The first Google Home Speaker in years has Gemini, costs $99, and arrives soon

Google's first smart speaker in years is finally here.

Or, it will be when it launches on June 25, anyway. Google finally gave us all the details on the new Google Home Speaker, which it says is the first smart speaker in its portfolio that was built with Gemini AI commands in mind. The device costs $99 and comes in four colors: Hazel, Porcelain, Jade, and Berry.

The news from Google also confirms a leak from earlier this month, though now we have additional details and photos.

As expected, since Google first teased the product last year, this is very similar to the old Nest line of smart speakers in appearance, but it is now a Gemini-powered device. That means it can (theoretically) take natural-language commands that are more complex than what the old Google Assistant devices could do. One example given in Google's press release was "turn off all the lights except my bedside lamp." You'll also be able to string multiple commands together in one sentence.

The main problem with all of this is that $99 doesn't get you access to everything this speaker can do.

If you want all the tricks, you'll need a Google Home Premium subscription (which starts at $10/mo) in order to access conversations with Gemini Live or to ask about things happening on any Nest cameras you have installed. There's also a Home Brief feature that can catch you up on anything that happened around the house while you've been gone, but that seems to be locked behind Home Premium, too.

On the plus side, users who already have a subscription to Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription plans will automatically get access to Google Home Premium at no extra cost. If you're on the more expensive AI Ultra plan, you'll additionally get access to Google Home Premium Advanced, also at no extra cost.

One potential issue here is the efficacy of AI voice commands. Last year, users of previous Google Home products complained about Gemini being worse at taking commands than Google Assistant was. It's been a year, and this is a new generation of more powerful hardware, so that doesn't necessarily mean the new Home Speaker will succumb to these same problems. However, Google may need to earn back some goodwill with the new speaker