Getting your smarts on with Google Nest Audio

Google Nest Audio.

Google’s latest smart speaker is an update to the Google Home now called Nest Audio and is a worthy upgrade over the original.

The new speaker looks completely different from the original Home speaker both externally and under the hood.

Design

Google Nest Audio.

The Nest Audio is covered in a fabric material that fits in nicely in any living room and comes in a choice of either an off white or dark grey. There’s nothing visible on the front until you wake the assistant or change the volume to see four LEDs across the front. Around the back are a slider mute button and the port for the power supply. Unfortunately, like the original, there’s no AUX 3.5mm port, but you now get Bluetooth support.

Speakers

There’s a dramatic upgrade in the speaker system with powerful drivers that can deliver 75% more volume and 50% more bass. When I compared the original to the Nest Audio there’s a very noticeable difference.

Sound

The Nest Audio is physically larger than Home and this is to accommodate the larger speaker system. It can easily fill a small room with a big sound, but it also works really well at lower volumes too. Don’t expect it to replace a high-end speaker system or hi-fi setup but it does work excellently for casual listening.

The soundstage is limited due to it being a single unit and I did find the mid-range lacking a little. You can pair two Nest speakers which should produce a bigger, more expansive stereo sound. I wasn’t able to test with two Nest speakers but I did test the feature by pairing my Home with the Nest and it does work.

The bass is now more powerful and capable of reproducing tunes with heavy bass. I love using it to listen to podcasts or talk radio where vocals come out clear and natural-sounding.

Features

Google Nest Audio.

The new Media EQ feature enables Nest Audio to automatically adapt to the content that you’re listening to: music, podcasts, audiobooks or Assistant. It uses the external mics to adapter volume, bass and Nest Audio also adjusts based on the background noise in the home, raising the volume so you can hear Google Assistant. This is a subtle feature that just works automatically in the background but it does help.

Controls

There are invisible touch controls on the top of the speaker with left being volume down, middle pause/play and right for volume up. The four LED lights indicate volume levels but I miss the coloured LED lights of the original and the cool way the touch controls worked for volume. I found the new touch controls to be hit or miss at times. Of course, you can just say ‘hey google” turn down the volume.

Verdict

Overall, Google Nest Audio is a fantastic smart speaker and comes highly recommend. It easily picks up your voice for commands, the Google Assistant keeps getting better and now supports hundreds of smart products and the price of entry is a lot lower than the original was.

Google online store €98.36