Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Which phone is for you?

Last week, we did a camera showdown between the Apple iPhone 12 and the Google Pixel 5. Today, it’s time for an overall comparison that takes into account everything else about the two latest phones from the two tech superpowers.

Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Specification Comparison

Specifications	Apple iPhone 12	Google Pixel 5
Build	Aluminum mid-frame Glass front and back “Ceramic Shield” for glass protection	Recycled aluminum unibody Glass front Gorilla Glass 6
Dimensions & Weight	146.7 x 71.5 x 7.4mm 162 grams (Global) / 164 grams (USA)	144.7 x 70.4 x 8mm 151 grams
Display	6.1″ Super Retina XDR OLED Display 2,532 x 1,170 resolution, 460 PPI 60Hz refresh rate	6″ OLED Display 2,340 x 1,080 resolution, 432 PPI 90Hz refresh rate
SoC	Apple A14 Bionic SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G
Storage Options	64GB 128GB 256GB	128GB
Battery & Charging	2,815 mAh battery as per certification listings 15W wireless charging with MagSafe 7.5W Qi wireless charging	4,080 mAh battery 12W Qi wireless charging 18W wired charging
Security	Face ID (TrueDepth camera for facial recognition)	Rear Fingerprint Sensor
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 12MP Secondary: 12MP, Ultra-wide angle	Primary: 12.2MP Sony IMX363 Secondary: 16MP, Ultra-wide angle
Front Camera(s)	12MP, f/2.2	8MP, f/2.0
Port(s)	Proprietary Lightning port	USB-C
Connectivity	5G: Sub 6GHz mmWave for USA Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2×2 MIMO Bluetooth 5.0	5G: Sub 6GHz mmWave for USA Wi‑Fi 5 (802.11ac) Bluetooth 5.0
Software	iOS 14	Android 11
Other Features	IP68 Colors: Black, White, Red, Blue, Green	IP68 Colors: Green, Black
Pricing	Starts at $799	Starts at $699

Design, Look and Feel

The Apple iPhone 12 and Google Pixel 5, with a 6.1-inch and 6-inch screen respectively, can be considered “small” phones. While the iPhone 12 is a glass sandwich with a boxy design with hard and wide flat sides, the Pixel 5 has a curvy, unibody build connected to the screen (or in the case of some units, almost connected to the screen).

Google Pixel 5 and iPhone 12

The Google Pixel 5’s screen, with a 90Hz refresh rate, is technically “faster” than the iPhone 12’s 60Hz. However, because iOS animations are so well optimized and because the Pixel has never been the zippiest phone, I don’t notice a huge difference in animation fluidity or an overall sense of speed. This doesn’t mean I’m not a believer in high refresh rates. I think OnePlus’s and Xiaomi’s 90Hz are very well optimized and look superior to the Pixel’s 90Hz. Their 120Hz panels are even better. But as far as the Pixel goes, it’s not all that different from the iPhone.

Google Pixel 5 and iPhone 12

But despite the refresh rate not being a huge difference to my eyes, I still prefer the Pixel 5’s screen because it doesn’t have a giant notch. The Google Pixel 5 is also the rare Android phone with bezels that are entirely uniform on all four sides.

Pixel 5 and iPhone 12

That notch on the Apple iPhone 12, of course, is to house a 3D facial scanning system, which Apple calls Face ID. Google tried this tech last year with the Pixel 4 but switched back to a traditional fingerprint scanner with the Pixel 5. This move was likely done to cut costs, but it worked out well for Google. Needing to rely on face scanning to unlock a phone is annoying in this era of face masks. Plus, I just find the notch an eyesore.

Google Pixel 5 and iPhone 12

In my opinion, I think the iPhone 12 looks more striking — the aggressive edges give it the feeling of a fine-tuned machine — but I prefer the in-hand feel of the Google Pixel 5.

Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Internal Components

This area is a clear win for Apple, as it’s packed with cutting-edge premium components whereas the Pixel 5 is held back in several areas because it never intended to be a high-end flagship.

