After a month-long speculations Google Home, Home Mini smart speakers finally launched in India. Both these smart speakers are powered by Google Assistant and can perform various tasks is you just ask. The Google Home and Home Mini will compete with Amazon’s Alexa-powered smart speakers – the Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot – which are already available in India.
Google first announced its Home smart speaker couple of years back in 2016 and last year expanded its smart speakers line up with Google Home Mini and Google Home Max. Out of the three, only Google Home and Mini will be available in India as of now.
OK Google! What can Google Home and Mini Do?
Both these Google smart speakers can perform numerous actions besides entertaining you. They can read out daily news updates, check your emails, tell you what’s on your calendar and can remind you of your next meeting. If you have a smart home setup, Google Home family can let you control all of your smart home devices like Philips Hue, Nest, Samsung Smarthings, and Honeywell using just voice prompts. Google home devices also works with IFTTT services to let different smart appliances and apps talk to each other.
Both Google Home and Home Mini respond to ‘Ok Google’ and ‘Hey Google’. It works well with Android TVs and some popular apps like Netflix Play Music, Youtube, Saavn and Gaana. As a launch offer, Google is shipping each Home and Mini smart speaker with six months of ad-free music experience by Play Music, Saavan and Gaana.
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Google Home specifications
The Google Home has touch-sensitive control at the top. It lets you activate the Google Assistant, play/pause playback and adjust volume. The Google Home comes with an extended range mic that identifies different voices even in crowded space. It has a mic mute button and a power status light both placed at the back. The lights on top panel change color patterns depending on the command. Google Home comes in a Chalk fabric base, while Coral option will be available at a later date.
Google Home Mini Specification
The Google Home Mini is much more compact has a pebble-shaped design and features a fabric speaker cover. Although, this time, the exterior is not replaceable. It can project 360-degree sound, but you can also connect it to any Cast-enabled speaker wirelessly. However, there’s no headphone jack like the Amazon Echo Dot. Google Home Max isn’t being launched in India.
The Google Home Mini also features four LEDs on the top for notifying you about stuff. Like Google Home, the Mini also has touch-sensitive buttons for playing/pausing music, snoozing reminders and a lot more. Google aim with Home Mini has put a Bluetooth speaker but every room in your house. It is offered in three hues – Choral, Chalk and Charcoal.
Google Home, Home Mini price in India, availability, launch offers
The Google Home price in India is set at Rs. 9,999, which puts it right in the Amazon Echo territory. The Google Home Mini, on the other hand, retail price in India is set at Rs. 4,490, which is once again same as that of Amazon’s Echo Dot. Both the Google Home and Home Mini will be exclusively available online on Flipkart. For offline availability, Google has partnered with via Reliance Digital. Both Google Home Mini and Google Home are now on sale through online and offline channels.
Each customer who buys a Google Home or Google Home Mini from Flipkart will get a free JioFi router. If a user buys Google home from a Reliance Digital or MyJio stores, he will get a free JioFi router along with 100GB of 4G data worth Rs. 2,499. This introductory offer is valid until April 30.
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