Google Assistant is widely considered one of the best virtual assistants out there. Alexa may be better at smart home functionality thanks to its many integrations; however, Google Assistant is one of the best smart speakers for your home and a more socially adept virtual assistant. Subsequently, finding a smart display compatible with Google Assistant should be easy, right?

Actually, there are only a select few smart displays compatible with the popular virtual assistant and updated enough to warrant your attention. We'll cover your best options when it comes to smart displays that work with Google Assistant. Depending on what you're looking for, the choice should be clear.

There was a time when it seemed like Google's smart displays were going to be a big player in the future of the company's smart home infrastructure, but now, the future of the smart display is looking a little bleak. The list of best Google Assistant smart displays used to be quite long, with multiple brands offering different features. Companies such as JBL, Lenovo, and Bose, among others, provided access to Google's robust digital assistant. However, the list has significantly dwindled with Google ending support for third-party smart displays in April 2023. Plus, Google hasn't released a new smart display in a while, making us wonder if it ever has any attention to launching a new one — only time will tell.

Still, a smart display could be a worthy piece of tech to have around the house if you like interacting with your various smart home accessories (though that capacity is a bit limited) all in one central location that isn't just your smartphone. Google does still have a few options to choose from if you are in the market for a bedside control center. Here are the best smart displays you can use with Google's assistant.

The best Google Assistant smart displays in 2023

Google Nest Hub 2nd Generation on white background angled
Google Nest Hub 2nd Generation
Best overall

Best value in 2023

$60 $100 Save $40

The Google Nest Hub 2 is a reasonably priced smart display that controls smart home devices via Google Assistant. Its most interesting feature is Soli technology used for sleep tracking. It tracks sleep more accurately than wearables. Clock functionality is loud enough to wake anyone, and voice control is simple and effective. It utilizes machine learning to keep the most common commands at the ready, streamlining the experience. However, it falls short in some areas, such as playing music and video calls. Overall, it is a great choice for a capable and affordable smart display that supports sunrise alarms.

With the future of smart displays in question, it's important to make sure you don't overspend on a product, and that's why the Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) is our top pick for anyone buying a smart display in 2023. The Nest Hub's 7-inch display is just 1024x600 resolution and isn't going to be the sharpest screen you've seen — chances are your smartphone has a better resolution — however, you usually use the Nest Hub at arm's length, making the lower resolution less of an issue. The good news is the minimum brightness is very dim, which is great for a device that you want to be visible during the night without being a disturbing light to your eyes. The Nest Hub comes with Ambient EQ, a color calibration technology developed by Google that adjusts the display to the ambient light in your surroundings. This feature prevents the Hub from emitting too much blue light during the evening, which is especially important for a display in your bedroom. It is even more crucial than it is for a display in your living room or kitchen.

The device boasts a screen that appears to float elegantly in front of its sleek, angled base, which houses the speaker. While audio is not the device's primary focus, it still delivers a predictably flat and middle-of-the-road sound quality. However, it does have a slightly more pronounced bass than its first-generation counterpart and is on par with the Nest Mini speaker. The volume can be cranked up to surprisingly loud levels, making it perfect for deep sleepers who wanna use it as an alarm. The device is perfectly suited for interacting with Assistant, setting alarms, playing white noise, and occasionally listening to music.

Its $100 MSRP is a decent price, but you'll often be able to find this display for much cheaper — especially during popular sales events. I would caution buying it at full price if you can avoid it, but it's not an outrageous price if that's all you can find it at.

google nest hub max pictured at an angle
Google Nest Hub Max
Premium pick

If you want to go all-in on a smart display

$159 $229 Save $70

The Google Nest Hub Max is a top-notch smart display and an exceptional smart home hub. It offers wide compatibility with multiple smart home brands, enabling you to automate your lighting, robot vacuums, home security, and other smart home devices with ease.

Google's Nest Hub Max is the smart display to get if you really want to go all-in on the smart home capabilities that the company offers. While the Nest Hub and the Nest hUb Max two share many of the same features like Ambient EQ and smart home controls, the Hub Max steps up with a camera, better audio, and a much larger screen. The display is higher resolution than the Nest Hub at 1280 x 800, which is about 150 pixels per inch, noticeably sharper than the standard Nest Hub, but still not super smoother if you get right next to the screen.

