Nest Mini is a faster, better-sounding Home Mini for $49
When the Google Home Mini was launched, it was a cheap alternative to the regular-sized Google Home for users who primarily needed access to Google Assistant and did not care too much about sound. But in case you preferred the Home Mini because of its size and thought its audio could do with an upgrade, you’re in luck.
Google has since officially announced the Nest Mini. This is essentially the successor to the Home Mini and apart from the rebranding, there are upgrades made under the hood. According to Google, the new Nest Mini comes with “better quality sound”. This comes in the form of improved bass where the company claims that it will offer 2x stronger bass.
There is also a third microphone built into the speaker which will help the speaker pick up your voice commands even in noisy environments. Perhaps what really drove the presentation home was Google revealing that the Nest Mini comes with a dedicated machine learning chip.
Typically a lot of the processing for such devices is done in the cloud at a remote server somewhere. This can result in slower response times, but with a dedicated machine learning chip, Google claims that it will make the Nest Mini a lot faster by localizing some of the processing.
If this sounds like something you might be able to benefit from, the Nest Mini will be going on sale on the 22nd of October for $49. There will be a new “Sky” color option, with Google stressing that the fabrics used on its Nest Mini speakers are made from recycled plastic bottles.