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$399 Google Home Max with SmartSound takes aim at Apple's HomePod

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In addition to its budget-priced $49 Google Home Mini, the search giant also introduced a push to the premium end of the speaker market, unveiling the $399 Google Home Max with speakers 20 times more powerful than the regular Home.

Featuring two 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers, the Google Home Max has room-filling sound that dynamically adapts to the space it is in. With a feature dubbed SmartSound, the Google Home Max adjusts within seconds after the speaker is moved.

Modifying sound based on the shape of a room, much like Apple's forthcoming HomePod, the Google Home Max uses advanced sensors and a machine learning model.

It also has intelligent context, lowering the volume in the morning, and raising it when loud noises are nearby, like a running dishwasher.

It includes access to YouTube Music, Spotify, Google Play Music, Pandora, and iHeartRadio. It also supports Google Cast, Bluetooth, and auxiliary input.

Google Home Max be stood up vertically or placed horizontally, and two of them can be paired together for even fuller sound. It also works seamlessly with Google Home and Chromecast speakers.

At $399, it's actually $50 more than Apple's already-pricey HomePod, set to debut in December. To offset that, the Google Home Max with a free 12-month subscription to YouTube Red, which includes YouTube Music ad-free.

Google says that the Home Max will arrive in December.



25 Comments

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

I thought the presentation said available in December but could be mistaken. 

EDIT: No I'm not mistaken. Google Home Max is announced as being available in December. 

cpsro 14 Years · 3239 comments

Ridiculous! Google should be paying us to use their hardware and services. Sleeze you can feel.

[Deleted User] 9 Years · 0 comments

The user and all related content has been deleted.

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

sog35 said:
Giggle is so intoxicated by their own hype.

They actually think they can sell spyware devices at the same price points as Apple?

LOL...
 spyware...

I suppose a lot will depend on the sound quality and how useful the other features including Assistant are. IMHO this is another one of those products that I doubt Google needs to sell a bunch of the next 12 months, more getting their name out for good hardware instead of just a search engine. It's not only AI forum members that recognize Google is too dependent on just ad income.  ;)

foregoneconclusion 12 Years · 2857 comments

LOL...looks like Google was expecting Apple to repeat the HiFi design with standard forward facing speakers. Whoops!