Hey Everybody! How’s it going, hope you’re all off to a great new year and doing well?
If you’ve been following the blog or reading the newsletter for a while, you’ll probably know I’m a huge fan of technology in general and especially smart home tech, which is why I was super excited and disappointed at the same time when I watched the Google live stream where they unveiled the Google home last year.
It looked awesome to me and was exactly what I have been waiting for, a smart hub that can control all of my chromecasts, my security camera, and my future nest thermostat (I haven’t picked one up yet but its on my must have list hah). I had been on the fence of getting an Amazon Alexa but the lack of Google integration, specifically my cast devices had been holding me back even though I loved the prospect of a smart home hub that could help organize my day to day and would get the Alexa in a second if I hadn’t already gotten all of the google smart tech.
So when I heard the features of the Home I was basically sold on it right away! My excited didn’t last long though, it wasn’t long after the announcement that I was looking a release dates and prices when I found out it wasn’t going to be released in Canada upon launch and there wasn’t an exact date for Canada either, I was immediately disappointed I couldn’t get one.
Well flash forward to earlier this month, my 31st. birthday (January 2nd) to be exact , and I had received some money to spend on myself for something fun. The first thing that instantly came to mind was the Google Home, I started googling for the release date in Canada and how to pre-order it at the very least when I came across a thread on a Canadian message board that mentioned that B&H Photo might have some google home devices in stock with free shipping to Canada, Score!
A few minutes later I had ordered myself a perfect Bday present with free shipping to Canada. With having to prepay Customs/Duty the total came to $147.4 USD. Not bad at all since the msrp is $129 USD and even with the CAD conversion I still think it will be cheaper than waiting for the overpriced Canadian version.
You can get your Google Home shipped to Canada here:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1297281-REG/google_ga3a00417a14_home.html
One week later my Home arrived!
After spending a few minutes setting it up (it only took 5 minutes from start to finish tops!) there were no issues with it being a US based Home during settup other than having to change the language setting on my Galaxy S6 Edge to English (US) as opposed to English (Canada). After making that switch everything went smoothly on setup.
Now that it’s been setup for a week now I have yet to find any issues with running the Google home in Canada, it recognizes my location and address when asked “Hey Google, Where am I?” and it instantly knows the correct weather forecasts, traffic and news for my area. My google chromecasts play nicely with it and my canadian Google play subscription seems to be working perfectly (I’ve yet to be able to stump it with a song request).
In conclusion, if you’re a fellow Canadian and looking to buy a Google Home in Canada, B&H is definitely my recommendation (I’m not even an affiliate or getting any money at all for saying this, but I just had a great experience and have wanted a Home since release).
You can check it out for yourself here and let me know how it goes!
As always, thanks for reading and following the blog and youtube channel, don’t forget to let me know what you think in the comments and subscribe to the newsletter on the sidebar.
Cheers,
Brandon
