HomePod Mini vs. Echo Dot vs. Nest Mini: Finding the best small smart speaker

[MUSIC] The Apple HomePod mini, the Amazon Echo Dot, and the Google Nest Mini. All three are great, affordable, smart speakers that can kick off your smart home. But which one is the best? Is there one that stands out? We're gonna find out right now. Smart speakers are generally a great way to kick off a smart home. Honestly, if you don't have any smart devices yet, consider getting one of these first and here's the good news. They're all really good. Honestly, if you're loyal to one brand or another, go ahead and get the smart speaker that matches. You're not going to be missing out on that much, but saying they're all competent, not good enough for us. We want to dive in and really compare them under a microscope. To see if one stands out above the rest. So we're going to test sound quality, smart home prowess, smart persistent smarts and extras. Let's meet the contenders. [MUSIC] This is the apple home pod Mini. It's the shiny new member of the smart speaker community. [UNKNOWN] And the long awaited follow up to the original $300 Apple home pod. Apple finally released an affordable version. It's 100 bucks back like touch controls comes in white or space gray. And of course it has Siri built in for voice commands. This is the new Amazon echo dot. It's also pretty new. This one's different because it's a sphere. fancy stuff. It's the fourth generation.it comes in charcoal, glacier white or Twilight blue. It's 50 bucks or pay $10 more for a version with a clock or a kid friendly version with a fun look like a tiger print. It uses Amazon's voice assist. And finally the nest minis straight out of the geriatric comb. The others are only a couple of weeks old. This is roughly a year old and it's not even shaped like a sphere. But it will be a rotary phone, a rotary phone with Google Assistant built in, and ultrasonic sensing so it lights up when your head approaches to show the controls comes in charcoal, charcoal, sky and coral 50 bucks but don't pay that much for it. You can find it for 30 at this point almost everywhere. So less of a rotary phone I guess, and more of a smart speaker. Speaking of speakers, let's find out which one sounds the best round one sound quality. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] There we go, those are the speakers in action. A couple of things to note The dot definitely the loudest, but it can get distorted at high volumes. The nest mini is nice and clear, but it lacks some of the oomph of the other two. So it looks like the home pod mini is the winner here. But let's check an acoustic track to be sure. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] So yeah, the acoustic track is closer but we're still going to give the sound test wins. To the home pod mini turns out spending twice as much on a speaker will get you better sound. It automatically adapts audio based on the room it's in. It has a full range driver, dual force cancelling radiators. There's a reason it's twice the price. So I know what you're thinking. Why didn't we test the home pod mini against the speakers from Google and Amazon that also costs a hundred bucks. We did it turns out that even though this sounds good. It can't quite outclass its size and when comparing it with the hundred dollar Nest audio and the hundred dollar Amazon Echo they sound Way better. So this is still an entry level model and we want to compare it to the other entry level smart speakers. It is the best sounding entry level smart speaker if you're willing to pay twice as much round two Smart Home smarts. Since the three smart speakers represent three major Smart Home platforms, They bring those same pros and cons with them. Amazon works with the most products, but Google isn't that far behind Apple's home kit lags a bit in that department, but that's somewhat intentional. HomeKit is the most secure of the three. As they vigorously vet all compatible gear before letting it into their walled garden, thankfully setting up and controlling, smart home gear on. Three is pretty simple and pretty quick. The exact speed will vary based on your internet connection, but we're going to give the wind to Amazon based on the sheer volume of devices it works with Google is a pretty close second in this category. Apple is more of a distant third, round three general knowledge for our third test. It's trivia time. How well do they each respond when you have a question in your brain and you need to know the answer, who plays Batman and the new Batman movie? According to an Alexa answers contributor, Robert Pattinson. Robert Pattinson on the website games radar calm they say first the main man, Robert Pattinson will be playing Batman Bruce Wayne. Batman ninja features Roger Craig Smith, Tony Hale, Tara Strong and others. How long does it take to smoke a Turkey? It is recommended to smoke fresh Turkey in the smoker for 35 minutes per pound at 240 degrees Fahrenheit. And to rest for 15 minutes until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Here's what I understood from the website dinner at the zoo calm. Typically it takes at least six hours to smoke an average sized turkey at 250 degrees F. Do you want a little more context? I found some lab results. I can show them if you ask again from your iPhone. How far away is the sun? The astronomical distances of the sun and Earth are 92,955,807 miles. Sun and Earth are currently about 91,912,000 miles apart. They follow elliptical orbits around the sun and the distance is constantly changing. Would you like to hear more? The sun is the star at the center of the The solar system. It is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions and its core radiating the energy mainly is light and infrared radiation. That was from Wikipedia. Would you like to hear more? What's the average weight of an apple? The average mass of an apple is 5.29 ounces and 0.33 pounds. Here's what I understood from the website hypertexts book calm. The average Apple is between 70 and 100 grams or 0.33 pounders 0.6. Seven in one end. Do you want a little more context? I found some web results. I can show them if you ask again from your iPhone. So we're gonna give the win in this category to Google, both Google and Amazon and Answered every question we threw at it, but Google offers a few more helpful details, sends extra info to your phone in addition to answering the question, but again, both of these performed very well on the test and Amazon's a close second. Apple, again, distant third. They keep saying they've improved. Proved Siri, and we're waiting to see the results of that. Lightning round, extras. All three can be paired with a second for stereo sound, you can broadcast messages from one to another, and voice recognition, and phone calls, and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, they have a lot of the same features. [MUSIC] Features. As for unique stuff, with the HomePod, you can do this cool audio handoff. It offers a little extra encryption when processing commands, and it works better with other Apple stuff, like CarPlay and Apple TV too, but no surprise there. Amazon and Google have their own [UNKNOWN]. Systems and stuff. The next mini has a machine learning chip so it can respond to your common commands faster. It has a Walmart on the bottom, it'll up the volume of podcasts if the ambient noise gets louder. Amazon works with the most music streaming services including Apple Music. Google doesn't have that. Apple doesn't have Spotify, but we'll say apples The winner of the extras category cuz that handoff feature is pretty nifty. So to recap, Apple one for sound quality and extras but is further behind and the other two categories, Amazon one the Smart Home battle and Google one in general knowledge. But value is important, the HomePod mini costs twice as much for its entry point and it doesn't have a mute switch on the device for some reason. In the NES Mini is always 30 bucks now since it's a little bucks is definitely for the Echo Dot I wish they didn't with clock. So for value kind of a winner but a smart home entry point go with the. Echo Dot. And that was the original question so that one is the winner. But if you throw out price entirely and just look at the best device, the home pod Mini. Yeah, that's the winner. Maybe at the beginning we wanted to dive in and find out if one was head and shoulders Above the other two, and the answer is no, there isn't a clear best. Any of them could be the best one for you depending on what you're looking at the end of the day all three are winners pro winners here, participation trophies all around, and you can buy whichever one you want without fear of making a wrong choice. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed the video, please hit that thumbs up button. Subscribe to cnet's YouTube channel for more. iiiiii Ooh, probably this one because it has that flat top. So you could really get like a nice impact here. I'd be worried about missing on this one like trying to squish a grape with a fork. This one you'd be fine to smash but this one you get that extra sort of f and the flat surface to whack so go with the homepod Mini.