Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen) Review: Blending Beauty and Brains

Easy-to-follow setup. Gorgeous connected the eyes, and has 3 beauteous finishes. Includes adjuvant AI-powered Smart Schedule and a somesthesia sensor you tin spot anyplace successful the home.

Previous Nest users volition inactive person to bash a afloat reinstall. On the pricey extremity of astute thermostats.

Nest's astute thermostats person been an icon of the astute location since they deed the marketplace successful precocious 2011. Nothing said astute similar a instrumentality that could larn your habits and marque your location run much efficiently without having to fiddle with settings and automations. In the 13 years since, Nest Learning Thermostats person been casual to identify, with the aforesaid heavy metallic bezel and compact circular screen. This plan was extremist astatine a clip erstwhile astir astute thermostats looked similar boring, rectangular, beige boxes.

Google's fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has an wholly caller look, transforming what present looks similar a basal tech gadget into thing of an creation portion for your wall. It's got caller smarts too, and includes a somesthesia sensor to spot elsewhere successful the home. It's a refreshing upgrade to a longtime staple, and feels astute without being intrusive oregon overly complex—an important mediate enactment not each astute devices find.

Slim Setup

If you're hoping to popular the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat onto the backing of a erstwhile Nest thermostat, you're retired of luck. The thermostat basal for the caller exemplary is simply a antithetic size, truthful you'll person to power retired the aged basal for the caller one.

While the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its basal is simply a small larger with larger connectors; the caller thermostat basal is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You'd deliberation with the larger 3.9-inch surface that the basal would beryllium larger, but it has a smaller footprint connected your wall, which is nice. It comes with an optional sheet arsenic with erstwhile generations, but the caller mentation is an oval alternatively than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch surface mightiness not dependable that big, but it looks amazingly ample connected the partition if you're utilized to the smaller Nest thermostats, oregon adjacent thing similar my erstwhile thermostat, the quadrate Honeywell T6.

Installing the Nest is easy; make definite your strategy is compatible and that you've flipped disconnected the applicable breaker to chopped power. The Nest app is nary longer astatine play with this model. Google has been gradually transitioning galore of its features and capabilities to the Google Home app, and that's what you'll usage for this caller model. Google Home walks you done the steps of removing your aged thermostat, labeling the wires, and installing the caller thermostat implicit it.

My archetypal effort astatine installing an older Nest thermostat took the amended portion of an hour, betwixt confirming the close switches successful my breaker container to learning my mode astir the assorted wires and connectors. This clip around, the installation took astir 10 minutes. WIRED exertion Julian Chokkattu besides installed the caller exemplary successful his location but said the app forced him to interaction Nest enactment to guarantee his existing wiring was compatible. The process was speedy and Google enactment walked done the remainder of his installation, which took little than 20 minutes.

My main ailment with installing the fourth-generation exemplary is that the connector buttons wherever you spot the wires are miniscule. I person tiny hands and fingers, and I inactive had to space my digit conscionable close to click the close connector down and unafraid each wire. I'd urge a precision screwdriver to property the buttons down if you person thicker digits.

Slick and Smart

I've been surviving with this thermostat for a mates of weeks now, and it's worked consistently good and is casual to control. I've yet to acquisition random drops successful connectivity oregon situations wherever the app and thermostat amusement antithetic progressive settings, arsenic I did with my erstwhile Honeywell. The Google Home app, which is however you acceptable up and configure the Nest Learning Thermostat, has been elemental capable for maine and my little tech-savvy hubby to control.

You can't contradict this mentation of the Nest Learning Thermostat is downright beauteous connected the eyes. The finishes and colour choices wrong and retired astir look similar a portion of modern art. The rounded surface is reflective and looks similar a funhouse reflector arsenic light—or your face—reflects disconnected it, reacting and warping arsenic you get person oregon farther away. It's readable, but the colors down the substance could alteration astatine immoderate infinitesimal based connected your presumption astir the thermostat.

That's not the lone portion of the thermostat that reacts to your position. One of the caller features, Far Sight, lets you take betwixt 1 of six location screens—including 2 clocks and the weather—that volition look erstwhile you get person to the device. (This is powered by Google's Soli radar technology.) I chose 1 of the timepiece options and recovered the Nest coming to beingness whenever I was astir 11 feet away; past the timepiece would set to a smaller timepiece and amusement much details erstwhile I was astir 3 feet away. If I was farther than that archetypal 11 feet, oregon stood inactive agelong enough, the thermostat's surface would power disconnected and spell backmost to being a decorative reflector of sorts.

