Customer Ratings & Reviews

What I like about this speaker is that it is more than just a Google Assistant because it also has good sound. Most of the other voice activated speakers do not have the sound quality that this one has. Here are the pros and cons as I see them. Pros. The speaker is good quality, heavy duty and sounds pretty good for a dual purpose speaker. Also, the speaker was super easy to setup out of the box and to use with our iPhones. Also, the Bluetooth connects easily and it is compatible with many of the music apps we already use. Cons. The biggest negative to me was that the Google Assistant will not play YouTube music unless you sign up for the paid subscription. I don't understand this since you can listen to music free on YouTube directly. I would also point out that this is due to Google and not any fault of the speaker. The only other thing I would change about the speaker is it's design. I prefer a sleeker looking speaker and this one reminds me of designs from prior decades, with its boxy shape. Overall, the speaker is a great value for the price and offers a lot of functionality and sound quality.

This was good replacement for my old alarm clock. My old clock still had a 30 pin dock on the top, and I haven't owned a phone that could sit in it for several years. This clock/speaker was a much needed upgrade. It has a USB port on the back, so it's easy to connect your phone cord to it and charge your phone over night. It was easy to setup through the google home app. It has a decent sound too. One minor con would be the clock is smaller than I care for, but can be read at a glance in the middle of the night. Overall, it's a decent alarm clock. My wife jokingly asked google the play a lullaby, and it sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". We both got a chuckle out of it.

I think it says something that my biggest complaint about this device is that it won't display World Time Format (24 hour clock), only legacy time format (am/pm 12 hour). I knew that before I bought my first one, I knew it bothered me on my first one, and I still bought a second one. But I believe this can be fixed with a firmware update. My recollection is that during setup, when it updating firmware, "LOAD" displays using a full 4 digit 7 segment display, not 3 1/2 digit (three full digits plus two extra segments on the left to display "1" or blank). So my hopes remain high. Whatever other frustrations or disappointments I have are with Google Assistant, not the Insignia product, and I think Google Assistant is sufficiently useful, and better than Alexa - they both strike me as Beta products that are both improving rapidly.

The Insignia Voice Smart Bluetooth speaker has Google Assistant. It is Best Buys own Google Home equivalent with a clock built in! The Speaker has great sound. The microphone can pick up my voice commands even in noisy environments. The soft blue green digits are not too bright to be annoying but bright enough to see in any light. The google assistant can be set up from the google home app on an android or IOS device. You can also add family members as guests so it recognizes their preferences when a voice command is given. You can stream music to the device through Bluetooth or let it play natively from the source you set up in the google home app. You can play news and other podcasts as well. If you want privacy you can mute the microphone from a button on the back of the device. There are hard volume keys on the top as well as the voice commands to control the volume. The wifi connected without difficulty and has maintained a stable connection. I am very pleased with this well built Speaker.

I have a couple of Google Home units, and they are awesome. Saw these on sale, and was attracted by the clock. Works very well on the bedside table, and the google assistant works just as well as the Google home units we have. Sound is good, and it looks very nice. Great unit!

I'm loving all the options in this space. Amazon Echo/Alexa is so limited to just the Amazon platform, but with these Google Assistant speakers you can get all kinds of devices from Android TV to Headphones and Speakers. This speaker is pretty decent. It's got a nice compact shape and size. The display is easily read and you can adjust the brightness on it which is good if you're putting it in a bedroom. The sound quality is a little muddy, but overall it produces a nice volume. You can't expect miracles out of a single tiny speaker. I'd say that the volume on this is superior to that of the Google Home mini and on par with that of the Google Home. As well, it has a bluetooth receiver in it for pairing up devices to it for music, etc. The speaker also has a built-in usb port with 1amp output for charging phones and the like. This is quite convenient for the bedside table. I'd recommend giving it a try if you're in the market for a new alarm clock/smart speaker.

