(upbeat music)
- Hello, I'm Alejandro, and today I'm going to review
Google's Nest Hub Max, which is basically the same thing
as the Nest Hub, Google's foray into smart home assistant,
Smart assistants have become popular in recent years,
and while they've proven to be useful around the house,
they've also raised a lot of privacy concerns.
With that in mind, let's figure out if the Hub Max
is the smart display you're looking for in your home.
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compared to the seven-inch,
but there's not much added value.
I guess it did help me see
a recipe's step-by-step instructions with more clarity,
but it's a real bummer that there's still
no support for Netflix on the Hub Max,
which would be a nice feature to really showcase
the new, bigger display.
Hey Google, play "Incredibles 2" on Netflix.
- You can, however, watch videos on YouTube
and if you pay for Live TV on YouTube,
you can also stream that.
Additionally, you can stream stuff from HBO,
but let's be real,
there's way more people with Netflix accounts
than HBO or YouTube Live TV.
I actually don't think I know anyone with a Live TV account.
The speaker has definitely improved,
but if you're looking for an amazing house speaker
to fill up the entire room, this is not it.
Google does sell the Google Home Max Speaker
for a full spacial-based sound if you wanted to stay
within the Google family.
That being said, the Nest Hub Max does make a nice addition
to my network of Hub devices around the house.
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It will give you the ability to video chat
using Google Duo, its version of FaceTime,
and control other Nest devices like standalone cameras
or doorbells, basically creating a security system
in your own home.
But the thing about the camera that stands out the most,
it's the privacy concerns.
Having a speaker that's listening to you at all times
is already freaky enough, especially if you have it
in the bedroom, but adding a camera to it
just seems like an invasion of privacy.
Now, I know a lot of you care about your privacy
and security, as you should, so it's important for me
to note that the Nest Hub Max has a kill switch
on the back.
If you ever, ever, ever want to disable the camera
or the microphone, you just...
- You just flip the switch, and it'll let you know
that the camera and the microphone is off.
It'll also indicate that with this red light right here.
It's a nice feature to have.
If you disable those two features,
it basically just becomes
a very expensive digital photo frame,
but it's always nice to have the option.
So that's reassuring, but what still makes me feel
uncomfortable about this tech is the facial recognition,
especially after all the terrible headlines we see
in the news.
The Nest Hub Max asks you to take a 3D image of your face
upon setup so it can recognize you every time
you walk up to it, which is cool, but also unnerving.
All right, I'm gonna show you how hand gestures
on the Hub Max works.
It comes in handy when you're cooking
and your hands are full of grease or onion
and you just can't touch the screen.
All you have to do really is just put your hand up
and it pauses it, and then you do the same to resume.
(rock music plays)
It's that easy.
You can do this YouTube videos as well,
if you're watching a show on it, whatever is playing
on the device, it will operate with the hand gestures.
Pause.
Resume.
It's like magic.
Again, you can opt out, but you will be missing out
on one of the biggest new features of the device,
so if you're not comfortable with that aspect,
stick with the original Nest Hub.
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Let's start with the price point.
so it directly competes with the Amazon Echo Show,
If you think both of those are too expensive,
but still want a smart home speaker display,
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Should you buy a smart display in the first place?
Well, it's not a necessity, but it's fun, cool,
and even helpful.
I use mine to turn on and off the lights,
I use it to play music all the time,
to get news in the morning, to set up timers,
but yeah, one of the laziest things that I do with it is,
hey Google, can you turn on Pixar?
(light clicks on)
Obviously it's daytime, so you can't really see the light,
but it's so helpful when I'm already in bed
and I forgot to flip the switch.
And then, I could just say,
"Hey Google, can you read me the news?"
- Yeah, there's so much you can do with it.
I'd say just wait til someone gets you one.
Hey Google, turn on Edison.
(light clicks on)
- [Google] Sure, turning Edison on.
- Hey Google, turn off Edison.
(light clicks off)
- [Google] Sure, turning Edison off.