Google Nest Review, feature specs

Amazon has also been rolling out Alexa-powered smart speakers which compete with Google’s for a space in your home. To keep up, Google has now rebranded the Home lineup under its Nest subsidiary. The second – gen Home Mini is now known as the Nest Mini, and has been upgraded. It goes up against the Amazon Echo Dot 3rd generation, but does it have the chops to stay on top? We review it to find out..

Pros

• Wall mountable
• Louder than the Google Home Mini
• Good voice recognition

Cons

• Average audio quality
• Sounds shrill at high volumes

Google Nest Mini Design and features

Google has retained the core design of the Home Mini but has made a few small changes. At first glance, it is near impossible to distinguish between the old Google Home Mini and the new Nest Mini.

The speaker still has a fabric top which is made out of recycled plastic bottles. Google offers the Nest Mini in four colour options: Chalk, Charcoal, Coral, and Sky. We had the Coral colour variant for this review. The capacitive controls for this speaker are hidden beneath this fabric layer. There are four LEDs that light up when you power the device on, and when you summon the Google Assistant.

Just like the old Google Home Mini, the play/pause button is in the centre. The volume control buttons are on either side, and are now backlit to make them easier to hit.

Google Nest Mini performance and sound quality

A quick “Ok Google” command is enough to wake the device up. We did not notice any significant lag when waking the device up from idle. Speech recognition is quite good, and it could pick up our commands accurately even in a crowded room. 

Verdict

If you already have a Google Home Mini, it wouldn’t be worth replacing it with a Nest Mini, but if you are looking to buy a new smart speaker, you should definitely consider the newer model. Audio quality isn’t the best, but smart speakers at this price don’t sound great anyway. The Google Assistant is what helps it stand out thanks to great voice recognition, and integration with the Google Ecosystem.