Google’s first smart speaker in six years arrives next week

Google’s first new smart speaker in six years starts shipping on June 29th, narrowly missing its promised spring launch window . Preorders for the Google Home Speaker open today, June 17th. Nothing has changed hardware-wise in the nine months since the $99 speaker was announced . It has the same slightly squished round design, with touch-capacitive buttons on top and a light ring at the bottom to indicate status. And it still comes in four colors: porcelain (white), hazel (black), jade (green), and berry (red). The last two are US-only. $100 Google’s first smart home speaker in six years, built for Gemini for Home. It has 360-degree sound; two can be paired for stereo, or used with a Google TV Streamer for spatial surround sound. It’s also a Matter controller and Thread Border Router. It requires a Google Home Premium subscription for some features.