This is the review of the comparison between two smart speakers from two popular brands in the market. The comparison here is between the Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen and the Google Home Mini. Both of these speakers are retailing for the same price range but their performance differs. To know which one is good to buy, for your go to the detailed review.

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen	Google Home Mini
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Eye-catching spherical design. Space-age aesthetic. Alexa functionality keeps getting better. The LED clock display is natural for the Echo Dot.	Nice design. Google Assistant is excellent. Growing support for third-party devices. Affordable. The great audio quality for size.
CONS	CONS
Somewhat bigger than its predecessor. Directional, shallow sound. Considerably taller than its predecessor.	Hard to see status lights from across the room. Audio quality is limited. Fabric won’t clean easily. No 3.5mm jack output.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

The Echo Dot 4th Gen has been released with a major new redesign and you might be wondering was it just a design change or did they actually improve over the previous generation. This speaker is retailing for around fifty dollars currently on Amazon which is really a budget-friendly price tag.

Google Home Mini

Google first unveiled the Google Home Mini in the fall of 2017 to compete head-to-head with the Amazon Echo Dot, a $50 mini speaker that allows you to interact with Alexa, Amazon’s smart assistant. Even today, they still hold a 52% market share, according to estimates by the Loup Group, while Google currently holds a 32% market share, which is thanks in part to this little speaker, the Google Home Mini.

DESIGN:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

When Amazon unveiled their new Echo Dot, the big surprise was the design. The hockey puck shape is a thing of the past and the new Dot looks more like a ball wrapped in fabric. I think some people didn’t like the shape at first but then Apple unveiled their new HomePod MinI which looks almost exactly the same, and it’s pretty much the same width and height as the Dot. It seems like more people are rolling with it. The new Dot is almost twice as tall as the 3rd Gen but the exact same width.

When I set up the Dot, I was surprised that it still feels small. Amazon’s close-up pictures make it look bigger than it really is but it’s still less subtle on your kitchen counter compared to the 3rd Gen. You can mount it like the previous version but this might affect the sound quality because of the direction the speakers are facing. Another change with the 4th Gen Dot was moving the ring light from the top to the bottom. This functions more as an accent light and I really like how it looks compared to the 3rd Gen. However, it does make it slightly more difficult to see so there is that trade-off.

Google Home Mini

The design of the Google Home Mini is also pretty nice aesthetically. I think it looks better than the Amazon Echo Dot. Google’s devices overall just look more inviting than Amazon’s. Amazon’s look is a little too space-age for my taste. I also love that the Google Home Mini comes in three colors: chalk, charcoal, and coral. So no matter what room you plan to put it in, there should be a Google Home Mini color that matches.

The way you interact with the Google Home Mini is mainly with your voice though there are a few physical controls with the Mini. You can tap each side of the device to increase or decrease the volume. Tap and hold to play or pause media, and there is also a mute switch on the back of the device, and a USB-C cable you can use for power. Google added some nice clips along with the power cable for cable management, and they work great.

Unfortunately, for some out there, Google decided not to put a 3.5 audio-out jack on the Google Home Mini as Amazon did with the Echo Dot. This doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to music through the Google Assistant on speakers you already own that have an audio input jack. All you have to do is just simply get a Google Chromecast Audio, plug it into the speakers you already own, and then cast music to it from your Google Home Mini. You can also pair the Google Home Mini to another speaker via Bluetooth.

FEATURES:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

The 4th Gen Dot doesn’t have fabric on the back that’s because it should be plugged in near a wall or corner to project the audio through the room, it actually sounds more clear because the speakers are facing you. With the music sounding better and the voice assistant sounding way sharper, the 4th Gen Dot offers the best sound quality for a smart speaker in the 50 price range but a smart speaker is no good if it cannot hear you. The 4th Gen could pick me up pretty well with its four microphones, which is the same as the 3rd Gen but I didn’t have to shout as loud with a 4th Gen, so it did have the slight edge. You also may want to check out other versions of the new Echo Dot, you can get one with a clock or the kid’s version.

