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Apple’s HomePod Mini takes on the best of the smallest from Amazon and Google

The entry-level smart speakers from Apple, Amazon and Google each make for a good smart home starting point. We pit them head to head to head to find out which one is the best for your household. We compare sound quality, smart home capabilities, general knowledge, extras and value. The hardware is important, but you’re…

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The entry-level smart speakers from Apple, Amazon and Google each make for a good smart home starting point. We pit them head to head to head to find out which one is the best for your household.

We compare sound quality, smart home capabilities, general knowledge, extras and value. The hardware is important, but you’re also getting a smart home platform and a voice-enabled digital assistant. So Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant battle it out in the video as well.

Amazon Echo Dot
Amazon:
Best Buy:

Google Nest Mini
Best Buy:
Walmart:

HomePod Mini
Apple:
Best Buy:

*CNET may get a commission from these offers.

Chapters
1:01 The Basics
2:23 Round 1: Sound Quality
5:39 Round 2: Smart Home Smarts
6:27 Round 3: Smart Assistant General Knowledge
9:00 Round 4: Extras
10:45 Conclusion

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69 Comments

69 Comments

  1. Juan Mm

    November 25, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    Apple 🍎 is dumb but sounds good 👌

  2. trayNTP

    November 25, 2020 at 5:26 pm

    Siri is an idiot.

  3. alex torchia

    November 25, 2020 at 5:41 pm

    homepod mini definitely wins by sound quality

    • bksst

      November 26, 2020 at 12:29 am

      100 vs 30 in price. Why didn’t they compare to 100

    • alex torchia

      November 26, 2020 at 12:31 am

      @bksst ikr

  4. jarot97

    November 25, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    This tutorial is very useful. I am waiting for the next your video.
    Please also visit my YouTube channel and I hope you can subscribe to my channel. I look forward to your support.
    Thank you 🙂

  5. Ethan Turner

    November 25, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    I’m surprised by the questions test. I have a HomePod mini, and I don’t feel like Siri is that dumb.

    • roguegeek

      November 25, 2020 at 8:56 pm

      You must have not used Alexa and Google then. It’s not even a contest. Suri is a very distant third.

    • Augústo Williams

      November 25, 2020 at 10:37 pm

      They definitely made Siri dumber than she is here. She’s definitely not the smartest but this video is not very truthful. If you ask Siri how far away the sun is she shows you the results accurately on the iPhone/iPad but describes the sun vocally. Siri is more embedded into an ecosystem than the other two so looking at Siri as a stand alone device is half baked at best. Again, not full depicted in the video.

  6. Ethan Turner

    November 25, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    So if you ask “how far away is the sun” to Siri, she gives that bad answer. However if you ask “how far apart are the sun and the earth” she gets it right.

  7. theRogue Geisha

    November 25, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    Apple HomePod Mini!!

  8. TheBoyTee

    November 25, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    This is so silly. Why does it matter if they’re all “entry level”? If Amazon released a $10 echo, would you still compare it to the the $100 HP mini? The only comparison that makes sense is price

    • Nomixiu

      November 25, 2020 at 9:51 pm

      that’s not how it works in the tech industry lol

  9. Bryan Guevara

    November 25, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    Sound quality and security are the most important for me…. so HomePod.

  10. C V Sunil Kumar

    November 25, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    Just useless things which companies sell to farm for your private data

  11. Mizanur Bhuiyan

    November 25, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    The sounding sweetness roots deep over the! deepest

  12. Tango Cash

    November 25, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    Amazon is the best assistant not bad sound. Those two categories are the most important for me.

  13. Samuel Melendez

    November 25, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    lmao the homepod mini is literally the Amazon echo dot flipped upside down, lack of innovation and design as always.

    • Javier H

      November 26, 2020 at 12:00 am

      speak for yourself for stealing comments from others lol.

  14. Kanwar Anand

    November 25, 2020 at 7:40 pm

    I have the bose home speaker 500 and the sound quality is so artificial and poor.

  15. Nicholas Coffey

    November 25, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    I have no idea what Apple’s thinking at that price point. Just… No…

  16. Ciprian Georgiu

    November 25, 2020 at 8:25 pm

    Apple mini is so stupid, it hurts. And that is coming from an iPhone user.

  17. George h

    November 25, 2020 at 8:25 pm

    Haha, why don’t they do the “sound tests” with frequency equipment?? I’m sitting here listening to the music play through the speaker on my iPad!…I can’t hear what the actual speakers sound like!

  18. 90s Something

    November 25, 2020 at 8:53 pm

    I like how siri tries to dodge the question about distance between sun and earth.. Classic textbook move 🙂

  19. JR Richards

    November 25, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    Whoosba hair style.

  20. Elvin O

    November 25, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    Echo dot all day for 100 you can buy two echo’s so you can set them up to fill a room!Google really need to step up their game Apple is not even in the smartphone race!

  21. Craig Berkowitz

    November 25, 2020 at 9:45 pm

    8:08 What is the average weight of an apple?
    HomePod mini: (whispers under his breath) *how dare you ask me that*

  22. Milkysaurus

    November 25, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    If im honest, I don’t think i’d ask a smart speaker those things. Unless I’m just used to using Siri but whenever I go to use a smart speaker it’s usually for things “To do” not asking it questions. Like to play music, turn the lights on/off. Whenever I have a question I usually just google it myself.

  23. Errol Jarogon

    November 25, 2020 at 11:37 pm

    I would choose Google home mini! Google assistant is the best.

