The Nest Hub Max features a 10-inch HD display, a camera with built-in Nest Cam features, and stereo sound with a rear-facing woofer. Google says that the idea behind the Nest Hub Max is to “bring Home products under the Nest brand” and “go beyond the idea of a ‘smart home’ and to focus instead on creating a ‘helpful home’”. Here are a few use cases in which users can benefit from the all-new Nest Hub Max:
Kitchen TV
Users can use the Nest Hub Max as their new Kitchen TV and stream their favorite live shows and sports on YouTube TV with a subscription. It can also be used to learn how to cook, play your music, and see who’s at the front door. To make it easier, users can also use the Assistant to search or decide what they want to watch.
Smart Camera
With the Nest Cam built-in, the Nest Hub Max can also be used to keep an eye on things at home. Users can do this by simply downloading the Nest App from the AppStore. Similar to a Nest Cam, users can see their event history, enable Home/Away Assist, and get a notification if the camera detects motion, or doesn’t recognize someone in their home. Additionally, they can also use it to make video calls with family and friends using Google Duo. The best thing about the camera is that it manages to keep the subject centered in the frame. Users can also use Google Duo to leave video messages for other members of the family. Another handy feature that the Nest Hub Max gets is the ability to pause media using gestures. So when a user wants to pause the media on the device, all they need to do is raise their hand, and the camera’s on-device gesture recognition technology will recognize the gesture and pause the ongoing media.
Multiple Users
The Nest Hub Max is designed in a way to allow multiple people to use the device and get personalized help. With the previous model, the Nest Hub, users could enable Voice Match to allow Assistant to recognize your voice and specifically respond back to you. However, with the new Nest Hub Max, the company is extending access to more users with a new feature called Face Match. The feature allows users to register each member of their family to generate a face model for themselves. To make the process seamless and easy, users can use the Assistant to guide them through the process of creating a face model. Google says that the Face Match’s facial recognition is encrypted and stored on the device, and further processed locally with on-device machine learning. With a face model created successfully, as soon as users walk in front of the camera, the Nest Hub Max recognizes them and shows them only their information (not anyone else’s). So when you walk towards the device, you are presented with things like calendar events, commuting details, weather, reminders, messages etc. Additionally, the Assistant also offers personalized recommendations for music and TV shows.
Nest Hub Max Pricing and Availability
The Nest Hub Max is priced at $229 and will be available in the US on Google Store, Best Buy, Target, and Home Depot. It will also be available in the UK and Australia for £219 and AUS$349 respectively. Google has cut down the price for Nest Hub which launched last year for $149 down to $129. And is bringing the device to 12 new countries including Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, and Sweden
