Sale! Google Nest Mini – 2nd Gen Smart Speaker with Google Assistant Charcoal 3 Pack

★★★★★ We combined this in my office with a Nest Hub (7 inch display) in the kitchen, my wife uses the Hub for timers and reminders, as a digital frame for our pictures, and to talk to the office. We also got a couple of inexpensive smart plugs on ebay we use for turning on and off some lights that are less accessible, and I use it to call the kitchen and random searches, so we definitely get mileage out of them.

★★★☆☆ Unlike the amazon Echo Dot, the Nest does not have a 3.5mm audio output jack. This means I can't hook it up to a small external speaker to improve sound quality. An alternative is to use its Bluetooth capability. However, you can only use the Bluetooth to play music. I haven't figured out how to use Bluetooth for all audio such as for dialog, e.g., "OK, Google, what's the weather". Dialog such as this only uses the Mini's internal speakers. The internal speakers are not very good. Also, the menu system in the Google Home app is a nightmare. It's very unintuitive and it took me an hour to find where I add a Bluetooth external speaker. In fact, so difficult I had to draw out a map of where to find it the second time.

★★★☆☆ I was looking for an inexpensive way to link a Display on Google Home (good for Youtube music etc.) with a good but old audio system (speakers!)i n a different room. Nope. 2nd-gen Mini is "recognized" by Home app, and it will send music via bluetooth, but not as an audio link to a better speaker in a multi-room Group. I've seen posts that say you can do it, but after an hour I gave up. A physical audio-out port (as in the competition from Amazon) would have solved the problem, but the Mini does not have one.