Google Home Max: A Smart Speaker With Serious Audio Performance

Finally, there’s a smart speaker where the “speaker” part is as important as the “smart.”

- Tim Gideon, Sascha Segan

If you’re interested in big, room-filling sound with voice control, the Google Home Max is your best bet right now. Amazon’s Alexa is our favorite smart assistant ecosystem, but for those are focused on music and home control rather than Alexa’s huge grabbag of random third-party skills, the Max makes a terrific core of a smart home. That makes it our Editor’s Choice for high-end smart speakers.

DESIGN

The original, smaller Google Home speaker looks like an air freshener or scented candle, but the Home Max is simple and beautiful. Its smooth contour has rounded edges and a lovely cloth speaker grille that is so seamlessly installed that it seems to be one piece with the surrounding matte plastic. The cloth has a slight sheen to it, and white LEDs glow behind its surface to display volume levels. An ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness of the LEDs. Beneath the grille, dual 0.7inch tweeters and dual 4.5-inch woofers deliver the audio. These drivers are powered by Class D amplifiers.

Measuring 7.5 by 13.3 by 6.1 inches (HWD), the Home Max is available in white–light-gray (“chalk”) or blackgray (“charcoal”) models. It’s rather heavy, at 11.7 pounds, but that’s fine, since it isn’t meant to be portable.

You adjust the volume by using the touch-sensitive surface that runs lengthwise along the speaker’s top panel—slide your finger left to lower the volume and right to raise the volume. These levels work in conjunction with your mobile device’s master levels when you’re connected via Bluetooth. The center of this panel, demarcated with a short straight line, is the play/ pause button. We found these controls to be exceptionally responsive—but of course, you can also just talk to the Home Max: Say “set volume,” from one to ten, or use percentages.