Google put a little more thought into the aesthetics of the speaker. You will find that the overall design is super minimalist with no buttons to speak of. Only a mute switch on the back and a touch sensitive control panel up top designated by a thin line.
Whether you keep the speaker in the kitchen or on top of a bookshelf in your living room, it will blend in perfectly. To simply put it in words, you can put it anywhere and forget about it until you want to play music or ask questions from Google Assistant.
In the blog below, we have talked more about the Google Home Max White build, design, experience, ports, and other aspects. Therefore if you thinking of buying it one day then make sure to read this post to better understand this product.
Build and Design
There are two variants of the Google Home Max White and Black. In case, if you get the all-black color, you’ll get an even more discrete looking speaker. Talking about its weight, it came at 11.7 pounds or 5.3 kilograms therefore, the speaker isn’t light.
So if you were hoping to throw this in your backpack on the way to your friend’s house then think again. You will need to pick a spot you like and leave it there which for some of you is a clear drawback.
You will find that the dimensions of the speaker are roughly 13×7 by 4×6 inches, which is roughly the size you will get with any other standard speaker in the same price range. It’s made of the same kind of hard plastic that you’ll find on the original Google Home that was launched back in the day. If you compare it to the smaller home mini version of the Google Speaker the biggest difference you will see is with the build materials.
The fabric that you’ll find on the front of the Home Max speaker which is unique to this variant only is not only feel good to scratch but it’s what Google calls as “acoustically transparent”. This basically means the songs you will be playing will not interfere with how the sound waves are coming out of the speaker giving it vibrant and original vibes.
Ports and Connectivity
If you see along the back below the mute switch, you’ll get a power input a USB type-c input, as well as a 3.5 mm input jack. so yes if you want to plug in your own gear and make some sick beats with the speaker you can now the Google Home Max White.
Other than that, it comes with a little bass pad that sticks to the bottom of the speaker. And because the speaker can be oriented horizontally or vertically you will have to pay attention to which way you place it otherwise, you will not get the right sound coming off your speaker unit.
Also, you have to place it in such as way that the touch controls are either on top or on the right side, or else you might get this warning that it’s upside down. The touch-sensitive strip is basically used for playback controls hence, if you don’t feel like using your voice you can swipe to adjust the volume and tap to pause or play the music.
Unfortunately, you’ll still have to ask Google to skip to the next song or return to a previous one which is another drawback to some of you. The Google Home Max has Bluetooth 4.2 built into it so if your friend comes over and you don’t feel like sharing your Wi-Fi password for whatever reason they can still connect to the speaker and play music.
Voice Assistance
If you have ever owned the Google Home product before or even used a smartphone with Google Assistant, then the main way you’re supposed to interact with it is with your voice, and in that respect, there’s not much new here.
All you have to do is say “OK Google” or “Hello Google” and then ask whatever you want to do such as “Play me a song by Talor Swift”, “turn up the volume by 2 levels”, or “Change the current track of the playlist”. In addition, you can also use it to control other smart home devices.
The only problem you will face occasionally is with the correct voice recognition and the responses. There is a certain delay you will feel every time you will Google to do a task. This might be a big problem for some and others might not see a difference at all.
Overall Experience
When you first set up your Google Home Max you’ll be able to customize your preferences like your preferred music streaming service like Spotify, Pandora, and of course Google Play Music. Also, you can add what kind of new stories you want to hear at the beginning of the day.
One feature that’s unique to this version of the Google speaker is the ability to sync up two of them for a pair of stereo speakers. Therefore, if you want to drop an additional amount of money on smart speakers you’ll have a pretty badass listening station.
If you’re looking for more of a multi-room audio solution, you can of course group a few of these together which we have to admit that it is pretty cool nonetheless. The overall sound of the speaker unit is as what you would expect, below the 50% volume the voice, mid, highs, and lows are all balanced with a good amount of bass.
If you put 2 or 3 Google Home minis and then play a song on them in sync then Google Home Max would perform the same. The only noticeable downside and bad thing about Home Max is the microphones, which we can all agree on.
Conclusion
Google Home Max White is the latest edition to the line of premium speakers made by Google. It stands out more than other speakers in the same price bracket due to its distinct looking minimalistic build.
The weight is on the heavier side however, it is accomplished by a really good sounding bass. When compared to Google Home Mini, Max is a solid upgrade with lots of features that even other big brands fail to provide. If you want to learn more about it before purchasing then read the blog above.