The biggest difference is in silicon: The iPhone 12 runs on Apple’s brand new 5nm A14 Bionic, while the Google Pixel 5 uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765G. In normal daily use for the average consumer, the difference in power between the two processors will be hard to notice. But perform more intensive tasks and the differences become clear. The most jarring experience to me is that the iPhone 12 can make wholesale edits to a 4K/60fps video (not just basic edits like trimming video length, but also cropping into the video, rotating it, or applying filters) and render the new clip within seconds, whereas on the Google Pixel 5, a far more basic video editing (just trimming length) would take longer to render.

As for benchmark scores, it’s a lopsided affair, with the iPhone 12 easily beating the Pixel 5 in Geekbench 5 and 3DMark’s Wild Life stress test.

It’s not just processing power, as the Apple iPhone 12 also sports a noticeably superior haptic engine and stereo speaker system. The Google Pixel 5’s haptics are a slight step back from the Pixel 4’s excellent vibrations, and its under-display speaker pumps out a weak sound.

The Pixel 5 has a larger battery and more RAM. The former does give the Pixel 5 a slight edge over the iPhone 12 in battery endurance, but the latter doesn’t matter much given the difference in memory management by their respective software.

Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Cameras

Google’s Pixel series, starting with the Pixel 2, earned a well-deserved reputation as the best phone for still photos thanks to its at-the-time unique approach of focusing mostly on software image processing instead of caring about hardware prowess like megapixel count or sensor size. But in 2020, Apple has closed the gap significantly in computational photography smarts.

Both smartphone cameras rely heavily on software — using multiple images to produce HDR shots during the day, and defaulting to night mode at night — and the results are quite evenly matched.

The iPhone 12 performs shoots better video, but the Pixel 5 does better in still photography

I wrote a dedicated article comparing the cameras of the iPhone 12 and Pixel 5, so please do check it out. But the TL;DR version is that the iPhone 12 performs better in low light situations, and shoots more dynamic, stable videos, while the Pixel 5 produces better portraits/bokeh effects and has color science that is more visually appealing to my tastes.

Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Software

I prefer Android over iOS on my smartphones, because the extra levels of customization help my productivity significantly

The Apple iPhone 12 runs on iOS 14, while the Google Pixel 5 runs Android 11. For the most part, I prefer Android over iOS on my smartphones, because the extra levels of customization help my productivity significantly. For example, I use my phone one-handed often, and Android letting me place all my apps at the bottom of the screen allows for far easier thumb reach than iOS’s annoying “top down, left to right” grid. Android’s superior notification management system is more intuitive to use. I like being able to run two apps at the same time via split-screen mode, which iPhones do not support even in 2020.

So the Google Pixel 5’s software gets the win over the iPhone 12’s software by default for me because I prefer Android, but there’s a bit more to the story this year. I am not a fan of Google’s decision to disallow the removal of the Google search bar or clock widget at the bottom and top of the Pixel Launcher’s homescreen respectively. This is a draconian move that feels Apple-esque, though we should note that Android at least still lets you change the launcher. But I still think the iPhone 12 blends more seamlessly with other Apple products than the Pixel 5 does with other Google or Android products. For example, if I turn on Apple TV and have an iPhone nearby, I can use the iPhone as a remote control. And if I have enough storage on iCloud, any files on my Macbook desktop are automatically available for access on my iPhone as long as I have an Internet connection.

Apple iPhone 12 vs Google Pixel 5: Overall Performance and Use

Day to day use with either device has been enjoyable. Both the Google Pixel 5 and the Apple iPhone 12 can connect to Hong Kong’s sub-6GHz 5G networks. I have noticed the Pixel 5 suffers from the occasional stutter and app freeze — nothing major, but it’s still worth mentioning considering the phone is in its first month of life. I have not encountered such issues with the iPhone 12, but it heats up very fast when performing intensive tasks like gaming or exporting videos. Basic games like Sonic Dash run exactly the same on both phones, but heavier games like PUBG run at a noticeably higher framerate with better textures on the iPhone 12 than on the Pixel 5. As for battery life, the Pixel 5 lasts longer for me every day I carried both phones.

