Google launches Nest Audio speaker, successor to Google Home, available Oct. 5 for $99

Kyle Bradshaw | Sep 30 2020 - 11:06 am PT

During Launch Night In, Google unveiled Nest Audio, a major revamp of the original Google Home speaker, and it’s available on October 5 for $99.

At last year’s Made by Google event, the company revamped the popular Home Mini speaker and brought it under the Nest branding. This year, the Nest speaker lineup is expanding with a new $99 speaker to slot perfectly into the gap left by the original Google Home speaker which launched in 2016 and was recently discontinued.

Just as we saw in Google’s teaser way back in July, the Nest Audio takes on a pillow shape which should help it blend in well in most any home. And, to better suit it to your personal design tastes, the speaker is available in a variety of colors including Chalk, Charcoal, Sand, Sky, and a “Sage” green that matches the Pixel 5.

Like the Home Mini, Nest Mini, and Nest Wifi speakers before it, the new Nest Audio supports touch controls for adjusting volume and more. The top-left and top-right corners handle volume up and down, respectively, while the space in between acts as a large play/pause button. Around back, you’ll find a physical mute switch for the microphone, along with the barrel jack for the power.

As for the actual audio of Nest Audio, the smart speaker’s built-in 19mm tweeter and 75mm mid-woofer should offer an impressive experience closer to the larger Home Max speaker than the previous mid-range Google Home offering. And as always, you can double-down with a second Nest Audio and pair them to get proper stereo sound into your room.

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Altogether, the Nest Audio makes for a fantastic package that should be the best Google Nest speaker for most people. More importantly, you can buy the new smart speaker October 5 for $99 — $30 less than the original Google Home — on the Google Store.

This article initially reported that the Nest Audio would be available today, and has been updated to reflect the official October 5 release date.

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