Review of Google’s new Nest Learning Thermostat

This week, nearly a decade after the last update to its flagship thermostat, Google announced the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th generation). The thermostat has an all-new design, several new features, and supports 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 Nest, which launched in 2015. However, it now comes with a new Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd generation) to monitor the temperature in other rooms. Both models are available for pre-order now and will ship on August 20, in the US and Canada only.

I’m a big believer in smart home devices that are built to last: No one wants to change their thermostat every couple of years. But it’s been nine years since we got a new Nest Learning Thermostat (the Nest Thermostat that arrived in 2020 stripped out most of the smart features), and technology is advancing faster than it did in the days of beige plastic boxes on your wall.

Surprisingly, Google hasn’t followed its competitor Ecobee in packing more features into its flagship thermostat. This isn’t a smart speaker, smart display, or smart home hub. Instead, the goal is to make it a truly smart thermostat.

Google says the new model uses AI to learn your heating and cooling schedule faster and more accurately, along with other upgrades to help you 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. That means that, among other benefits, the Nest Learning Thermostat (4th generation) can now work natively in Apple Home. (The 2020 Nest Thermostat already works with Matter.)

However, Matter support is over Wi-Fi — there’s no Thread radio — which is surprising, given that the original Nest is what Thread was developed for.

But as Google Home product manager Anish Kattukaran tells me, Google wants users to have other devices in their homes that act as Thread hubs, like the new Google TV Streamer 4K, which is a Google Home hub, Matter controller, and Thread edge router all in one. The Nest Thermostat is meant 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 striking. It’s much larger (the 2.7-inch display is more than double the size of the previous generation), but it’s also thinner. It looks like someone flattened the third-gen Nest while borrowing many design cues from the Pixel Watch, including the same curved glass display and customizable watch faces.

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

The physical rotary dial is retained, but it’s now smoother and easier to control. It still offers those satisfying clicks, but its larger size allows for more precise on-screen selections.

There’s no visible bezel and the larger display benefits from a fun new Dynamic Farsight feature that brings neat weather animations to the screen as well as greater customization. You can choose the main dial to be your indoor temperatures, an analog clock, a digital clock or the weather, and as you get closer you’ll get more detailed information.

This detail now includes three additional fields, similar to the watch face complications. Each can be configured to display information such as humidity, outdoor temperature, time, and date. Additionally, there is now the option to get an outdoor air quality index score, useful in areas prone to seasonal issues like wildfire smoke.

On the learning front, Google is tackling a long-standing problem with the smart thermostat: its propensity to have a mind of its own and turn up the heat on a sunny afternoon for no obvious reason (from experience).

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

This intelligence extends to new energy-saving features. Natural heating and cooling respond to outdoor temperatures and learn how your home naturally adapts to save energy. For example, “if it’s a nice winter day and your house warms up a few degrees on its own, the thermostat will automatically turn off the heat to save energy,” Kattukaran says.

Adaptive Eco Mode is an update to Eco Mode that adjusts based on the climate. It won’t go too low in cold weather when you’re away, so you don’t have to work overtime to get back up when you get back, Kattukaran says. A new smart ventilation option for compatible hardware optimizes ventilation timing based on the quality of the outside air.

Upgrades to the HVAC monitoring feature, now called System Health Monitor, track your system’s performance and send alerts if there’s a problem. A Humidity Assistant aims to keep humidity levels stable to prevent condensation and mold. Google says these new features are exclusive to the latest model at launch.

According to Kattukaran, the fourth-generation Nest thermostat is the most compatible yet, working with more systems, including humidifiers, dehumidifiers, and ventilation equipment. It now supports 12 wired connections, up from 10 on the third-generation Nest, and continues to work without a C-wire in most setups.

The other new feature is the Nest Temperature Sensor (2nd generation), which comes with the 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 primary function is still to report the temperature of other rooms to the thermostat.

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

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

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

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