Conclusion: Different Phones for Different People

The Apple iPhone 12 is definitely the more powerful phone if you are a heavy user who games or does minor creative work like editing photos and video on a phone. The iPhone 12 also shoots better video. But if still photography is your thing, the Google Pixel 5 still produces shots that are visually more appealing in my opinion. There’s also a $100 price difference, which could be chump change or quite a bit of savings, depending on your personal situation.

But ultimately, the decision between the two should come down to brand loyalty or ecosystem preferences. The problem for Google is, the loyalty factor is far more niche. Just because you prefer Android doesn’t mean you want the Pixel, as there are so many excellent or better value devices from Samsung, OnePlus, and more. People who buy Pixels seemingly want to go out of their way to support Google or the Pixel brand, whereas the iPhone is the default generic choice for anyone who isn’t particularly set on Android.

Apple iPhone 12 Forums ||| Google Pixel 5 Forums

In the U.S., the iPhone 12 starts at $799 for the base 64GB model, while the Pixel 5 costs $699 for its singular 128GB configuration. In the UK and the rest of Europe, the iPhone 12 starts at £799 and €876.30 respectively, while the Pixel 5 comes in at a price of £599 and €613.14 respectively.

Apple iPhone 12

The iPhone 12 is definitely more powerful if you're a heavy user, but it's also more expensive.

See at Best Buy

Google Pixel 5

The Pixel 5 still has arguably the best 1x still camera on the market, and Android is still less restricting than iOS.

See at Amazon

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Get lifetime 15TB of cloud storage with Degoo for just $150

Cloud storage is an essential part of any well-rounded backup strategy. However, many providers charge big money for limited space.  In contrast, Degoo Premium offers more storage than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive at a fraction of the price. Right now, you can get 15TB of storage space on a lifetime subscription for just $149.99 at the XDA Developers Depot.

While it’s smart to have a local backup of your files, it’s equally important to maintain a remote backup. In the event of fire or flood, you should still have a copy of every file in the cloud.

Degoo handles this role well, providing “simple, snappy backup” in the words of TechRadar. Available online and on your phone, the service backs up all your files on unlimited devices. 

The app has automatic file change detection, which triggers a backup any time you edit an existing file. This is really useful when you’re doing work — if you ever mess up, you can easily go back and restore the previous version. 

While your files are being backed up, you have the option to replicate the process to guarantee a safe transfer. 

Degoo also allows you to share files with friends, family, and colleagues. To ensure your data stays secure, Degoo uses AES-256 encryption. 

You would normally pay $4,320 for lifetime storage, but you can jump on the 15TB plan today for $149.99.

For even bigger savings, upgrade to 25TB for $199.99 (worth $7,200), get 35TB for $249.99 (worth $10,800), or grab 50TB for only $299.99 (worth $14,400).

 

Degoo Premium Mega Backup Plan: Lifetime Subscription – $149.99

See Deal

Prices subject to change 

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As part of Best Buy’s Wish List sale, get the Amazon Echo Auto Smart Speaker for just $20

Best Buy’s Wish List sale is going strong, offering customers great deals until Sunday. The Wish List sale is just one of Best Buy’s weekly Black Friday-esque sales this November, allowing everyone to stock up on gifts and goodies before the big day itself. More time, less stress! One of the stand-out sales this week, aside from the sale on Samsung Note 20 phones, is picking up an Amazon Echo Auto Smart Speaker for an incredibly low price of $20.

The Alexa enabled speaker allows you to turn your car into a smart car effectively and without having to install expensive equipment. Install the little speaker, ask it to stream music or for directions, and you’re well on your way to a hands-free, safer driving experience. The speaker can even sync up with your smartphone via the Alexa app, giving an experience similar to Android Auto with larger buttons and hands-free functions.

You may ask, though, why you’ would pick up the Echo Auto smart speaker at Best Buy, as opposed to Amazon, where it’s also $20. Many Best Buy locations offer installation for products like this smart speaker, and I’ve seen Best Buy installation work in cars in the past–they’re pretty good at it! If you’re uncomfortable installing the speaker yourself and don’t want to attach it to your air vent, you can have the professionals at Best Buy take care of it for you.

