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Get a free Nest Hub when you buy a Nest Hub Max

Many retailers have this bundle on sale for July 4.

Nicole Lee / Engadget

A July 4th sale makes it tempting to outfit your home with Google smart displays. Best Buy, Home Depot and B&H Photo will throw in a free Nest Hub when you buy a Nest Hub Max for $229. That means you’ll pay $229 for a bundle valued at about $318, which is a great discount on two of Google’s most capable smart displays.

Buy Nest Hub Max bundle at Best Buy - $229

Buy Nest Hub Max bundle at Home Depot - $229

Buy Nest Hub Max bundle at B&H Photo - $229

The 10-inch Nest Hub Max is one of our favorite Google Assistant devices, earning a score of 86. It’s arguably the best speaker of all of Google’s first-party displays and its larger screen makes it best for viewing photos and watching video. It could become something like a mini TV set if you watch YouTube a lot, and if placed in a kitchen, you can ask the Google Assistant to show you recipe videos while you cook a new meal.

The Hub Max also has a 6.5-megapixel camera that you can use for video chats and as a Nest Cam. The latter is a feature that’s unique to the Hub Max — it essentially lets you use the built-in camera as a security device, allowing you to check in on a part of your home from your smartphone or from other Nest smart displays.

We like the camera’s gesture recognition capabilities, too. While watching a video, you can hold your hand up in front of the camera to pause it. This and other gestures are quite useful once you learn the ones you’d use most, but even if your hands are tied, you can still rely on voice commands and the Google Assistant to fetch information and do things for you. Also, Google made sure you can disable the camera and microphone electronically whenever you want.

We reviewed the Nest Hub back when it was called the Home Hub and gave it a score of 87 for its lovely display and minimalist design. It’s a more compact version of the Hub Max with its 7-inch screen, making it better for tighter spaces. While it doesn’t have a built-in camera like the Hub Max does, it can do almost everything else that its larger counterpart can including play YouTube videos, stream music and handle Google Assistant commands.

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