Surprise! The Google Home Max is now available to buy in the UK
Last December, the Google Home Max was released in the United States. Precious little has been heard of a UK release until now: surprise, it’s available today!
While the original Google Home is a good match for the Amazon Echo, the Google Home Max has Apple’s HomePod clearly in its sights. It’s all about sound quality, and Google boasts that it can play audio 20 times as loud as the original Home – so you can make sure that the whole street hears Assistant’s own brand of Christmas cracker jokes.
Related: Google Home vs Amazon Echo
Volume isn’t all the Max offers, of course. As well as having Google Assistant built in to answer your every query, the company is boasting that the AI will help you get the perfect audio balance whatever room you’re in. Move the Google Home Max, and it will adapt to its new location “in seconds.”
Then, of course, there’s the improved sound quality. The two 4.5-inch high-exclusion woofers, Google claims, offer “deep, balanced bass,” even at high volumes and the whole thing generally offers crisper, clearer sound fit for discerning audiophiles.
Frankly, you should hope so too, for the price. The Google Home Max is launching for £399 – a disappointing direct 1:1 conversion of the $399 US RRP. And while American customers at least got 12 months of YouTube Red to sweeten the deal a little, it doesn’t appear that the UK version comes with any freebies at all.
That makes it even more expensive than the £319 Apple HomePod, which offers fantastic sound quality but a somewhat limited virtual assistant in the form of Siri. While we can’t vouch for the sound quality of the Home Max (yet), we can at least confirm that Google Assistant is considerably sharper than Siri.
Related: Google Assistant vs Amazon Alexa
Even so, £399 is an awful lot for a smart speaker, so if you want to try it for yourself before committing to that kind of outlay, you can. The Google Home Max is on sale today from the Google Online Store, but also John Lewis – and select stores will be demoing the speaker so you can hear it for yourself.
Will you be buying a Google Home Max? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
