Price drop on Google home in new catalogue if you want the better speaker and I also think it has 1 or 2 extra features otherwise if you don't care about the sound buy the Mini for $53 :)
Google Home $128 Delivered @ Officeworks
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TRENT86 on 03/12/2017 - 16:56 officeworks.com.au (7107 clicks)
Last edited 07/12/2017 - 21:42 by 2 other users
Last edited 07/12/2017 - 21:42 by 2 other users
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I believe mic and speakers are better
Can I go try them out to compare somewhere or is that considered weird? Doesn't have to be at OW, could be at other stores.
It's a bit hard to make a decision of $128 vs $53 without knowing the quality of the mic and speaker. Like how much worse/better. I'm not that bothered about it, but I don't want to buy it if I'm not going to be happy.
I doubt you will find a working display pair to compare (and in an environment where it can be done well) - you could try looking for reviews as unsurprisingly most people would have asked this question "comparison review google home mini vs google home" also it seems a new product Home Max seems to be just days away from launch (at least in the US).
@Elijha: Oh had no idea about Home Max, might wait until it presents itself - the worst that can happen is the price won't drop.
Yeah good point, I could look at reviews. Just hopefully they aren't too pedantic. (Eg the Galaxy S7 is starting to become quite old, slowing down etc)
Knew my chances of finding a working display pair and ideal environment were slim..JB HIFI have both models on display that you can test
@spaceboy: Oh really? That's great, I'll have to go stop in at JB on the way then! Thanks for that :)
Campbelltown good guys have them in display, can't say anything to it but you can listen. Some JB will too but I don't know which.
Speakers on the full size is leap and bounds better than mini. Mini is tinny sounding. Mic I don't know but friends says they don't notice difference.
@pennypincher98: Alexa should be out before the google max, so Sonos One will probably be much better
@asa79: Haha I'm so out of the loop!! Yeah I love Sonos products so can't wait for the Sonos one :D
Personal opinion: is Alexa better than Google Assistant do you think? From what I've heard it is, but just wanting another opinion.
@pennypincher98: Alexa has sonos and fitbit support and supposed to have better shopping list etc
Personally will probably run both google and alexa, and Sonos speakers for music
@asa79: Hmm, sounds great but just looked up the price in Australia from the Sonos website - $299?!
Lol for that price I could buy two google homes and a google mini.
I own 2 Sony wireless speakers, bought this time last year (ZR7). The Home sounds absolutely horrible compare to the Sony. The good thing is you can connect them, so I now just ask Google to ‘play X on Sony speaker’. Works great, too bad I bought mine before the Minis came out. For anyone who notices the difference between eg sound through TV speakers vs a decent soundbar, don’t get the Home or the Mini as a speaker.
@pennypincher98: kiiiinda. You can buy a chromecast audio, and connect your speakers to that (3.5mm jack).
@superroach: Should have clarified, its a wireless speaker (that is connected by wires to the powerpoint) :)
the Google Home also has a mute button where the mini version has a slider
That's also useful to know, little things like this that can define a user experience. Thanks :D
I have 2 google home and 3 mini in my house. If you want to music with an individual device, google home definitely is the choice. Listening music with one mini is terrible. But if you want group them together, you may need one or two google home with other minis. When I play music at 5 speakers together, it is really wonderful, no matter the rock music or quiet piano music. In generally, there is the only one device in the room, you'd better chose google home.
Ok thanks for the tip :)
Listening music with one mini is terrible.
Lots of people listen to music on small speakers. The home mini is as good as you can hope for at the size.
whats the sound quality like on these? does it sound as good as a UE boom 2, or jbl flip 3/4? I got a mini and it had better sound than i expected, still don't like to play music through it though.
I can compare to Bose Soundlink 2, not as good. But still decent enough for playing music in a medium/large room.
The ability to connect to streaming service is pretty cool. I mainly use mine in the kitchen to set timers.
Just remember it's not portable, no battery.
If you're too lazy to turn lights etc on and off by yourself then get one of these. Otherwise just use an Android phone.
Got the mini a few days ago, love the functionality of it. It is something I'd use everyday
Family likes calling out random songs to play on Spotify when sitting around or doing dishes or whatever.
One advantage of the standard GH vs Mini is you can BT to it from devices and /or apps that may not support casting.
I am pretty sure that you can BT to the mini as well.
You can Bluetooth on the mini.
You can only seem to googlecast to it, I don't see how you can connect to it as a BT speaker via non chromecast devices.
Why don't you just mail all of your spending habits to google for free, better than paying for it.
If you have an Android phone, & to a lesser extent android tablet or chrome you probably already are.
