Google Nest Hub (Chalk)

The Google Nest Hub Max Chalk is a 10 inch smart display with a proper stereo speaker behind it.

• The Google Nest Hub Max Chalk is the one you would play music on
• Chromecast is built in, which changes what the screen is
• Ambient EQ, and why photographs look right on it
• It is a Google Home hub with Thread inside
• The camera and the privacy switch

The Google Nest Hub Max Chalk is the one you would play music on

Two 18 mm tweeters and a 75 mm woofer, 30 watts on the bass driver. That is a real stereo arrangement rather than the single small speaker most displays hide behind the screen, and it is the reason this is the only Google display worth choosing on sound alone. On a kitchen counter it replaces both the radio and the tablet propped against the wall.

Chromecast is built in, which changes what the screen is

Anything on a phone can be thrown onto the 10 inch display without an app on the Hub itself: a video, a recipe, a match, photographs to show somebody. That makes it the second screen in the house rather than a device with its own limited catalogue, and it is the feature people underrate when comparing it against an Echo Show.

Ambient EQ, and why photographs look right on it

A light sensor reads the room and tunes the screen to match, so a slideshow reads like prints on a shelf instead of a bright rectangle glowing in a dim room at night. Chalk, the pale finish, suits that job: against a light wall the bezel disappears and what is left is the picture.

It is a Google Home hub with Thread inside

Lights, plugs, thermostats and cameras all on one screen you can touch, and a Thread border router built in for the newer generation of smart home devices. If the household is already on Google rather than Alexa, this is the control panel the rest of the system hangs off.

The camera and the privacy switch

6.5 megapixels across 127 degrees, with auto framing that follows you round the kitchen on a call, and it doubles as an indoor camera you can check from your phone while you are out. One switch on the back cuts the camera and the microphones together, which is a single physical action rather than two settings.

The same display in charcoal suits a darker room. For the cheapest way into Google in a room, the Nest Mini. Google explain the Google Home system on their own site.