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Earlier this year, Google re-branded all its Home devices under the Nest name. What was once the Google Home Mini is now the Google Nest Mini and it's been updated for 2019.
The Nest Mini is a step up over its predecessor, particularly when it comes to sound. The lows and mid-range tones are much clearer, with a level of separation in frequencies that didn't exist in in the Home Mini. I found this greatly improved with music, though in many cases podcasts still sounded muddy and washed out.
Frankly, given the sound quality of the old Home Mini, there was nowhere to go but up. And I should caution that the Nest Mini still isn't a great speaker, but it sounds good enough to be useable as a speaker, which more than you could really say for the Home Mini. Given the entry level price of $49, it's a great way to see if the smart home is for you, or as a cheap way to extend your smart home into new rooms.
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Outwardly the Nest Mini is very similar to the Home Mini. Google has changed fabric material to a fabric made recycled materials, but it looks and feels nearly the same. The Micro USB plug is gone, instead you get a round plug. It's not a big change, but it does mean that mean that any Home Mini accessories that used Micro USB plugs won't work with the Nest Mini.
The big one here are wall mounts, but you won't need those anyway because the Nest Mini has a little notch for wall mounting built right into the back of it. And I highly recommend taking advantage of it. The re-designed sound system really shines when you mount the Nest Mini on the wall. Using the wall for added resonance, the Nest Mini is able to somewhat transcend its size and provide decent sounding music. It also makes any voice responses to your commands sound clearer.
When Google announced the Nest Mini to touted an ability to adjust its sound to the room, tuning itself as more expensive speakers like the Sonos One ([8/10 WIRED Recommends](https://www.wired.com/story/review-sonos-one/)) do. If it did this, it was subtle enough that I never noticed it. Again, the biggest sound improvement in my experience is going to hanging it on the wall.
There's a new sensor under the fabric cover that detects when you're reaching for the Mini. It lights up the volume control buttons on the side of the speaker when it detects your hand nearby. When this works it's great, but this, more than any other feature on the Nest Mini, was inconsistent.
Interacting with the Nest Mini is the same as it is for all of Google's smart speaker devices. You say "Hey Google" or "Ok Google" and the LEDs in the middle to Nest Mini light up to let you know it's listening to you. This time around Google has added a third microphone, which makes the Nest Mini better at picking up your commands. I tested this along side the previous model in large room and it was indeed much better not just at picking up my voice, but hearing it accurately.
The other big new feature in this update is a dedicated machine learning chip. This allows the Mini to learn your voice better, and speeds up the response time since in many cases it will be processed locally rather than sent to Google's servers. You'll still need a Wi-Fi connection, and all of your voice recordings are still sent to Google. In my testing it was impossible to tell when things were processes locally, if they ever were, but there's a potential speed boast there, especially down the road.
One thing Google has not made a lot of noise about is the ability to pair two Nest Mini's for a stereo setup. I only had one, so I could not test it, but Google has [long offered this](https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7559493?hl=en) on the more expensive Google Home Max speakers. Theoretically you could pair a left and right Nest Mini, and turn the two into a possibly not bad sound setup.
Other new tricks for the Nest Mini include the ability to turn into an intercom broadcasting to other Google speakers throughout your house, support for calls through Google Duo, and it can become an alarm through Google's Nest Aware subscription plan.
One of the nice things about Google's smart home devices is that they last. Google's updates are iterative and rarely revolutionary. To that end, if you already have a Google Home Mini, there's nothing here that screams upgrade now. By the same token, when the next Nest Mini arrives this one will likely continue working just fine. Because most of what you want out Google's device is Google Assistant, updates to that generally work on all devices.
That's why, despite the fact that this is very capable speaker and well worth the money, I don't suggest tossing your older Home Mini. Yes the sound is better, but if you want to upgrade your sound, you're better off making a more substantial investment in a quality speaker like a JBL Link 20 ([8/10 WIRED Recommends](https://www.wired.com/review/review-jbl-link-speakers-with-google-assistant/) or Sonos One.
If on the other hand, you want to extend your existing Google Assistant-based smart home into new rooms, or you want to try out Google Assistant on the cheap, the new Nest Mini is a great place to start.
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