Nest Audio vs. Nest Mini: Which Google smart speaker makes a better starting point?

This is the $100 Nest Audio and the $50 Nest Mini. Both are great smart speakers with Google Assistant built in, and both are really solid choices for kickstarting a smart home centered around Google. But if you only want to start with one, which one should you pick? Is it worth spending $50 more on the Nest Audio? We're going to dive in and answer that question right now. The answer to the question is no. Figured we should get right to the point, yeah. The Nest Mini is the better device for most people, especially if what you're mostly interested in is voice assistance and smart home help. They have the same software, they have most of the same features, so you might as well save the money. That said, if you want good audio quality, I mean, this clearly sounds better than this. It's way bigger and beyond just the size difference, the Nest Audio really does sound good for a $100 smart speaker. It's got a 19 millimeter tweeter. It's got a 75 millimeter subwoofer. Google has really made big improvements in the sound quality of this over the 2016 Google Home. It sounds really good playing a whole bunch of different genres of music. You can pair it with another Nest Audio for stereo sound that does a really good job of channel separation. So yeah, if you want your smart speaker to be able to rock and roll with you a little bit, the Nest Audio might be worth the upgrade. The Nest Mini doesn't sound bad, especially for its size, but you won't want to rely on it for anything more than background listening. Beyond sound quality, they both have a lot of similar tricks. Let's say you're listening to a podcast on either one and the background noise in your room gets louder. Let's say somebody turns on a hair dryer. Either one will automatically up the volume of your podcasts, so you can continue to hear it, which is pretty cool. Beyond that, both have an embedded machine learning chip that will learn your common commands over time, and then be able to answer those from the device itself, so faster and without needing to ping the cloud. Both are quite good at controlling your smart home and can control a huge variety of compatible devices. Light bulbs, deadbolts, garage doors, pretty much you name it, thermostats, and then more standard smart home fares. So you can check the weather, you can check your calendar, search for local restaurants, play games, ask trivia questions. It's all what we've come to expect from smart speakers. But Google's actually gotten quite good at it since they debuted the original Google Home and Google Assistant way back in 2016 with consistent updates and improvements. Speaking of software updates, one thing to know is that Google rolls them out to all of its smart speakers, new and old. So these devices are definitely both better than their predecessors. They have better mics, better sound quality, they're a little quicker, but if you have one of those old devices, you don't really have to rush out and get one of these, you're not missing out on the core of the experience, that's still the same. I mentioned the mics, both devices have good microphones that do a good job of accurately picking up your voice. They even heard me from a room away. And I've been talking about them both together for awhile, and they actually would work well together if you wanted both of them. You can pair them together as a group and play synced audio, and if they both here your command, Google is smart enough so only the one that hears it better and is closer, will respond so you won't get duplicating responses. But all of this comes back around to the point that unless you want extra sound quality, there isn't that much of a difference between the Nest Audio and the Nest Mini. And Google kinda missed an opportunity here. The new $100 Amazon Echo has a built in Zigbee receiver, so it can double as a smart home hub. There's nothing like that in the Nest Audio. The Next Audio is still a good smart speaker. It's still worth 100 bucks, especially if you want Google's help around the house, and you want it to be able to rock when you play a little music. But for most folks, I recommend saving the 50 bucks, and starting your smart home with the simple and elegant Nest Mini complete with all of the same software. Thanks for watching. If you enjoy the video, please hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to cnet's YouTube channel for more. And to weigh in, bringing in the expert, her name is Freya. Freya, which smart speaker would you pick between the two if you had to pick either the Nest Audio or the Nest Mini? All right, the tail flicked the Nest Audio. So that is as good as sign as you're gonna get that this is the greatest electronic device ever. Thank you Freya, and obviously that was a very intentional decision on her part. [LAUGH]