Finally, there's a smart speaker where the "speaker" part is as important as the "smart." If you're interested in big, room-filling sound with voice control, the Google Home Max ($399) is your best bet right now. While Amazon's Alexa has our favorite smart assistant ecosystem, if you're focused on music and home control, rather than Alexa's huge grab bag of random third-party skills, the Max makes a terrific core of a smart home. That makes it our Editor's Choice for high-end smart speakers. Design While the original, smaller Google Home speaker looks like an air freshener or scented candle, the Home Max is simple and beautiful. Its smooth contour has rounded edges and a lovely cloth speaker grille that is so seamlessly installed, it looks like it and the surrounding matte plastic are one piece. The cloth has a slight sheen to it, and white LEDs glow behind its surface to display volume levels. An ambient light sensor adjusts the brightness of the LEDs. Beneath the grille, dual 0...
The Google Home Max is the first smart speaker we've seen with serious audio performance.
Great sound; Works as a mono speaker, a stereo pair, or part of a whole home audio system; Attractive design
Too much bass for audio purists; Could do with better lossless audio options