Let me first say, that I bought these during one of the time that they were $24.99 which I will say is a truly amazing price. At this price I wanted to test the accuracy of an article I had encountered that indicated that these speakers could be paired to be right and left channels in the same manner as the Google Home Max speakers could. It's true, they can. When I initially set them up, they would not let me create a speaker pair. But after a day or two, I checked again and the option was available. I'm going to guess some kind of update happened in the intervening time. So, the speakers sound pretty good on their own, but as stereo channels, they sound great. If you find them on sale and you use Google Home they are a definite must buy. At the full list price, I'm going to say that the decision becomes less clear. It boils down to how much is stereo sound worth to you.

If you want a dim alarm clock, that has so much potential in terms of different times for different days, and ease of use- this is it. Just tell it when to wake you up, done. I told it "Hey Google, wake me up every weekday at 630am" ... BOOM. Set. On top of this, it is a smart speaker, so you can do many things with it. I probably won't use it personally, but you can say things like "Hey Google, I'm going to bed" and if you have the devices in the house.. you can turn the AC cooler, turn on the porch light, turn off the interior lights, and play soothing sleep sounds for white noise. Very cool. Same with waking up... "Hey Google, I'm up" and it will tell you the weather, turn on whatever lights, read you the news, or play music... Now, the sound isn't the best, but I got this (2 actually) for 25 bucks each... I'd pay that for an alarm clock on its own, so this was a steal for what it can do.

There are two factors to take into consideration when looking at this product. Hardware, and software. You are here because you are interested in the software, so let's discuss that first: 1. It has Google Assistant. The device will show up in your Google Home app. As a result, you can do *nearly* everything you can do with a Google Home. You can ask it questions, you can cast music (or even use Bluetooth), you can set alarms and timers, and you can interact with Google Assistant compatible smart home services, like Philips. 2. BestBuy owns Insignia. BestBuy also does not really update the software on its Insignia devices. Don't expect more that one update a year, if at all at this point. One one hand, this is not a big deal. Google Assistant still works. You may not get new Assistant features like Continued Conversation, but that may not bother you just as people who purchase a Home Mini aren't bothered by the fact that it does not display the time. On the other hand, this means that any features that break for some reason will likely remain broken. Take radio.com, for instance. My local radio stations are all on radio.com. My Insignia speaker decided to no longer play radio.com stations. It'll say "Sure! Playing [radio station] on radio.com...... Something went wrong." This was a drawback people were willing to accept in order to get a good clock/speaker that also has Assistant, for a competitive price. That will not be the case for long. Lenovo just announced an alarm clock with Google Assistant, and it will not be neglected like the Insignia. The hardware discussion is a bit shorter. It's fairly good. The mic picks up the hotword 90% of the time. The speaker is loud, but not great. I don't know how to describe it. When I make it loud enough for me to hear, certain music keys or voice pitches seem "sharp" and overly loud, while others are difficult to hear. There is no perfect volume on this device. In order for me to actually hear all of the syllables of a person speaking in a podcast, the volume has to be loud enough for people a floor below me to hear it as well. Bottom line: If all you require is an alarm clock that can occasionally play music and handle most Assistant commands, wait for this to go on sale for $25 (every couple of months or so) and get it. But if you're looking for a Google Assistant device that also displays the time, wait for the Lenovo product to be officially released. The Insignia works for all of the things you needed last year. But Google Assistant moved on, and you should as well.

I also own 2 google home in 2 of the bedroom and 1 google home mini in the kitchen. I left this unit in the living room since I bought it. However, back then, there were many issues. For example, the mic are overly sensitive and when I was activating google home from kitchen or bedroom, this unit actually picked up the command from the living room. Furthermore, the temperature was not shown unless you ask about weather. This was really inconvenient. However, to my surprise, it seems google and bestbuy had fixed these issues with software update one day. Now the speak will always show temperature and clock, which become such an useful feature that I decided to move this unit into my bedroom. (Since the unit in my bedroom is the most used one.) For the price of $25, this is way better value than any google assistant on the market!

