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First Listen: Google Nest Mini Speaker

The new Google Nest Mini speaker has better sound than the previous version, but it still lacks the 3.5mm jack many people want.

Sascha Segan
 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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The Google Home Mini, now the Nest Mini, is the lowest-cost, easiest way to put Google Assistant in your home. Aside from the name, this year's upgrade comes primarily in the sound department. We got a chance to check the smart speaker out at an event in New York City on Tuesday, and have some initial thoughts to share while we put it to the test for a full review.

From the outside, you're not going to see much of a difference between the Nest Mini and the two-year-old Home Mini. There's a pale blue model now, joining gray, orange, and white versions. The little disc of a speaker is still covered in fabric, and has a power jack and a physical microphone switch.

Google says that audio quality and microphone quality have both improved. It doesn't actually pump bass, but the original Mini wasn't something you would want to listen to music on, and this one isn't nearly so bad. It doesn't sound tinny. I'm looking forward to trying it in a kitchen or bedroom.

There are now little LEDs on the sides that light up when you tap to turn the volume up or down, a nice visual guide.

Google Nest Mini

The new unit also apparently has a machine learning chip that processes common Google Assistant queries more quickly on-device. I don't completely get this. I use a Google Home, and I don't feel like there's an endless delay when I ask it the time. When Google Assistant was demonstrated at the event, the Mini didn't respond much faster than my device at home does. Perhaps this is most relevant for people who have very slow or latency-ridden home connections.

The big letdown here is in the lack of a headphone jack. There's still no 3.5mm port on the Nest Mini, which means you can't use it to enable better speakers with Google Assistant the way you can with an Amazon Echo Dot or Echo Input. Google says to use Bluetooth 5.0 to connect other devices, but that's not going to satisfy audiophiles.

I also wish there was just a little more imagination involved. The latest Echo Dot has an LED display to show the time on the side, making it a great alarm clock. That's an innovation I would have loved to see here.

The new Nest Mini is available now for $49. Check back soon for a full review.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

  • US and Canadian mobile networks
  • Mobile phones released in the US
  • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
  • Mobile hotspots
  • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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