The buttons are still on top and the new tap to snooze feature lets you snooze an alarm quickly. This is nice if the Dot is by your bed but maybe bad for me since it’s too easy to keep sleeping. It does have a low power mode to consume less energy. Just like the previous Echo devices, you can use this to ask questions, make calls, set timers, and one of my favorite features dropping in for a two-way conversation. Also, you can control your smart home devices by changing the lights or controlling your tv. You can also use the Dot with your routines in the Alexa app to set automation for your smart home, so you can slowly fade on the lights, have the echo announce if a door is opened or if the doorbell is pressed. There’s a decent amount of things you can do with Amazon routines and they make it really easy to set up.

Google Home Mini

The Google Home Mini is a small and mighty speaker that is powered by Google Assistant. The Google Assistant is the entire reason why this device is so great, as with all other Google Home devices. When it comes to the Google Home Mini, I can say without a doubt it has significantly impacted my day-to-day routines after six months of use and it’s impacted them for the better. Setting up the Google Home Mini is a breeze as with every other Google home device. You simply set up the device using the Google Home app, which is available to download for iOS or Android.

The app will take you step-by-step through the setup process which takes less than five minutes and then you are good to go and you can start using your Google Home Mini. It is just so much you can do with a Google Home Mini as well as with other Google Home devices thanks to the Google Assistant. You can ask your Google Home Mini all sorts of questions. You can use your Google Home Mini to set alarms and reminders, get the news, ask about your commute to work, make phone calls, control your smart home devices, like your lights or your thermostat and if you have a Chromecast TV and a newer TV that supports HDMI CEC, you can even have your Google Home Mini turn on and off your television.

My personal favorite feature of the Google Home devices, including the Google Home Mini, is music and media playback. You can hook up a lot of your streaming service accounts to your Google Home Mini, such as Spotify, Google Play Music, Netflix, Pandora, and also YouTube, and many other services. The algorithms that companies like Spotify and Google use for their music streaming services make using the Google Home devices just so much better for music streaming.

SOUND QUALITY:

Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen

The taller design is all focused on improved audio, while the speakers are the same size at 1.6 inches, in this, they are front-firing, so the audio moves forward and the sound is more full. When playing music from second to 3rd Gen was dramatically improved. Upgrading from 3rd to 4th gen may not be quite as dramatic but it still sounds much stronger. While the music playback is better, the voice clarity is a huge improvement. On the 3rd Gen Dot, the voice assistant always sounded slightly muffled but in this, it’s way more clear. If you listen to podcasts, your flash briefing, or ask the Echo a lot of questions then this will be a big benefit for you.

Google Home Mini

The speaker itself is decent for its price range, but don’t buy this and expect the great sound to come out of it. Podcasts sound decent, but actual music can be hit or miss depending on how the song was mixed and how much bass there is. Unfortunately, you just don’t get that much bass coming out of the Google Home Mini. The microphone on the Mini is quite good and can pick up your voice over ambient sounds like rain, a shower running, etc. 

WHICH ONE IS GOOD TO BUY?

If you use your smart speaker daily to play music, news, or podcasts, and especially if your speaker will be against a wall or in a corner then the Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen is the one good for you to buy. This new Dot sounds much better than the previous version, and also than the Google Home Mini.

Expert Reviews of Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen:

By Tech Radar
The new Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) delivers what you’d expect in terms of sound quality and Alexa integration, but it feels like the same internal components from last year packed into a new spherical shell.

By slashgear.com
Alexa is getting a fresh wardrobe for 2020, and the new Echo Dot (4th Gen) is going spherical just like its bigger Echo sibling. As always, the pitch…

By techhive.com
Like chocolate-covered peanut butter or eggs served with bacon, an Amazon Echo Dot with a built-in clock turns out to be a splendid combination. The latest Echo Dot with…

By theverge.com
Amazon may get more attention for its higher-end Echo speakers, such as the Echo Studio and the new 4th Gen Echo, but the humble Echo Dot…

Expert Reviews of Google Home Mini:

By T3
It looks good, is incredibly versatile, and comes with the ever-improving Google Assistant – the Google Home Mini fits neatly into pretty much any home, though you wouldn’t really want to use it to play your music.

By Pocket-lint
Google Home Mini is all about voice-control and expanding the Google system around your home. And on that front, it achieves exactly what it sets out to do.

By Expert Reviews
I do like the Google Home Mini, despite my issues with the key phrase and the slightly weak microphone and speaker quality. It otherwise works really well, replicating…

By cnet
The Google Home Mini stands tall as one of the best affordable smart speakers out there, along with the Amazon Echo Dot, but…