The Google Nest Audio is the newest speaker from Google
and in this video we're going to compare it to the newly released Apple HomePod Mini.
Both of which retail for $99 US dollars and which one I think most people should go for. First up,
let's talk about sound and here the Nest Audio just completely wins out and it's not even close.
It has a wider soundstage, better bass, and really clear vocals.
The sound just has more richness and depth to it and it's quite a noticeable difference.
Here's a comparison between them so you can hear it for yourself.
Both the HomePod Mini and the Nest Audio speakers can be stereo paired to
another speaker to give you a richer and wider soundstage.
Next up, let's talk about the design of these two speakers and the thing in my
book that makes the Nest Audio went out over the HomePod Mini is the inclusion of a mute switch.
The HomePod Mini has no way to turn off the mics listening for the Siri wake word
whereas the Google Nest Audio 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 emission.
Now, there is a way to stop the homepod many 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. Now another odd design choice with
the HomePod Mini is that 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 Audio thanks to the plus and minus symbols subtly etched into the top of it.
With the Nest Audio you have to know to tap the sides to turn up and down the volume. Both
the Nest Audio and HomePod Mini feature volume controls as well as controls play/pause media and
the homepod many also allows you to summon Siri by tapping and holding the top of the device.
Both speakers feature ways to move music currently playing to other speakers or 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 your iPhone close to it, which is pretty cool. Music service availability
on both of these speakers is another key point of differentiation between them
and this is where the Nest Audio just really shines and wins out compared to the HomePod Mini.
The Nest Audio allows you to set your default music service to YouTube Music,
Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and Pandora. It's only missing Amazon Music and Tidal.
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”, which is sub-optimal.
Podcasts are another area where the Nest Audio wins out. The Nest Audio supports
more than one podcast service that you can use with it and set as the default service.
At the time of recording you could choose either Google Podcasts or Spotify as the
default podcast service. But Google has said that others will be added in the future. The HomePod
Mini only supports Apple Podcasts. The Nest Audio can also natively play radio
from services like Sirius XM as well as TuneIn. Now with the Apple HomePod Mini if you want to
use either of those services you'll have to use AirPlay and AirPlay the audio from
an Apple device to your HomePod Mini, which is a bit more involved.
Though the HomePod Mini does have Apple's own internet radio stations: Apple Music 1,
Apple Music Country, and Apple Music Hits. Now one major feature that's not playing
music or podcasts on both of these speakers is the smart assistants that you get with each of these
speakers. With the HomePod Mini you get Siri and with the Nest Audio you get the Google Assistant.
Now typically the first impressions people have when using smart assistants
is the response time and when comparing the response time of
the Google Assistant on the Nest Audio and Siri on the HomePod Mini overall,
I found that Siri is much faster on the HomePod Mini. Here are some examples:
Josh: “What's the weather?” Assistants: “Clear and right now in Raleigh is 36
degrees and clearly consistent tonight. The forecast is around 33 and clear.”
So, I found a lot of CEO of Tesla Motors as Elon Musk. Josh: “What's seven times 10?”
Siri: “Seven times 10 is 70.” Google Assistant: “The answer is 70.”
Now we're the Google Assistant made lack in its response time,
it certainly makes up for in answering search queries, which it's much better at.
Josh: “Give me some recipes for gingerbread men.”
Siri: “I’ll send web results to Josh's iPhone.” Sure. Google Assistant: “I've got a recipe called
gingerbread cookies from Sally's baking addiction. This recipe serves 24 and takes
about 4 hours and 30 minutes to make. Does that sound good?” Josh: “What's the latest on Tesla?”
Siri: “I found some web results. I'll send them to Josh's iPhone.” Google Assistant:
“Here's the latest from Business Insider.
A New York Police Department took delivery of a Tesla Model Y Police car…”
Both assistants are good for doing basic tasks like setting timers, reminders,
controlling smart home devices etc. One advantage the HomePod Mini has is that it can make both
outbound phone calls but also take incoming calls and can send text messages as well.
Google hasn't figured out how to do this with the Nest Audio even if you have an Android phone.
Both speakers allow you to broadcast to other speakers and specify which rooms to broadcast 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 do with both of these speakers is control
smart home devices and here the Nest Audio wins out with the Google Assistant being able
to control more smart home devices than HomeKit which is what Apple uses to control smart devices.
Now Apple has been adding more devices to its Homekit program over the years and most of the
major smart home devices by now do support both platforms like Phillips Hue smart lights as well
as many of the predominant smart thermostats out there. Home kit also has some exclusive features
like the new day/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 the hub device whereas with Google Assistant devices you do not need a hub
device. If you subscribe to Nest Aware for home security and cloud storage the Nest Audio can
listen to your environment for unusual sounds like a fire alarm going off or glass breaking.
All right, one of the last things to talk about with these two speakers is phone compatibility.
And here the Nest Audio wins out as well because it plays well with both Android
and iOS allowing you to cast music and media to the Nest Audio 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. All right, 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 Audio 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 Siri 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 words. 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 Audio settings,
you'll see you have quite a few more things you can change and tinker with,
like with a HomePod Mini, you have the ability to change the Nest Audio's room oddly, there's no
alarm section to see your alarms you have set but you can adjust the volume for alarms and timers.
There are a couple of standout features that I do want to call your attention to though
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
from the assistant and decrease the brightness of LEDs during specified times.
Lower volume with listening will lower the volume of the media currently playing on the speaker when
you say the trigger word. Paired Bluetooth devices will show you the Bluetooth devices you've paired
to the Nest Audio 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 Audio by default to play media on another speaker or speaker group
and you can also adjust the EQ for the Speaker as well. The Hey Google sensitivity allows you
to adjust the sensitivity of the Nest Audio for listening to its trigger word.
So if it's not hearing you as well, as you think it should
try up in 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 Audio just has way more to
customize. And this is the perfect segue to my thoughts on both of these smart speakers.
Overall, I think the Nest Audio is the better buy here.
It's got a better sound. It plays well with both Android and iOS, integrates with more services,
has a more powerful smart assistant, and is priced the same as the HomePod Mini. Alright,
well that's it for our comparison between the Nest Audio 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.