![]() At such a hefty weight, it makes me a bit concerned about what would happen if it were to fall. Underneath the exterior, however, the Google Nest Audio features a metal chassis made of aluminum and magnesium - which explains why it feels so dense for its size. It gives it a more neutral look, especially when combined with its tic-tac shape. From the outside, all there is to see is the fabric mesh material wrapping around the entirety of the speaker. There’s a reason why it’s so heavy, though. In contrast, the Google Home feels super lightweight at 1.05 lbs. I was surprised by how densely packed it is, tipping the scales at a whopping 2.65 lbs. Taking the Google Nest Audio out of the packaging, the first thing that stood out for me was its weight. The 10 best smart home products not made by Google or Amazon (or their subsidiaries) Google partners with ADT to launch new smart home security system But with new products hitting the market that offer better performance for the money, we've lowered the rating to 3 stars.The Nest Thermostat is the first smart thermostat with Matter support So while I still like the Pill, I just don't think I'd pay $199 for it.Įditor's note: When it was first reviewed, the Beats Pill received a score of 3.5 stars. ![]() Also, the $199 UE Boom is a superior product, with significantly better sound, a water-resistant design, and better battery life. Since the Pill came out, plenty of new mini Bluetooth speakers have hit the market, and such products as the JBL FLip at half the price are much better deals. Ultimately, my bigger gripe is that it's overpriced at $199.99. That's could very well be an Apple's software issue (it worked fine with a Samsung Galaxy S3), so I'm not ready to blame Beats. However, I did encounter some hiccups during playback with my iPhone 4S. The Pill has an impressive design, sounds a bit better than certain competing products, has a strong feature set, and its accompanying carrying case is nice. The Pill has a lot going for, but also some drawbacks. Hopefully, this issue will be addressed with a firmware upgrade, or perhaps an iOS upgrade. I think this is due to a glitch in iOS 6 where Apple upgraded its Bluetooth profile to the latest version and possibly created a Bluetooth bug so to speak (manufacturers may be forced to upgrade their firmware). I reset my phone and it got a little better, but I still ran into problems. While I got the occasional Bluetooth hiccup using it with a couple of Android devices, it completely disconnected on me a few times with the iPhone 4S and the connection was generally unstable. The one performance strike I found against the speaker was that it occasionally cut out on me when I was using it with the iPhone 4S. You can do better at lower volumes or worse if you really crank the speaker. I got around 6 hours at modest volume levels. I also thought it sounded good with movies I paired it with an iPad Mini and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.īattery life was decent, not great. I got the best sound by sitting 2 to 3 feet away from it and it serves as a perfectly capable laptop or desktop speaker. I should also point out that while this is designated as a stereo speaker, since the drivers are so close together you get little to no stereo separation, though the speaker's onboard digital processing does its best to make you think the speaker sounds more open and spacious. By that I mean it just doesn't have the dynamic range of larger speakers, so it will roll off the low end (read: flatten it out) and like a lot of these small speakers it's strongest in the midrange, so it comes out sounding best with lighter fare and acoustical material. Despite that praise, the Pill does have its limitations.
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