The Google Home Max is a high-powered speaker that can be used as a party speaker or as part of a stereo pair for big sound movies thanks to the dual 4.5-inch woofers in the beast. While this can make a big impression, it has a minimalistic design that allows it to suit any room. Here is a full Google Home Max review for you to consider.
Contents
Google Home Max Review
1. Price
The Google Home Max is a premium smart speaker, and therefore, it’s more expensive than the smaller, more basic Home and Home Mini speakers. It’s a lot cheaper today than when it first debuted – at £ 299, it dropped the price by £ 100 – but it’s still more expensive than most of its major rivals.
2. Design
Home Max is a product that seems to come from Libratone or Bang & Olufsen’s portfolio. In short, it is very large and not to be blamed for. But between the mute mesh grille and the white chassis, the almost complete absence of style here, strangely enough, makes it incredibly stylish.
Located next to Google Home and Home Mini, the Max is huge. Weighing in at 11.6 pounds (5.3kg) and about the size of a large speaker, you can say that the Home Max is clearly the biggest, most powerful speaker in the family.
It can stand vertically or horizontally without the fear of tampering with your furniture thanks to the included magnetic cushioning, a great idea that gives Max surprising flexibility if you need to move it around his living room.
Smartly, the speaker’s touch controls adapt to the direction you have chosen. Sitting horizontally, move your finger from left to right to increase the volume.
Like other Google Home products, Max has a bunch of lights that show up when you say “Hey Google” or “OK Google”.
On the back, you’ll find a switch for switching the microphone and a spare USB-C port for charging, such as your Pixel 2 or any other compatible device.
3. Smart features and voice sensitivity
Through Google Assistant, you can use your voice to ask Home Max to play music and radio; set timers, reminders, and calendar entries; and ask questions about the weather and many other quizzes.
Google Assistant is awesome. Overall, it’s better than Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri at recognizing what you ask and is more likely to give you focused answers to a random quiz question. Assistant on the Home Max supports up to five different voices, so it can recognize who is asking it to play music and adjust suggestions accordingly.
Home Max supports search, control, and voice playback via Google Play Music, Spotify, Deezer, and YouTube Premium. Radio playback via TuneIn and iHeartRadio, while podcasts are streamed via Google’s own library.
What the Home Max doesn’t stand out from is its far-field voice detection feature. The speaker uses a series of six microphones to receive voice guidance and it does a pretty good job in this whole room with moderate ambient noise.
Like the Apple HomePod, Google Home Max uses them to sense the surroundings and automatically adjust the sound output. Called Smart Sound, the idea is to avoid loud bass caused by placing the speaker near the wall and in the corner or the low, light sound that you can get from speakers in a large, open space.
4. Sound quality
If you want to play hard, Home Max is super noisy. The jarring sound filled the room in a way the HomePod didn’t have. If you want something to fill a large space, the Home Max should be somewhere near the top of the list.
However, when the Home Max reaches full volume, it starts to get a little harsh. The balance between bass, mids, and treble gets a bit confusing. That’s not too dreadful, but the Home Max loses a bit of sophistication and poise – this shouldn’t be an issue for the HomePod.
At lower volumes, it’s a tighter competition. Home Max’s powerful bass shines through, making the music sound more impressive.
Stereo separation isn’t as good as you would hear with dedicated left and right speakers, but the Home Max does a pretty good job. Put on the Foo Fighters ‘Enough Space’ and the opening guitar spins from left to right.
Overall, though, the Home Max is still a pretty oriented device. Put it in a corner of the room and you know where the sound is coming from. There isn’t the same level of 360-degree sound as the HomePod emits.
The Smart Sound does a good job of balancing the sound, although it can push the sound out. Move from large room to smaller room and you won’t be overwhelmed by bass.
Put the Home Max on an attached bookshelf and the sound – especially the high-end one – sounds a bit jarring. The speaker struggled to deal with the echo.
In conclusion, this is the full Google Home Max review to consider. Hoping that you find it useful.
