A bigger smart display for Google Duo fans

Google’s Nest Hub Max is a simple device: It’s a bigger version of the Nest Hub (née Home Hub) smart display with a 10-inch screen, a camera for video calling via Google Duo, and better speakers.

If a larger display, camera, and better sound seem like skippable features, but you still want the best digital photo frame, go with the 7-inch Nest Hub. It’s been a year since its release, and I still love how it automatically displays all my recently uploaded photos from Google Photos. Not to mention, the Nest Hub costs $129 compared to the $229 Nest Hub Max.

Get the Nest Hub Max only if you plan on using Google Duo for video calling. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s worth spending the extra money. You could get two Nest Hubs or a Nest Hub and two Google Home Minis instead.

Bigger screen and louder sound

The Nest Hub Max is a pretty familiar smart display if you’ve seen or used the Nest Hub. It’s literally a blown-up version with a 10-inch screen, meaning it still looks like a small kiosk — a tablet bolted onto a fabric-covered speaker stand.

The Nest Hub Max comes in two colors: white and charcoal; both should blend well with home furniture. Google told me they expect people to place the Nest Hub Max in the kitchen or living room but probably not in the bedroom because it has a camera; the Nest Hub, which comes sans camera, is more suitable there.

I like having a larger screen — photos, videos, and text are easier to see — but the Nest Hub Max’s resolution could’ve been sharper. The 10-inch display has a 1,280 x 800 resolution, which does the job, but up close, text looks a little fuzzy. 

Above the display is where the smart display magic happens. There’s a 6.5-megapixel camera (more on that later) with 127-degree field of view (translation: it’s pretty wide and fits a lot into a shot), an ambient EQ sensor that adjusts the display to match that of the room’s lighting, and two far-field microphones for picking up “Hey Google” voice commands.

Behind the display, there’s a switch that turns the microphone and camera on and off. 

Sadly, unlike on the Lenovo Smart Display, there is no physical cover that slides over the camera to block it. Instead, you turn the mic and camera off electronically, and an LED light tells you whether it’s on. It’s not as reassuring as Lenovo’s cover, but it’s still a nice safeguard for anyone concerned about privacy.

The Nest Hub Max does everything the Nest Hub does and works just as well. Everything you can do with voice on a Google Home Mini, Home, Home Max, and Nest Hub, you can do with the Nest Hub Max.

Google Assistant is no less responsive on the larger smart display, and it had no issues understanding my voice for things like the weather, smart home controls, directions with Google Maps, music, YouTube videos, etc.

The speaker on the Nest Hub Max is noticeably clearer and gets louder than the Nest Hub and sounds better than the Google Home. The Google Home Max is still the bass king and has the loudest sound, but the Nest Hub Max’s sound quality isn’t that shabby a small apartment.

Face Match and Quick Gestures are two neat features exclusive to the Nest Hub Max. With Face Match, the camera can detect who you are and show you information that’s only for you — great for  families where multiple people might use the Nest Hub Max. 

Quick Gestures is a simple hand gesture control. At launch, you can raise your hand in front of the display to play and pause music, podcasts, videos, and snooze alarms. In the future, Google says more gestures could be added, but for now, they’re keeping things simple with just one. It could come in handy if your hands are wet or you don’t feel like shouting over loud music.

And as a digital photo frame, the Nest Hub Max is just as fantastic as the Nest Hub. Photos you take on your phone and back up to Google Photos are automatically displayed on the Nest Hub Max. And just like the Nest Hub, the smart display knows to pair certain vertical photos together, so there’s no black bars on the sides, aka pillar boxing. It’s terrific.

Made for Google Duo fans

The most notable addition on the Nest Hub Max is, of course, the camera. As I mentioned earlier, the camera’s got a wide field of view which means it can fit a lot into a frame.

The Nest Hub Max uses Google Duo for audio and video calling, and it works with any iOS or Android device that’s got it installed. 

Audio and video quality is solid. All of the friends I called said it looked good, though the microphones do pick up a lot of background noise. During a call in the office to my friend Bruce, he said the drilling sounds in the background were distracting. So if you’re hoping for any kind of background noise cancelation, you’re out of luck.

For video calling, there’s one cool trick: Auto Framing. Similar to the Facebook Portal, the Nest Hub Max can pan, tilt, and zoom in on a person to keep them within the center of the frame. If there are more people, the camera zooms out to fit everyone in. You can turn Auto Framing off, but I found it quite useful and more responsive than the same feature on the Portal, so I left it on.

Video calling is nice to have, but again, only if you use Google Duo. If you use FaceTime, Skype, Instagram Direct, WhatsApp, or any other video calling app, you’re not gonna get a lot of mileage out of the Nest Hub Max.

Personally, I don’t know many people who use Google Duo, and it was kind of a challenge to find people to test the feature with. But if you can get your buddies or family to use Google Duo, the Nest Hub Max’s is a great video calling device.

The camera also doubles as a Nest Cam (you’ll need to migrate from a Nest account to a Google account for this to work) and you’ll get nearly all the same features as a standalone Nest Cam. It works, but I wouldn’t call it a killer feature.

Choosing a smart display

There are a lot more smart displays to pick from today than there were a year or two ago. As far as Google’s smart speaker/display goes, the Nest Hub Max slots in between a Nest Hub and Home Max:

• Google Home Mini: $50

• Google Home: $100

• Nest Hub: $130

• Nest Hub Max: $230

• Google Home Max: $300

However, if you compare it to other smart displays, here’s how it shakes out:

• Amazon Echo Show 5: $90

• Nest Hub: $130 (no camera)

• Lenovo 8-inch smart display: $170

• Nest Hub Max: $230

• Amazon Echo Show (2nd gen): $230

• Lenovo 10-inch smart display: $250

The 7-inch Nest Hub is the only smart display without a camera. As you can see, the Nest Hub Max is pretty competitive. It’s got a 10-inch display and costs the same as the 10-inch Echo Show and less than the Lenovo 10-inch smart display. 

The question is: Do you need what the Nest Hub Max offers? Do you need the larger screen, the camera, and the louder sound? Probably not. 

There’s value to a smaller camera-less smart display. Privacy, obviously. But also, a more compact smart display fits better in the kitchen, on a bookshelf, or on a desk. So unless you really use Google Duo often or watch many videos while cooking, I’d say just get the Nest Hub. It’s the better value.