Google Nest Hub Max

I use this every single day in my kitchen and it's become indispensable. Pulling up recipes on the display, setting multiple timers by voice, watching YouTube cooking videos — it does all of it seamlessly. Google Assistant is genuinely the best voice assistant for natural conversation. I asked it a complex cooking question yesterday and it answered perfectly with no rephrasing. My only concerns are the age of the hardware and the camera. I covered the camera with a post-it note until I feel comfortable with it. Would love a new Nest Hub Max with modern specs.

I have a complex smart home setup with Google, Amazon, and HomeKit devices. The Nest Hub Max is my kitchen hub and when everything works, it's fantastic. But Google Home's reliability is a serious problem. In six months, three major app updates have broken my morning routine automation, requiring manual reconfiguration each time. Google seems to treat Google Home as a testing ground, constantly changing the UI and backend. For casual users who just use it for assistant commands and media, it's fine. For automation power users, the instability is maddening.

We put this in our kitchen when we remodeled and the whole family uses it. My husband uses it for news briefings while making coffee, I use it for recipes, and our kids quiz Google all day about dinosaurs and space. The family calendar integration with Google Calendar is wonderful — events display on the screen automatically. The photo album feature cycles through our Google Photos which brings some lovely family moments to the kitchen. The camera is the one thing I'd remove if I could — it's just a little unsettling. Overall a great addition to a family kitchen.