Google has taken a few tips from Marie Kondo and tidied up it’s Home a little, moving its Smart IoT devices and speakers into a new Nest family, along the way they’ve also replaced the original Google Mini Home Speaker with the next-generation Google Nest Mini.
The Nest Mini now uses a round-pin power connector instead of micro USB, which means I can no longer power up the speaker with portable USB power source, though the bottom section of the speaker is now coated in a non-slip matt silicone and there’s a universal wall mount so you can place the Mini on a wall to free up table space.
The Nest Mini now comes with additional LED lights on both sides of the speaker, and it also delivers better bass than its predecessor – I thought that it was even better sounding than the Nest Hub. For voice assistant functionality, Google has also added a dedicated machine learning chip that enables the Mini to ‘hear’ voice commands better and process them faster than the first generation device.
The Nest Mini also has multi-room audio as well as stream transfer, so that with a voice command like “Hey Google, move my music to the bedroom speaker” you can shift your tunes to another speaker without having to restart your audio tract.
Verdict
Rating: 4.5/5
The Google Nest Mini is still the most affordable Google Assistant you can get in one small speaker.
S$79
store.google.com/sg
