The folks at iFixit have got their hands on the Google Home smart speaker, and have given it the full teardown treatment, resulting in some intriguing revelations.
Firstly, the device is essentially a slightly improved Chromecast from 2015 – which isn’t all that surprising considering Google said its internals would be based on the streaming dongle’s hardware.
Specifically, the Google Home uses the same flash memory, RAM, and processor as the second-gen Chromecast.
Related: Google Home: Your complete guide to Google’s smart speaker
Of course, there are differences between the two devices beyond the housing, one of which concerns the smart speaker’s audio capabilities.
Google has added an audio amplifier to the mix, but more interestingly, the speaker only comes with two far-field microphones for picking up voice commands.
Amazon’s rival device, the Amazon Echo, comes with seven microphones, which seems to back up the company’s claims it can recognise voice commands in noisy environments.
We’re yet to try out Google’s alternative, but will definitely test it to see how it performs in loud situations where voice recognition could be an issue.
When it comes to the speaker, the Google Home uses one 2-inch drive with two 2-inch passive radiators, whereas Amazon’s device uses a 2-inch tweeter alongside a 2.5-inch woofer.
Related: Amazon Echo review
Overall the team gave the Google Home an 8 for repairability, noting that Google has used ‘only standard screws and connectors throughout the device,” and that “minimal moving parts means there are minimal points of failure”.
Also working in the Google Home’s favour is the fact that it uses many modular components that can easily be replaced.
You can check out the full teardown and its results on the iFixit website, and stay tuned for our full review of the Google Home in the near future.
WATCH: Amazon Echo review
Let us know what you make of the teardown in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