The speakers are located in the base and the Hub Max boasts a soft fabric covering. The fabric is noticeable under the display bezel, but it's otherwise inconspicuous. The most striking aspect of the Hub Max's design is the inclusion of a camera in the center of the top bezel. Additionally, there are microphones, a light sensor, and a status LED situated on the top of the device. On the back of the display, you'll find a volume rocker and a switch that can be used to disable the camera and microphone.

The camera is the big selling point of the Hub Max; however, it's pretty lackluster as a security camera. You need lots of light to clearly seen what's going on through it's small little sensor. So, while we don't recommend the Hub Max for people looking for a security camera/monitor, it is pretty decent for video calls on Duo.

Last thing: It's not cheap. Its full price tag rings at around $230, but you'll typically find it for well under $200 because it's older tech now. Basically, don't buy it at full price; it's probably not worth it that way.

Google Pixel Tablet docked with hub
Google Pixel Tablet
Best Alternative

The smart display-tablet hybrid

$399 $499 Save $100

The Google Pixel Tablet also offers a full-on portable Android slate with a magnetic dock that charges the device and turns it into a smart display. It's a neat concept, and while it doesn't nail everything 100%, it's not a bad pick if you don't like the limited power of a normal smart display.

The Google Pixel Tablet is a much-awaited tablet by the company, which has finally arrived. It is a mid-range device that boasts a decent 60Hz LCD screen, stereo speakers, and impressive performance due to its Tensor G2 chipset and 8GB of RAM, similar to the Pixel 7 series.

However, what's even more fascinating is the Charging Speaker Dock that comes bundled with the tablet. Dock the Pixel Tablet on there and it transforms the slate into a quasi-smart display in Hub mode, where it can accept Hey Google commands and function as a Chromecast target for audio and video. Moreover, the sound is routed through the dock's speaker, providing an extra boost to the tablet's mediocre built-in speakers.

At $499, it's certainly a little pricey, and when it comes to the best Android tablets there's perhaps better out there, but you can't deny its multifunctional use case isn't interesting. Plus, we've seen it go down to $399 a lot lately, which we think is a little more inline with what the Pixel Tablet offers.

Are smart displays worth it?

As you have probably discovered, smart displays are more expensive than smart speakers. This is because smart displays come with a high-quality touchscreen, which understandably increases the price. Whether a smart display is worth the additional cost depends on your experience with smart devices. If you find yourself frequently asking your Google Assistant-powered device to repeat itself, missing important information, or wishing for a visual accompaniment to better understand commands and explanations, then we would definitely recommend considering a smart display. Smart displays provide an extra layer of information to complement your smart assistant's responses.

Who is better, Alexa or Google Assistant?

Our virtual assistant research found that Google Assistant is the better virtual assistant — it provides more comprehensive answers, responds correctly more often, and integrates seamlessly with other Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar. However, we noted that Alexa is better for smart home functionality, as the app store provides many more integrations to enable your smart home to do much more.

Is a smart display better than a tablet?

To be clear, smart displays are not an adequate replacement for a tablet. While they can be used for work and entertainment, smart displays are typically better for improving the virtual assistant experience rather than being a viable screen option for day-to-day life. In addition, their streaming service functionality is often quite limited, and the ability to work on them is nonexistent. Simply put, if you're in the market for a tablet, stick to the best Android tablets and save the smart display for another time.

The best Google Assistant smart displays

With so few and varied options for Google Assistant-enabled smart displays, your choice should be pretty clear depending on what you want. If you're looking for a smart display for your kitchen or living room and don't have unlimited funds, the Google Nest Hub is your go-to option. It offers all the Google Assistant functionality you'd want out of a central hub smart display, including a big display, good enough audio quality, and motion sensing functionality to give you the whole experience.

If you're a bit less restricted by budget, Google Nest Hub Max is an easy recommendation with improved audio quality, gesture and face-matching technology, and a better display. However, that price tag will definitely hurt your wallet, so if you're worried about price, there are two other great options on this list for your budget.

The lack of Google Assistant smart displays also means that if you don't see one you like now, you might be better off grabbing one of the plentiful and wonderful Google Assistant speakers and enjoying the richer sound while waiting for future displays to arrive. We're coming up on 18 months since the last Nest Hub was released and three years since the Nest Hub Max launched, so Google's about due for some upgrades. However, we might have to wait until 2023 if the tablet they briefly teased at Google I/O 2022 is the next evolution of Google Assistant displays.