Google home mini: reasons to buy one (our opinion)

Google Home Mini Design
Sound quality
Connectivity and services
Accuracy of responses
Something that plays in its favor is the fact that our Google Home account is linked to Gmail, so that the assistant can quickly store knowledge about our tastes thanks to the information in our browser, calendar, etc.
One last point is the question of learning . Google Home Mini may occasionally not answer correctly or not know the answer we need. However, the assistant will retain this question in their catalog and it is possible that if we ask it again in one or two weeks we will get a more precise and concrete answer.
In conclusion

Google has put a lot of effort in equating its assistant to Alexa, so after having been messing with it for more than a month we bring you a small article about our experience and why buy Google Home Mini.

As you can imagine, this article comes as a consequence of many others related to both Google Home Mini and Google Assistant. We have spent a lot of time using the device and as you can imagine we have many conclusions. Here they go:

Index of contents

Google Home Mini Design

We liked it a lot. It is small, pretty and compact. In addition, it has four color models available. Its weight is quite low and it dispenses with all those elements that are not essential, such as buttons. The only one that remains is the one that allows you to mute the microphone.

We recommend reading: Google Home Mini Review in Spanish (full analysis).

Its cable measures 1.5m, which is a bit short, perhaps 1.8m would have been more appropriate. Finally, something we have missed is an input port to connect other speakers manually and not just by Bluetooth. Obviously we imagine that this promotes the use of ChromeCast to synchronize them, but Echo Dot (its equivalent from Amazon) does have it and it is a detail that we miss.

Sound quality

In general we have had a very good impression of the speaker. The sound is crisp and can be heard at a fairly acceptable maximum volume for enjoyment in a medium-sized room. In addition, in the software we can find the option to make equalizer adjustments for bass and treble.

Google Home Mini has two long-range microphones. From the same average room, he can hear us perfectly, but his range is limited when compared to Echo Dot, which has four of them. You have to be relatively close to hear us.

Connectivity and services

The services offered by Google Home Mini through the Google Assistant are very diverse. Frankly we have not missed any notable function since the application has many possibilities for each situation. Alarms, calls, messages, reminders, music, answers to questions, maps, etc.

In the Google Home application we can establish up to a maximum of five different profiles for a single device, and we can also configure voice recognition or cancel it when we have guests. In addition, in each of the sessions it is possible to link it to the various accounts that users may have in other applications. This includes accounts on Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube Music among others.

You can go deeper into the functions of Google Home Mini in this article: Google Assistant: What is it? All the information.

Finally, there is the matter of pairing with other home devices. At this point it should be noted that Amazon's Alexa supports more than double in comparison. Obviously Google is aware of this and is quickly trying to catch up and make up for that gap. Likewise, Google Home Mini can be linked with almost everything essential: speakers, light bulbs, thermostats, SmartTVs and smart displays among others.

Something that we did not like is that we cannot request a specific song on Spotify, Youtube Music or Google Music unless we have a Premium account. We thought it would be possible to ask him to play a YouTube video and be able to listen to it from there, but then he asks us for a device (with a screen) connected through ChromeCast. It is also possible to create and order playlists, although that has not worked too well for us either. In the end, it is best to be guided by specific music styles or radio stations.

Accuracy of responses

Something that plays in its favor is the fact that our Google Home account is linked to Gmail, so that the assistant can quickly store knowledge about our tastes thanks to the information in our browser, calendar, etc.

One last point is the question of learning. Google Home Mini may occasionally not answer correctly or not know the answer we need. However, the assistant will retain this question in their catalog and it is possible that if we ask it again in one or two weeks we will get a more precise and concrete answer.

In conclusion

Our experience with Google Home Mini has been very positive and pleasant. The use we have given it has been mainly for music and asking questions. For everything else it is true that the device works like a charm and is very complete, but it is perhaps not made for all audiences. I explain.

Such a smart assistant requires some dedication on our part. We should read his options, configure it, link our accounts and be up to date on updates and new features available to him. Yes, it is exceptionally useful for day-to-day and managing tasks, and there will be people who value that utility, but it is not something that is currently going to radically change our lives.

If you are users who are not very integrated with the new technologies, it is possible that you do not take full advantage of it or that you do not need it directly.

Regarding its price, the cost of buying Google Home Mini is slightly high compared to its direct competition, Amazon's Echo Dot. We believe the reason for this lies primarily in the cleanliness of its design and the effort to minimize its size. For many, buying Google Home Mini can be a simple expensive whim, a product for snobs fond of being trendy. It is convenient to evaluate our needs before launching to buy one. For our part, we will tell you that the experience has been frankly good.

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