This is the Google Nest Hub Max.
Just like we expected it has a nest cam of sorts built in. It has big powerful speakers And it has a lot of the features we’ve come to know and love with the Google Home Hub.
It’s also the very first product under the new Google Nest brand.
So just like with the Google Home Hub, you can control this with voice commands to check the weather, check your calendar, control your smart home. There are top controls here, so if you swipe down you get that smart home control panel, just like the home hub. There’s an ambient EQ light sensor, so it can show you your pictures and your family’s pictures and adapt the quality to make it really like an actual physical photo in a frame, instead of a blaring picture in a billboard Is really cool and what we expected because we’ve seen all this cool stuff in the home hub.
There are few features in here that we didn’t expect. So first off, gesture controls. If you’re playing music or watching a video, you can look at the camera and hold up your hand and it will stop. It will pause. And then you can make the same gesture to make it play again.
This feature won’t be rolling out to the other smart displays, it’s exclusive to this one, and it’s using some of those Nest Cam AI smarts. You have to both be looking at the camera and making this gesture to get it to respond to you. If you’re not looking at the camera, so you’re just waving off in the distance it won’t work. It’s pretty cool, especially because if you’re blaring music the mics might have trouble hearing you if you wanna pause.
Or say your family is making a lot of noise now you can get it to be quiet just by looking and holding up your hand. You can mute the mic and turn off the camera with a switch on the back. When the camera’s on, it functions a lot like a Nest cam. So you can have motion alerts, you can check a live feed via your phone. Whenever you’re checking the live feed, the screen will show a notification and that’s a feature you have to opt into.
So that’s addressing some of those privacy concerns. You’ll never be being watched here without being notified and again it’s an option you can turn off in the settings. If you sign up for the optional Nest Aware program you can get face alerts and set motion zones and basically use this thing as a security camera as well. And the AI in the Nest cam is also allowing this to do a pretty cool thing when you make a video call.
So one of the cool new features of the Nest Hub Max is this auto-framing. So during a video call using Google Duo, the camera can actually pan, and tilt to follow you as you move about the room. It can keep multiple people in frame and it can really make sure that the camera stays on the action so that the video call stays more lively and you don’t have to corral the kids if you’re calling the grandparents.
If this looks familiar, it’s cuz it’s very similar to the main feature of Facebook Portal, but The google nest hub max is incorporating it with a bunch of other stuff. The nest cam in here also allows you to see a personalized home screen. When you step in front of the device, you’ll see your calendar and if your significant other steps in front of the frame, they’ll see his or hers. It can also show you personalized notifications.
So if you’ve received a video message this nest hub max Will prompt you to play it as soon as it recognizes you through a feature called FaceMatch. The FaceMatch feature is another one that you have to opt into, so if you don’t want the camera recognizing you whenever you walk past, you don’t have to have it do that. In terms of logistics, the camera in here has no night vision, but it has a nice wide, 127 degree field of view.
This will come in two colors at launch, chalk and charcoal, and it’s due out later this summer. The price is actually pretty appealing $230, which matches the Amazon Echo Show. This includes some features of Facebook portal. It includes all the things we liked about the Google HomeHub.
It looks like a pretty well rounded package with sound quality that is actually booming. So if it lives up to our expectations, this could be a pretty appealing smart display.
