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Integrated Chromecast and enhanced audio format support demonstrate Google’s belief that the Nest Mini can serve as a competent, if compact, stand-alone speaker, alongside other duties. Home Mini, on the other hand, has a number of exclusive features which you can use with the Google ecosystem. You can cast videos to your TV and control volume and playback with just your voice if you have a chromecast. Echo Dot handles calls a little better than the Google Home Mini right now. In simple words, if you have two echo dot devices at home, you can use them as an intercom. While Home mini does broadcast prerecorded voice messages to other Home Mini devices which is nowhere near the Echo Dot’s Drop-in.
Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks. Both the Echo Dot line and the Nest Mini line allow you to use their respective assistants to set up voice shopping capabilities. Google Assistant and Alexa both offer routine setup, so that’s no problem. Google’s version is a bit more cookie-cutter, helpful prompts make it easy for beginners. Yet, Google Assistant also offers more complex custom Routine options. In my experience, the basic stuff like alarm, timer, weather works fine on both.
Amazon Echo Dot With Clock (4th Gen) Review
Whether you have light or dark decor, either speaker line will have something complementary. The Echo and smaller Echo Dot are orbs after their most recent redesign, abandoning the cylinder shape of the past. The Echo Dot also has a version with a built-in clock, which both looks nice and is very useful. The Nest Audio, meanwhile, is shaped vaguely like a pillow standing on its end, while the tiny Nest Mini is more like a puck.
Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The 3rd-Generation Echo Dot is a huge upgrade in both design and audio. While the 2nd-Gen Dot is less expensive, the discount isn't usually more than $10 over the newer model.
Google Nest Hub
Same is the case with music streaming music and Home automation control. Echo Dot 3 and the Home Mini look similar in design with the fabric shell and plastic body. While Echo Dot has retained its 4 button layout, Home mini keeps the profile sleek with capacitive touch buttons hidden under the fabric shell. Keep in mind that, with both Alexa and Google Assistant, third-party speaker manufacturers are increasingly choosing to integrate the voice helpers into their own products.
But the Echo Dot’s microphones simply aren’t as sensitive to voice commands. All in all, the Nest Mini wins for voice recognition, and the Echo Dot wins for music playback. It costs $229 (£219, $349), similar to the original price of the 10-inchLenovo Smart Display. These smart displays are ideal for making Google Duo video calls to friends and family members.
Music (Winner – Google Home Mini)
Stepping down from those models, the Echo Dot has a bit of an edge over the Nest Mini, which has fairly weak bass and midrange. Of course, these smaller speakers are much more suitable for nightstands and desks than serving as a room's main audio device. I’ve been PCMag’s home entertainment expert for over 10 years, covering both TVs and everything you might want to connect to them. I’ve reviewed more than a thousand different consumer electronics products including headphones, speakers, TVs, and every major game system and VR headset of the last decade. Google Home comes with the company’s own virtual personal assistant Google Assistant. The service is generally powerful, allowing you to perform a variety of tasks, including turning on your lights and accessing your music.
When you wake the next morning, a statistical breakdown of your slumber will greet you. You’ll be able to see how long it took to fall asleep, how long to rise after waking, and how much you snored and coughed. In contrast, the Google Nest Mini has three far-field microphones for voice detection, as well as a 1.57-inch speaker driver.
Read our full head-to-head below to get a better idea of the specifics. In terms of overall value, the Echo Show’s higher price point matches up nicely with its rotating base, bigger screen, camera quality, and powerful sound. If you’re shopping on a budget and could care less about video calls, the Nest Hub is certainly a more economically savvy contender.
For the Nest Mini, Google Nest doubled the bass and made it possible for the speaker to adjust its volume based on the level of background noise in the room. Although the Nest Mini only has three mics, it does a superior job at picking up voice commands, even from a distance. I tested the speakers at 70% and used an app to calculate the loudness on the dB scale and here are the results. Home Mini on the other is loud but lacks that lower frequency sounds.
Having said that, Alexa tends to be better when it comes to support for a wider range of devices, as well as better smart home integration. So if you have a lot of smart home devices already, Alexa might be your best bet. For a comprehensive picture of all the top smart speaker options, see our roundup of the best smart speakers. If you want better sound, the Echo Dot has a 3.5mm aux output, so you can connect it to external speakers (including battery/speaker combos, such as the Ninety7 Vaux). And both the Dot and the Mini can be connected to external Bluetooth speakers, but those solutions diminish the benefits of having a small, compact unit. If saving money is a priority for you, this is a great time to buy the discounted 2nd-Gen Echo Dot.
"At night, I just say, 'Hey Google, turn off my bedroom lights,' and the room goes dark," she wrote. Google Assistant doesn't have nearly as many third-party plug-ins, but it's much easier to talk to. It can understand different requests more easily than Alexa, and that's very appealing. Alexa has an edge with third-party functionality, thanks to thousands of different skills that can do everything from order pizza to read a bedtime story. It tends to require very specific syntax, though, especially when activating and using most of those skills.
If you have a second speaker of the same type, you can pair them together to create a stereo sound setup. The hardwear calculus changes though when you compare the updated Nest Mini to the Echo Dot . The improvements to the speaker, microphones, and on-device intellegence make that Google/Nest device a no-brainer to buy. While colorful and compact, the microphone and speakers on the Google Home Mini just scream "you get what you pay for" when it comes to quality.
The second-gen Google Nest Hub is smaller than the Echo Show, which may be ideal for those looking for a smart display for a bedside table or crowded office desk. Measuring 7 inches wide, 4.7 inches tall, 2.7 inches from front to back, and weighing 19.07 ounces, the Nest Hub is available in Chalk, Charcoal, Sand, and Mist finishes. However, these colors only apply to the mesh-covered base of the display, not the plastic trim around the screen. If you’re building a cutting-edge smart home from the ground up or are simply looking for a digital display companion to add to your kitchen counter, a smart display is what you’re after. Small enough to be referred to as a tablet , a smart display is designed to be your one-stop, web-connected assistant.
There is no lag in home automation as well (although, has a slight advantage there as it’s compatible with the more smart home appliance). That said, the new generation of echo dot is decent looking and has better audio output and mic quality. But when it comes to asking queries, Google home mini is clearly a winner. Frankly, there's very little difference between the two right now. They're both very capable smart assistants that respond to voice commands and work well with many smart home devices.
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