All we know about the Google Nest Hub Max

Google Nest Hub Max arrives in stores on September 9th. It will cost you $ 229 (£ 219, AU $ 349) and a 10-inch touch screen. In many ways, it will be similar to the Google Nest Hub – formerly Google Home Hub – only with more features, a larger screen, an integrated camera and increased sound quality.

That could be great, and we have a good idea of ​​what to expect when Google debuted and introduced their device in May to the conference of the developers of the company. As the release date approaches, here's everything you need to know about Google's premium smart screen.

The basics

The $ 229 price and the 10-inch screen compare the comparable figures of the original Nest Hub (a 7-inch screen to $ 130, but it's usually sold at a lot less expensive). The Max Hub is looking to be a high-end alternative, and the statistics match those of the main competition – the second-generation Amazon Echo Show at $ 230, $ 10.

As with other smart screens, you will primarily control the Max Hub with the help of voice commands. It uses the same digital assistant (called simply Google Assistant) as Nest Hub and has the same voice features as smart speakers like Google Home Mini. You can ask questions, control your smart devices, check the weather, listen to music, make a call, turn on the TV, and more with your voice.

Once you have given a command, the touch screen displays additional information, if any. Ask about the weather and you'll see the forecast for the week. Look for restaurants in the vicinity and you will see pictures of the place and directions. You can use the screen to make video calls, watch YouTube, and view a smart-home control panel.

The Nest Hub's touchscreen is particularly effective in guiding you step by step in a recipe and acting as a digital photo frame. It has a light sensor that adapts the brightness and warmth of the colors from the image to the room. These features and the well-organized smart home control panel help to surpass the competition of Amazon's smart screens. The Nest Hub Max will start from this solid base and offer a handful of unique extras.

Nest Cam

Amazon Echo Show has a built-in camera for making video calls, unlike the Nest Hub. The Nest Hub Max adds a camera with a wide-angle lens at 127 degrees and uses it to offer a variety of additional features. First of all, it also serves as a security camera. When you're away, your Nest Nest Max can monitor movement and send you alerts via the Nest app if it sees anything. If you have a Nest Aware subscription for cloud storage, you can set activity zones and customize notifications based on the known or unknown face type.

Facial recognition

In addition to Nest's familiar face feature, you can choose a feature that allows the Nest Hub Max to display notifications and personalize your home screen as you walk around the room. When the feature is enabled, your images and calendar are displayed on the screen. If he recognizes several people in the room, the Max Nest Hub will do his best to combine everyone's information.

Google representatives indicated that this feature was intended to more for convenience than security. You can not make verified mail purchases. Nest Hub Max will also store all facial recognition data locally.

Signage checks

Most loudspeakers and smart screens have a hard time hearing you with loud music or background noise. Nest Hub Max will try to solve this problem with basic gesture controls. Look at the camera and raise your hand to pause whatever is playing. You can do the same thing to resume your music or video.

During my demonstration in May, gesture recognition was easily deceived by a powerful backlight, but she picked up my hand gestures from different angles under normal lighting conditions. The reliability of this feature will be one of the main areas we will look at once we get our hands on the device for a sharp review. This could be quite practical if it is polite.

Video calls

As for Echo Show, you will be able to use the camera to make video calls. Hub Max will go even further by taking a sheet of the Facebook PortalThe book of. During a video call, the camera can automatically pan, tilt and zoom to track the action. We really liked using this on the portal. This is especially useful if you have young children and parents from outside the city who wish to follow the action.

The Hub Max feature does not offer the same depth as the portal. You can not choose a person to follow if several people are in the frame; he always tries to follow everyone that he can see. You are also limited to using the company's exclusive video chat software, called Google Duo. The portal features Facebook's video chat software as well as WhatsApp (which Facebook owns). You can add ridiculous hats and other augmented reality ornaments with Facebook, but not with Hub Max.

Many of these deficits could still be fixed with updates (or potentially added since the demo in May) and the Hub Max's camera was already reliably tracking the action. It brings most features, even all the extras.

Best sound

During my demo, I was able to hear the Nest Hub Max play music. It sounded pretty good and much better than the original Nest Hub. Given the difference in size, I expected it. The sound quality of the Nest Hub is about the same as the Google Home Mini. It's fine for background listening, but it's way below the music of the Amazon Echo Show.

We will confront the Nest Hub Max with the Echo Show directly when we test it. In isolation, I could not tell if it was better, but the band was playing a variety of music genres at maximum volume without distortion.

Ready to test it

Given the amount of Google released in May, I wonder if the Hub Max will debut with surprises in terms of features. I doubt it because the list of its features is already longer than that of the similarly priced competition. In fact, it seems to be the most robust smart screen of the market so far. If everything is done and everything goes as planned, the Nest Hub Max will be hard to beat.