70 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 44
REVIEW
language, whereas Alexa prefers a more formulaic
approach. It’s also got a real personality, so it feels
less like you’re having a conversation with a box and
more like you’re chatting to an actual assistant. People
skills is something Alexa definitely lacks, even if it has a
great many technical ‘Skills’.
Of course, we’re not completely writing off Alexa,
and one of our biggest gripes with the Google
Assistant is there is still no way to change the wake
word from either
Okay Google or Hey Google. (You can’t change
the Google Assistant’s name either.) It doesn’t sound
like a big deal, but over time it becomes a real tongue
twister. Alexa is simply a lot easier to say.
We also would have liked to seen an audio jack, as
found on the Echo Dot, enabling you to hook up the
Google Home Mini to a more powerful speaker. That’s
a big omission here.What’s the difference between
Google Home and Google Home Mini?
If you’ve decided to buy a speaker with the Google
Assistant built-in, your next question will be why the
Mini and not the standard box. There’s obviously a
huge difference in price between the £49 Mini and
the £129 Google Home, so the Mini must be lacking
something big, right?
Actually no, not really. Provided you’re not placing
the utmost importance on audio quality, anyway. The
Mini is smaller simply because it has less powerful
audio hardware, though in our tests we were surprised
by how loud it was and how well it handled vocals,