Customer Ratings & Reviews

I received a Google Max as a birthday gift, purchased from Best Buy. It worked fine for a few weeks, but I soon noticed that it wasn't playing music when I tried to stream, nor would it tell me the news when asked ... the Google AI does respond, affirming the action requested, but nothing that requires streaming will actually play on the speaker. If I tell it to "play my thumbs up playlist" the AI responds that it is doing the requested action, and the app shows that music is playing, but nothing actually is playing from the speaker. I have a several regular Google Home and Home Minis, and they all work fine, and I can broadcast streaming on all of them simultaneously, but the Max remains silent. I contacted support, and have gone through many layers of technical support, but now it's with 'development' and has been for almost 2 months with no promise of a fix, or even a time I can expect a fix to be completed. So now I have a very expensive, but mostly useless 'premium' speaker. I asked for a replacement since it's been so long but they would not send one, saying a new speaker wouldn't necessarily work either. I can use it to turn on and off my Hue lights, but that's about it, so $400 is a lot to spend for that functionality when and a mini would do the same for 1/10th of the cost. When it worked I liked it, but now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone now.

Yup, great sounding speaker, really fills up the room. The problem is that there is a long-standing issue which Google knows about where the bluetooth connection will degrades to the point that the sound stutters and eventually becomes unlistenable, forcing you to repair to your playing device. Wash, rinse and repeat because this will happen about every 30 minutes. 2 stars for the sound but nothing else.

When they work, they sound great. But they don't work. Don't even consider buying Home Max speakers. I have been trying to get mine to work for over 6 months with Google support. They have significant dropout problems when connected by WIFI. I'm on a Google Mesh network and am getting 50MBS+ of bandwidth and the speakers drop out when playing music or other audio from Pandora, Audible, Google Podcast, or any other audio source. No problems with WIFI connectivity to Samsung Smart TVs, Nest Thermostats, or Kasa WIFI light switches, its clearly a Home Max problem. Support will tell you to do a factory reset of the speakers, multiple times, and it will not fix the issue. They say it's a known issue and have been unable to fix it and won't accept returns for this since they say they are "working on it." Even on sale, speakers that don't work aren't worth a cent. I have the entire thread of support discussions if anyone is interested.

I listened to this speaker in store before I purchased it, and it sounded pretty good. When I got it home and set it up, I wasn't so impressed. To be honest, the Home Max doesn't sound much better than my $40 Logitech computer speakers. I'm no audiophile, so keep that in mind. The other thing that is driving me crazy is, when I have my music on and turned up pretty loud, on 80% or so, the speaker can't ever hear me say "Hey Google", even if I scream at it. I have to get behind it and lean in close, so that it will hear me. I was under the impression that it would be able to hear me better, even when the volume is turned up loud. For $399, I can't recommend this speaker.

I have a simple smart home in my one bedroom apartment and I have a google home product in every room. I purchased the Google Home Max and it does not work. I have had to call Google Support many a time for help. So, I say buy the protection plan. So, you won't have to deal with a corporation that does not want to help. They offered to replace it provided that I return it. I explained that I live in an urban area and do not own a car. I bike to work and to the stores. So, to return a 15 lbs brick on a bike is impossible.....The response then take a taxi! What a waste of money. SO, BUY THE PRODUCT PROTECTION - YOU WILL NEED IT!

The speaker has a simple job. Play music...right? It does not do that as other reviewers stated. If you ask the speaker to play music, it will confirm that it will play music and instead it will stay silent. If you cast music directly from your phone, it will play but if you ask it to stop playing it will not. A $400 speaker should not have this issues. Ps: Google support team is Junk. They will tell you that they know of the issue and that an update is coming... I vote for a recall if they can figure it out. On a positive note... it is heavy it makes a perfect paperweight.

Speaker blew out after a few months. Had to throw whole thing away and buy new Roku. Big waste of money.