Amazon, Google, and Apple remain the major players in the US smart speaker market, though each ecosystem offers distinct trade-offs in price, features, and compatibility. Google recently released its first new smart speaker in years, the Google Home Speaker, while Amazon raised prices on several Echo models at the end of August, affecting consumer costs across its lineup.
The Google Home Speaker, priced at $100, delivers powerful sound for its small size and is available in multiple colors. It uses Google Gemini as its default assistant rather than the older Google Assistant, and Gemini provides more human-sounding answers but can be long-winded. While Gemini for Home is free, some features require a paid subscription called Google Home Premium, which has two tiers: Standard at $10 monthly or $100 yearly, and Advanced at $20 monthly or $200 yearly. The paywalled Gemini Live feature enables a conversational mode, which the reviewer found worked well but was not something they expected to use outside of testing.
Amazon’s new Echo Dot Max, which launched in late 2025, combines a compact design with strong audio quality and a built-in smart-home hub. It supports both Alexa and the newer Alexa+, and it performed similarly to the larger Echo Studio in testing. However, Amazon increased the Echo Dot Max’s price by $20 to $120, and the Echo Dot (5th Gen) rose from $50 to $80. The reviewer expressed disappointment about the Echo Dot’s increase, noting that sale prices will likely only drop to around $50 rather than the lower discounts seen previously, making it a less attractive buy at its new price.
For users seeking a screen, the Google Nest Hub Max remains a favorite 10-inch smart display, doubling as a digital photo frame with Google Photos. It has solid sound from two 10-watt tweeters and a 30-watt woofer, plus a camera for video calls and gesture controls, though there is no physical cover for that camera. The interface is cleaner than Amazon’s Echo Show 11, with no on-screen ads, but the Nest Hub Max is currently out of stock at all retailers, and there is no word on when it might return.
Amazon’s Echo Show 11 offers a larger screen and built-in smart home hub with spatial audio, and it comes with Alexa+ without a waiting list. Its downsides include on-screen ads and preset content that must be toggled off. The reviewer also noted that Google’s Gemini Live works on the Google Home Speaker and all three versions of Google’s smart displays, including two iterations of the Nest Hub, while the Google Pixel Tablet with its charging dock uses Gemini as well.
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