It’s no secret that Google is about to reveal a long-overdue refresh to its original Home speaker from 2016 — yeah, the air freshener is that old. Google even released a short video showing off the Nest Audio way back in July, before we knew that would be its name. Just days before it’s set to launch officially, someone was able to get hold of a Nest Audio unit that went on sale prematurely, which they then unboxed for our viewing pleasure, much like what happened with the Chromecast with Google TV dongle.
Some Walmart stores have been spotted stocking the Nest Audio which a Redditor was luckily able to grab despite the fact that it's not been fully announced yet. In the series of photos they shared (below), you can see the Nest Audio from all angles and gain some perspective on its size.
The speaker doesn’t look that big in these images, but it’s apparently quite heavy, possibly due to its densely packed internals. Except for the prominent seam that runs along its side, the speaker maintains a rather clean look without any physical buttons. Identical to the cheaper Nest Mini puck, volume and play/pause controls are accessible via a touch panel.
Coming to the more important part: Audio output. Since we don’t get a video of the Nest Audio playing some tunes, we’ll have to take the Redditor’s word for it when they say that the Nest Audio’s sound quality is a remarkable improvement over the original Home. They also note that the output is noticeably directional, which could come handy for stereo pairing — Google showed off the stereo setup in its teaser video (below). The Nest Audio has also got a new bassy boot-up jingle that retains parts of the current chime.
Aside from the speaker itself, you’ll find a big adapter with a barrel connector inside the box. The Google Nest Audio has already started showing up at a few stores, so you can try getting one before most are even aware of its existence. As we could confirm previously, the speaker should get a price tag of under $100 when it comes out next week alongside a bunch of Google hardware.
Source: Reddit