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

Nest’s good thermostats have been an icon of the good residence since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing mentioned good like a tool that would be taught your habits and make your private home function extra effectively with out having to fiddle with settings and automations. Within the 13 years since, Nest Studying Thermostats have been simple to establish, with the identical thick silver bezel and compact round display. This design was radical at a time when most good thermostats seemed like boring, rectangular, beige packing containers.

Google’s fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has a wholly new look, remodeling what now appears to be like like a fundamental tech gadget into one thing of an artwork piece to your wall. It is bought new smarts too, and features a temperature sensor to position elsewhere within the residence. It is a refreshing improve to a longtime staple, and feels good with out being intrusive or overly complicated—an essential center line not all good units discover.

Slim Setup

In case you’re hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Studying Thermostat onto the backing of a earlier Nest thermostat, you are out of luck. The thermostat base for the brand new mannequin is a special dimension, so you may have to modify out the outdated base for the brand new one.

Whereas the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a little bit bigger with bigger connectors; the brand new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You’d suppose with the bigger 3.9-inch display that the bottom can be bigger, but it surely has a smaller footprint in your wall, which is sweet. It comes with an non-obligatory plate as with earlier generations, however the brand new model is an oval reasonably than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch display won’t sound that massive, but it surely appears to be like surprisingly massive on the wall in case you’re used to the smaller Nest thermostats, and even one thing like my earlier thermostat, the sq. Honeywell T6.

{Photograph}: Nena Farrell

Putting in the Nest is simple; make sure your system is compatible and that you’ve got flipped off the related breaker to chop energy. The Nest app is not at play with this mannequin. Google has been step by step transitioning lots of its options and capabilities to the Google Dwelling app, and that is what you may use for this new mannequin. Google Dwelling walks you thru the steps of eradicating your outdated thermostat, labeling the wires, and putting in the brand new thermostat over it.