Google’s Nest Hub Max launches in Australia on September 10th for $349

After announcing the Nest Hub Max all the way back in May, Google has finally announced availability for their latest smart screen, with the Nest Hub Max hitting Australian shores on September 10th.

Google launched the original Home Hub, last year with a 7″ display, but feedback from customers was that they wanted something bigger. So Google designers went back to the drawing board and we now have the Nest Hub Max.

As with the smaller unit, the design of the Nest Hub Max is about fitting into your home. It’s the same basic design as the smaller Nest Hub with the display seemingly floating over the base unit.

The Nest Hub Max features a larger 10″ HD resolution display which still uses the Ambient EQ technology of the smaller model to fade the device to almost black at night, but back-lighting it when necessary.

The larger display can be used to access all your smart home devices from the swipe-down Home View, and display all your weather, commute, calendar info and more, including your Google Photos albums. It’s also a Chromecast receiver letting you cast YouTube and Stan.

That playback can also be controlled with new Quick Gestures which let you hold up a hand to quickly play or pause music.

The Nest Hub Max also has improved sound quality over its smaller sibling with a pair of 18mm 10W front-facing tweeters and a 75mm 30W sub-woofer inside for better sound.

Google has also included a video camera in the Nest Hub Max, but before you get too concerned with privacy theres’s a switch to cut both microphone and camera off. The camera allows the Hub Max to support video calling using Google Duo and a neat feature called Face Match.

Face Match is exactly what you think it is, it’s facial recognition and when paired with the Nest Hub Max it can do some neat stuff.

Using the camera the Nest Hub Max will recognise you and greet you when in front of it, and also allows the Nest Hub Max to serve up personalised messages, reminders, commute info, schedule information and news on the display.

You also get a neat zooming effect on Duo video calls with the camera tracking you as you walk around the room.

The Nest Hub Max also utilises some of the Nest features from their video camera range, you can use the camera as a security device, but you’ll need to stump up for a Nest Aware subscription if you want motion detection and more.

You’ll be able to get your hands on the Nest Hub Max for $349 from the Australian Google Store online where you can sign up to their waiting list, or you can head in-store to Officeworks, The Good Guys, JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman on September 10th.