Google Launches 2 5G Phones, Music-Oriented Smart Speaker

Personalized TV, a smart speaker for music enthusiasts and 5G phones highlighted Google’s fall product introductions in a Wednesday YouTube event geared to the increased time consumers spend at home due to COVID-19. Over the past five months, Americans increased the time they spend listening to music at home 61%, said Mark Spates, Nest product manager.

The company highlighted its latest smart speaker, Nest Audio, due in stores Monday at $99. It's 75% louder and has 50% “stronger bass” than the original Google Home speaker, said Spates. Media EQ lets Nest Audio automatically tune itself to content that’s playing, Spates said. Ambient IQ lets Nest Audio adjust the volume based on background noise “so you can hear the weather forecast over a noisy dishwasher.”

Pushing whole-home audio, Spates showed how to move music using stream transfer from one device -- Google Home, Nest Mini or Nest Hub -- to another using voice. Multiroom control, launched last month, lets users dynamically group multiple cast-enabled Nest devices in real time, he noted.

Google TV, which gathers viewing suggestions across a user’s streaming video subscriptions, is available on the latest Chromecast. The plug-in device, with HDMI, comes with a remote control enabled with Google Assistant for voice searches. The remote has direct buttons for YouTube and Netflix. The 4K Chromecast with Google TV is $49.

Google TV will be available on Android TVs from Sony and other TV partners next year, said Shalini Govil-Pai, Google TV senior director. It will support Google’s cloud gaming service, Stadia, in first half 2021. A watch list feature, integrated with Google Search, lets users bookmark video. When a user adds a show to the list from a phone or laptop, “it will be waiting on your TV,” said Govil-Pai.

Google went full 5G. The 5.7-inch Pixel 5 ($699) is due Oct. 29, and the 6.1-inch 5G version of the Pixel 4a ($499) is due in November. 5G compatibility adds $150 to the cost of the 4a, which stays in the line.

New Pixel camera features include an ultrawide lens, cinematic pan and portrait modes, including one for low-light settings. Hold for Me is a Google Assistant artificial intelligence-based feature that alerts users who have been put on hold during a phone call when someone is on the line and ready to talk. Duo lets two people with Android 8.0 and higher phones share an HD movie with a picture-in-picture window. Users can turn off features to extend battery life, given as up to 48 hours.