Home Mini (1st Generation) - Smart Speaker with Google Assistant - Charcoal

I was a bit hesitant on picking up another assistance device. I have 2 Echo Dot and was kind of disappointed that it could not go out to the internet and look up answers to my questions. I've done my research on the Home mini and bit the bullet. Got home, set it up and was pretty amazed at how straightforward it is to set up the device. Connect it to your wifi, say "Ok, Google," "Hey Google" a few times and bam! All Done. I also connected my Philips Hue device to the Home app. I'm amazed at how well it picks up sounds. Even in a noisy environment. My Echo Dot couldn't even pick up my voice; even in multiple locations. I put the Mini through my test. Asked it a few questions that the Echo couldn't answer and the Mini didn't break a sweat. The mini answered all my questions. Initially, this is what I was looking for. I'll be replacing my existing solution shortly! The speakers on the Google Home MIni is so much better than the Dot. You can actually play some music with better clarity than the Dot. Bass is lacking but it's doable. I'm very surprised. If you want a Home Assistance device, pick this up over the Echo Dot. It's so much better and you can do so much more than the Echo lineup.

Google Home Mini is a versatile miniature rendition of Google Home with a smaller, yet surprisingly good sounding speaker. Similar to it's larger sibling, simply call out "OK Google" or "Hey Google" and speak your request. The strong suit, not surprising, for this Google assistant, is to address a question that can be answered by Google search engine. That is where it really shines & blows away it's competition. For this reason I recommend owning at least one of these or one of the full sized Google Home, if you prefer. If you already own a competitive virtual assistant, I recommend you buy this Google Home Mini. Owning both one or more Google Home Mini's and a competitive assistant make perfect sense. Each has a specialty and can do specific tasks better than the other. Owning BOTH offers you the best of both worlds. In addition to voice controls (that I prefer), tap the top to pause or resume music playback, and you can tap and hold to activate the Assistant. To adjust the volume, you tap the sides of the device. Or best yet, simply SPEAK your command! I recommend the Google Home Mini!

Bought my google home mini with my Father’s Day gift money at what I believe was a good price. It can’t answer all of your questions, but it provides quick, easy access to a huge amount of information, and it even tells jokes (even if some of them are pretty corny). Speaker sound is good quality, unit is easy to set up, and it is useful for children as well as grown-ups.

I have the Echo Dot, and Alexa is too dumb for me. Simple questions she doesn't know how to help. Google Home Mini impressed me so far. The speaker is more deep and louder the competition.

Google Home Mini is a versatile miniature rendition of Google Home with a smaller, yet surprisingly good sounding speaker. Similar to it's larger sibling, simply call out "OK Google" or "Hey Google" and speak your request. The strong suit, not surprising, for this Google assistant, is to address a question that can be answered by Google search engine. That is where it really shines & blows away it's competition. For this reason I recommend owning at least one of these or one of the full sized Google Home, if you prefer. If you already own a competitive virtual assistant, I recommend you buy this Google Home Mini. Owning both one or more Google Home Mini's and a competitive assistant make perfect sense. Each has a specialty and can do specific tasks better than the other. Owning BOTH offers you the best of both worlds. In addition to voice controls (that I prefer), tap the top to pause or resume music playback, and you can tap and hold to activate the Assistant. To adjust the volume, you tap the sides of the device. Or best yet, simply SPEAK your command! I recommend the Google Home Mini!

The google home mini is, in my experience, a very handy little device. I originally came to Best Buy only to get a chromecast because I needed a way to stream Netflix and Hulu to my old (and cheap) tv, but I snagged the mini as well when I saw it was on sale for just 30 dollars. I had some Best Buy rewards too so really, it was just an impulse buy. I wanted one and now could afford it, so why not? Novelty as I thought it would be, it has proven me so wrong. I use it to pause and play my tv, I use it to stream my music (and it sounds pretty good for the size), I use it to find out the time when I don’t have my phone on me, and I use it to just play around with. It can’t do some things yet, like stream Hulu to my tv, and if it’s playing anything it has a hard time hearing me, but it makes up for this in how well it recognizes my commands. Siri is awful about not understanding what I am saying, and Alexa is often the same, but google assistant allows me to speak very naturally. I am soon getting two for my grandmother in both her room and the kitchen. The broadcast feature will be very handy.

Started my Smarthome/apartment with the Philips Hue Light Kit (white kit) and ended up adding more color bulbs are well as light strips. Wanted something to control them all besides using my phone. Google Announced the Google Home Mini and with the holiday sale price only be $30 bucks I decided to buy three of them( one for the livingroom, Bathroom and Bedroom). I ended up enjoying them. Set up is very easy and simple. Setting scenes, Turing lights on or off and asking questions is a joy. Not to mention that it can make phone calls, set timers and alarms and it even tells you the latest news stories for the day just by saying “Hey Google, good morning”. It can also recognize my voice versus my girlfriends voice so if I said “play my new music play list” it will play the music from my account but if my girlfriend says the same thing it will play from her account. Not to mention that It connects to other smart devices like nest, cameras and many other things. It’s a great way to kick start your smarthome.

First off, I have been using the Eco Dot for a while. I mainly use it to listen to podcasts and music while I am working around the house. It is an ok device for listening to music but the speaker is a bit tinny. The Google Home mini speaker is way better. It does not rival the big brother Google Home in terms of sound quality but it has a much richer sounding speaker compared to the Dot... more bass, clearer sound. The Google Home mini mic can have a hard time hearing the hot word if you have the sound up really loud but I am guessing that will be fixed with a software update.