Google Rewards/survey on my phone is pretty accurate at guessing/knowing where I've shopping, just by tracking my movements. It's a bit hard to shop via Google home yet
Now they've got rid of easy shopping lists, it has no idea what I buy.I don't know why you got a negative vote for saying what you did, down to personal experience.
It just shows people would rather negatively vote for things that they don't like/things that hurt their feelings, which is symptomatic of the facebook generation of just being friends with people that they already agree with so that anything even slightly contrary to your opinion is "offensive".
I'm not trying to stop anyone from buying this thing, just giving my opinion, you plebs.
Soon, we'll just get hooked up to something from birth so that we never own our thoughts again.
Meh. Don't stress it, you & I popped a red pill years ago ;-)
Ask JV, they neggers gunna neg.
Don't bother, they're either naive enough to believe that marketing has no effect on them or they're fine with being manipulated into losing money in exchange for minor conveniences.
Forgot a third category: people who have no idea what it does but want it anyway. Or are they naive?
@Diji1: It is true. It's just the movie Idiocracy in effect. They've already voted a wrestler into the White House and now the thought control machines are coming.
I think I'll just enjoy the ride.
if it can be instead of my lamp. I will buy it.
Just get a Xiaomi smart bulb, a cheap Ikea lamp, and a mini. That would be cheaper than this (but sound wouldn't be as good).
For those tossing up between the this and the mini, I own both and use both regularly. I currently have the Mini in my kitchen and the regular one sits in my living space.
From my experience the only two things I have found different between the two models is the normal version picks up your voice from further away, the Mini will pick your voice up at normal taking volume from about 4 meters max where as the normal will be about 6 meters, obviously is you raise your voice they will pick you up from further distances. The more obvious difference is the quality of the speakers, the normal home sounds to my ears about equivalent to a UE boom, the mini sounds okay for its size but I wouldn't recommend it for playing music regularly. If you have Android TV or Smart speakers it is very easy to get the home to play through to them instead though. As for google assistant it integrates with most things or is easy enough to create actions with IFTTT, Im using it to control my other devices such as my Nvidia Shield TV, Yeelights, netatmo weather station, WeMo smart plugs, and my Nest thermosat. And for those with iPhones (or any apple devices) such as myself by using IFTTT you can add things to your iOS calendar and reminders using the Home too.
Is there a delay when using IFTTT on Yeelights? I tried doing IFTTT on my iPhone but there was a massive delay. Or can the Yeelight be paired with Google Home natively?
Yeah Yeelights pair with GH, but only if the Yeelight is set up via the Singapore server (and US server too I believe).
It still takes about 5secs still to turn on.
you can get Nest thermosat in australia?
Kind of, with the help of a ardunio and lots of extra wiring. It’s not really a “plug and play” solution, but it does work.
Need more information! Would love to get Nest working…
Does anyone have one of these to help me with a question? If I want to stream iOS music from my phone library (say through bluetooh) - after the initial pairing, do I have to pair them everytime I need to play music? Do I need to say "Ok Google Bluetooth pairing" everytime or do I just need to turn on my phone bluetooth and I'd be able to see GH?
Thanks
Bluetooth only pairs with chrome cast audio. So you'll need a chromecast dongle.
You only have to pair it once. On your iPhone/iPad, you just need to go to Settings, Bluetooth and click on whatever you called the Google Device (i've got a Mini in the bedroom that's called "Bedroom Speaker") so whatever's in my iPhone's Music Library is played on the Google Home Mini's speaker.
Just enabling Bluetooth from the Control Center won't don't it. You have to go through Settings, Bluetooth and clicking on the Device you want to connect to.
You'll only need a Chromecast Audio dongle if you want to output the audio to a device other than the Google Home/Google Home Mini's speaker.
Thanks a lot!
Yeah I intend to use the GH as the speaker, does that mean I don't need the Chromecast Audio. And also, does that mean the GH has bluetooth always on?Yep. The Google Home/Google Home Mini's Bluetooth is always on.
Nope. You don't need a Chromecast Audio if you're just using the GH's speaker.
So, with your iPhone/iPad, just go to Settings/Bluetooth and click on whatever you called your GH device, and it should connect. When you want to disconnect, just turn Bluetooth off on your iPhone/iPad.
There may be a voice command that connects/disconnects it, but i'm yet to discover it!
I've only had my Mini for a few days and look forward to buying the bigger Google Home if I can grab it for $128.
BTW - one of the first Australian Retailer to offer Google Home/Google Assistant is Woolworth. You can now manage your shopping list with Woolies using google home.
Really? How does that work?
