I know there's one big reason you're reading this review, so I'll get right to it: The Google Home Max sounds just fantastic. It's a big speaker, powerful and dramatic. It's deep and weighty on the bottom, clear everywhere else, and well-rounded overall. It's voice is better than I expected, and also much louder. As much as I wanted to turn it up while I was testing it, I kept nervously nudging the volume down because it puts out such a wallop.
But the Google Home Max isn't a speaker I can rate solely based on the sound quality because it does so much more than just play music. It's a smart-home speaker with Google Assistant inside. Just like the Google Home and Google Home Mini before it, you can to talk to it, and it connects your voice commands to Google's myriad services and device ecosystems. Ask it to run web searches, tell it to adjust your Nest thermostat, request that it play a video on your Chromecast-ready television, or demand that it spool up your reggaeton Spotify playlist, and it delivers. These extra capabilities are what make it worth $400 (and yes, it is worth it, if you're a Google person). It's a party machine, sure. But it's also a voice-activated remote control for all of the available information and gadgets around you.
Listen Up
The visual design is quite boring, honestly; a gray blob covered in wool-like fabric. (Color choices are limited to a light gray or a darker charcoal so far.) The seemingly bland and uninspired look can be considered a feature, since it lets the speaker blend into any decor, which is likely the point.
The Home Max is roughly the same size as a Sonos Play:3, and just like that device, it works in two configurations. You can leave it laying down flat, where it delivers a stereo image from the four front-facing drivers, or you can tip it up vertically, where it runs in mono. If you buy two Maxes, you can tip them both up vertically and run them as a stereo pair. After they pair to each other wirelessly, you can place them on either side of a turntable or (cough) a CD player for something close to a traditional home stereo arrangement. There's a rubber base that sticks magnetically onto the body of the Max, so you can easily slap it onto whichever side of the speaker you want to place onto your table or shelf. It's a fun little touch.
Another neat innovation is the way the Max responds to its surroundings. Plopping it onto my desk in my nook-like home office, it sounded great. When I slid it closer to the wall, the sound changed—the bass reduced slightly and the high frequencies got slightly brighter. Next, I moved it to a stool in the middle of the room and it opened up, seemingly releasing the throttle on the high and low frequencies.
The Max does all of this adjusting on the fly, using the six microphones on the speaker to monitor the room and change the sound parameters accordingly. Those mics are the same ones it uses to listen for your demands, and they're plenty sensitive. It snaps to attention at the wake phrase even when you're blasting Slayer. It also has Google's voice match feature, so it can recognize different family members' voices and give personalized answers depending on who's asking.
Ready Player
Every time I review a smart speaker, I set aside 20 to 30 minutes for setup. This thing, though, was up and running in less than five. It uses the same app as the other Google Home devices, so I didn't need to download anything onto my phone. And since my phone is a Pixel, the Assistant already knows everything about me. It knows my voice, it sees my calendar, it knows where my home and office are (which it needs for traffic reports), and it's already connected to my Spotify, Google Play Music, and YouTube accounts. I didn't need to enter any passwords. When the speaker awoke after a few taps in the app, I asked it, "OK Google, play The Daily podcast." The Max picked up the episode exactly where I left off just ten minutes prior, when I was listening to it on my phone. I asked, "OK Google, what's my commute look like," and after telling me (through the Max) about the travel time and how heavy the traffic was, the Assistant told me to check my phone for a detailed map. And there it was, as a notification on the Pixel's screen. Later, when I asked it to play Spotify, it went right back to the point where I had paused my last session (Echo & The Bunnymen, Crocodiles).
That's the power of Google's Home devices—seamless integration of all the services you use, with the Assistant functioning as the ubiquitous expeditor, collecting data streams and delivering them to you wherever you are at that moment. But iPhone devotees are surely reading this and shrugging. They have good reason. Google's Assistant is available on iOS devices, but it's not the native voice platform. When you press the iPhone home button, you still get Siri. So iPhone people may not get the same fuzzy future vibe from the Max. Sure, iOS users can still talk to Google's speaker, use it as a smart-home manager, and ask it to play music, and it will do all of those things with vigor. But while it can summon answers and cue up media, it can't add that extra layer of state awareness—the magical feeling that all of your devices, from phone to computer to speaker, are all attached to the same brain.
Tough Talk
If you want a great-sounding speaker and you're already all-in on Assistant—whether you run Android, you command a small battalion of Google Homes, or you take the extra steps to talk to Google on an iPhone—then the Google Home Max is a worthy upgrade for your home audio situation. The utility and sound quality of the Max is absolutely worth the $400 when matched with the almost scary usefulness of the Assistant.
But if you're indebted to another cloud-based domestique, look elsewhere. As good as the Max sounds, it's really only truly useful if you and the Assistant are besties. If you're just looking for an Alexa alternative, maybe consider one of the cheaper Home speakers. Better yet, buy the Sonos One speaker. It has Alexa now, but it's getting Google Assistant in just a few months. Actually, the Sonos One is only half the price of the Max. Go ahead and get two.
