The Google Nest Mini is one of the most popular smart speakers out there and in this video we're
going to compare it to the newly released apple HomePod Mini which we've spent over a month
testing and comparing to the google nest audio and the nest mini if you're interested in seeing
us compare the nest audio and the HomePod Mini i'll link a video that we did on that subject here
and in the video description below now while the apple HomePod Mini is much more expensive than the
nest mini both speakers take up around the same footprint so you're likely to place them in the
same places around your home in this video i'll take you through how the nest mini compares to
the apple HomePod Mini and which speaker i think people should ultimately go for first up let's
talk about sound quality here the HomePod Mini wins out compared to the nest mini it has a bit
more bass but a more full sound neither one sounds amazing especially considering the HomePod Mini is
much more expensive but it's fine for background music and podcasts just don't expect to get a
detailed rich sound out of each speaker here's a sound comparison so you can hear for yourself
the HomePod Mini can also be stereo paired to get a richer and fuller sound
next up let's talk about the design of these two speakers and the one thing that stands out
that i think makes the nest mini win which is the inclusion of a mute mic switch the HomePod
Mini has no way to turn off the mics listening for the Siri wake word whereas the Google Nest
Mini has a physical mic mute switch if you get a HomePod Mini you really just have to trust apple
and that's likely what apple is banking on here that they have enough trust with their users that
users will trust them with their privacy given the amount of marketing apple does on privacy and
to be fair the amount of privacy controls they do build into their products but it's still to
me at least a weird omission to not give apple users total control over their privacy by being
able to physically turn off the microphones on the device to stop it from listening to them
yeah it's a weird omission now there is a way to stop the HomePod Mini from listening through
its settings on an iphone but in my view just putting a mute switch on the thing would have been
a better way to handle this another odd design choice with the HomePod Mini is the power cord is
attached to it it's not removable when comparing the design of these two speakers one area that i
think wins out with the HomePod Mini is the design of its music controls the HomePod Mini has inputs
at the top that are a bit more intuitive than the nest mini thanks to the plus and minus symbols
subtly etched into the top of it with an s mini you need to hover your hand over it to illuminate
the volume up and down areas but it's less clear than the HomePod Mini which one turns the volume
up and which one turns the volume down without hitting one to test it out both the nest mini
and the HomePod Mini feature volume controls as well as controls to play and pause media
and the HomePod Mini also allows you to summon Siri by tapping and holding the top of the device
both speakers have the ability to be able to move music currently playing on them to other speakers
and speaker groups and the HomePod Mini also has a neat trick where you can move music to and from
the speaker with your iPhone by holding up your iPhone close to it which is pretty cool available
music services on these two speakers is another point of differentiation between the two of them
and the nest mini here just totally wins out here in the us the nest mini allows you to set
your default music service to youtube music Spotify apple music Deezer and Pandora it's
only missing amazon music and title the HomePod Mini just has the ability to set apple music
as the default music service but apple has stated that it has given the ability for other companies
to build support for their services so that you can play music from them on the HomePod Mini as
well as the HomePod for example pandora right now is currently supported though you do have to add
on the phrase on pandora when requesting a song artist or you know music genre from Siri which is
sub-optimal podcasts are another area where the nest mini wins out the nest mini supports more
than one podcast service that you can use with it and set as the default service at the time of
recording you can choose either google podcasts or Spotify as the default podcast service but google
has said that others will be added in the future at the time of recording the HomePod Mini only
supports apple podcasts the nest mini can also natively play radio from services like SiriusXM
as well as tune in whereas with HomePod Mini if you want to use those services you'll need to
airplay them to the HomePod Mini from a device like an iPhone using airplay 2 which is all a
bit more involved than if the services just ran natively on the speaker though the HomePod Mini
does have access to apple's own internet radio stations apple music 1 apple music country
and apple music hits one of the major features of these two speakers besides being able to play
music and podcasts on them is the smart assistants that run on them with the nest mini you have the
google assistant and with the HomePod Mini you have Siri now one of the first impressions people
have with smart assistants is the response time and when comparing the response time
of the google assistant on the nest mini and Siri on the HomePod Mini
i found Siri to be much quicker on the HomePod Mini here are a few examples what's the weather
it's currently clear in 37 degrees currently temperatures will be 36 degrees and clear
averaging tonight the forecast is around 33 and clear who's the CEO of Tesla the answer i found
the CEO of Tesla motors is Elon Musk what's a catfish catfish are a diverse group here's the
definition of cats for their promises whiskers around the mouth typically bottom dwelling the
three largest species alive the mekong giant catfish from southeast asia the wells catfish
of eurasia and the peri above south america to deter divorce and even to a tiny parasitic species
commonly called the kandaroo vandalia serhosa neither the armor-plated types nor the naked
types have scales what's 5 times 10 5 times 10 is 50. the answer is 50. both assistants are good at