If you’re not concerned about installation, then you can go with either retailer!

Amazon Echo Auto Smart Speaker

Make your car smarter for just $20! With the Amazon Echo Auto smart speaker, you can control your music, get directions, and more, all hands-free. With the Alexa app, you can also use your phone with a driving-safe interface!

$20 at Best Buy

This deal is part of Best Buy’s Wish List sale, which lasts until Sunday. If you’re in the market for a smart speaker for your car, make sure to pick this up before then!

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Google Nest Audio review: A powerful choice to embrace the Assistant ecosystem

Back in 2016 at its I/O developer conference, Google introduced the Google Assistant alongside the original Google Home smart speaker. At the time, Google Assistant was perceived as Google Now 2.0, a virtual assistant that adopted a conversational approach to search backed by Google’s artificial intelligence and machine learning. Fast forward to 2020, and Google Assistant has evolved into a potent virtual assistant — arguably even the best. Google Assistant powers some of the highlighting experiences on Android, and its deep, thoughtful, and focused integration on Pixel smartphones is what makes them a Pixel in the first place.

With the Google Home and later the Google Home Mini and Nest Mini, the company essentially tried to deliver the Google Assistant experience to every corner in every house. The idea was to encourage users to speak to Google without any effort and accomplish varied tasks without needing to put much thought into it. The speakers were mere vehicles, and the Assistant was the main product. But with the Google Home Max, the speaker finally took center stage, with Assistant taking on a supplementary role as an added benefit.

For users like me, who aren’t invested in the Google Assistant ecosystem, or in any smart home ecosystem for that matter, the Google Home, Home Mini, and Nest Mini were very uninteresting. The idea of a tiny speaker serving as a virtual assistant that brought no utility to my life was just not worth the investment, even if Google offered ludicrous discounts on these products from time to time. On the other hand, the Google Home Max was a much better sell, as it was a speaker first. But the speaker never made its way to my home country of India, and even if it had, the ~$400 price tag is too much for me. There just wasn’t enough in any of these smart speakers for me to part with my hard-earned money, and the same went for the Google Assistant ecosystem, if I am being honest.

When Google launched the Nest Audio, I was definitely intrigued. The device seemingly was a mid-point between the Google Home and the Google Home Max, offering a healthy mix of speaker specifications, cosmetic appeal, and smart assistant integration at a decent price tag. The Google Nest Audio has had a spot in my house for about three weeks, so I’ve been able to use it for enough time to put together some thoughts on the Nest Audio as a first-time Google Assistant adopter.

Google Nest Audio: Specifications

Specification	Google Nest Audio
Build	Fabric Cover made from 70% recycled plastic 4 LEDs in the middle
Dimensions & Weight	6.89 x 4.88 x 3.07 inches 2.65lbs
Audio (In and Out)	75mm woofer 19mm tweeter 3 far-field microphones
Voice Assistant	Google Assistant
Controls	Touch Controls: Play/Pause – Tap front top Volume up – Tap front right corner Volume down – Tap front left corner)
Charging	30W DC power supply
Connectivity	2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) Bluetooth 5.0

About this review: Google India sent us the Nest Audio in Chalk color for review. This review is after 20 days of regular use. Google had no input into the contents of this article.

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Google Nest Audio: Design and Build

The Google Nest Audio has a discrete look that is both familiar as a Google product and different from a lot of speakers that we usually encounter. It looks like a shrunken-down pillow with a flat base and an upright speaker setup. At 1.18 kg, the device is surprisingly heavy and dense for its size.

The speaker cover is made out of a durable fabric top, which Google claims is made from recycled plastic bottles. The entire enclosure (i.e. the fabric, the housing, the foot, and some smaller parts) is made from 70% recycled plastic. The fabric cover sits atop an enclosing cage framework that is built solidly and does not flex (if handled ordinarily). It’s a stationary speaker, so hopefully, you can place it once and forget about it.

The LED on the Nest Audio glows blue during setup, orange when the microphone is disabled, and white when it is listening.

