Google Home Mini Smart Speaker

If you’re someone wanting to be a part of Google’s smart ecosystem, the Google Home Mini is your cheapest ticket in. Priced at just Rs. 4,499, the smart speaker is a shrunk version of the actual Google Home and comes equipped with all the bells and whistles. However, is it actually as good as Google claims it to be, or should you pass on this? Let’s find out as we take a deeper look at Google Home Mini:

Google Home Mini Specifications

Before we get to the review part, let us get the specifications out the way. Despite its small size and cheap price tag, the Google Home Mini comes with some pretty good hardware, which you can check out below:

Dimensions 98 mm (diameter) and 42 mm (height)

Weight 173 g

Power cable 1.5 m

Colors Chalk, Charcoal, Coral

Supported Audio Formats HE-AAC, LC-AAC, MP3, Vorbis, WAV (LPCM), Opus,

FLAC with support for high-resolution streams (24-bit/96 KHz)

Wireless 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz/5 Ghz) Wi-Fi

Bluetooth® 4.1 input support

Chromecast and Chromecast Audio built-in

Speaker 360 sound with 40-mm driver

Mics Far-field voice recognition supports hands-free use

Power 5 V, 1.8 A

Ports Micro USB port

Supported OS Android 4.4+, iOS 9.1+

What’s in the Box

Google Home Mini comes in a compact white little box, owing to the smart speaker’s compact size. Everything is minimal, and the package contains all the basic essentials, such as:

Google Home Mini

Power Adaptor and Cable

Quick Start Guide

Design and Build Quality

The basic idea behind the Google Home Mini is minimalism, and Google seems to have nailed it on that front. The Google Home Mini is a no-nonsense smart speaker. On the surface, you have this nice fabric finish on top, accompanied by a non-skid silicone base.

While the fabric on top occupies most of the surface, it is there for more than just looks. The surface is actually conductive to your touch in a few areas to allow for easy interaction. You can tap on the top of the surface to pause and/or resume play. Additionally, both the left side and right side can be used to decrease and increase the volume respectively.

Hidden underneath the fiber are 4 LEDs that light in a bright white color when listening or responding to your commands. It also switches to the Google color tone of Blue, Red, Yellow, and Green, but that is only while booting up.

Talking about the bottom section of the device, the Google Home Mini features a microUSB port for supplying power to the device. Next to it is the microphone toggle which allows you to enable or disable active listening, rendering the device responsive only to physical interaction.

At its base, the Google Home Mini features a circular rubber mat to keep still on whichever surface that you place it on. Apart from Google’s branding and a few certifications, it also features the reset button, should you manage to screw things up in a tremendous manner.

All in all, Google has managed to incorporate a lot inside this tiny little speaker. It looks plain and simple on the surface but houses a lot of features.

Audio Quality

Having used the Amazon Echo Dot previously, my expectations from the Google Home Mini in terms of audio quality weren’t really high. I thought it would be just another smart device that has a speaker to just respond to my queries. But boy, was I in for a surprise! Turning on the device initially and listening to that Google tone cleared half of my doubts then and there only. Thereafter, I set up the device with my Google Play Music account and started streaming some songs. And I can assure you, the experience was more than overwhelming.

The Google Home Mini packs in a 40-mm driver which the company claims to deliver 360-degree sound. In my experience, the sound was really great. There isn’t any artificial boost of any kind. The sound delivered was natural, with all the levels balanced. Yes, it is not a thing for bass lovers, but then again, the bass in the sound was pretty evident. But most importantly, the audio from the Google Home Mini is super loud. I can actually use the Google Home Mini as a proper speaker replacement for my home, it is that good.

Conclusion :

So, would I recommend the Google Home Mini to you? Absolutely! It is a smart speaker that actually has the capability to replace your household speaker. The Google Home Mini comes with Google Assistant to help you with all your chores and day to day tasks, as well as having an answer to almost all of your queries.