Bought for my husband for Christmas. Neither one of us are techy. But the set up is a breeze and it's been a blast asking Google questions. He replies to me as a male and to husband as a female. I especially like asking him to play music, really nice sound, we now use it as a means of stereo

Google Home is an excellent entry into the burgeoning smart speaker race that's revving up between the big US technology companies. Amazon's Echo and Alexa have a head start, but Google's Assistant is highly capable in many ways, but strangely half-baked in others.

great understanding; can answer lots and lots of questions; good sound; small

variable volume makes control difficult; can't always hear you; not much good for a non-Google user; privacy concerns

Is Google Home worth buying Yes… so long as you're not expecting it to change your world

Great Design; Excellent Voice Recognition; Constantly Evolving Skill Set; Connects With LOADS of Third-Party Devices; Easy To Use; Great Price

Sound Isn't Great; No Call Functionality In UK Just Yet

The Google Home is the best all-round smart speaker you can get, offering a great balance of, price, design, sound quality and features. It answers all our questions, keeps us entertained and up to date, and even turns on and off our lights. It is quite literally one of the best and most exciting talking points our home has seen.

Looks classy, yet unobtrusive; You can control your home and music like Tony Stark; Search and translate functionality is brilliant; Can now recognise multiple users by voice;

Could sound better; Play Music doesn’t support adding to your library/playlists; You can’t add appointments, reminders, or send messages;

The Google Home was a joy to have some hands-on time with, however brief it may have been. The problem Google has on its hands with the device is choosing to focus heavily on its built-in AI, or more on supporting additional apps and smart hardware to make it more useful.

The Google Home is fun, functional, and should only get better with time.

It can be personalized to you; giving you info on your commute; weather; and calendar; Works with Chromecast; Answers questions and follow-ups fairly well; Lots of choices for music

Limited smart home control

Alexa is still the queen of voice assistants. Google Home is learning fast, and it does some things better than Alexa does. If you have a Google Play Music account and multiple Google accounts around your household, Google Home will give you a smoother multi-user experience.

Attractive design; Removable color bases; Well-rounded sound; Multi-room audio

Still fewer skills than Amazon's Alexa; Doesn't work as a standard Bluetooth speaker

For all intents and purposes, Google Home is pretty much a year old and needs to do more. In the U.S., the smart voice box has already been on the market long enough to give app developers time to implement the actions, but so far, the added value is limited to few areas.

Good music control; Accurate voice recognition; Integrates smart home devices from many different manufacturers

Does not use any Phillips Hue scenes; Too few compatible apps

Both wildly intelligent and supremely versatile in the ways in which it can be used, Google Home is evolving quickly compared to the Amazon Echo but it still has to make a few changes to catch up – starting, perhaps, with better integration with Google's own services.

Customizable base; Massive song library; Expanding hardware ecosystem; Six-month YouTube Red trial in US

Missing Google's own services; Phrasing needs to be precise; Google Cast support needs work