A larger Home

While talkative smart assistants can be handy around the house, smart speakers have always been underwhelming in terms of sound quality. The standard Google Home is enough to make an audiophile frown, as are Amazon’s Echo and Echo Plus. Meanwhile the sound from a tiny Home Mini or Echo Dot will turn that frown into a wince. Of those we’ve tested in Sound+Image, only Apple’s HomePod could hold its head high when it comes to decent smart speaker sound quality — and that’s a Siri-based speaker, so has a specifically defined audience of Apple users. The best performing Google speakers we’ve heard have been Panasonic’s SC-GA10, and JBL’s Link 10.

So we have been waiting for the more substantial Google Home Max to land on Australian shores.