Honestly speaking, both of these features are difficult to notice - I am not sure if these features “kick” into place or if they are always enabled. And then there is Ambient IQ, which allows the speaker to adapt to background noise in your home.

There is the Media EQ feature, which adapts the tuning to the content that you are listening to, with different outputs for music, podcasts, or the Assistant. Google claims that the Nest Audio comes with internal smarts that help it adapt to homes. ( Sorry about that.)Īudio across the spectrum is well reproduced, with very good performance across highs, mids, lows, and even vocals And this loudness doesn’t come at the cost of sound quality, as my neighbors can attest. And while I do not have the original Google Home for comparison, I can attest to the fact that the Google Nest Audio gets pretty loud for its size, to the point that neighbors have complained. With these specifications, Google says that the Nest Audio is 75% louder and has a 50% stronger bass than the original Google Home. The Google Nest Audio comes with a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter for sound output, and 3 far-field microphones for voice input. It doesn’t look like a regular speaker with bare metal surfaces or other garish looks - and that’s what gives it its ability to just blend in when it isn’t actively blasting away music. The other residents at my home have had no issues leaving this piece of tech on display, and they have had no complaints of it disrupting their carefully constructed aesthetics. I’m very impressed with how the Google Nest Audio looks and fits in. I’m also a little concerned about what happens to the fabric look as the device ages and accumulates dust and smaller stains, but I haven’t had the Nest Audio for long enough to find out. Note that there is no IP rating or any claims of water resistance whatsoever, so it’s best that you keep it away from the bathroom. Just make sure that the speaker end faces the general area where you want the audio to be directed, and you should be good to go. To that end, I agree, as the Google Nest Audio sounded pretty much the same when placed in corners, on the dining table, or next to a wall. The placement of this speaker becomes somewhat important, even though Google claims that the Nest Audio will sound great in most common placements. Unlike the Home Mini that lay flat and spread audio in a 360° fashion, the Google Nest Audio is meant to be unidirectional. The Google Nest Audio ends up attracting very little attention if you hide it well, and it can look good on its own when people do notice it. You can place it alongside your other tech, hide it on your bookshelf, or place it next to other decorations. The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture.

The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture There just wasn’t enough in any of these smart speakers for me to part with my hard-earned money, and the same went for the Google Assistant ecosystem, if I am being honest. But the speaker never made its way to my home country of India, and even if it had, the ~$400 price tag is too much for me. On the other hand, the Google Home Max was a much better sell, as it was a speaker first. The idea of a tiny speaker serving as a virtual assistant that brought no utility to my life was just not worth the investment, even if Google offered ludicrous discounts on these products from time to time. But with the Google Home Max, the speaker finally took center stage, with Assistant taking on a supplementary role as an added benefit.įor users like me, who aren’t invested in the Google Assistant ecosystem, or in any smart home ecosystem for that matter, the Google Home, Home Mini, and Nest Mini were very uninteresting. The speakers were mere vehicles, and the Assistant was the main product. The idea was to encourage users to speak to Google without any effort and accomplish varied tasks without needing to put much thought into it. With the Google Home and later the Google Home Mini and Nest Mini, the company essentially tried to deliver the Google Assistant experience to every corner in every house.

Google home max