The design is very simple. The front looks completely clean, but underneath the fabric cover, there are four LEDs in the middle and touch sensors towards the top. On the back, there is just one hardware toggle for toggling the microphone input on or off. There is also a port for the barrel type charging pin and a small Google “G” logo on the back. And that’s it — there’s nothing else on the device — no on/off switches, no other buttons, and even no 3.5mm input. Even the box contents are fairly simple: You get the Google Nest Audio, the 30W barrel type charger, and some documentation.

The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture

The simplistic design and discrete look for the Nest Audio allow the speaker to inconspicuously blend in with your furniture. You can place it alongside your other tech, hide it on your bookshelf, or place it next to other decorations. The Google Nest Audio ends up attracting very little attention if you hide it well, and it can look good on its own when people do notice it.

Unlike the Home Mini that lay flat and spread audio in a 360° fashion, the Google Nest Audio is meant to be unidirectional. The placement of this speaker becomes somewhat important, even though Google claims that the Nest Audio will sound great in most common placements. To that end, I agree, as the Google Nest Audio sounded pretty much the same when placed in corners, on the dining table, or next to a wall. Just make sure that the speaker end faces the general area where you want the audio to be directed, and you should be good to go. Note that there is no IP rating or any claims of water resistance whatsoever, so it’s best that you keep it away from the bathroom. I’m also a little concerned about what happens to the fabric look as the device ages and accumulates dust and smaller stains, but I haven’t had the Nest Audio for long enough to find out.

I’m very impressed with how the Google Nest Audio looks and fits in. The other residents at my home have had no issues leaving this piece of tech on display, and they have had no complaints of it disrupting their carefully constructed aesthetics. It doesn’t look like a regular speaker with bare metal surfaces or other garish looks — and that’s what gives it its ability to just blend in when it isn’t actively blasting away music.

Google Nest Audio: Sound Quality

The Google Nest Audio comes with a 75mm woofer and a 19mm tweeter for sound output, and 3 far-field microphones for voice input. With these specifications, Google says that the Nest Audio is 75% louder and has a 50% stronger bass than the original Google Home. And while I do not have the original Google Home for comparison, I can attest to the fact that the Google Nest Audio gets pretty loud for its size, to the point that neighbors have complained. And this loudness doesn’t come at the cost of sound quality, as my neighbors can attest. (Sorry about that.)

The Nest Audio has a strong, pronounced bass, and I love it. A lot of Indian pop music favors bass on the heavier sound, and the Google Nest Audio produced these sounds wonderfully. Some of my favorite tracks, such as  Nucleya’s Laung Gawacha from Bass Rani and Ritviz’s Sage, sound amazing, with beats being surprisingly pronounced throughout the tracks. Audio across the spectrum is well reproduced, with very good performance across highs, mids, lows, and even vocals. While I cannot claim the audio to be satisfactory for audiophiles, nobody who has heard the Nest Audio at my home has complained about the sound quality. So for average consumers, this smart speaker from Google does a great job.

Audio across the spectrum is well reproduced, with very good performance across highs, mids, lows, and even vocals

Google claims that the Nest Audio comes with internal smarts that help it adapt to homes. There is the Media EQ feature, which adapts the tuning to the content that you are listening to, with different outputs for music, podcasts, or the Assistant. And then there is Ambient IQ, which allows the speaker to adapt to background noise in your home. Honestly speaking, both of these features are difficult to notice — I am not sure if these features “kick” into place or if they are always enabled. It is difficult to find the differences in output, but the audio sounds great and remains clear even when there is a lot of background noise. You can say that the features are working just as advertised, but there is no easy way to tell these features are working as there is no setting or toggle to check on. There is no way to change equalizer settings too, so you’re restricted to just changing the Bass and Treble response from the speaker.

These are the only two options present and available as Equaliser Settings

The Google Nest Audio is also very good at picking up voice commands. The microphones pick up commands from a pretty good distance. The only times I have experienced the speaker struggling to pick up my voice is when it was placed very high up and I was closer to the floor. Unless you plan to place your speakers at a height, you should have no issues with voice reception.

