Neil Hughes
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.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
25 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.
Ridiculous! Google should be paying us to use their hardware and services. Sleeze you can feel.
The user and all related content has been deleted.
LOL...looks like Google was expecting Apple to repeat the HiFi design with standard forward facing speakers. Whoops!