doing basic things like setting timers reminders controlling smart home devices etc one advantage
the HomePod Mini has is that it can make outbound phone calls but also take incoming calls and send
text messages as well google hasn't been able to figure out how to do this with the nest mini
even if you have an android phone both speakers also allow you to broadcast to other speakers and
specify which rooms to broadcast messages to apple's intercom feature also works across
other apple devices like the iPhone iPad Mac and Apple Watch which is pretty cool one odd
quirk with Siri on the HomePod Mini is if you try to use Siri hands-free on another apple device
like an iPhone or an iPad the HomePod Mini is just going to answer that query by default regardless
of the fact if it's in another room and the iPhone you're trying to get Siri to answer on
is right in front of your face the HomePod Mini is still going to answer that query so that's
definitely going to annoy some people out there and it's not behavior you usually experience with
google assistant devices both assistants can also recognize multiple people so when you ask Siri or
the google assistant for your calendar events or reminders the answer will be specific to you
now another major thing you can use these two speakers for is controlling smart home devices
and the google assistant on the nest mini can just control more smart home devices than home
kit which is what apple uses to control smart home devices though apple has been adding more and more
products to its home kit program and by now most of the mainstream smart home products will work
across both platforms from brands like Philips Hue and many of the major smart thermostats out there
home kit also has some exclusive features like the new date night light temperature adjustments
which switch your lights to daylight during the day and then a warmer tone light for evenings
which is pretty cool also one small difference between the two to note is that with HomeKit
you need a hub device to work with your smart home devices and the HomePod Mini is that hub
device whereas the google assistant doesn't need a hub device for smart devices to work in your home
all right one of the last things to talk about with these two speakers is phone compatibility and
here the nest mini wins out as well because it plays well with both android and iOS allowing
you to cast music and media to the nest mini from both types of devices the HomePod Mini requires an
apple device to cast audio to it and it's really only made to be used with other apple devices
alright the last thing to talk about are the apps you use to set up and change the settings
of these two smart speakers the HomePod Mini uses apple's home app found on an iPhone and
the nest mini uses the google home app which can be downloaded from the app store and google play
store in the home app you'll have the option to change the room the speaker is categorized under
in your home add or change alarms add automations allow explicit content etc further down you'll see
the series settings for the HomePod where you can change her language voice see your Siri request
history and have the ability to turn off listening for the trigger word so you can change a few
things here and there but overall there's not that much to change with the HomePod Mini now when you
look at the nest mini settings you'll see you have quite a few things that you can change and tinker
with like with the HomePod you have the ability to change the nest mini's room and settings for
youtube like restricted mode etc oddly there's no alarm section to see alarms you have set
but you can adjust the volume for alarms and timers there are a couple of standout features i
do want to call your attention to that the HomePod doesn't have do not disturb will mute reminders
broadcast messages and other spoken notifications night mode will reduce the volume of responses and
decrease the brightness of the leds on the speaker during specified times lower volume when listening
will lower the volume of media currently playing on the speaker when you say the trigger word
reverse device controls will flip the leds and volume controls for when you change the position
of the nest mini or mounted on a wall paired bluetooth devices will show you the bluetooth
devices you've paired to the nest mini which is another important difference between it and the
HomePod Mini the HomePod Mini cannot be controlled like a bluetooth speaker you can also set the
nest mini to default playing media on another speaker or speaker group and you can also adjust
the eq for the speaker as well the blank google sensitivity allows you to adjust the sensitivity
of the nest mini listening for its trigger word so if it's not hearing you as well as you think it
should try upping the sensitivity of the speaker so as you can see when it comes to customizing
the settings for these two speakers right now the nest mini just has way more that you can customize
and this is the perfect segue to my thoughts on these two smart speakers overall i think the nest
mini just does more for less sure it doesn't sound quite as good as the HomePod Mini does
however it plays well with both ios and android devices it integrates with way more services
has a more powerful smart assistant and it costs 50 dollars less than the HomePod Mini now while
the HomePod Mini does sound better than the nest mini if you want a better sounding nest mini you
can just get the nest audio which sounds better than the HomePod Mini and is the same price or if
you're fine with the nest minis audio you can even get two of them for the price of a HomePod Mini so
with this pricing structure and the fact that both of these smart speakers now support apple music
it makes it really hard to recommend the HomePod Mini to almost anyone in my opinion the nest mini
is clearly the better buy when comparing the two alright well that's our comparison between the
nest mini and the HomePod Mini i hope you found this video helpful and informative and if you did
and liked it make sure you hit that thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel for
more comparison videos like this one as well as other videos on apple and google products
well that's gonna do it for me for 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.