Google Home Mini
Small on sound, big on functionality
The Mini looks as if Google turned the Home upside down, then smushed it down to size
Google’s Home Mini speaker comes equipped with Google Assistant, which is always at the ready to help you find answers, turn on the tunes, dim the lights, start a TV show and more by using your voice. In this way, the £49 Home Mini is exactly like the larger, more expensive Google Home (reviewed back in our August issue, #315). But that’s where the comparisons end. While the original Home makes for a solid standalone speaker from a performance standpoint, the Home Mini can’t hold its own as the sole sound maker in your house.
The soundstage, despite being pitched as 360°, falls rather flat. While skilled in pulling up the most obscure music you can think of from a wide variety of streaming services, the Home Mini has a difficult time doing them justice because of the speaker’s diminutive profile. Vocals and the like chime clearly, but come in at the expense of, well, everything else. This isn’t a problem if you have other speakers picking up the slack, but by itself, this one just isn’t mighty enough.
In spite of acoustic drawbacks, it’s impossible not to recommend the Mini. Its Assistant smarts, large list of features and low price make it easy to take the plunge.
The Google Home Mini looks as if Google turned the Home upside down, then smushed it down to size. As such, you’ll find the fabric texture on the top of this device, and the matte plastic on the bottom half.
The fabric mesh of the palm-sized Home Mini is responsive to your touch in a few areas. For example, tapping the top pauses and resumes play. Placing a finger on the left and right sides of the speaker lowers and raises the volume respectively. Whenever you navigate with your voice or touch, the Home Mini will illuminate four LEDs on its top to show that your action has been registered. There’s a Micro-USB port on its rear for power – the device is battery-free – and a microphone switch that enables you to turn off active listening. There’s a non-slip rubber mat on the base, and the unit comes in coral, chalk or charcoal colour options.
Great recognition
Thankfully, the Google Home Mini’s voice recognition doesn’t suffer from the scaleddown size and price. You can stream music through an assortment of apps like Pandora, Spotify and more. You can request it to pull up a YouTube video to Chromecast to effortlessly begin viewing. The Home Mini is also a smart home hub, so it can also integrate with Internet of Things (IoT) devices from the likes of TP-Link, Philips and Belkin.
Connecting the Mini is a breeze through the Google Home app, which offers resources that provide access to a wide variety of free audio content. Once your iPhone is paired with the Home Mini, it’s simple to begin listening. Either give the speaker a shout for some tunes, being as specific or vague as you like, or just hit the Cast button near the top to give your phone free reign to push its audio straight to the Home Mini.
If you’re in the market for an affordable AI assistant-cum-speaker, the Google Home Mini could be the answer. However, keep in mind that it’s best viewed as a supplement to the Home family.