Yahoo Finance Google's latest smart speaker is the $100 Nest Audio
It comes in a variety of colors.
Google’s Nest Audio was all but revealed already when it appeared in a Walmart a week ago, but now it’s official. The company just announced its latest Google-powered speaker at its annual Pixel event. As you can tell from the pictures, the Nest Audio is a fabric-clad speaker similar to the Nest Mini.
According to Google, the new Nest Audio has a 19mm tweeter, a 75mm mid-woofer, all of which will result in “fuller, clearer, more natural sound.” It also apparently has 50 percent more bass and 75 percent more volume than its predecessor. You can pair two Nest Audio speakers together for stereo sound. Though not new to the Nest Audio (existing Google speakers can do the same), it also works for multi-room audio; you can say “Hey Google, move music to the kitchen speaker” to do just that.
Google says the Nest Audio is made out of 70 percent recycled plastic. It measures 4.89 inches wide and 6.89 inches tall and 3.07 inches thick. Four dots light up when it’s active, and you can tap the left side to decrease the volume. There’s a mic switch on the back to turn that off for additional privacy. It has three far-field microphones and a quad-core A53 1.8 GHz processor plus a high-performance ML hardware engine. According to Google, the Nest Audio also has a Media EQ feature that will automatically tune itself to whatever it is you’re listening to, be it music, podcasts or audiobooks. Ambient IQ will also automatically adjust the volume based on background noise.
The Nest Audio will be available for $100 starting on October 5th in the US, Canada and India. It’ll open up to retail stores and a total of 21 countries starting October 15th. It comes in a variety of colors: Charcoal, Chalk, Sage, Sand and Sky. You can pre-order it from Google’s website now.