Hi Trent86 , Can you post a link to the Officeworks Catalogue, please? The only catalogue that I can find has it for $198.
New cat starts Thursday
Thanks Nocure I updated post :)
Yeah I will loadd page up soon
Would be good to have a catalog, but i'm hoping Good Guys, Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi will sell it for the same price.
Expecting good guys to at least. They seem the most reasonable (maybe just my local) and willing to match prices. HN probably won't budge.
depends if google are doing a deal to get more of these into people’s homes ……a large part of getting these into people’s homes is to refine speech recognition and AI …… you are more likely to talk to google assistant in the privacy of your own home than to google assistant on your phone on a train, restaurant, office, etc.
microsoft, amazon, google are all trying to refine AI and speech recognition so that they have a service to sell on their clouds, and that requires data and machine learning.
I actually like the mini ones better seems more responsive then my big google home
I like the mini too, but I feel it's a waste of money as it does exactly what my phone does. At least my regular one can play music that sounds good and picks my voice up from further away and even when other people are talking.
plus your phone has a screen, the mini does not..
I am waiting for google to release a version with a screen
it will be more useful then…
Audio input and output alone is not enough..
the idea is you have your phone or tv or tablet if you also want a screen, these things are means to just sit there on a table and work …. the objective is that you shouldn’t need to type ……. as was explained to me by some one associated with one of the bigger cloud providers … you don’t need to teach kids to speak they pick it up quickly, but you do need to teach kids to read or write ….. so to make interaction with computers easier they are going. with speech.
this is about consuming content not creating content ….. to create it you still need keyboard and mouse.
no a screen is useful for more than just content creation, plus you don't need to type on a screen if you do want to.
You can still use voice input.Yes, you can use your phone or tablet, but the idea is these home assistants are always listening when you say the "magic words" to wake them.
With phones or tablets you need press a button or tap the screen to wake them up, plus you need to take it out of your pocket or bag etc..
since they get moved a lot by users.These devices are meant to stay at one location like you said..
but there nothing wrong if these devices come with a screen.
It will just make it more useful.E.g.
If you leave it in your kitchen
you can say
"Show me a video of how to make a pizza" or "show me a list of ingredients in a pavlova" etc..
For a novice chef or home cook, watching a video of how make a pizza and following the instruction is much more easier to follow then being told what to do by audio alone..You can do these things with a screen vs audio alone..
e.g.
-digital photo frame of all your google photos
-video calling on google hang out
-watch videos (youtube etc)
-follow videos instuctions of whatever you want to do e.g cooking
-see weather forecasts, calendar immediately, instead of waiting for it to speak all of it.
how much faster would it be to immediately see a 7 day weather forecast, or today's to list compared to being spoken to?Visual + Audio is just so much more useful.
And what about all those people who are deaf?
A screen would be more useful to them.What you mean you don't need to teach children to speak?
No, they don't just pick it up.
Have you not seen parents teaching their kids to speak to say.."mommy", "dog" etc..No the reason they went with speech only (for now) is because it is more cheaper to build/sell, they don't want be scare people of by the price
hence they introduce google home mini etc.I read somewhere that eventually these google home, alexa assistant devices will all eventually will need to have a screen…
because it is just more useful, visual is faster to get information (e.g. a graphic image or video vs audio description)Just watch future versions of these products, you will see, they will all need to come with a screen.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/28/google-homescreen/
Just look at something like the google home or google home max.
These devices are way overpriced for what is essentially just a speaker with a mic connected to the internet..
At $200 AUD(google home) - $US399 = $524.21 AUD (google home max) I expect to get a screen with that.@garage sale: You don't need to use the screen. You use it exactly like the Google Home Mini, you just speak to it. It's literally the same, but saves you $50
And considering you can get a android phone for less, just plugin a good speaker and mic load up google assistant and you have a more useful device.
I'm underwhelmed by Google Home, to use our groceries its quite tedious
Me: "hey google, talk to our groceries"
GH: "talking to our groceries"
GH: "welcome to our groceries you can say add milk to our list"
Me: "add milk"
stop and think what else i need to addMe: "hey google, talk to our groceries"
GH: "talking to our groceries"
GH: "welcome to our groceries you can say add milk to our list"
Me: "add bread"and before anyone says to use the built in shopping list, they should fist tell google to make it suck less.
as above I said you can just use an android phone or tablet to do the same thing
but the problem with those devices is they are not always listening.
you need to press the button or tap the screen to wake it up
and then need to unlock it before you can issue the commands..It is to do with the convenience factor.
and the cheap android phone + speaker + mic hookup you said, would be one messy setup on your table etc..@pinkybrain:
Sorry i must have missed that reply, i didn't think of the always on aspect, although i thought newer androids listened out for ok google just assumed it would work (weirdly my household is a Windows PC, iPhone/AppleTV, old android tablet that's hardly used, google home household so i don't know that much about newer androids besides the ads).