The surface isn't arsenic agleam arsenic the erstwhile Nest Learning Thermostat—I similar it this way, and had nary occupation speechmaking it during the day. But if you're coming from an older Nest, it's worthy noting determination are nary settings to boost the brightness. The larger surface size is what truly feels similar the large upgrade erstwhile straight comparing it to the third-gen Learning Thermostat, though some execute similarly.

The thermostat is straightforward to navigate. You'll click the bladed framework erstwhile to spot the somesthesia and set it, and click a 2nd clip to participate the thermostat's menus to power things similar Eco Mode, your home's fans, and different settings. The slim, barely-there bezel feels beauteous to set and there's a bully ticking dependable arsenic you crook the instrumentality and determination done the menus. There's nary haptic feedback, though that would've been nice. The larger size makes it a small easier to rotate precisely; I recovered it casual to overshoot my rotations connected earlier and smaller Nest models.

In the app, you tin activate Smart Schedules, an AI-powered scheduler that reacts to your usage and tin acceptable up schedules connected your behalf. You tin take successful the app for the Smart Schedules to instrumentality automatically, oregon take Suggestion if you privation these schedules tally by you successful advance. The Smart Scheduler does look to necessitate immoderate consistency successful your habits to larn and suggest thing though, truthful you mightiness not spot customized suggestions close away.

You tin besides acceptable up Home and Away, on with Presence Sensing, truthful that the Nest volition commencement cooling oregon heating your location appropriately based connected whether anyone is location (this is disposable connected older models too). It'll power to Eco Mode, which has minimum and maximum temperatures you're consenting the location to deed without anyone home—and makes it easier to chill your home, for example, if you travel location to 79 degrees (my Eco Mode setting) alternatively of the mid 80s.

Presence Sensing chiefly uses your smartphone to observe if you're home, and it works well, but if you person aggregate adults who travel and go, you'll request to invitation everyone via the Google Home app truthful that their phone's determination tin beryllium taken into account. Otherwise, if you leave, the aerial switches disconnected automatically for everyone. (They tin inactive crook it backmost connected manually.)

There are besides 2 different caller astute features: System Health Monitor, which volition alert you if it notices problems that could bespeak a repair is needed (like rooms aren't heating oregon cooling astatine the complaint they should), and Smart Ventilation, which volition cheque outdoor aerial prime and humidity earlier ventilating your home. Both are handy, though you won't announcement these features until you request them. This thermostat is besides certified Matter-compatible, meaning you tin link it to Apple's HomeKit and run the instrumentality wholly successful Apple's Home app.

The Extras

The latest iteration of the Nest Learning Thermostat comes with a small friend: a Nest Temperature Sensor. This is often a abstracted acquisition with astute thermostats, truthful it's bully to spot it included. (You tin bargain them separately for $40 oregon three for $90 if you request much sensors astir the home.) Place the sensor successful a country and acceptable the thermostat to prioritize that somesthesia alternatively of the somesthesia it measures with its built-in sensor. You tin rapidly toggle disconnected a sensor successful the app too, which is adjuvant if you person the sensor successful the chamber and nary 1 is successful determination during the day.

I placed the somesthesia sensor successful my toddler's country truthful I could power my upstairs somesthesia based connected his stuffy room, alternatively than the breezier hallway. Even erstwhile I wasn't utilizing it to chill my home, the somesthesia sensor was utile to cheque connected his country and to comparison against my baby monitor to spot however close it was. If you already person the first-generation Nest Temperature Sensor and privation to support utilizing it, the bully quality is that works with this thermostat.

Even with the included sensor, is it worthy the $280? The Nest is much costly than the akin Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium ($250) and Honeywell T9 Smart Thermostat ($210), some of which see a somesthesia sensor. The Ecobee offers galore of the aforesaid learning functionalities arsenic the caller Nest model, but I person not tested it yet. Ultimately, the Nest Learning Thermostat blends quality with smarts successful a mode I've yet to spot successful different astute thermostats, though you tin get akin oregon “smart enough” features without spending arsenic overmuch (even from Nest's cheaper models).

That said, if your thermostat is successful a visible spot successful your home—mine's astatine the apical of the stairs close adjacent the beforehand door, truthful it's 1 of the archetypal things I see—it doesn't wounded to walk a small much to person thing that looks nice. If your thermostat is tucked distant successful a corner, and you don't caput fiddling with it, you whitethorn arsenic good spell with a cheaper option.