Through an exclusive launch event in New Delhi today, Google announced the arrival of Google Assistant enabled Home and Home Mini smart speakers in India. These devices will be arriving with support for content from Google Play Music, YouTube, Netflix, Saavn, and Gaana. The search engine will be bringing support for Hindi language to its smart speakers later this year.
Google Home and Home Mini Specifications
Google Home is a larger device compared to Home Mini. It comes with a touch-enabled surface at the top that can be used for various functions like play/pause, volume and for activating Google Assistant. The mic of the Google Home carries support for far-field voice recognition and it can understand voices of different users through Voice Match technology. The light present at the surface of the device show different patterns and colors on the basis of the action it carries out. The rear side of the speaker features a mic mute button and an LED indicator for power status.
The Google Home is equipped with support for dual band Wi-Fi 802.11ac. The manufacturer has not included support for Bluetooth connectivity on the device. Also, it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack, a feature that is found on Amazon Echo smart speaker. The Google Home has a height of 142.8mm and its diameter is 96.4mm. It weighs 477 grams.
The Google Home Mini is equipped with four lights on its top that glow when the speaker is kept on. The lights change to orange when the mic is muted. Like Google Home, it features far-field voice recognition and Voice Match technology for recognizing different voices. The mic mute button and microUSB port that can be used for charging lies on the rear of the Home Mini. It comes with the all the basic functions that are available on the larger sibling.
The Home Mini can be controlled through the buttons that are available on its left and right sides. Apart from support for dual band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, it is also enabled with Bluetooth 4.1. It is compact device with a diameter of 9.8mm and a height of 42mm. The device weighs 173 grams.
The settings of the Google Home and Home Mini smart speakers can be configured using the Google Home app on Android devices running on Android 4.4 KitKat or higher and iOS 9.1 or above on iOS devices. Both the smart speakers from Google are enabled with support for Chromecast. These devices can be powered by connecting to the wall socket by using an AC power adapter that is included in the package. The Google Home and Home Mini can be used for controlling more than 1,000 smart home devices from over 150 brands.
Google Home and Home Mini Pricing and Availability
The Google Home is now available in India with a pricing of Rs. 9,999. The Home Mini carries a price tag of Rs. 4,999. These smart speakers have arrived as competitors for Amazon’s Alexa assistant equipped Echo and Echo Dot that are also respectively priced at Rs. 9,999 and Rs. 4,999.
Flipkart is the exclusive online sales partner for Google Home and Home Mini. It will be also made available for buying through some offline channels like Bajaj Electronics, Croma, Poorvika, Reliance Digital, Sangeetha and Vijay Sales. Starting from today, these stores will carry out the sales of Home and Home Mini.
Buyers who purchase any of these speakers from Flipkart will be provided with a free JioFi router. Reliance Digital and MyJio stores will be also giving away free JioFi router along with Rs. 2,499 worth 100 GB 4G data.
