The Google Nest audio is the latest smart speaker from the Google Nest brand.
I've had one for over six months now and I have to say I've been pretty impressed with
its overall sound and performance, so let's dive into what makes the Nest Audio a great
smart speaker and first we've got to talk about sound quality.
The Nest Audio’s sound quality has vastly improved over the original Google Home speaker,
which it replaced when it launched.
Vocals are more clear which is great for music and podcasts.
The bass has been improved quite a bit and it's a huge step up from Google's other tiny
smart speaker: the Nest Mini.
Here's a comparison of how it sounds to some other smart speakers:
I'd rank it as the best sounding smart speaker in Google's current lineup now that the Google
Home Max has sadly been discontinued which sucks because that was a great speaker.
If you want to make your Nest Audio sound even better you can stereo pair it to another
Nest Audio which will significantly improve the sound stage of the speakers and give you
an overall better sound.
Just go into the Nest Audio settings, click the gear icon, audio, and then stereo pair,
follow the on-screen instructions, and you've now paired two Nest Audios together.
Now if you're going to buy a smart speaker, music availability is a huge area of concern
you want to make sure that it works with your favorite music streaming service.
The Nest Audio has a huge selection of music services that you can ask the Google Assistant
to play from natively.
The list includes: Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, and iHeart Radio.
Basically all of the big services here in the US except for Tidal and Amazon Music.
Now if you live outside of the US, you want to double-check and make sure that the streaming
service that you're using will work with the Nest Audio and if you want to play media on
the speaker that isn't from a natively supported service, you also have the ability to cast
that media to the speaker as long as the app you want to play the media from has cast support.
With casting the Nest Audio has another trick up its sleeve and thats speaker groups.
If you have multiple Google cast enabled speakers, you can group them all together in the Google
Home app to create a group and simultaneously play music and media on them at the same time.
I use cast groups a lot.
I've got six Google speakers in my bedroom alone and I group them all together and when
I listen to music on that speaker group, it sounds like music is coming from every corner
of my room and it just sounds fantastic.
Also some non-Google devices like my Onkyo receiver can be grouped in with the Nest Audio
as well, which is awesome.
You can also set your Nest Audio to default to playing music on another speaker or speaker
group as well, so for example in my room when I tell my Nest Audio to play an album, it
defaults to playing it on the group Josh's bedroom speakers.
You can also create speaker groups on the fly as well if you want to add speakers to
a group or individual speaker that's currently playing music and it's easy to do.
You just hit the media button in the Google Home app and it'll show you what's currently
playing in your home and from there, you can adjust the volume on individual speakers in
the speaker group or add new speakers to the group.
Now another big feature with the Nest Audio is with the Google Assistant, which is Google's
smart assistant that runs on the speaker.
The Google Assistant is great for things like asking Google to play a specific song or artist
on the Nest Audio or controlling smart home devices like smart lights or the thermostat.
It's also great at helping you throughout the day.
You can create lists like a grocery or shopping list, make outgoing phone calls, set timers
and alarms and of course ask it the things you'd normally type into the Google search
bar like: “does dark chocolate stem your appetite?”
Google Assistant: “On the website healthline.com, they say studies show that dark chocolate
may reduce cravings and promote feelings of fullness and support weight loss.”
Pretty cool, now if you want to learn more about the Google Assistant we actually did
a video specifically on it that I'll link here and in the video description below and
we also do frequent assistant update videos, so make sure you subscribe to the channel
so you'll get those in your feed.
All right now another thing that Google got right with the Nest Audio is its.
The speaker blends well into the background and has a subtle modern look to it with its
mesh fabric covering.
I also like that Google uses recycled materials as much as possible with the speakers designed
and that Google gives you a lot of different color options with their speakers.
I have chalk for my color, but you can also get them in charcoal, sage, sand, and sky,
which is pretty unique because Apple, Amazon, and Sonos don't offer that many different
color options for their competing speakers.
There's a physical mute switch at the back that physically cuts the connection to the
mics giving you that privacy comfort you want with a smart speaker.
The touch controls at the top of the device are responsive though, you will need to know
where to tap to do different things.
Tap the center to play or pause media and then tap the left side for volume down and
the right side for volume up.
If you pick up the speaker you’ll also notice that this thing is pretty heavy.
It weighs 2.65 pounds or 1.2 kilograms where the original Google Home weighed 1.05 pounds
or 0.5 kilograms.
Added weight with speakers is typically a good thing, it's often an indication that
you've got a better speaker.
Alright now the last couple of features I want to cover are all in the Nest Audio settings
in the Google Home app.
If you get up in the middle of the night and ask the assistant for something on the Nest
Audio, sometimes those LEDs can be a bit blinding, so Google gave the Nest Audio night mode which
can reduce the brightness of the speaker’s LEDs as well as allow you to set a maximum
volume for the speaker at night which I definitely use.
I also like that Google lets you set the volume for alarms and timers separately from the
main volume for music and media.
I do wish they had a better interface for managing alarms in the Google Home app for
speakers like the Nest Audio.
Another feature I've used a lot with the Nest Audio is the Hey Google sensitivity.
If you put your speaker in an area of your home where it can't hear you well, this feature
allows you to increase the sensitivity of the wake word that triggers the assistant
on the Nest Audio.
All right so those are some of the top things I've found with the Nest Audio while using
it over the long term.
Now, let's talk about issues and downsides.
I haven't run into any issues while using the Nest Audio over the past six months, but
while using it I have noticed a few downsides.
The first is you can't use the speaker to send and receive text messages even if you
have an Android phone.
You also can't take incoming phone calls on the speaker or a transfer a phone call from
your Android phone to the speaker, like you can with an iPhone and HomePod Mini.
The last downside with the Nest Audio is because the speaker is a directional speaker, if you're
replacing a Google Home or want to put the Nest Audio out in the middle of a room, it's
only going to project sound in one direction and not in all directions like the Google
Home that it replaces.
Now for me this isn't an issue and I'll gladly take the improved sound of the Nest Audio
over the omnidirectional sound from the Google Home that was less quality.
All right, so those are all the positive and negative things I found while using the Nest
Audio over the long term, so do I ultimately recommend getting one?
Yes, absolutely.
It's the best sounding smart speaker in Google's lineup to date and for a hundred bucks, often
on sale for $79 US dollars, I absolutely think it's worth it at those prices.
Now when compared to the competition which at this price level is the Apple HomePod Mini
and Amazon Echo.
To me, the Nest Audio competes well against the other two.
The reason I choose Google Speakers from my home is in my case the Google Assistant just
does more for me than the Amazon Assistant and Siri.
And with cast support, Google makes it really easy to set up and manage multiple speakers
and speaker groups and cast to them regardless of the device you're using.
Now if you're trying to decide between the Nest Audio and the Nest Mini, and cost isn't
the predominant barrier, I'd steer you towards the Nest Audio every time.
It sounds way better and I personally think it's worth it to make the jump from the Mini
to the Audio and almost any scenario unless you're looking to put a speaker in an area
where you just don't care all that much about sound quality like say a bathroom.
Now, we'll be coming out with a more detailed comparison between the Nest Audio and the
Nest Audio shortly.
So, make sure you subscribe to the channel to see that video and if you found this video
helpful, make sure you hit that thumbs up button below.
We also did a video comparing the Apple HomePod Mini to the Nest Audio so if you're looking
at both of those speakers and trying to decide which one you want, make sure you check out
that video in the video description below.
Well, that's gonna do it for me, for 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.