Google’s smart benchtop speaker and mesh WiFi network go on sale in Australia on Thursday, staking Google’s claim in the simmering smart home war with Amazon and Apple.
Selling for $199, the voice-activated Google Home speaker brings the talkative Google Assistant to life and is available via Google’s local online store as well as traditional brick and mortar retailers. The same goes for the Google WiFi hub, which sells for $199, or $499 for three, working in unison to fight WiFi blackspots in your home
Google Home gives the Amazon Echo (which still isn’t sold in Australia) a decent run for its money. It excels in abilities to have contextual command-driven conversations over the Echo’s rather stoic command driven interface.
Integration wise it connects with just a small portion of what’s available for the Echo at this point so if you’re a smart-home pioneer I’d probably recommend sticking with the Echo… for now.
As for Google WiFi, it’s another mesh-network product, they’re literally falling from the sky these days. It gets a pretty good rating from my go-to network guy Dong Ngo at CNET and if you’re someone with a big house and a bunch of black-spots in your coverage it could be a worthwhile investment.