Finally Portable! Review of Yandex Station Light 2 with display, better sound and multi-Wi-Fi

Yandex hasn’t updated its lowest available version for three years Station. Other models have undergone major changes during this time: fresh design, improved sound, many new features. Today, August 20, this moment has finally arrived.

When I agreed to a preliminary hearing of the new speakers a week ago, I expected little. After all, Light is the most-most country model. What can be done in it so as not to enter the territory of the more advanced Station Mini? If we carry out a redesign, we need to move away from the forms of the old “stations”.

I was wrong. Yandex Station Light 2 is a complete functional and visual update of the most popular Stations in Russia. It is no longer just a small smart speaker, but little smart portable column.

Yes, it happened: for the first time, Yandex is launching a station with support for multiple Wi-Fi networks simultaneously, portable power supply, and wireless connection and listening not only within one network, but also on the road, in different apartments and offices. Without resetting or reconfiguring.

As they say, Well, was that even possible?

Yandex Station Light 2 package. Thanks for the stickers.

Yandex Station Light 2 is charged from a simple 5W/2A power supply unit, which is included in the kit. You can also connect the speaker with a USB-C to USB-A cable. As in the previous generation, the charging port is USB-C.

Continuing the tradition of the latest models, in the box lies sticker set. This is a great way to personalize each Station Light for yourself. My son covered the previous model with pleasure.

By the way, now several stickers in the set are made in video masks on Alice’s LED logo: she turns into a cat or a robot.

Design. No more rough lines.

The previous model of the Station Light was made in the form and likeness of the outdated design in 2024. Stations: oval and chopped, with perforated ring holes along the upper perimeter. Light 2 is completely different, little similar to both the previous micro-column of Yandex Station and all other current models of other lines.

Yandex has deliberately made Station 2 more visually welcoming, you want to touch it:

We conducted a study and identified the main characteristics that are worth paying attention to when designing speakers for children: a round shape, a small size so that even a small child can comfortably hold and carry them, a bright color and a pleasant, soft-touch coating.

A softer and rounder shape, visual interaction with Alice due to the animated window (Alice’s logo is a circle with a pick) and an animated LED screen, and a friendly and inspiring design that appeals to young users.

– Yandex

Yes, in Yandex Station Light 2 the display appeared. This is a 36-element digital screen exactly like the Light Station and the Midi Station, not an LED panel like the Max Station. It displays the time and weather in degrees Celsius upon a corresponding voice request. The display also shows animated “faces” repeating Alice’s emotions when answering a request.

All smart speakers should have a “face” like this, in my opinion. Both kids and adults like it – it gives the device a human touch and gives a visual feedback when communicating with the assistant.

The touch volume buttons and the Alice logo activator remain in the same place. The microphone-speaker mute button is also again on the back, above the USB-C port for charging.

Overall, the redesign left an exceptionally positive impression: Station Light 2 fits more organically into the interior and looks much less like a typical gadget than the previous generation.

Now Portable. How Multi-Wi-Fi and Portable Battery Work

For me, it is the coolest Yandex Station Light 2 feature. No other speaker from the company has such features, that is, at the moment, Light 2 is even more advanced in this regard than Station Mini and all other versions.

You can call Station Light 2 replace multiple wifi networks at once. This is done through the Dom s Alisoy application. It is enough to hold down the microphone off button for 6 seconds, and the Station Light 2 will go into the mode of searching for new networks. Once you connect the network to the memory device, in the future you will be able to carry out this stage without the application: connect the button, Station Light 2, and you will start searching for its network – and hold it after a few seconds.

In the Home with Alice app, you can also disable the function autoconnect to known Wi-Fi networks: then the next time you turn it on, it will find a suitable network from the numbers you added. Yandex recommends using this feature with caution so that the speaker does not accidentally connect to your access point on your smartphone and return the current traffic packet.

Support for multiple Wi-Fi networks allows the speaker to become a real portable computer. One of these networks can be the access point to your smartphone. I checked, connected Alice to a place on my iPhone, everything works without problems.

All this ensures that Yandex is preparing to release a new accessory for Stations Light 2 – Portable battery.

It’s designed as a stand to extend the Station Light 2 with the lowest USB-C cable that plugs into the ported speakers. There’s no physical attachment other than the cable tensioning – to be honest, for some reason I expected it to be implemented at least via magnets.

