I like my Google Nest Hub. It can do a ton of things like play music, display
photos, and control my smartome. But the one thing I feel like it's been missing
is sleep tracking. Said probably no one
ever. Despite this, Google's second gen
NestHub just launched and it can track your sleep using those same fancy sole
radar sensors that made the Pixel 4's air gestures such a huge hit. Again, no.
But before you pass judgment, let me tell you that I've been testing the new
Nest Hub out, and there might be a few reasons to be excited about what it
means for the future of the Smartome, just like I'm excited about this segue
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The second gen Nest Hub has basically the exact same physical design and
dimensions as the first gen model with only one obvious difference. The glass
for the 7-in display now sits on top of its plastic housing instead of being set
into it, which gives the front a bit more of a cleaner look and won't allow
gunk to get stuck in there as much, which is great news for those with gunky
hands. It's a problem. The rest of the changes are inside. It's got a better
processor, more powerful speaker, a Thread Smartome radio, and in the top
right of the display, apparently some Project Soleie radar sensors. These let
you use air gestures with the Nest Hub just like you would with the Pixel 4. So
you can tap the air to play and pause music or videos. And it actually works
from like a foot and a half away. So I can see how this would be useful if
you're using the Nest Hub in the kitchen and your fingers are covered in meat
grease and squashed avocados. Tasty.
However, you can't air swipe to change tracks even though you can swipe to
dismiss alarms. And that's all you can
do. It would be really nice to be able to say change volume by rotating a
finger like you can do with some carb- based gesture systems, but nope. And I
want to talk about this for a second because man, Project Soleie looked so
cool when Google first announced it back in 2016. I mean, they were showing off a
concept smartwatch that used a super tiny radar chip to let you swipe through
screens, adjust volume, and zoom in and out on maps just by performing these
tiny midair gestures with your fingers. Instead, the first consumer product we
got with solely sensors was the Pixel 4 in 2019 with the revolutionary ability
to control music with air swipes and taps just like you could with the
Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014. They didn't
bring solely tech back for the Pixel 5, which no one was sad about, but they did
say it would return in one form or another, and I guess the new NestHub is
where it ended up. It's disappointing to see this technology return with no new
useful gestures, but there is something new, the sleep tracking. Google calls it
sleep sensing, which may be partially because it doesn't actually track much.
There's a calibration process which involves placing the Nest Hub next to
your bed and laying down next to it like you're going to tell it about your
personal problems. It doesn't ask you how you feel about that. That's the next
model probably. Once it's calibrated, the Nest Hub will tell you how long you
actually slept once you got into bed, whether you coughed or snorred, and
whether the light changed in the room. Over time, the hub will give you
reminders to get to bed earlier or turn down the temperature. But as far as
actual tracking goes, that's about it. The sleep tracking provided by many
smartwatches and fitness trackers will go more in depth, giving you information
about how long you spent in lightm or deep sleep, your heart rate, even
calories burned. And the NestHub doesn't give you any of that. Although, if you
link the Google Fit Android app, it can tell you your respiratory rate. But what
the NestHub lacks in depth, it makes up for in the fact that you don't have to
wear a smartwatch to bed, which I I don't like doing, but I did for this
video because I care about you. It is pretty inconvenient to have this extra
information about my sleep from a device that I might use as a bedside alarm
clock anyways for no extra charge. However, that's probably going to
change. The NestHub tells you that Sleep Sensing is in preview for free right
now, but once Google launches Google Fit Premium or whatever brand it's going to
slap on Fitbit Premium, it looks like sleepsensing will be part of a paid
subscription. I'd rather spend my money on the fantastic products on
ltstore.com. That's just me, but Google's sleep sensing feature might
make sense for someone who would get that subscription anyways and who's having trouble sleeping. I'm not because
I have a baby. When I have time to sleep, I sleep. So, while sleep sensing
is nice to have now, it's also one of the things that just confuses me about
Google's strategy with solely and smartome stuff in general, like I think
it's cool that Google is experimenting with new technology, but it's like they
don't even care whether people actually need or want it. Like, hey, we made a
phone that will tell you whether you need a haircut or not.
You need it. All right, time to finally talk about the rest of the stuff that's
changed with the new NestHub. It does have larger speakers with 1.7 in audio
drivers. Google says they give the hub 50% better bass performance. And while I
didn't run the numbers on that, you can definitely hear the difference. This
model sounds a lot better than the original. It's also gotten a processor
upgrade from the quad core 1.5 GHz Amlogic S95D in the original to a 64-bit
1.9 GHz ARM CPU. Yeah, Google won't say
the actual brand and model of this processor, which makes me think that
maybe Google used an in-house design. Is
this the first device with Google silicon? I certainly hope not. Because
while this chip is supposedly faster on paper, the touchscreen on the second gen
NestHub is just as choppy and laggy as the first gen model. Like, I understand
you got to save money somewhere, but it's pretty disappointing to get a first-p party Google device with a super
clean look and minimalist aesthetic
and then have it perform like an uncertified Android device you got off
AliExpress. Apple wouldn't let this happen. Also
inside is something that to me is more exciting than the Project Soleie
sensors, or at least more exciting than the implementation of them that we have
here. It's an extra radio that will make the hub compatible with a Thread
Smartome network protocol. If you don't know what that is, it's basically going
to be the way that smart home devices talk to each other in the future. All
the cool kids on Tik Tok will have Thread enabled RGB LED lights in the
background. Okay, it's just get ready. So, really quickly, Thread is backed by
Google, Apple, Samsung, and all the other big boys. And it's a mesh
protocol, meaning devices don't have to connect to a central hub. They just
connect to each other for a low latency, low power setup. So instead of tapping a
button and waiting a second for your smart light to turn on, it'll turn on
right away. Now, there are very few devices that support Thread right now.
Apple's HomePod Mini and Nanoleaf's Essentials bulbs being among them. So
even if the Nest Hub's touchscreen is laggy and the sleep sensing is eh, at
least you're futurep proofing if you get it. All in all though, I can't complain
about the second gen Nest Hub. It can do everything the first one can do, plus
extra, and it's $30 cheaper at a hundred bucks US. I've been using it as a baby
monitor with a Nest Cam and photoframe is great. You can use it to play Netflix
and Disney Plus and ask Google a million silly things.
I like to take the time to think about all of the possible solutions so that I
can give you the best, most helpful result. I mean, sure, it's not perfect, but you
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Hey, if you guys enjoy this video, you might enjoy the only other smart home
related video I can think of right now, which is the one where Lionus installs a
ton of new security cameras in his house. That's Man, he got up to some
crazy hy jinks. See you there.