Overall, I am very happy with the Google Nest Audio when it comes to sound quality. I only have a single unit at the moment, but I am planning on picking up another unit to get a sweeter stereo set up thanks to the Speaker Pair feature.

Google Home app

One of the highlight features of speakers from Google is, obviously, Google Assistant. To set up the speaker and begin using Assistant, you need the Google Home app. The Google Home app serves as the middleman for all your smart home peripherals that don’t have a settings surface by themselves, letting you set up the device, invite home members, set up routines, create speaker groups for multi-room playback, and manage services related to Music, Video, Podcasts, and more.

The setup process for the Nest Audio through the Google Home app is fairly straightforward, and the app hand-holds you through the process. You do need an active Internet connection for the setup though, and without that, you cannot begin to use the speaker. You also need to have an active Internet connection to pair a device through Bluetooth to the speaker for the first time, though subsequent Bluetooth connections don’t need an active Internet connection.

Further beyond the setup, the app also teaches you about the on-device controls and some of the ways you can use the smart speaker.

Once set up, you are presented with an overview of your smart home setup and some quick actions. The “Media” button shows you which media is playing, the “Call Home” function calls your home device through Google Duo (oddly, the app would force close for me when this option is selected), “Broadcast” lets you broadcast an audio note to your speaker, “Routines” lets you set multiple instruction sets to be carried out with one command, and access Settings.

Device settings includes a whole host of other settings, letting you set adult content filters, set downtime for command reactions, set night mode for lowered volume responses and lowered LED brightness, and even allow all connected Android devices to control casted media.

Using a Smart Speaker

While a speaker being smart is a good thing, it won’t be much of a selling point if the smart bits weren’t actually useful. My experience on this end has been a little mixed, and I say this as someone who is not invested in the Google Assistant ecosystem or in other voice assistant ecosystems for that matter.

People are diverse, so even if we speak the same language, we do so with individual accents that make us sound different. My personal experience with voice assistants thus far has been sour. My first language is Hindi, my second Urdu, and my third is English, followed by French and Marathi. When I am speaking in English (which I can mostly speak fluently), I do have an accent that is typically heard in India. Others in my household are not as proficient in English, so conversations in my house involve a weirdly-evolved mix of Hindi and Urdu sprinkled with words from English and Marathi. It’s not singularly one language. A huge chunk of India is bilingual and multilingual, so I know this situation is not just reflective of my house.

So when the rest of the world got excited about making voice assistants like Google Now and Google Voice Search a part of their daily routine, I could never get as excited. The potential was visible, sure, but getting these voice assistants to even understand my query was a challenge that preceded the voice assistants’ ability to execute the query properly. It has largely been an affair that required multiple instances of shouting the same command differently, and eventually, just giving up and doing things sans-voice. A lot of features are also tuned for Western markets and are not available in regions like India. Further, “smart home” and “home automation” are still emerging concepts for urban India, and often require fairly substantial monetary investments and infrastructural changes that aren’t always economically feasible. As a result of all of this, I just haven’t been into Google Assistant, opting to remove it entirely from all my devices as it barely brought any utility into my life.

The Google Nest Audio is my first dedicated Google Assistant device, and it is also the first “smart” accessory in the house, if you don’t count smartphones and TVs. So, while the Nest Audio can be used to control your smart home, you do need a smart home to do so in the first place.

I am happy to see the usability situation for voice assistants has improved. To the Nest Audio and Google Assistant’s credit, the speaker and the voice assistant combination has been far better at understanding what I and other members of my house are instructing through voice commands. This has been a breath of fresh air, as most commands are recognized. There are still caveats — commands in mixed languages are not recognized that well (like a primarily English command with some Hindi words), and setting up bilingual languages is still limited to some combinations (Hindi + Urdu, or any two Indic languages are not a valid combination, but Hindi + English is). Largely, I am happy to see the current progress on this end since the situation was disappointing a few short years ago, but there is still some room to improve.

