Compact, yet powerful, the Google Home Mini is the best-sounding miniature smart speaker yet.

Individual voice recognition gives tailored responses; Seamlessly integrates all the features of the Google platform; Affordable; Improved AI that responds quickly; Compact and attractive

Poor hands-free calling sound quality; Spanish-speaking feature needs improvement

If you want something from the internet, you Google it. We've been doing it for decades - more than a trillion searches per year by Google's own estimates. Google is so good at it that it gets to be its own verb.

The Google Home Mini is a stylish-looking speaker with surprisingly strong sound quality; The Google Assistant is a capable Alexa competitor, especially thanks to its ability to search out detailed answers to a wide variety of questions

There isn't much the Home Mini does that Alexa can't do, too; It also lacks a line out jack, and requires Chromecast Audio in order to connect with at external speaker setup

When it comes to speakers, Google has the $50 Mini, the $129 Home, and the $399 Max. Google Assistant is also available on every recent Android phone, without you having to hunt down an app.

Inexpensive; Nice design; Better sound quality than the Echo Dot; Better at answering music-related queries than Alexa

Lacks audio out; Google Home still offers less support for third-party services than Alexa

The Google Home Mini is a no-brainer for anyone who's already enjoying a Google Home, but it's not the right smart home controller for everyone.

Pretty design; Google Assistant is more sophisticated than Amazon's Alexa; Low price makes it easy to deploy in multiples

Lousy for music reproduction; Compared to Amazon's Echos; Google Home devices aren't as broadly compatible with third-party products; Can be paired...

The Google Home Mini's existence is hardly a mystery: the squat little smart speaker is Google's retort to the Amazon Echo Dot. Packaging the virtues of the Google Assistant into a smaller, cheaper form factor than the existing Google Home , it's a $49 way to add the search company's smarts – and...

Cheap way to try Google's voice features; Discreet; cute design; Google keeps adding features

Audio quality is poor; No Bluetooth A2DP or 3.5mm output; Echo Dot can still be found cheaper

Google's smart speaker just got smaller. The Home Mini is, as you can deduce from its name, a smaller version of the Google Home speaker the company launched last year. It has all of the same capabilities as its larger forebear, but comes with a smaller price: $49 versus the larger speaker's $129...

Good sound quality for voice responses; Attractive design; Impulse purchase pricing

Fabric may not last long; Limited audio output options; Fewer smart home tricks than Amazon's Alexa

When it debuted last fall, the Echo Dot made big waves for its low price; it has never been easier to get Alexa in your home. The $49 Google Home Mini is poised to do just that for Google's Assistant. Not only is it inexpensive, but it also outperforms the Echo Dot in audio quality and design.

Attractive design; Inexpensive; Great audio quality for size; Can control Android TVs and Chromecast

Hard to see status lights from across room; Doesn't work with as many smart-home devices as Alexa; Can't pair with Bluetooth speakers and no line-out

How much can you slice away from a Google Home and have it still be good? That was the question asked of Google's hardware team when it created the Google Home Mini, a device that slashes the $129 Google Home down to a mere $50.

It's cheap! For $50, newbies can easily experiment with Google's voice command system, The mostly cloth design merges easily into a home decor, It's small; You can put it anywhere, and it won't be in the way, Tethering to a Chromecast Audio is nice for those with bigger speakers, but a wired option...

Google Home still feels like an early adopter product; Music was the Google Home's best feature; and this doesn't really work with music; The sound the speaker pumps out

If you take the Google Home Mini's $79 CAD price into consideration, the device is an impressive smart home assistant.

Affordable; Sleek and small; Voice control works great

Sound quality is poor; Lacks Alexa's skills; just like the Google Home; No direct competitors in the Canadian market

The Google Home Mini isn't flawless, owing to a dearth of developer support compared to Amazon, the inability to drill down for hyper-specific commands and odd design choices (where's the headphone jack?). But for US$50 or less, it's an ideal introduction to the world of smart speakers.