For years, Google has been selling its insanely affordable smart speakers with great success, first under the name “Google Home Mini” and now under the name “Google Nest Mini.” Regardless of the current name, these multi-purpose speakers serve as both a gateway to the smart home via Google Assistant and a solid speaker that can be controlled with your voice or via your phone with Bluetooth.
The end result is an entry-level smart speaker that doesn’t have the same power or clarity as, say, the Apple HomePod, Amazon Echo Studio or Google Home Max, but its low cost and spectacular features make it a great entry point for people just getting into voice control and smart home automation.
Despite the Nest Mini’s affordable sticker price, nothing about its design suggests it’s a cheap speaker: The design is modern, clean and unobtrusive, especially if you buy it in a subtle color like Chalk (off-white) or Charcoal (gray-black). Of course, if you want to spice things up with the two colorful options – Coral (pink-red) or Sky (light blue) – you can, but these may not suit every living room decor.
Regardless of the color you choose, the Nest Mini has a fabric mesh on top that covers three touch-sensitive buttons for increasing and decreasing volume and play/pause. On the bottom, there’s a rubberized base that complements the mesh and hides a microphone mute button on the back next to the power port. Last but not least, you’ll find a spot on the bottom for a universal mount for easy hanging on the wall – a first for Google’s speaker.
What you won’t find on the Nest Mini is a 3.5mm output, which could theoretically be plugged into any other speaker, or an aux port where you can plug in your phone or MP3 player to amplify your music. You’ll find the former on the Amazon Echo Dot (3rd generation), which launched a year before the Nest Mini, and the latter on last year’s new Amazon Echo. That neither feature is found on the Nest Mini feels like a bit of a misstep.
While the addition of Bluetooth is great, the primary way to interact with the Google Nest Mini is, of course, Google Assistant. If you’ve tried other virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, or Bixby in the past, or have tried Google Assistant on another Android device, you’ll know what to expect here – a solid assistant that can access your calendar to schedule appointments, set reminders and timers, control music from popular streaming services, connect to some smart TVs, and answer many – but not all – of the questions you may think of in your daily life.
Setting up and using Google Assistant has improved a lot in the last three and a half years since its introduction. It’s really as simple as downloading the Google Home app if you haven’t already, signing in with your email, and assigning it to a room.