Portable battery for the Station Light of the second generation is enough for about three hours of operation of the speakers on the middle floor, and on the top floor – for two and a half hours. The remaining charge level can be found out in two ways: either by 4 LEDs on the side, or by asking Alice directly – “what is the charge level”.

The portable battery has not yet gone on sale, the company will announce this later. I tested my preliminary version, the final version may be changed.

Experienced holders of Stations with a USB-C power port have at least once connected their devices to portable batteries, so the idea itself is not new. It’s just that now, thanks to support for multiple Wi-Fi networks and automatic connection to them, it has become possible to carry and transport the Station with a “power bank” at the ready. a full-fledged case of using the speakers. More Wi-Fi 5 Hz support.

I wonder if there will be support in the future Multi-Wi-Fi in the company’s existing speakers via a firmware update, or they leave it to follow their principles.

Sound and voice quality. It has become much better.

The first thing that struck me about Station Light 2 when I was setting it up was that Alice’s voice became very deep and rich. Compared to the previous generation Light, it’s just heaven and earth. It’s as if Alice is sitting right here and talking from somewhere else, the savings from such a small thing.

The assistant’s presence effect is now at the level of Midi Station, which I considered the best in this regard among Yandex speakers.

The speaker power has increased slightly: it was 5 W, now it is 6 W. But their design and acoustic profile as a whole have changed. Due to this, Light 2 produces more bassand the high and mid frequencies have become brighter and richer than before. This is still not a Mini Station, and certainly not an analogue of larger Stations in terms of music transmission quality. But now listening to music through Light will be more pleasant, and the effect of “cheap radio” is absent.

By the way, Station Light 2 now has only two microphones instead of four in the last model. Theoretically, this should have reduced the speech quality, especially when calling Alice from distant rooms – but I did not notice any difference with the generations. Just as before, I was able to call the assistant across several rooms, so now Light 2 hears me perfectly. Yandex itself says this: according to them, the reduction in the number of microphones should not affect the efficiency of speech and command recognition.

Two Stations Light 2 can still be spoken in stereo pair. In this mode, one of the speakers will be on request, and which one exactly – you will specify during the preliminary setup of this function through the Dom s Alisoy application. Unfortunately, I cannot view the feature: for this you need to have two stations of the same models and generations.

What else is interesting and new in Yandex Station Light 2

◉ Improving Alice’s emotional state. Now Alice recognizes your emotions in conversation and adjusts the tone and content of the answers to them – she can cheer you up if you are clearly sad, or support a good mood. The states of the speakers displayed on the digital display change accordingly. For now, this assistant works only at Station Light 2, and will later become available on other models.

◉ There is Bluetooth support. The feature itself is not new for Stations, but I want to note that it is also available when the speaker is running on battery power. And now it can be turned on without connecting the Station to the Internet and with the voice command “Alice, turn on Bluetooth”. Just press the microphone mute button 4 times, and the device will switch to Bluetooth connection mode.

◉ Matter and Smart Home Support. The new Station Light 2 is part of Yandex Smart Home with Alice, and you can use it to control devices that have already been added. However, it is not a hub for Zigbee devices. However, the new product can already control smart devices using the protocol Question about Wi-Fi. And later, it will be possible to add Matter devices to the Yandex Smart Home ecosystem: the speaker is still undergoing Matter certification at the time of release.

◉ Supported by Alice Pro. This is an advanced version of the assistant, based on the Yandex neural network YandexGPT 3 Pro. It opens access to a number of additional functions, most of which can be found on this page. For example, with it you can create a daily routine for your child, launch educational quests and much more. You can connect Alice Pro for free for 180 days by opening the service’s website.

What’s the bottom line? Yandex’s smallest column has gotten better

Yandex Station Light 2 costs a little more than the previous generation: 5990 rubles instead of 4990 rubles. In my opinion, the difference in cost between them is more than justified.

Improved sound quality and Alice’s voice, support for multiple Wi-Fi networks and convenient portable use, the presence of screens and emotions both on it and in the assistant’s responses, a modern case design, full support for Matter in the future – in general, I don’t see a single reason to choose the previous generation after the release of the updated version.

The start of sales of Yandex Station Light 2 in Russia and Belarus is successful today. In Kazakhstan, the speaker will be released on August 23. Three colors are currently available for order: purple, blue and pink. Later, orange, green and dark gray body colors will be added.

📸 All photos in the article: