After releasing a lone Home smart speaker in 2016, Google added two new products to the mix in 2017 in the form of the Home Mini and the Home Max.
The first two - Google Home and Google Home Mini - have had prices slashed for Black Friday to compete with the Amazon Echo, while the Google Home Max is yet to launch.
While they all have Google Assistant built in - meaning they can carry out the same tasks - they have very different designs and specifications which will determine where you put them around your home and what you use them for.
Here's everything you need to know about Google's trio of Home speakers to help you work out which Google Home is right for you.
Google Home Mini
- Availability: UK (from Currys; Chalk, Charcoal), US (from BestBuy)
- Price: £49/$49 (discounted to £34 for Black Friday)
- Dimensions: 42 x 98mm, 173g
- Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth, Chromecast and Chromecast Audio
- Audio: 40mm speaker driver
- Audio formats: HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, FLAC, WAV, Vorbis
- Google Assistant: Yes (Always-on/always-listening/voice-activated)
The Home Mini is, at its name suggests, rather small in size. Like the Amazon Echo Dot, it's a small puck-like device that is available in three colours: chalk, charcoal and coral, but unlike the Home, the fabric covers aren't interchangeable.
Thanks to its diminutive size, the Home Mini can be placed virtually anywhere and even kept out of sight if you wish. It can load up content on any Chromecast device, giving you voice-controlled access to movies and TV shows from supported services.
The Home Mini gives you access to all those Assistant-powered features, so it's a smart home control device, it's an entertainer and a play thing, it's a quiz master, a reference tool and so much more. It's everything the big Google Home is without the larger speaker.
Read the full review: Google Home Mini
Google Home
- Availability: UK (from Currys, Argos), US (from BestBuy)
- Price: £129/$109 (discounted to £78 for Black Friday)
- Dimensions: 142.8 x 96.4mm, 477g
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5Ghz)
- Audio: 2-inch speaker driver, dual 2-inch passive radiators, dual microphones with far-field voice recognition
- Audio formats: HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, WAV, FLAC, Vorbis
- Google Assistant: Yes (Always-on/always-listening/voice-activated)
The Google Home is the "regular" sized version in Google's repertoire. It's the original member and the one that will likely be most popular because of the way it blends style and function. Usually priced at £129, it's seen a big £50 reduction in the Black Friday sales to help it compete with the Amazon Echo.
It sports a design that's reminiscent of an air freshener, with a slightly bulbous bottom that tapers in towards the top. On the angled top of the Home there is a touch-sensitive surface that can be used to control a variety of functions. You can also change the colour of the base to suit your style.
It's sound quality is good, but nothing to shout home about, so you likely won't be using it as your main party speaker, even if it is a step-up from the Home Mini. It offers all the connected functions of Google Assistant, so it's a natural smart home hub, letting you control all your devices, as well as accessing a wide-range of Google services, information and giving you control of your Chromecast.
Read the full review: Google Home
Google Home Max
- Availability: US only (from BestBuy, Google Store, Walmart)
- Price: $399
- Dimensions: 336.6 x 190 x 154.4mm, 5.3kg
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5Ghz), Bluetooth 4.2, Chromecast and Chromecast Audio, USB-C, 3.5mm auxiliary
- Audio: 2 x 4.5-inch dual voice coil woofers, 2 x 0.7-inch tweeters, microphones with far-field voice recognition
- Audio formats: HE-AAC, LC-AAC+, MP3, WAV, FLAC, Vorbis, Opus
- Processor: 1.5GHz Quad-core ARM
- Google Assistant: Yes (Always-on/always-listening/voice-activated)
Google Home Max is max by name and max by nature. It has been designed to be the life and soul of a party, delivering high-quality sound that can go loud when you need it.
We haven't been able to hear it yet, so can't vouch for Google's claims, but considering the sheer size of the speaker, coupled with the drivers and Google's audio processing, we certainly have high hopes for it.
As it's on the large size as far as wireless speakers go, finding a home for the Home Max could be tricky. We imagine most people will put one in their living room or bedroom, or multiple speakers around the home to create a full multi-room system. However, at the moment it's only on pre-order in the US, with no word on availability in the UK yet.
Conclusion
The Google Home is the original and, in our view, the best of both worlds. It can be used to control all manner of smart home products (like the other Google Home speakers) but has a decent-sized speaker to cater for the majority of audio tasks. Better yet, it's available right now in the UK and the US and has been heavily discounted in price.
The Google Home Max looks set to be a seriously powerful speaker, which when combined with Google Assistant could make it the only one you need in your home for entertainment. Unfortunately, you need to live in the US to be able to get one at launch, which is still to happen. It will be coming to the UK in 2018.
The Google Home Mini is small and cheap enough to go into any home. It has the same power and features of Google Assistant as its larger siblings, but in a much more manageable size. That makes it cheap, but the Home Mini is very much about talking to Google, rather than being used as a full-time music speaker.