Tech

Google Home Mini Review

I got rid of my normal alarm clock a couple of years ago in favor of a phone alarm, but I had trouble with it actually waking me up. That’s when I researched to see if Google Home Minis had alarm functions. Well, they do, and it works like a charm. I got mine from my grandparents for Christmas. I took it out of the box downloaded the affiliated app on my phone and was up and running in about 10 minutes, I believe. I like that it’s so small, simple, and yet, it can be quiet or loud. I love that I can control my alarm, music, news, and other things, even when I’m not right next to the device, or once I’ve already turned off the lights and I’m in bed. I’ll ask it to set reminders for me, to play music, to tell me the news, and sometimes even a math question, among other various inquiries.

One of the only things I don’t like is the almost complete lack of buttons. As easy as it is to talk to, it really needs a pause/play button, I’ve read there’s a way but it hasn’t worked for me. The only other weird thing I can think of is that I can’t connect it via Bluetooth directly to my phone or computer, though, once I start Spotify on it directly, I can control it from my computer, like a remote.

Once I move I’d like to buy a second one for my living room, and smart plugs for devices that way I can turn on lamps, my tv and other devices over the device. I realized that smart plugs may be a better choice than smart light bulbs because I won’t need to replace it as often as bulbs ( I would assume) but I need to do more research on this first.

The Google Home Mini is a small, easy to use, nice-looking device that gets the job done, and really does make life easier.