The Google Home Mini speaker is a wireless speaker that you can control with your voice. It has the Google Assistant built in and you can ask it to turn on music, ask it questions, or even tell it to set a timer. I bought this speaker about a month ago and like it a lot more than the regular bluetooth speaker that I was using before. So far I use it mostly for listening to music but it can do plenty of other things.
So unlike a bluetooth speaker, this speaker links to your wi-fi and connects to your google account. You don’t have to go through the hassle of linking it to the phone, like you would with a bluetooth speaker, which makes it way more convenient and easy to use. You can also link smart home devices to your account and control them with your voice through the speaker. Things like a Nest Thermostat and smart lights in your home. You can tell it to adjust the temperature in your home or turn lights on and off. You can also ask it to give you information about things. You can ask it what the weather will be and basically anything you could google.
It was pretty easy to set the speaker up. Once you connect it to the outlet, you use your phone to link it to your wi-fi and Google account. Once you have it linked, it’s always on and listening for a command. Pretty cool, I would say.
Now some people may have privacy concerns with such a device in your home. What if someone hacks the speaker and can listen in on your conversations or what if Google is recording and storing everything. This was also a concern to me. However I would say a smart phone is a way bigger privacy concern than this speaker. Not only does your phone have a microphone but a camera. So if someone had access to them they could not only listen to you but also watch you.
So like I said I’ve been using the speaker mostly for music and would say it is pretty good. The volume is good and sound quality too. One issue I’ve had with it is trying to give it commands when it is playing music, especially from a distance. Very often it cannot hear me and I have to come closer to it to tell it to change the song, adjust the volume, or stop the song. Other than that its pretty good. You can stream music through different music streamers like YouTube, Spotify and Google Play.
So in conclusion I think this is a pretty cool piece of tech that does a lot for its price. Currently they are selling for $49 but I was able to snatch one with a 20% coupon on Google Express. So if you browse around you may be able to get it for less than the retail price and save yourself some money.
Techascope 