Your Last-Minute New Year Gift: Yasmina Speaker Review

For those still scrambling to find the perfect gift for loved ones, we’ve got a timely suggestion: Yasmina, the smart speaker from Yango Group.

Yasmina comes equipped with an AI assistant that can speak both English and Arabic, and it’s specifically designed to cater to the cultural nuances of the Gulf region. It’s available in three models: Yasmina Max, Yasmina Midi, and Yasmina Mini.

Technology Meets Culture

Our team spent a week testing the Yasmina Midi, and here’s what we discovered. The standout feature of this speaker is its ability to combine advanced technology with local cultural understanding. Yasmina isn’t just a generic voice bot—it has a unique Khaleeji personality that is trained to understand the local culture, dialects, and even local prayers and calendar events like the Hijri calendar. For example, Yasmina can play the Quran, Du’a, or Athkar, and respond to commands that are more specific to the Arab world.

Yasmina’s voice recognition also adapts to both Arabic and English, offering users the flexibility to interact in either language. However, we did test its ability to understand Arabic dialects, particularly Moroccan Arabic (Darija), spoken by one of our testers, and unfortunately, it couldn’t recognize it. This is something to consider if you're speaking non-standard Arabic dialects.

Design: Sleek and Minimalist

The Yasmina Midi features a minimalist cubic design, measuring 96 x 96 x 110 mm, and fits easily into any room without being bulky.

The lighting, which is a cool feature, is built into the top of the speaker and can be customized. You can adjust the brightness, change the colors, and even make it react to the music you’re playing—creating an immersive atmosphere. There’s also an automatic feature where the light adapts to the surrounding environment.

With an easy-to-read display that shows time, weather, and various emotional expressions from Yasmina herself, interacting with the speaker is intuitive. Its fabric-covered body, rubber anti-vibration base, and touch controls make it user-friendly and pleasant to use.

The speaker is equipped with four microphones that can be manually muted, and the USB-C port ensures quick power connectivity. The speaker is available in white, black, and emerald green, which allows it to blend in with most home interiors.

Sound: Small Package, Big Sound

Despite its compact size, the Yasmina Midi packs a punch. It features three active drivers: two side-facing tweeters and a downward-firing woofer. Two passive radiators complement these, providing a rich, immersive sound experience. With a total power of 24 watts, it’s impressive how much sound can be produced by this small speaker.

Yasmina Midi also adapts its audio output depending on the acoustics of the room, making it sound great no matter where you place it. The speaker is further customizable through the Yango Play app, offering an equalizer and preset sound modes for genres like hip-hop, pop, classical, and electronic music. You can even select moods like concert, cinema, or party to match the vibe you’re going for.

Advanced Technology at Your Command

Yasmina is powered by YangoGPT, a neural processor that helps the device respond quickly to commands and understand user preferences. The speaker also learns to recognize different voices, making it more personal and efficient when interacting with different members of the household. It’s designed to integrate with smart home devices, allowing you to control things like lighting and temperature through simple voice commands. There’s even a new feature that triggers smart home routines with just the sound of a voice—if someone speaks, the speaker can activate pre-programmed settings for things like notifications or environmental adjustments.

One of the things we tested with Yasmina was its ability to teach us basic Arabic phrases. While the assistant can handle a wide range of tasks, we were disappointed to find that it wasn’t able to teach us or respond to basic language-learning commands. Yasmina also sometimes struggled to process commands correctly, and there were instances where it didn’t respond or took a bit too long to process a request.

Price and Availability

The Yasmina Midi is available for AED 499, and it can be purchased online through popular stores like Noon, Sharaf DG, Virgin Mega Store, and Jumbo Retail.