In 2017, Google showed off its smallest smart speaker, Google Home Mini and it was largely regarded as the best product for most people. Now, we’ve been able to spend a few weeks with the second generation, the Nest Mini, and we have no doubt that it’s the best option Google currently has on the market. Here are a few reasons why.
At first glance, it looks just like its predecessor, but a handful of new features make the still – RM178 Nest Mini an even better value. I’ve been using the Nest Mini in my home for the past few weeks and I think there are a few key reasons you should buy the newer model.
Design
Google’s design for the original Home Mini is cute and it fits well in almost any setting. With the Nest Mini, that design is essentially unchanged, just upgraded. There are four colors, swapping the Home Mini’s teal, which was called aqua, for a darker, gray-blue shade called sky. The coral, charcoal and chalk colors still remain.
On the outside of the speaker, you’ll find the same muting switch as before. However, there’s now a DC power jack instead of the Micro-USB that powered the Home Mini, so don’t assume your old Home Mini power cords will work interchangeably with the Nest Mini.
The biggest change you’ll notice in daily life with the new Nest Mini is how the top surface actually works. Previously, Google had two invisible touch targets for volume and media controls, but I know for a fact that people didn’t know how to use them. I had to explain to a few people I know how to use these controls. To fix that with the Nest Mini, Google tracks when you’re getting near the device and lights up the sides to indicate you can touch them for controls. In addition, it has extra touch area on the four central LEDs makes silencing alarms or pausing music a lot easier.
You’ll also get a wall mount on the back of this new smart speaker, something Google said was inspired by all the different ways users are placing, mounting and attaching smart speakers to surfaces in their homes.
Recycled materials
The body is made from 35% post-consumer recycled plastic and the top from 100% recycled plastic bottles, which is a step in the right direction.
Features
Improved Sound Quality
The biggest upgrade Google gave to the Nest Mini over the original Home Mini is its sound quality. This thing is just amazing for what it is.
Nest Mini has a 40mm 360-degree driver which is capable of a lot more than the previous generation. Google says that the product is much louder than the original with 2x stronger bass.
Vocals are clear, Google Assistant sounds great and details only start to get lost a little bit at maximum volume.
It is still a small speaker and cannot quite produce real, room-filling sound but it is pretty good for what it is – I enjoyed listening to it more than I anticipated.
Better Voice Recognition
On the Nest Mini, Google added a third microphone to the array. That extra microphone allows it to better drown out nearby noise and focus in on that hotword and your following command. In my experience, this does make a difference compared to older options, but not to a dramatic degree.
I think the Nest Mini can hear you just about as well as the Google Home Max. That’s no small feat as, in my experience, the Max hears me better than almost every other smart speaker. The only flaw on the Mini is that, unfortunately, it struggles greatly when music is playing — especially at higher volumes.
Google Assistant
Google’s voice assistant continues to lead the pack in terms of natural language understanding and capability.
Teach it your voice and it can distinguish between users, giving personalised results pulling from information in your Google account such as your calendar.
It will answer most questions, set timers and everything else you would expect from a voice assistant in 2020, including controlling most common smart home devices such as lights.
Inside the Nest Mini is a machine learning chip with up to one TeraOPS of processing power. This chip helps the speaker learn which commands are commonly repeated so it can respond to them without needing the cloud at all. Let’s say you turn on your kitchen lights or ask to play a specific song every day of the week at the same time. The Nest Mini learns those actions, stores that data locally and processes those commands without sending any information to Google’s servers.
Google Assistant
Google’s voice assistant continues to lead the pack in terms of natural language understanding and capability.
Teach it your voice and it can distinguish between users, giving personalised results pulling from information in your Google account such as your calendar.
It will answer most questions, set timers and everything else you would expect from a voice assistant in 2020, including controlling most common smart home devices such as lights.
Inside the Nest Mini is a machine learning chip with up to one TeraOPS of processing power. This chip helps the speaker learn which commands are commonly repeated so it can respond to them without needing the cloud at all.
Let’s say you turn on your kitchen lights or ask to play a specific song every day of the week at the same time. The Nest Mini learns those actions, stores that data locally and processes those commands without sending any information to Google’s servers.
Bottom Line
Aside from those minor, niche wishlist items, Google delivered an improved speaker. Keeping it at the affordable $49 entry-level price makes the Nest Mini an even better value than the Google Home Mini that came before it. The Google Home Mini was a great first smart speaker for anyone looking to add Google Assistant to their homes without spending a lot, and the Nest Mini is even better.
You can buy Nest Mini from the Lazada Store, and basically everywhere else too.
