Google Home Mini is Available in a New Color

Google announced a new aqua-colored Google Home Mini smart speaker today. Big deal, you say? Actually, I think this is notable for two reasons.

But first, the requisite quote.

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“The aqua Google Home Mini is made from the same fabric as the Mini’s original colors with the same aesthetic goal, to easily blend into your home,” Google’s Isabelle Olson explains. “Aqua Mini does all the great things you expect from your Google Assistant and Google Home.”

OK, so why is this even notable?

Two reasons.

First, this marks the first time since the original Home Mini launch last year that Google has added a new color. You may recall that the Mini launched in chalk, charcoal, and coral originally.

Second and most important, this new color is arriving just one week before Google’s annual hardware event. And this tells me that Google will not be updating the Home Mini this year, at least not from a form factor perspective.

That said, Google does note that “Google Home Mini in Aqua will be available from the Google Store and Walmart online later this month.” So it’s possible that the innards could be updated.

We’ll know soon.

 

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Conversation 6 comments

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    02 October, 2018 - 10:32 am

    <p>Could Aqua be the new colour for the Pixel 3? I know there was a leak about a blue/green model.</p>

    • Jaxidian

      02 October, 2018 - 1:15 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#337435">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Yeah, we're expecting an aqua Pixel 3, based on the colors on the Pixel 3 teaser page (click on the G in the frame of the Pixel 3 phone below the video): https://pixeljp.withgoogle.com/</p&gt;

  • MikeGalos

    02 October, 2018 - 10:50 am

    <p>You're right. I am thinking "big deal" even after reading why I should care.</p><p><br></p><p>But then I don't call white "chalk" or black "charcoal" (or, to be fair, "space gray").</p>

  • StevenLayton

    02 October, 2018 - 12:25 pm

    <p>Think they choose the colour just for me, it'll go great with our living room deco :)</p>

  • Jaxidian

    02 October, 2018 - 1:22 pm

    <p>To be fair, this device has actually aged pretty well. I mean, we could probably think of some very minimal ways to improve the device but I can't think of any that would be worth the cost/expense of them releasing a revision (or me upgrading mine) without added cost (i.e. better speaker, but that's a different device – I don't want the cheap device to sound any better if it increases cost by $5 or more – that's why I use real speakers).</p><p><br></p><p>Two things that surprise me:</p><p><br></p><ol><li>They announced this now instead of here in a week when they reveal the Pixel 3.</li><li>They haven't released more colors. They sell millions of these things and launched with their fairly bold coral color – why not add more colors to allow people to personalize things a bit more and have fun? I mean, "fun" and "decorative" sells units as well, right? Shoot, let's go down the route of letting me upload a color/design to print on these, just like the custom cases (for a premium, of course)!</li></ol>

  • Angusmatheson

    02 October, 2018 - 4:33 pm

    <p>When Apple bought Beats in 2014 I was sure we would see a ton of Apple/Beats branded speakers with AirPlay and Siri. It is amazing to me that in 4 years they have released the Siri Speakers – which is prohibitively expensive. The value of these is having a way to play audio that is better than your phone (a low bar, maybe higher than the original Echo, but still don’t need Siri speaker to do that), multiro audio, and Siri able microphone. Speakers can’t be that expaence – Bluetooth speakers that even Beats sells are pretty cheap. That they let Amazon run away with this is laughable. And Apple still isn’t a player – google and Sonos are the up and comers. They had all the pieces on 2014 – and yet did nothing. And all this time let Siri languish. </p>

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