Google Home Mini vs. Amazon Echo Dot: The Battle to Escape the Kitchen

It has been almost three months since I added a Google Home Mini to my roster of voice-activated smart speaker devices. The Home Mini was a Christmas gift from my wonderful son and his amazing wife, and I had already purchased one of the Echo Dots almost a year prior. The second one I don’t recall how I got — I think it was a reward for buying something on Amazon?

I was already familiar with the way both systems work in general, since my phone is Android-based and I have been using Google Assistant for years. And I had owned the Echo Dot for a year, and also have a Fire 8 tablet.

Hey, nosey
Since I had one Echo in my office corner of my bedroom, and the other in my kitchen, I put the Home Mini in my living room. I set it up on the table section of my sectional sofa that separates the two recliner sections. That allowed easy access to a power strip behind the sofa. I played around with some of the voice commands the first day, and discovered a problem — I couldn’t say “OK, Google” to activate it without my nearby phone also activating its Assistant.

My solution was to turn the phone to Airplane mode for the few seconds I needed to ask the Home Mini my question. Strike one for the Home Mini.

My TV has both a first generation Google Chromecast dongle and a first-gen Amazon FireTV block attached (did I mention on Twitter my handle is “burly_adopter”?). I quite like the Chromecast’s ability to play something on the 40-inch HDTV that I am casting from my phone or laptop. But I almost never use the laptop casting feature anymore because even with my very fast Acer Helios 300, moving about among too many other Chrome tabs while one is casting can cause lag or stutter or even audio/video sync issues on the Chromecast.

Sure, maybe updating to the newer 3rd-gen Chromecast would solve that problem, but I’ve mostly left Chrome behind as a browser anyway. I now use Firefox and the new Microsoft Edge Beta (yes, really, it runs better than Chrome). So even though I can control some of the functions of the Chromecast with the Home Mini, I find I use it way less frequently than the FireTV. But since I don’t use voice control for either TV-attached device, I can’t call this one a strike either way.

Come on now touch me, babe
Then there is the physical interface of the two devices. The Echo Dot has four buttons on the top: Power, Mute Mic, Volume Up and Volume Down. Aside from the power connector and a 3.5mm audio out jack, that’s it. The Home Mini has even fewer buttons — a power switch on the side and also a 3.5mm audio out jack. To change the volume you simply touch one side of the curved fabric-covered top or the other. Which I was doing with my elbow anytime I reached across the tabletop to do something like adjust the charging cable for my phone. Accidental triggering of a basic function is a problem in interface design. Strike two.

Not Kenny G!
The third strike came when I told the Home Mini to “play cool jazz.” That is something I say to Alexa all the time (another ding and a foul ball if not a strike — Google has no name for its Assistant voice except Google, is in “Hey Google.” So every time I address the Home Mini I’m talking to a disembodied corporate entity?). Home Mini told me “Here is a channel on Spotify called ‘cool jazz to relax to’ ” and proceeded to play lobby music. With commercials since I don’t have a Spotify Premium account.

Alexa, on the other hand, says “The station, Cool Jazz, on Amazon music” and plays real jazz from the cool jazz era — John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker, etc. Since I have Amazon Prime, there are no commercials.

So my Home Mini is now stationed in my kitchen, where it functions as an absolutely excellent food timer. I could use it for checking my calendar which is part of my Google Suite with GMail and Hangouts and more, but I can always ask that when I am in the kitchen getting coffee.

(Addendum: When shooting the featured photo I called out to both devices to get them to light up. Alexa, upon hearing me say “OK, Google” replied with a seemingly terse “I can’t respond to that name.” The Home Mini, however, upon hearing me say “Alexa” politely said “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand that request.” So, one mark back toward the Home Mini for being so polite.)

If you like our work and want to show your appreciation, feel free to tip us at Ko-fi or become a patron on Patreon.