Google’s new Nest-branded smart speaker is labeled “Audio,” a name that suggests the California giant is using it to highlight how great its latest voice-controlled device actually sounds, rather than what Google Assistant can help you with.
The redesigned Google Nest Audio feels surprisingly large and heavy in our hands. Whatever you think of pebble-colored, fabric-covered cuboids, here’s a second-generation speaker that can’t be mistaken for an air freshener. Will Google’s clear attempt to name it succeed or fail? Let’s see.
The Nest Audio’s dimensions are roughly those of an upright brick, but the overall aesthetic is more reassuring. There’s no branding and no visible controls, aside from a small switch on the back of the device that turns off voice recording.
The speaker is so unassuming that it almost disappears into the background of your decor until you bark “Hey Google” to activate its makers’ AI calling card: a quartet of horizontal LED lights that shine out from under the speaker’s skin. The case is also made of 70 percent recycled plastic – another thoughtful idea.
Beneath the Nest Audio’s chalk-colored shell (also available in black) are a 19mm tweeter, a 75mm woofer and a Quad Core A53 1.8GHz processor. There are also three capacitive touch controls: tap the center of the curved top of the speaker to pause and resume playback, tap left to decrease volume, and tap the right edge to increase it. These functions don’t require much effort and work well.
Keep in mind that Nest Audio needs to be plugged into an outlet in your home to work. So if you want to place your smart speaker on a coffee table far away from a wall and not trip over a power cord, think twice.
Even for Google Home newbies, setup is a breeze. Plug in the Nest Audio, download the Google Home app, follow the instructions, and you’re ready to go. The speaker quietly finds our Wi-Fi, accepts our Spotify Premium account, takes its place in the “living room” in our “house,” and adopts its new name to avoid confusion in our listening room.
According to Google, this speaker is 75 percent louder and has 50 percent more bass than the 2016 Google Home smart speaker it replaces. So can you get enhanced and room-filling sound with just one Google Nest Audio, as the company claims? Unfortunately, no. These claims may be true, but they simply don’t match the sound quality we were hoping for.
The Google Nest Audio is quite likable as a background music provider and for listening to podcasts in the kitchen – and it’s both fun and reliable in answering our queries – but it’s not quite the serious audio offering we were hoping for, even at this relatively low price.