Getting Google Assistant to actually be useful remains a limited case scenario for me. Over a period of three weeks, my household has defaulted to just issuing YouTube Music song commands to the Nest Audio. That makes sense, since it is a smart speaker after all, and music playback is one of its highlights. What I mean to point out is that practically speaking, what we use the Nest Audio for on a daily basis has ended up being a very small subset of uses from the larger set of functions that the Nest Audio can actually accomplish. We ask it to read the news aloud sometimes, and occasionally ask for a weather update or to set an alarm. Sometimes, my nephew asks Google what a lion or a tiger sounds like. But by and large, we just go, “Hey Google, play Baby Shark” — and in the age of Bluetooth speakers and Chromecast Audio, I can argue that one doesn’t really need a dedicated smart speaker for such a task.

I am not going to judge the Google Nest Audio too harshly for this section, as a lot of what I mention is based on personal anecdotes and experience. But I see these aspects rarely mentioned when people talk about smart speakers with Google Assistant. Yes, Google Assistant can be very helpful, but the world is more than just the USA and Europe. If you are in a region outside of these, I would recommend assessing what use you actually want to derive out of Google Assistant before you invest in a smart speaker. This is a general comment on the state of smart assistants and not a critique of the Google Nest Audio per se.

Conclusion: The Google Nest Audio is good enough to buy two of

The Google Nest Audio does what it says, and it does it very well

Even though my personal use for the Nest Audio is fairly limited, I am very impressed with its build and sound quality. I am impressed to the point that I may just pick up another Nest Audio unit to create a stereo pair. This smart speaker does what it says on the box, and it does it very well. Google has found the sweet spot of mixing in smarts with a good speaker at an affordable price tag. And in some regions, the deal gets better if you pick up two units together. A two-unit pair also gives you greater flexibility with how you can place the speaker in your house. And if the stereo pair doesn’t work out, you can also create a multi-room group to play the same music across different rooms at the same time, and have all of them sound very good while at it. That versatility is what gives the Google Nest Audio an edge over other bigger and possibly better speakers, such as Google’s own Home Max.

In the Indian market, there aren’t that many options when it comes to Google Assistant-powered smart speakers (since this category split entirely removes Amazon’s Alexa powered smart speakers because of their ecosystem). If you are just getting started on this smart speaker journey, good first steps are the Google Nest Mini (₹2,299) and the recently launched Xiaomi Mi Smart Speaker (₹2,999 in Diwali sales). If you have a larger budget and want a very good speaker, you should absolutely get the Google Nest Audio (₹6,999), for it sounds well worth its price tag. And if it is an option, definitely consider picking two units up for a stereo setup.

Google Nest Audio

The Google Nest Audio is the latest smart speaker from Google with Google Assistant, baked in. It merges a powerful speaker system with the right smarts and a great design.

Features:

Pros: Cons:

$100 at Google.com

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Google Chat will default to unthreaded chat rooms to eliminate the confusing mess

Google Chat is about to change the way it organizes conversations. Following criticism that threaded conversations are confusing, Google has confirmed that newly created rooms will soon be unthreaded by default. According to a posting in the Google Workplace blog, the change will kick in on all rooms created after November 16th. Google notes, however, that you won’t be able to switch between threaded and unthreaded in existing rooms, but you can toggle between the two options when you create new ones.

One advantage of unthreaded rooms is the option to toggle chat history on and off, via the Admin console’s “room history” setting. It will be up to each Workspace Admin to decide whether to enable history, rather than being an option for the end-user. Conversely, the new unthreaded rooms are not

Such a fundamental change is, indirectly, a result of the pandemic, which has already seen Google Meet become a free service to all, ahead of the originally planned rollout which was due in 2021. Ultimately, Google Meet and Google Chat will replace Google Hangouts, the increasingly neglected yet stalwart chat app which is being retired at around the same time.

Google Chat has had to adapt and evolve far faster than was ever intended, due in no small part to the world situation, and the threaded conversations, similar in style to Slack, are one example of a feature which has been tried and hasn’t worked out. It’s good to see Google is willing to adapt in this way. Given that its previous exploits with communication apps – GTalk, Google Allo/Duo, and Google+, to name a few have ended up in a hot mess, it’s clear that Google is committed (at least for now) to making Google Meet and Google Chat work out. Until they think of yet another reinvention, of course.

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