-
The Google Home Mini, the original Google Home and the Google Home Max.
-
The Google Home Max.
Google
-
The foot at the bottom comes off …
Google
-
… so you can use the speaker vertically.
Google
-
Inside you will find a lot of speaker hardware.
Google
-
A top view shows off the microphones.
Google
-
The side.
Google
-
A view of the back.
Google
-
A closer look at the ports on the back: power, USB-C and a 3.5mm aux port.
Google
Google’s biggest smart speaker, the Google Home Max, is dead. The speaker is listed as “sold out” on store.google.com, and the company told Android Police, “We have sold out the Google Home Max and will no longer manufacture the device.” If you want to get Google’s 12 pound mega speaker, this is probably your last chance to rummage around the internet looking for the last bits of inventory. At the time of writing, Verizon has a few more.
The Google Home Max was released in 2017 alongside the Google Home Mini. The Max cost a whopping $ 400, and besides the bigger, better sound, it was the only Google speaker with a 3.5mm auxiliary input. It also had a mysterious USB-C port on the back, which, as far as I know, could only be used for a wired Ethernet dongle rather than connecting via Wi-Fi. (If that’s always been the intention, why not just give it an Ethernet port instead of USB?) The original Google Home and the Google Home Mini both continued over the past 14 months, respectively, the Nest Audio and Nest Mini, but the Google Home Max just got killed. I suspect Google has never sold that many.
The death of the Max represents Google’s exit from the larger smart speaker market, where it was the most expensive by a mile. The main assistant competition, the $ 300 Apple HomePod and $ 200 Amazon Echo Studio, is now left to fight among themselves. It sounds like even Apple has struggled in the premium smart speaker market, with the HomePod getting a permanent price drop from its introductory price of $ 350.
Google’s very best smart speaker right now is just the regular $ 100 Nest Audio. Google notes that you can buy two and pair them for stereo sound, but that won’t match the power of the Max. There are also third-party Google Assistant speakers that offer better sound, most notably the $ 200 Sonos One.
Google says existing Google Home Max users will still be supported for the foreseeable future. “Existing Google Home Max users need not worry as they won’t see any change in their service. We will continue to provide software updates and security fixes for Google Home Max devices.”