crisp and clear, however, and audio wasnt quite so tinny at increased volumes. It goes plenty loud enough, too, and the sound it produces is still reasonably rich and detailed. Critically, its a better speaker than the Amazon Echo and its absolutely perfect for listening to podcasts, the radio and background music in the kitchen.
Google Home review: Privacy
As with any always-listening device in your home, you might be concerned about the potential for eavesdropping. But Google has made it clear that Home only listens for things you actually give it permission to listen out for, and points out that its only active once you shout OK Google at it.
Home can learn all sorts of details about you; your calendar, emails and family schedule, but only if you let it. In fact, at setup you dont have to grant any permissions at all.
And if you want to mute the mic, just press the button on the back. Regardless, if youre that concerned about Google knowing details about you, why pick up Home in the first place?
Google Home review: Verdict
If you havent already splashed out on an Echo, Google Home is an essential purchase. Aside from a handful of teething problems, its a remarkable little home helper, and one I cant recommend highly enough. Amazons Echo just isnt as all-encompassing as Home and, as such, no other personal assistant comes close.
One of the best things about Home is that its main purpose isnt in driving ecommerce or purchasing goods, as with Echo. Googles architecture is so much more fleshed out than Amazons, and its great to take full advantage of this.
Google Home has completely sold me on the idea of having a little digital butler in my home. I was initially put off by Echo its underlying purpose never really resonated with me but I can now see a future where these digital helpers become a fundamental part of the home. Google Home has shown me the way.