I have an old (really old) alarm-clock radio that just up and quit, and finding this on sale was what clinched it for me (given that others were more expensive and didn't recognize voice). This is a good choice for plug in and voice activation of alarm to wake you up in the morning, ask for the next day's weather forecast, fall asleep to sounds of nature and other functions. I am going to say this .. a good choice for those who are now struggling with their vision (Voice activation is far more friendly given one has difficulty with small sized controls even seeing them). Also good for other disabilities (physical ones where you have such as arthritis). Putting this in guest room.

I'm impressed with the sound quality of this compared to my other official Google Home and Google Home Mini! The clock on the front is great if you're going to use this in a bedroom. I can't really see the need to spend the extra money on an official Google Home device!

I got mine for free as a special when buying a toaster over. I couldnt pass up. Positive: - its pretty loud for such small speaker. Great sound - it works as an extra google mini - much better design on a power plug (compared to the google mini with their badly designed round plug). Also pretty long cable. - Touch controls are pretty good Negative: - it doesnt recognize your voice all the time. Its as if the microphones were not that sensitive. There seem to be 2 microphones. It seems to do OK job on that so far (1 week in use) - it randomly disconnected my connected bluetooth phone while playing. Maybe it was my phone - Im not sure.

I love this voice activated speaker! I have it synced to my phone so I can listen to my play lists across pandora and Spotify. It’ll answer any question I ask to help me get ready for my day ~ traffic, weather and the news. Speaker quality is a lot for a smaller speaker. It’s great that the volume can even be controlled by my voice!

Having used both the Google Home and Google Home Mini, I was intrigued by the Insignia Voice Smart Bluetooth speaker since I had a display of some sort, and the price is lower than the original Google Home. I use the Google Assistant for everyday news, podcast, listening to Spotify but don't have usage for controlling smart appliances. From that use case, the Insignia speaker works as expected. The voice trigger seems a bit more sensitive that the Google Home. I place them in adjacent rooms, and whenever I was using the wake word from both rooms, and the Insignia was the first to response. The touch-enabled "surface" has three options - volume up and down, and another one to play/pause audio. Sadly, unlike the Google Home, it did not wake up for listening when I tapped that button - only voice wake-up works. Things may change with firmware update. I'm a heavy Spotify user and the Google Home has been doing a decent job - not the best sound, but not too bad either, given the size and convenience. However, the Insignia fell short of expectation - there was almost no bass making the sound kind of tinny. The volume was adequate, with tolerable noise at max volume. For voice audio (podcast), the nonexistence of bass was ok for me. Also, it worked well when grouped together with the Google Home (via the app). Bluetooth pairing is straight-forward and quick. I paired it with my smartphone once to check, but I mostly relied on the Google Cast option for playback. The display is what stands out over the Google Home. The ever-present clock is useful, and if you ask for the weather, it'll briefly show the temperature. I thing I could not use was the calling feature of the Google Home speaker. I thing the Insignia firmware does not support it right now. Overall, I am satisfied with the Insignia speaker. The display is useful as a clock, and except music playback and inability for voice calling, it works quite well out of the box. The price is also a strong point.

When I saw this online for $29.99 I had to order it on line and then pick it up in the store. I couldn't believe the price. What a deal. I have used it but not enough to give it a detailed review. When I have used it, I was very happy with the functionality. I don't think it is very user friendly as I had to look online to find out how to brighten the display. For the life of me, I could not figure it out. When I finally found it online, then I was very happy. I would recommend it. I like it very much for the amount of times I have used it. I hope this helps somewhat. Sorry I couldn't be more specific. I'm sure it does many more things than I am aware of and hopefully when I use it, I will be much more happy.

