Google’s Nest Audio was all but revealed already when it appeared in a Walmart a week ago, but now it’s official. The company just announced its latest Google-powered speaker at its annual Pixel event. Google’s midrange smart speaker, slotting above the Nest Mini and below the Nest Max in the lineup. It costs $99.99 and will be available starting October 5th in 21 countries. You can preorder it right now.
Aside from the new design and upgraded audio, the Nest Audio does everything other Google Assistant speakers do: play music, control smart home devices, tell you the weather, and so on. You can pair multiple units in stereo or other configurations for multiroom audio setups.
Google claims the Nest Audio is 75 percent louder than the Google Home it replaces, and has 50 percent stronger bass response. Its enclosure is made from 70 percent recycled plastic. It’s equipped with a 19mm tweet and a 75mm mid-woofer. There’s a mic switch on the back to turn that off for additional privacy. It has three far-field microphones and a quad-core A53 1.8 GHz processor plus a high-performance ML hardware engine. According to Google, the Nest Audio also has a Media EQ feature that will automatically tune itself to whatever it is you’re listening to, be it music, podcasts or audiobooks. Ambient IQ will also automatically adjust the volume based on background noise.
The Nest Audio will be available for $99.99 starting on October 5th in the US, Canada and India. It’ll open up to retail stores and a total of 21 countries starting October 15th. It comes in a variety of colors: Charcoal, Chalk, Sage, Sand and Sky.
