- So these cute candle jar looking plastic things
that are on your screen right now,
these are Goggle's new WiFi routers.
Actually they're also Google's new smart home speakers.
You see, Google went and did the obvious thing,
the thing that we've all been asking for.
They took a Google Home
and they put it inside a WiFi router.
Or maybe they took a WiFi router
and put it inside a Google Home?
I don't know, it doesn't matter.
This is the Google Nest WiFi.
So Google's whole argument with the Nest WiFi
is that WiFi access points work way better
when they're out in the open
instead of buried in your closet somewhere
or even attached to a wall socket in the corner.
So they want you to put it on your counter or your table,
and to convince you to do that,
they put a smart speaker in it
so that you would actually put it out in the open
and talk to it.
So let's talk about this thing as a smart speaker first.
It's actually kind of neat.
It has this new lighting system
where when you talk to it,
it puts a ring of light underneath it
and that ring of light turns orange when it mutes
which is super annoying
but you can turn that off in the settings
which by the way are inside the Google Home app now
and that's terrible because the Google Home app is terrible
but we will all survive this problem together.
It also does this neat thing
where when your hand gets close to it,
it uses ultrasound to detect it
and that lights up a couple of lights on the top
so that you know where to tap for volume up and volume down.
Okay, but how does it sound as a speaker?
Well, it sounds like a pretty good Google Home Mini
because it's literally a pretty good Google Home Mini.
It's a slightly upgraded Google Home Mini speaker
only in this thing, it's firing downward
and because it's a little bit bigger,
it's got more air to work with
so it can sound just a little bit better.
Oh hey, speaking of Mini's, there's a new one.
It's not the Google Mini now.
Now it's the Nest Mini
and it has a few new things in it.
It looks exactly the same as the last one
although there is a new blue color
but the new stuff is,
it sounds slightly better
because that's slightly better speaker
and Google also says it did a whole bunch of like
machine learning and tuning and stuff
just to make it sound better.
It also does local control for certain things
so you can turn your lights on and off
without having to ask a server how to do that.
So that's neat.
And it also has this new ultrasound feature
from the Nest WiFi where when you reach for it,
it will light up and tell you where the buttons are
'cause you can tap it to play pause
or you can turn the volume up or shorten the volume down
right on the Nest Mini itself.
It's still gonna cost 50 bucks but I bet you
there'll be discounts on the thing all the time.
Oh, one more thing.
It does have a hole on the back
so that it's easier to hang on the wall
I guess if you want.
All right, back to the Nest WiFi.
How is it as a router?
Well we don't know the full specs yet
but it does support AC2200
so it should be a little bit better there.
Google says that it's twice as fast
but what exactly that means remains to be seen.
It supports Thread 'cause they're still trying
to make that thing happen
and they also say that it has 25% coverage
than the old Google WiFi
which is still sticking around by the way.
Google's main package is a two pack
which is one router which doesn't have an assistant in it
and then the little point that does,
and that's gonna sell for $269.
There's a whole bunch of different price points
for buying one of them individually if you want to
and they are backwards compatible with the Google WiFi
if you want to build out from there.
Also, they're making a pack that is just two routers
that they're selling on Amazon
because Amazon won't sell the Point
because the Point has the Google Assistant built in
and Amazon doesn't wanna sell anything
that competes with Alexa because capitalism.
So look, I'm really happy that Google just finally
went and did the obvious thing.
It took a smart speaker and a mesh router
and they crammed them together.
But we still need to test it
and see how it actually performs
especially since Eero just announced a new router
at an Amazon event about a couple of weeks ago
because well this is a really good idea,
the most important thing is that it provides good WiFi.
Hey everybody, thank you so much for watching.
There's obviously a lot more happening
at this Google hardware event.
We've got a video with the Pixel 4
which I know you're into
and we also have a video with the Pixelbook Go
so you should check those out.