Google Nest Hub Review

The Google Nest Hub, formerly called the Google Nest Home Hub, is now in its 2nd Generation. It’s a smart display created and sold by Google.

With features such as sleep tracking, music streaming, and smart home compatibility, it’s a popular smart display. Let’s review the Google Nest Hub and explore how good or bad it is.

Google Nest Hub Features

Music, Videos, and Movies

The Google Nest Hub allows you to play music from YouTube Music, Pandora, or a linked Spotify account. You can set up a system of Google Devices around your home so that the music accompanies you when you move around the home.

You can also stream podcasts.

With Netflix and YouTube, you have access to movies, shows, and videos. You can put the Nest Hub next to your bed, for example, and watch your favorite shows before you sleep.

Smart Home Hub

Using your Google Nest Hub, you can control thousands of compatible smart home devices. You can turn the lights off, decrease the temperature, lock the front door, and check who is at the front door through a compatible video doorbell that displays a live feed.

You can purchase the Nest Hub together with the Nest Doorbell or Nest Cam for an additional price. These devices will display that live video feed so you can see when your friend has arrived or check if a delivery person is at the door.

Nest Aware

In addition to viewing a livestream of your front doorstep, you can also sign up for a Nest Aware subscription for an additional price. This subscription helps protect you by allowing you to view past recordings from your front door as well – up to 30 or 60 days in the past, depending on your plan.

It might sound like a lot of work to go through so much footage, but Google offers a solution: event-based historical footage. Instead of watching continuous footage, you will see only important events, such as only events in which people came up to your front door.

It uses machine learning to determine when these events occurred. In fact, it can, through the power of machine learning, detect the difference between your friends’ faces and strangers’ faces, alerting you when someone unknown has come to your door.

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With Nest Aware Plus, though, you do have the option of retaining up to 10 days of continuous footage. For continuous footage, though, you will need the wired Google Nest Cam, not the Google Nest Doorbell.

Nest Aware goes beyond recorded footage, though. In competition with Amazon’s Alexa Emergency Assist, it will alert you when unusual sounds are detected in your home, from smoke alarms going off to the sound of breaking glass, indicating the presence of an intruder.

That way, you can call 911 if something goes wrong when you are at work or away on vacation.

With e911 support, you can even call 911 directly from your Google Nest Hub.

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Timers, Alarms, and Updates

You can use the Google Nest Hub to set alarms or reminders. Left something in the oven? Set a reminder.

Do you want to wake up on time for a meeting? Set an alarm. It’s really easy, and the Google Nest Hub also provides weather and news updates so you can stay up to date about what’s going on around you and in the world.

Another cool feature is the ability to book restaurant reservations using the Google Nest Hub.

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Intercom System

If you have other Google devices around the house, you can set up an intercom system. Call your kids to dinner from wherever they are in the house, as long as they are within earshot of a Google smart speaker.

Adaptive Display

The smart display adapts to the time of day and surroundings to look good in any lighting. In the morning, it will gradually increase its brightness, while increasing the sound of the alarm at the same time, to help you start the day.

It will do the opposite at night, lowering the brightness and playing soothing sounds.

It also adjusts the ambient light throughout the day.

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Sleep Tracking

One of the most useful features of the Google Nest Hub, though, is its ability to track and analyze your sleep patterns. It does this without you needing to wear a device at night, like a Fitbit, which can be uncomfortable for many people.

It is a feature that sets it apart from other smart displays, such as the Amazon Echo Show 8, which doesn’t include sleep tracking.

How does it manage to do it without requiring you to wear a device? Instead of tracking your pulse or heart rate, it tracks your sleep cycle via motion and sensory detection.

It can track when you fall asleep or wake up using your movements and breathing patterns. Using sounds such as snoring, respiratory activity, and coughing, as well as restless movement at night, it can tell you how well you slept.

That is, of course, provided you use it in the bedroom. If you use it in the kitchen instead of as a bedside assistant, sleep tracking won’t be a particularly useful feature.

Not only does it track your sleep, but it gives you suggestions on steps you can take to improve your sleep quality. If you are not feeling refreshed when waking up in the morning, you might have bad sleeping patterns, and the Google Nest Hub is a great, non-invasive way to discover that.

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Google Photos

You can connect your Google account to view photos you have uploaded to the cloud in Google Photos.

That allows you to view your most important memories at any time and turn your Nest Hub into a photo display.

Audio Calls

Using Google Meet, you can place audio calls using hands-free voice commands. Since the Google Nest Hub doesn’t come with a camera, though, you can’t place video calls unless you get the pricier Google Nest Hub Max.

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Motion Gestures

I love how you can control the Google Nest Hub using motion gestures without actually touching the screen. That is in addition to touchscreen controls and voice commands, of course.

For example, you can swipe your hand to the right to go back to the previous screen.

Design and Hardware

The Google Nest Hub has a 7-inch width, although the bezels mean that the screen display itself is somewhat smaller. It is 4.7 inches in height.

It comes in four colors: chalk, charcoal, sand, and mist. They all look pretty amazing, and together with the auto adjusting ambient light, the Google Nest Hub certainly adds style to your home.

One thing that it is missing is a camera. You might argue that a camera isn’t necessary for a smart display, but Amazon’s Echo Show products all have a camera with which you can place video calls or view a live cam of your home when you are away.

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Google Nest Hub Max

I do want to mention that there is a larger version, called the Nest Hub Max. It comes with two stereo speakers and a woofer on the back, and it also comes with a larger, 10-inch screen.

Unlike the Google Nest Hub, it does come with a camera. That allows you to monitor your home from afar and place video calls.

However, it doesn’t support sleep tracking.

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Pricing

The Google Nest Hub costs $99.99. The Google Nest Hub Max, on the other hand, costs $229.

While the Google Nest Hub is well priced, I don’t think the Google Nest Hub Max is worth the price for only a slightly larger screen. It can’t even be wall mounted.

One thing going for Google, though, is that it offers financing that allows you to pay for eligible devices, such as the Nest Hub Max, over time with 0% APR and no annual fees.

Always check the Google Store for updated pricing for either product, as pricing and financing availability is subject to change.

Nest Aware, though, comes out to $8/month or $80/year. For Nest Aware Plus, it will cost you $15/month or $150/year.

These are optional subscriptions; check the Nest Aware page for updated pricing details.

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Conclusion

The Google Nest Hub is a great smart display for your bedroom. It doesn’t support as many streaming services as the Amazon Echo Show 5 or 8, and it doesn’t have a camera (only the Nest Hub Max does), but it does support sleep tracking. Overall, it offers decent value for money.