Google rebrands Home products and unveils the Nest Hub Max
Google has today at Google I/O 2019 announced that it is bringing all its Home products under the Nest branding. In addition, Google has also announced the first product as a result of this – the Nest Hub Max.
Google appears to want to unify the product offering it has in the house and has chosen to go with the more established and often recognized for its privacy focus branding of Nest.
The Nest Hub Max is a 10-inch device with Google Assistant built-in, which is an increase over the original 7-inch. There’s also now a camera with Google Duo integration and an electric kill-switch that will disconnect the camera and microphone for the privacy concerned among us. You’ll be able to make calls to any device with Google Duo from the Nest Hub Max, including Chrome browsers. The camera has built-in tracking so you don’t have to worry about staying in the frame.
The Nest Hub Max also has the intelligence to recognize who is using the device and personalize the information it displays based on image recognition. In addition, there’s a built-in gesture that allows you to mute the device by simply looking at the camera and raising your hand.
The smaller 7-inch model is being rebranded as Nest Hub to fully align with the new strategy of a unified offering in the home under the Nest branding.
The larger model will also double as a Nest camera and benefit from the integration in the Nest app and security features that come with it. It also supports Thread to communicate to your other IoT devices.
The Nest Hub Max will go on sale this summer costing $229 or £219 and will come in Chalk or Charcoal. The smaller Nest Hub got a price reduction to $129 for those who want a smart display without the camera.