I purchased my "Insignia Smart Speaker NS-CSPGASP-G " on November 9th, 2018, from Best Buy, through Google Express. Pros. *****1. It sounds better than "Google Home Mini" for Music with significant bass content. *****2. It displays the Time, however I do wish it had a larger display of the time. Cons. *****1. It sounds Worse than "Google Home Mini" for "Voice content". i.e . . .More Muffled and less crisp sounding than the "Google Home Mini". *****2. It seems to use about 7 times more power at idle than the "Google Home Mini" according to the Kill-A-Watt meter at "Idle Conditions". In my opinion it is an excessive "Energy Vampire". Due to limitations of the "Kill A Watt" meter, I had to estimate Watts based on Volt-Amp measurements and assuming similar "Power Factors". . .See below. ***** *Average Wattage measured by "Kill A Watt" meter, by mjw A. Insignia Smart Speaker NS-CSPGASP-G IDLE 3 Watts 7 VA * A. "Google Home Mini" ............................... IDLE 0 Watts 1 VA * ******************************** B. Insignia Smart Speaker NS-CSPGASP-G Relaxing Music at 80%Volume 3 Watts 7 VA * B. "Google Home Mini" Rock Music at 80%Volume ........................................ 1 Watts 1 VA * *****3 The Volume control is tedious to use compared to the "Google Home Mini". . . Volume Changing, which changes in 1% increments. It seems it would be better in 5% increments. *****4. It sounds about 20% less Volume to me, than the "Google Home Mini" based on my usage for similar situations. It seems about 80% as loud as the "Google Home Mini" even though it uses much more power consumption. *****5. Too sensitive to Temperature. . .i.e. . .According to the Insignia Smart Speaker NS-CSPGASP-G "User Guide" . . . "18 The equipment shall be used at a maximum of 95° F (35° C) ambient temperature."

Insignia products *can be hit or miss. For the most part, I find they have great value when compared to the likes of cheap electronics/accessories at Walmart/sams etc. This speaker, I just picked up on sale for $39.99 and let met tell you, I own several bluetooth speakers (HK Onyx, JBL etc) and no this does not have the sound quality of a $400 speaker, surprise! What it does, is sound great! It's perfect for our crazy house with two kids two dogs and a stay at home mother. We often need a hands-free moment to change the mood, and being able to ask Google to lighten the stress with a playlist on our Spotify premium, and it just work, every time, is nearly priceless for us.

Had no trouble connecting to WiFi (must be on same router, not just same network, so if you have a repeater / range extender you might need to change router selection on your phone first). Set it up where you plan to use it, and choose the strongest WiFi signal in your house for your phone or tablet there first. After setup, I kept getting messages like "there was a glitch", or "sorry can't help with that right now, try again later". I figured it was defective and would have to take it back to BB. I wanted it to work so badly that I tried different things during setup. FINALLY found something that seems to fix that problem. At one point in the setup (and through the GH menu later), it asks if you want to use the same voice training that you have stored for your other devices. After changing to a new voice training (having to say OK Google and Hey Google a few times), it now works like it's supposed to... just like my other GH devices, a Home and two Mini's. To be honest, however, the speaker seems to lack highs, and the mid and bass sound a bit muddy. Listenable, just not as good as the Home unit that I have. Maybe the microphone is sub-par like the speaker, and that is what caused my setup problem. But... I wanted it for a bedside 'clock radio' that could play white noise and Pandora to get to sleep and as an alarm, and for that it works fine. Works well with my Philips Hue setup, too. To me, it is worth the forty bucks I paid for it on sale. IMO, it wouldn't be worth the full price. Lack of highs (with no means of equalization) has me at a 4 star review instead of 5 stars.

What a buy! I purchased this smart alm clock out of need for better clock that would assist in waking me in the am. My old buzzer clock would also startle my wife which made for an unhappy wife thus not too happy start to the day. I liked the features for the various alm settings. Most importantly the Google assistant feature. It has a voice recognition feature which allows my voice only that the Google assist will respond to. That's a nice feature and has my wife envious. Great buy but an unbelievable buy as a daily doorbuster! A must buy for tech savvy sleepers or just to add a Google hub to your bedroom.