Google’s renewed focus on audio quality pays off – the Nest Audio is a fabulous smart speaker

Effective voice recognition; Reasonable price; Sounds great;

No 3.5mm audio output/input; Slightly fiddly touch controls;

Google’s renewed focus on audio quality pays off – the Nest Audio is a fabulous smart speaker

Effective voice recognition; Reasonable price; Sounds great;

No 3.5mm audio output/input; Slightly fiddly touch controls;

The Nest Audio is a superb little smart speaker that comes with better-than-average sound quality. It probably isn’t going to be a speaker you leave in charge of your parties, nor one that you sit down to listen to your favourite album from start-to-finish on, but in terms of offering up an enjoyable sound for ambient everyday listening, it absolutely delivers. That’s all on top of the Google Assistant smarts, which its strengths lie. It works better in this department than any third-party speaker does, so if you’re invested in the Google ecosystem, but want better sound quality than the Nest Mini can offer, the Nest Audio provides exactly that. For £90, we’d say that’s a pretty good package indeed.

Improved sound on Google Home; Voice commands are picked up well; Neat, unassuming design; Good value;

Sound lacks some detail and dynamism; Can distort at loud volumes;

Google promises big things when it comes to the sound quality of the successor to the original Google Home smart speaker, but while it is an improvement, it doesn’t deliver the jump in performance we were hoping for. However, it does work very well as a smart speaker, thanks to the good microphones and clear voice output, and it’s certainly good enough for listening to background music.

Subtle and unassuming design; Picks up voice commands very well; Better sound than its predecessor;

Missing detail in the mids and trebles; Can sound harsh at higher volumes

The Nest Audio is a solid smart speaker that’ll meet most people’s needs.

Improved sound ; Discrete design ; Easy setup;

Buggy;

The sweet-spot in Google's smart speaker range. The Nest Audio is great value for money if you want rich and powerful sound in a compact device and don't have overly demanding multi-room needs.

Impressive bass and mid-tones; Affordable; Compact; High-quality build;

Only two colours outside US; Harsh sound at top volumes; Multi-room could be better;

Google has clearly positioned Nest Audio to be a natural rival to the Amazon Echo - a speaker to provide music, information and voice control whenever you want it. The competition from Amazon is still fierce, but in the Nest Audio, Google now has a speaker that can hold its own.

Design; Decent sound quality; Google Assistant integration; Effective touch controls; Good value for money;

Some hiss around Google Assistant audio; No Zigbee controller to directly setup smart products;

While most other smart speakers are iterating quickly, the Google Home is finally seeing a replacement after three years. The $99.99 Nest Audio takes the middle spot between the $49 Nest Mini and the $299 Google Home Max. For a third of the price of the booming Home Max, the Nest Audio offers crisp, clean, room-filling sound that easily eclipses the Nest Mini. Google Assistant voice control is better than ever, and with multiple connectivity options via Bluetooth and Google Cast, the Nest Audio is an excellent smart speaker and a worthy rival to the Amazon Echo, earning our Editors' Choice.Design The Nest Audio can easily be mistaken for for the cylindrical Apple HomePod if you look at it from any one angle, but a quick walkaround reveals that it’s in fact shaped more like a giant bar of soap. The speaker measures 6.9 by 4.9 by 3.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.6 pounds, and is available in Chalk (white), Charcoal (black), Sage (light green), Sand (red-pink), or Sky (light blue). Four...

The Nest Audio smart speaker offers Google Assistant functionality and clear, detailed sound in an attractive design for a reasonable price.

Balanced sound with strong, detailed highs; Supports Bluetooth and Google Cast; Google Assistant is more useful than ever

Bass isn't particularly powerful

Love our new nest audio. Easy and quick set-up and works perfectly how i expected it to be. Now im looking to get nest minis throughout the house.

Great product, good sound, love that I can tell Google to play music radio stations through speaker, easy to install, I'm 77 and found it easy to do so, would recommend this product