If I have an old tablet lying around can I connect it to a speaker and have the same functionality as this?
Theory and practice are very different. These "lady in a cans" are designed with voice pickup in mind:
The Echo has 7 far-field microphones which employ beam forming, and the Home has 2 with sophisticated AI spatial processing to achieve the same result.
Each of them can achieve the audible effect of picking out a black cat in a coal cellar. It's uncanny how far away and how softly they can often hear.
A phone/tablet's single microphone just doesn't have the same pickup, especially when there are other sounds playing (including the device's own music).
I feel like I'm looking at a Donald Trump becoming president situation, with people clammering to buy these devices.
Smart speakers being the ridiculous choice, when the sane alternative is none at all?
You might have a point there. At least these things, although they might be an unproductive distraction, won't be quite so damaging to the environment, economy, social fabric and world harmony.
To be honest, I'd rather have Alexa, Ms. Google, Siri, or Cortana as my overlord than you know who.
Hell, at this point, I'd take T-800.
Still better than Mrs. "I'm the SJW's candidate even though I was against gay marriage in 2013" Clinton though right.
The large one also has a circle of multicoloured, submerged LEDS on the the top, which spin in interesting ways when actions are being performed.
I've actually disassembled an original Google Home and it's a very solidly engineered product. There is nothing cheap and nasty about it, no skimping on materials to bring costs down. The multiple speaker arrangement is powerful and effective.
I suspect the mini, which it is basically given away in certain markets, is not quite in the same class.
If the higher cost is not a problem, I'd recommend getting this one.
If you've got a solid music setup / speaker system at home already, the minis are less obtrusive and can be fitted around the home very cheaply at present ($53).
For those who will use this device for music listening a lot then the bigger home will certainly do better for than its little sibling.
Don't forget the better range that the regular home offers, I felt like I had to shout at the Mini when it was in my lounge/kitchen, the regular picks my voice up easily.
Great post. have you got the rest of this catalogue?
How is this a deal if start date is unknown?
When Trent86 says it will probably start next Tuesday then 99% of the ozbargain community (including myself) believe him.
The big question is was Trent born in 1986 or does he drive a Toyota 86
Will having this in my car not needing an android head unit anymore? I have an old car.
It will convert your old car into a Tesla model x. Enjoy your new car.
You need the $1500 Swiss Army Knife to complete the transformation
if Amazon is coming to Australia. why would I get Google home? (serious question, not trolling)
If Woolworths is opening in my neighbourhood, why would I get a speedboat?
I just bought a mini and have been using it for a week, first findings:
It really really struggles with setting the volume.. I constantly get a reply about only being and to set the volume between 0 and 100% yet I'll say a percentage.
Playing music wise.. I have a Sony XRS5 and this is very very poor in comparison. Very tinny when you go loud.
I love how I can tell it to play music and it gets it.
Love controlling my Xiamoi lights.
Final opinion is still out.. I think if I'd bought the home for 3* the price I'd be a bit perturbed
After wasting $50 on the home mini, I think the Home is the better choice if you think you might use it long term. It can pick up my voice from further away, it can pick up my voice while others are speaking, it's speaker is significantly better so I don't need to turn my stereo on every time I just want some background music playing, and it's top start/stop/play/pause buttons actually work which I have used a few times now and going to the mini frustrates me. I have put the mini in my bedroom as it's only good in small rooms, I had it in the family room but I felt like I needed to shout to get it to work. I don't really use the mini much now as it offers exactly what my phone can already do with Google Assistant and Chromecast functionality.
When I first got the home it had no issue setting the volume to a percentage, after a couple of weeks no matter what % I tell it, it responds with the 0-100% crap. Extremely annoying.
Yes, that volume thing is a problem for me too. Software update hopefully will fix that.
what do people actually do with these?
They record every conversation in their customers homes, to make sure their advertisers can provide very relevant ads. I can't believe people are willingly paying to have their home bugged.
It's a mixed bag..
On one hand, there are times personalised ads backfire (stop stalking me LIFX)But seeing an ad for "this thing you once wanted"… sure as hell beats being advertised "singles in your area" or "work from home" etc
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For the purposes of making up my mind, does anyone know what these extra features are? Not that bothered about the speaker, and $53 is a lot easier to digest :)
Thanks!
BTW I'm kind of new to Google Home - is the mini simply a small version of the Home, or does the mini have downgraded "specs"