It's official: Google will release the Nest Hub Max on September 9
The world's second-largest smart speaker vendor owes its success in the thriving Amazon-dominated market primarily to the low-cost Google Home Mini, but its product portfolio includes everything from a model with a 7-inch touchscreen to a premium audio-only variant priced as high as $299.
There's also the slightly cheaper Nest Hub Max with a 10-inch display, although for some reason, you still can't buy or even pre-order that particular device, which went official all the way back in May. A couple of months later, a Google Support webpage appeared to finally reveal the release date of the Echo Show-rivaling gadget, but the search giant quickly switched back to a vague "coming soon" mention, leaving us wondering if September 9 was an accurate due date or not.
As it turns out, it was, since the exact same date is now cited on the main Google Store product page. Unfortunately, it's still not clear if Google merely plans to kick off Nest Hub Max pre-orders next Monday or actually put the device on sale and start shipping it to early adopters right away. Currently, you can only join a waitlist and sign up to receive an email when availability will be underway at last. Meanwhile, third-party retailers like Best Buy are still vaguely listing the Google Nest Hub Max as "coming soon", with no words whatsoever on a release date.
Coated in your choice of "Charcoal" or "Chalk", the elegant smart display comes with built-in smart home controls, native YouTube integration, stereo speakers, a relatively powerful 3-inch woofer, and a smart Nest Cam that can keep an eye on things when you're away from home, as well as make video calls and even match your face to your individual user profile and display personalized information without you having to lift a finger.
At $229, the Nest Hub Max goes directly up against Amazon's $230 second-gen Echo Show, but there's a good chance a third-gen version of the Alexa-powered smart display will be released by the end of the year.
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