Hands-on with Google’s new Nest Learning Thermostat

This week, nearly a decade after Google last updated its flagship thermostat, the company announced O Nest Learning Thermostat (4th generation). The thermostat has an all-new design, several new features, and support for the Matter smart home standard. So yes, it now works natively with Apple Home.

At $279.99, the fourth generation Nest Learning Thermostat is more expensive than the third generation Nestlaunched in 2015. However, it now comes with a new Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd Gen) to monitor the temperature in other rooms. Both are available to pre-order now and will ship on August 20th – in the US and Canada only.

I’m a big proponent of smart home devices that are built to last — no one wants to upgrade their thermostat every two years. But it’s been nine years since we’ve had a new Nest Learning Thermostat (the Nest Thermostat that arrived in 2020 dropped most of the intelligence features), and technology is progressing faster than in the days of beige plastic boxes on the wall.

Surprisingly, Google didn’t follow competitor Ecobee in packing more functions into its flagship thermostat. This is not a smart speaker, a smart display, or a smart home hub. Instead, the focus is on making this thermostat really smart.

Google says The new model uses AI to learn your heating and cooling schedule more quickly and accurately – along with other updates to help manage your system more efficiently.

Google added its Soli radar sensor to the device to provide more accurate information about your presence, as well as support for Matter, the new smart home standard. This means that, among other benefits, the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th generation) can now work natively on Apple Home. (The 2020 Nest Thermostat already works with Matter.)

However, Matter support is via Wi-Fi – there’s no Thread radio – surprising considering the original Nest is the reason Thread was developed.

But as head of product at Google Home, Anish Kattukaran, tells me, Google wants users to have other devices in their homes to act as Thread hubs – like the new Google TV Streamer 4K – which is a Google Home hub, Matter controller and Thread edge router. The Nest Thermostat is designed to focus on its core function: keeping you comfortable while saving energy.

I saw the new Nest Thermostat in person at Google’s New York headquarters last week and it’s very impressive. It’s much bigger – the 2.7-inch screen is more than twice the size of the previous generation – but it’s also thinner. It looks like someone flattened the third-generation Nest while borrowing a lot of design cues from the Pixel Watch, including the same curved glass screen and customizable watch-like faces.

It comes in three brushed metal designs: black, silver, and gold. I liked the gold better, although it’s more subtle in person than in the press photos.

The physical rotating dial remains, but is now smoother and easier to control. It still has those satisfying clicks, but its larger size allows for more accurate selections on the screen.

There’s no visible bezel, and the larger screen takes advantage of a fun new Dynamic Farsight feature that brings cool weather animations to the screen along with more customization. You can choose the main face like indoor temperature, an analog clock, a digital clock or the weather, and as you get closer you will get more detailed information.

This detail now includes three extra fields, similar to watchface complications. Each can be configured to show information such as humidity, outside temperature, time and date. Additionally, there is now the option of an outdoor air quality index score – useful in areas prone to seasonal problems such as wildfire smoke.

As far as learning goes, Google is addressing a long-term annoyance of the smart thermostat: its propensity to have a mind of its own and crank up the heat on a sunny afternoon for no obvious reason (speaking from experience).

There is now the option to have the thermostat suggest changes for you to accept, rather than starting them automatically. It will also tell you what it’s doing if you press on the screen. “We wanted to eliminate the black box approach. It’s an incredibly smart device, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know what’s going on,” says Kattukaran.

This intelligence extends to new energy-saving features. Natural Heating and Cooling reacts to outside temperatures and learns how your home naturally adjusts to save energy. For example, “If it’s a sunny winter day and your house heats up a few degrees on its own, the thermostat will automatically stop heating to save energy,” says Kattukaran.

Adaptive Eco is an upgrade to Eco Mode that adjusts based on the weather. It won’t fall too low on a cold day when you’re out, saving you from having to work overtime to get it back up when you return, says Kattukaran. A new smart ventilation option for compatible hardware optimizes when to ventilate based on outdoor air quality.

Updates for the HVAC Monitoring feature, now called System Health Monitor, tracks your system’s performance and sends you alerts about any issues. A Moisture Aid aims to keep humidity levels stable to prevent condensation and mold. Google says these new features are exclusive to the latest model at launch.

Kattukaran says the fourth-generation Nest is theirs Most compatible thermostat yet and works with more systems, including humidifier, dehumidifier and ventilation equipment. It now supports 12-wire connections compared to 10 on the third-gen Nest, and continues to work wirelessly C in most configurations.

The other new hardware is the Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd generation), one of which comes with a thermostat. The sensor is essentially the same as the first-generation model, with a new look to resemble the new thermostat. In both cases, its main function is still to feed the thermostat with the temperature of other rooms.

Unfortunately, the sensor still only monitors temperature and not occupancy, like Ecobee’s competing sensor. One update is that multiple sensors can now average the temperature across multiple rooms.

Google says you can add up to six and choose which ones are active at different times, linking them to your schedules in the Google Home app. This allows the thermostat to respond to the temperature of the kitchen and living room in the morning and then the bedroom at night.

The new Nest brings significant updates to an already excellent device. While some features are keeping up with the competition (the Ecobee already uses outdoor weather to balance weather and radar sensors for occupancy), it’s good to see them finally arrive. In terms of design, it looks like a winner – this is a gorgeous piece of wall art.

O Nest Learning Thermostat costs $279.99, and the The Nest Temperature Sensor is $39.99 ($99.99 for three). They are available to order now at store.google.com and select retailers and will ship on August 20th.