Google announced its latest WiFi speaker at an event in the US tonight. The company comes with the Nest Audio, which is the successor to the Google Home launched a while ago. In terms of appearance, we hardly see the Google Home anymore, but the audio reproduction has also been drastically improved, according to Google. The Nest Audio will receive a suggested retail price of 99 euros.
Google Nest Audio
The Google Nest Audio has a full fabric housing. This is the same sustainable fabric that the company introduced with Nest Mini last year. The housing (the fabric, cabinet, base, and a few smaller parts) is made from 70 percent recycled plastic. We only see one button on the speaker: a slider with which the microphone can be switched off. The music is controlled via invisible buttons on the top of the speaker.
The most important innovations, according to Google, are in the sound quality of the Nest Audio. According to the company, the speaker is 75 percent louder than the Google Home and has a 50 percent stronger bass. A 75mm mid-woofer and a 19mm tweeter have been placed behind all the dust. Google indicates that it has developed the Nest Audio as a real music speaker, regardless of the type of music you listen to. For example, the internet giant has kept the number of compressors to a minimum to maintain the dynamic range of the original production.
The Nest Audio also adapts to your home. Thanks to Media EQ, the speaker can automatically tune itself to what you are listening to, such as music or the voice of the Google Assistant. With Ambient IQ, the Nest Audio also lets you adjust the volume of the Assistant, news and music based on the background noise in the house, so that you can hear the weather forecast while the dishwasher is busy, for example. However, no automatic room calibration is available.
When you have two Nest Audio devices, they can form a stereo pair together for wider and louder sound. In addition, you can create groups so that your Nest Audio, Google Home, Nest Mini or even your Nest Hub play exactly the same music in all or part of the house. Finally, Nest Audio is of course also equipped with the Google Assistant, with which you can operate your smart home devices, call up services and ask a variety of questions.
Price and availability
The Google Nest Audio will be available from October 15 in two colors: Chalk and Charcoal. The suggested retail price is 99 euros.
Curious about how the Google Nest Audio sounds? Next Monday we will publish our extensive review.