  24. datalin1

    November 26, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Google speakers are trash! Bought two of them and they keep turning off

  25. Liam O'Brien

    November 26, 2020 at 12:35 am

    Siri is painful…. and I’m an apple Stan

  26. Stephan Levesque

    November 26, 2020 at 5:12 am

    Sound quality wise, the HomePod Mini crushes these two

  27. AME TV

    November 26, 2020 at 7:56 am

    According to the dc Apple TV app Batman ninja is a 2020 release even though it’s from 2018 I wonder where this knowledge comes from

  28. Anjir Kased

    November 26, 2020 at 8:30 am

    Nest audio would have been the better competitor for home mini

  29. Drew Martell

    November 26, 2020 at 11:37 am

    We have 1 Google Home and 3 Google/Nest Mini’s – one of the mini’s randomly “factory resets” every 2-14 days. Long threads on Googles forums about this, thousands of others with the same problem, and they won’t fix it.

  30. neetu syal

    November 26, 2020 at 1:45 pm

    Isn’t siri pretty stupid

  31. rudra sarkar

    November 26, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    still price-wise google beats all

  32. John Armwood

    November 26, 2020 at 7:45 pm

    Does the Echo Dot still have an Aux port? ” That is an important feature that only the Dot has had in the past.

  33. rabit818

    November 26, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    Siri needs to read up

  34. The Desi Lifestyle

    November 26, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    The Big Blue Party blows all of these out of the water.

  35. The Desi Lifestyle

    November 26, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    Amazon runs everything through mp3gain.

  36. The Desi Lifestyle

    November 26, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    The last question of the video was the most useful one.

  37. Dean Rau

    November 27, 2020 at 1:04 am

    I’m gonna have to go with Apple here know the sound quality it’s good and plus I signed my soul to Apple so yeah there’s that

  38. Mecs B

    November 27, 2020 at 4:58 am

    so $100 is affordable? lol

    • Tech Guy H-A Golden

      December 1, 2020 at 11:36 am

      If u can’t afford it get the eco dot it’s 40$ to 50$ max

  39. Justin Phy

    November 27, 2020 at 5:25 am

    I love my Alexa but have a ton of Apple stuff. The only thing that has me hesitant is that Siri isn’t as knowledgeable as Alexa..

  40. Tanuj Dua

    November 27, 2020 at 8:33 am

    Well at the moment you can buy 3 Amazon echo dots (without clock) or 5 google home minis on the sales for the price of 1 HomePod mini. Hmm.

    • Jared Shelton

      November 28, 2020 at 4:06 pm

      The HomePod has the best sound quality

  41. save400

    November 27, 2020 at 9:27 am

    You should be comparing speakers in same price category not by speaker size.

  42. teja krish

    November 27, 2020 at 9:49 am

    Passive radiators make a difference in bass that lacks in both rather than home mini.

  43. Harryplayz

    November 27, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    Apple won the sound quality

  44. Shiraz Chanawala

    November 27, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    Apple was the best on sound. The bass was amazing.

  45. Rick Evans

    November 27, 2020 at 10:16 pm

    I’m going with the HomePod Mini. Siri is definitely not the best, but when it comes to ecosystem and integration with my iPhone I think it does what I need it to do. Very rarely do I ask these assistants these types of questions (at least not yet). It’s usually command questions: turn on/off the lights, add an item to the list, play music etc. Siri does just fine with that. So given the better audio, I think HomePod Mini will do just fine.

  46. Mark Tomeh

    November 28, 2020 at 3:29 am

    The Nest Audio sounds much better than the Homepod Mini. It sounds cleaner and louder. The Homepod Mini sounds muffled in comparison.

  47. Gabriel Berki

    November 28, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    cnet’s smart home is so nice

  48. Ace Campbell

    November 28, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    2 out of 4 is Apple. Winner

  49. aarongeorge007

    November 29, 2020 at 3:41 am

    How’s HomePod mini a winner at all? For sound maybe (Echo Dot ain’t far behind). But for every other category it’s beat. As always CNET skewed to Apple.

  50. VenoStuff

    November 29, 2020 at 7:51 am

    Echo/Alexa is my choice, even that she doesn’t support my language.

  51. Edgar Mkhitaryan

    November 29, 2020 at 8:39 am

    Terrible audio quality

  52. apple m

    November 29, 2020 at 5:51 pm

    I’m an Apple fan, but HomePod isn’t very smart. “I’ll send the results to your iPhone.” HomePod does have amazing sound quality, especially if you like songs with bass.

  53. Boris Dmello

    November 29, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    Unfair comparison, the nest audio should be the one being used for realistic comparison🙄

  54. Juan Andres Santos

    November 29, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    Extremely biased, completely out of ranges of prices. Size just an excuse to throw flowers to Apple.

  55. Frank Wang

    November 30, 2020 at 12:34 am

    I really dislike how YouTubers play music and have a mic record them to compare music sound quality. It literally doesn’t do anything apart from comparing which speaker has louder volume at a specific percentage. Volume is NOT quality…

  56. Arquell Eastland

    November 30, 2020 at 8:23 am

    Wouldn’t the new google nest be a fairer comparison because it’s $99 as well? Bc I’m gonna grab a mini for $18.99 from target!

  57. minzaw one

    November 30, 2020 at 11:50 am

    Apple free home systems

  58. danbretas

    November 30, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    Do you belive charge jbl link music to echo is upgrade or not?

  59. Kenneth Daniels

    December 1, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    So you’re say Apple’s smart speaker is a…speaker.

  60. Carlos Andres Zambrano

    December 1, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    What he said all are affordable we’re do you live?? Home pod is so expensive for a small pod

  61. Steven Strain

    December 1, 2020 at 7:45 pm

    Although I own Apple everything I do have one of those Google Nest things because Google gave it to me for free. Siri is still dumb as rocks but I am hopeful things will change since I’m finally using Apple Maps with a fair degree of confidence now when once I swore that I could never do that. Hopefully Siri I will get upgraded soon.

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