Google Singapore announced today that their smart speaker products Home and Home Mini will be available here from today (20 Apr). Previously, Singapore users can only purchase from other Google Stores, such as from the U.S., and use a freight-forwarding service to bring the items into Singapore.
The Google Home speaker was originally launched in late 2016. The smaller and lower cost Google Home Mini followed a year later. Both smart speakers are largely identical in function. They are primarily designed to be a voice assistant, enabling users to speak voice commands and interact with Google Assistant. A large number of services, including both in-house and third-party ones, are integrated, allowing users to use voice commands to listen to music, control video playback, and control smart home devices through home automation systems.
The Google Home and Home Mini can be operated completely hands-free. Just speak the trigger word, “Hey Google,” and the smart speaker wakes up and starts listening for your command.
Google continues to develop and improve the Google Assistant voice technology, not just in voice recognition, but also in natural language processing and other new capabilities on the platform. I often use the Google Home to set timers and alarms, tasks that tend to be quite error-prone and inconvenient to do on a smartphone, compared to simply voicing out the instructions.
The Google Home has a slightly tapered cylindrical shape that measures 143 mm high and 96 mm in diameter. The top surface has coloured status LEDs and capacitive touch controls. You can read my Google Home quick review posted early last year.
The Google Home Mini has a pebble-like form factor, a fabric top, and white coloured status lights that shows through from beneath the fabric. This device measures 100 mm in diameter.
The Google Home and Home Mini are often compared to Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot. However, they are two completely different ecosystem. If you’re invested into the Google ecosystem, the Google Home and Home Mini will work very well for you.
If you’re looking to get one of these smart speakers, you can buy them today. The Google Home and Home Mini retails at S$189 and S$79 respectively. You can get them from 20 April at StarHub, Courts, and Challenger stores island-wide, or from today online via Hachi.tech and Google Store. You can also shop and buy other devices directly from the Google Store now too!