Its official: the Google Home Max is discontinued

Table of Content

• Should you buy the Google Home Max?
• [Update: Final] Google Home Max officially discontinued after going out of stock
• Google Pixel 7 Pro vs iPhone 14 Pro Max: Google's most polished flagship takes on Apple's most powerful phone
• Apple’s terrific M1 iPad Air is matching its best price to date right now
• Google Home Max smart speaker being discontinued
• Latest Videos

However, the great size came with great sound quality, which was also one of its main selling points. Other specifications for the model were the 3.5 mm AUX jack and the USB-C port. I've been working at PCMag since November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi. In addition, the Home Max hasGoogle Assistant built right in, with a six-mic array meant to help with voice recognition.

Beyond that, buying two Nest Audio speakers is still cheaper than purchasing a Home Max, and Google allows for a pair of Nest Audio speakers to be tethered together to produce a stereo sound. Home Max owners shouldn’t notice any change in their service, according to Google. “We’ll continue to offer software updates and security fixes to Google Home Max devices,” Google said. As far as smart speakers went, the Home Max had a large sound to match its size. Set it up in a dual-speaker stereo configuration and it was positively deafening — in a good way.

Should you buy the Google Home Max?

They're still great and a lot less than the Sonos Move, even including the rechargeable bases. It was more of a robot assistant than anything we had ever seen before, and it sold really well. Because of the large size, the Google Home Max can really push some air so the low end is fairly strong just because of physics. In the song Moon River by Frank Ocean, the low E string is a little too strong for my taste, but it gives the song some grittiness and never gets in the way of his vocals in the midrange, which is what counts.

While Google’s smart speakers and displays support video calling via Google Duo, the 127-degree field-of-view front camera opened up the Hub series to video calling. It also added a few special additions like auto-framing, letting it automatically zoom in and pan around during a call. For those interested, Google launched its latest Nest Audio smart speakers in India in October this year, claimed to be 75 percent louder than the original Google Home. The Nest Audio is priced at Rs 7,999 and can be bought in two colour variants – Chalk and Charcoal. There may be last few units in retail stores but it’s already sold out on the Google Store. If you own one, don’t worry as Google will still continue to offer support for the Home Max.

[Update: Final] Google Home Max officially discontinued after going out of stock

The fact that the in-stock status returned at full price really had me hopeful that the end wasn’t so close after all. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Existing owners will continue to receive software updates and security fixes. While announced in October, the speaker did notlaunchuntil December 2017. The Home Max boasts of 20 percent louder output when compared to the Home.

But the Google Home Max self-adjusts in order to make sure the sound stays consistent. This is good if you don’t feel like going through the trouble of EQing your music yourself, but not so good if you do because you won’t have that level of control. All you get is the basic bass and treble sliders in the Google home app. I did have some issues with the speaker hearing me when I spoke to it while music was playing, but I’ll get into that later. If you have a Google Chromecast, getting anything to play on your TV is seamless. Even pausing and playing the content is pretty quick and reliable just by telling the speaker to pause or resume playback.

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None of this means your original Google Home is going to stop working or that you should toss it into a recycle bin somewhere. But if you're looking for a replacement or just want to try the smartest assistant for the first time, you have so many other and better options. In 2020, that original Google Home is no longer being made and is hard to find through an online retailer unless you're buying used. Unlike other Google products that we actually miss, though, nobody needs to buy a Google Home in 2020 or beyond. That's because Google Assistant has become one of those ubiquitous features that you can find in all sorts of products. No the Google Home Max isn’t spying on you, as in, it isn’t recording your conversations and delivering them to some foreign government.

One ofGoogle's predecessors to the Nest Audio, the Google Home Max, has reportedly now been discontinued. The three-year-old smart speaker was Google's super-sized, if overpriced, option for whole-home audio setups. However, as a new generation of Google smart speakers is ushered in, the old are starting to see their way out.

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Google didn’t provide an official reason for discontinuing the product. Several sources on technology updates shred that Google wouldn’t be manufacturing the device anymore but would continue to support existing users. As you can tell from my timbre and the video above, we love this speaker here in the office and are sad to see it go.

In mid-December, Google said that the device was no longer being manufactured and inventory was depleted at its official store. Third-party retailers continue to sell it, with Google likely finding new supply today. For months now, the Google Home Max has gone on sale, off of sale, had a permanent price reduction, gone on sale again, and then returned to in-stock status as the year wound to a close. With a full-blown return to the Google Store, I thought perhaps this excellent speaker was going to just hang around for a while longer. After all, if you are Google and trying to just sell through your remaining stock, why lift the awesome sale they had going?

Is Google home being discontinued?

It also included a switch to disable the microphones, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm input jack. Like other Google Home speakers, it featured a mesh shell with a distinct Google design. Behind the fabric are four lights that only show up when you’re adjusting something on the speaker. They’ll turn off a second after you change the volume or after it’s done listening to what you said. Around back you’ll get the power supply input, a 3.5mm input, and a physical mute switch. The mute switch doesn’t stop music playback, it just turns off the microphone so it isn’t always listening for the hotword.

I don’t know if there’s enough interest in a speaker of this size for Google to make a Nest Audio Max, but I sure hope they consider it. I like the Nest Audio just fine and I think it is a great replacement for the original Google Home, but no speaker with the Google Assistant can touch the Home Max when it comes to sheer audio quality. With the Home Max now leaving the lineup, it really feels like Google needs to fill the hole. There's plenty of other smart speaker options available, with Google launching a Nest Audio smart speaker for music lovers earlier this year. It only costs $99, a quarter of what the Home Max sold for, while offering clear and detailed sound coupled with great Google Assistant integration.

Speaking of which, I found that the microphones on the Google Home Max aren’t too good at picking up my voice when music was playing around 75% or above. I found myself borderline yelling “Okay Google” and sometimes, even then I would just have to walk over to it and physically lower the volume. Being the larger speaker of the two, the Home Max would be more capable of providing full, detailed sound. However, Google markets the Nest Audio as being 75-percent loud than the original Google Home, with 50-percent stronger bass response.