It’s rare that a tech product is so affordable that it becomes an impulse buy, but that’s exactly what the Google Nest Mini was for the better part of a decade. The tiny smart speaker launched as the Google Home Mini in 2017, was later rebranded to Nest Mini, and got a second-generation successor in 2019. Google largely left the Nest Mini untouched, although that wasn’t much of a problem. The smart speaker continued to serve its purpose as an affordable smart speaker with passable sound and Google Assistant (later Gemini) help.
I’ve purchased a few Nest Mini speakers over the years, and I’ve never paid more than $30 for one. Once, I got one for free when I bought a Nest Hub display. That’s the spirit of the Nest Mini in a nutshell. It’s an accessible entry point into the Google Home ecosystem that anyone can try cheaply.
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