Well over a year after the launch of the Amazon Echo Dot, Google finally has a competitor out. Announced alongside the all-new second generation Pixel smartphones, the device might have gotten a bit overshadowed but fret not, we’ve been testing it out the last few days and have a review ready for your consumption. Now that the Echo series of devices are available in India, is it worth importing or waiting for a Google Home Mini? Find out in our review.
Where the Echo Dot could pass off as a drab office accessory, the Home Mini is wrapped in a gorgeous fabric that Google says it has custom engineered. The fabric, available in three different colors, adds an organic touch to what is otherwise the epitome of us walking into the Jetsons age. No matter your choice of décor, the Google Home Mini will likely slide in inconspicuously. Four RGB Leds under the fabric indicate the current status but usually remain switched off. Even when on, it is rare that they deviate from the standard white hue. The lower half of the puck is made of high quality plastic finished in a matching grey.
Physical ports and buttons are minimal with just a micro USB *sigh*charging port and a slider that deactivates the microphone. The choice of micro USB is possibly to cut costs but I’d rather have Google charge me a couple more dollars than stick to a standard that is rapidly on its way out. Also missing is a line out jack. We’ll talk about the speaker quality in a bit but the missing lineout jack is a serious disappointment as paired with quality speakers, the Home Mini could have been a force to reckon with. Meanwhile, the Echo Dot gives you both line out as well as Bluetooth for audio device pairing. Well, Google still has the Chromecast Audio to sell and the upcoming audio focused Google Home Max. Thanks, Capitalism.
The idea here is to put a voice-controlled assistant in every room but should you prefer, there are still some controls built into the Home Mini. Tapping the top fabric serves as an easy way to pause audio and can be used to adjust volume levels. A long press to activate Assistant feature, however, has been pulled by Google due to reports of the Mini capturing phantom presses and reporting all recordings to the cloud. We did not observe this with our unit but in case of a device that is always listening to its surroundings, I suppose it is better to err on the side of caution. The company plans to completely remove this feature from the hardware.
Source:FoneArena
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