Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. Features
  4. Products

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Best smart home product of 2017

Look out, Alexa. There's a new boss in town

Kim Wetzel
By

Best Smart Home Google Home Mini
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Best Smart Home Products 2017 AwardEvery year, Digital Trends editors hand pick the most exciting products we’ve had the privilege of handling this year. Make sure to check out award winners in categories from cars to computers, plus the overall best product of 2017! Read on for the smart home products that floored us this year. 

Contents

Winner

Google Home Mini

What’s not to love about the Google Home Mini? The small, round smart speaker literally sits in the palm of your hand like a cute cloth pebble. Google’s answer to the iconic Amazon Echo Dot, the smart speaker is equipped with Google Assistant, which is getting smarter every day.

We chose the Google Home Mini because of the thoughtfulness and attention to detail on design of the compact device, as well as the smart features and capabilities Google Assistant brings to the table. Seamless integration with the Google platform also makes the Mini extremely easy to use. If you already use Google Maps or YouTube, for example, you can use Google Assistant via the Mini to access both seamlessly.

Recommended Videos

You can buy the Mini in three colors – coral, chalk, or charcoal. The fabric coating makes the device feel warm, and it can sit unobtrusively on just about any surface without looking like a cold piece of hardware.

Related

The app is easy to use, and the “voice match” feature allows you to receive customized responses based on voice recognition – a wonderful thing if you have multiple users for the device. In fact, this feature was such a good idea that Amazon quickly incorporated a similar system after Google announced it. This makes things like getting traffic information for your commute — not your partner’s — as easy as pie.

Seamless integration with the Google platform also makes the Mini extremely easy to use.

Google obviously did its research, and realizing that kids are using smart speakers just as often as adults are (sometimes to do things like sneak cookies on grocery lists), implemented the Family Link feature, which includes interactive children’s games, storytelling, beatboxing, and more.

As for sound quality, Digital Trends’ Google Home Mini reviewer Caleb Denison noted that “The Google Home Mini blows the Amazon Echo Dot’s on-board sound quality right out of the water. The Mini is louder, clearer, and generally higher in fidelity. If decent sound from a compact speaker is a priority, the Google Home Mini is the clear choice.”

Its cute, warm, button-like look, quality sound, and ever-improving Google Assistant features made the Google Home Mini an easy choice for the product of the year.

Read our full Google Home Mini review

See it

Runners up

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kim Wetzel
Kim Wetzel
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Before joining Digital Trends as Home Editor, Kim was an adjunct journalism professor at Linfield College and high school…
The smart home market might see big changes in 2023
Apple HomePod 2023 next to a TV.

The smart home market is arguably the strongest it’s ever been. Apple recently reintroduced the HomePod to rave reviews, Roborock is gearing up to launch its new lineup of powerful robot vacuums, and nearly half of U.S. households interact with a smart home gadget every month. That’s an impressive number, and it’s an increase from 2022 -- meaning the market is trending in the right direction, and folks seem to be buying into the dream of an interconnected household.

This incredible market saturation means it’ll take a long time for the smart home market to completely vanish -- and its death probably isn’t going to happen this year (or anytime soon). But the rest of 2023 will be an interesting year for the smart home industry, as Amazon and Google have run into financial issues with their smart home offerings, while Apple finally seems to be gaining momentum.
Money trouble at Amazon and Google

Read more
Google partners with ADT to launch new smart home security system
Google and ADT collaboration.

Google has partnered with ADT to bring its lineup of smart home gadgets to a new DIY home security system -- ADT Self Setup. The unique package allows you to choose from a variety of Google devices to add to your home, all of which offer full support for the new ADT+ smartphone app.

The goal of the collaboration is to offer the customer service and security of ADT with the premium products developed by Google. The ADT Self Setup system can be modified to include the Nest Cam, Nest Thermostat, Nest Mini, Nest Hub Max, Nest Doorbell, and several first-party ADT products like the ADT Motion Sensor and ADT Smart Home Hub.

Read more
Apple reportedly working on a new iPad-like smart home display
Someone holding the 12.9-inch version of the iPad Pro (2022).

Apple recently announced a new HomePod with support for Matter, but it seems the company might have bigger smart home plans for the rest of 2023. According to the latest report from Bloomberg, Apple is allegedly working on an iPad-like device that could directly compete with Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub Max.

Details on the rumored product are scarce, but it seems the device would feature a touchscreen and function similar to an iPad. Magnets would allow it to be mounted to a wall, and HomeKit would give it access to all your smart home products. It’s unclear at this time if the device would feature a stand, allowing it to sit on your countertops like the Echo Show and Nest Hub. What is clear, however, is that Apple wants to gain a stronger foothold in the smart home market -- and this could serve as a great alternative to using the HomePod Mini as a HomeKit hub.

Read more