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However, on nights I wore a sleep mask or woke up when there was already some daylight I didn't find the sunrise part of the alarm as useful. I still enjoyed the peaceful sounds it played since it wasn't as jarring as my phone alarm. The Google Nest Hub Max allows you to set an alarm, play your favorite songs, check the weather, and much more via Google Assistant. Additionally, the device doubles as a Nest Cam, which is something that sets the Google Nest Hub Max apart from the competition. Priced at $229 in the US and £219 in the UK, the Nest Hub Max is a bit more expensive than most of its contemporaries. The good news is the Hub Max is the most feature-packed smart display to date, making the price tag a reasonably decent value when you consider the device doubles as a Nest cam.
Perhaps my favourite thing about the Home Hub, though, is how it interfaces with Google Photos. Along with various other options, the Google Home mobile app lets you show albums from your Google Photos on the Home Hub when it’s not in use. It’s a very similar feature to that on the Chromecast, except that you’re actually likely to see your pictures on the Home Hub because the display is always turned on.
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If the new features such as sleep tracking or better audio aren't important, then it's probably better to wait until the next generation. However, if you find these new features useful or need a second smart display then it will be worth the upgrade to the second-generation device. The Nest Hub tracks sleep using what Google calls “motion sense” to track sleep which uses low-energy radar to detect breathing and movement, so there’s no camera which some might prefer for privacy reasons. One of the biggest pros of this sleep sensing device is that you don’t have to wear it, which means no uncomfortable watches or bands waking you up in the night.
As for sound, the Nest Hub earns a spot on our list of the best Google Home speakers, although audio feels like an afterthought compared to all the fresh tricks laid out in this Google Nest Hub review. With the ability to track your sleep in addition to all of the voice control capacity of the original, the second-generation Nest Hub smart display is an ideal bedside companion for Google Assistant users. It's the pricing of the Echo Show 8 that really makes the comparison harder than it was last year. Even when it's not on sale, the Echo Show 8 offers a lot of benefits over the Nest Hub for manageable price increase.
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Nest says to avoid changing the angle of the display once you have it set up to allow for consistent results. With all of the normal functionality of a smart display like the Nest Hub, with aggressive pricing. I still prefer controlling connected devices with my voice, but the panel provides a handy visual reference.
Earlier this year Google launched the second generation of their Nest Hub smart display, the Google Nest Hub , a combination of an entertainment device and a smart hub. It can be used for various activities, acting like a tablet that can stream entertainment like Netflix or listening to music. It can also control other smart devices such as compatible smart lights or televisions.
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Soli’s sensing abilities, though could be improved, make sleep tracking less cumbersome than you’d expect. Although being “sensed” still sounds a little creepy, I forgot my display was watching me after a few days. Since my Apple Watch needs to be charged for overnight wear, I spend more time than I’d like being prepared for sleep tracking. During the setup process, the app asks if you want to enable Quick Gestures, a new feature that lets you control the Nest Hub with hand motions instead of having to actually touch it. With Quick Gestures enabled, you can simply wave your hand in front of the display to snooze your morning alarm.
Unlike most of the other smart displays, the Nest Hub doesn't have a camera, which might be a negative for some, but privacy-minded folks will appreciate its absence. Otherwise, it offers all the same features as the other smart displays for a reasonable price. The Google Nest Hub is a cute, useful gadget, and an even better value now than it was when it debuted. The Google Nest Hub Max is definitely worth it, as we think it’s one of the best smart displays on the market.
Another standout feature is being able to find recipes and follow their step-by-step instructions on screen, but you can also benefit from seeing countdown timers, calculations, translations and to-do lists on screen. Sadly, though, although the Home Hub boasts that it can play live TV, I was disappointed to see this only works via YouTube. There’s also a kill switch on the back of the Hub Max, but in addition to turning the camera off, it also cuts the audio, so you won’t be able to give it voice commands. Overall, the Hub Max boasts good sound quality, the display is vibrant and responsive, and the design is sleek and modern, lending itself to any style of home décor. Like the previous model, the new Nest Hub is also capable of controlling many of your smart home devices.
Alternatively, the Google Max remains the best-sounding of Google’s own smart speakers. Indeed, when looking at it square-on, you can only really see the Home Hub’s display and not the slightly odd-shaped speaker behind it, making it look like any other small digital photo frame. For example, if you cough frequently throughout the night, your Nest Hub might suggest it's allergen-related and recommend it's time to get new bedding. It can encourage certain environmental changes based on smart home devices, such as evening lighting, lower thermostat temperatures or ambient sounds, too. I had trouble getting to sleep for a few nights in a row, so I took my Nest Hub’s suggestion of a thunderstorm noise soundtrack.
But, while its small stature might have you concerned, it’s a surprisingly well-built product. It feels sturdily made and while the screen could break if something heavy came in contact with it, we felt more than safe with it sitting on our kitchen shelves and dining room table. Because there are a lot of similarities, the Google Home Hub is a device we almost feel like we’ve used before. For example, it has the auto-updating Google Photos gallery and Home View, which shows your entire smart home at a glance and adds Google's touch to things. I'm thankful I finally stumbled on Hedley & Bennett, which makes a seemingly endless supply of thick, sturdy aprons I now can't fail to miss seeing seemingly any time I walk into a restaurant. If these aprons can handle the stresses of a professional kitchen, they can handle the flying sauces and batter in mine.
That is, when the data is accurate — one night, I accidentally placed a glass of water in front of my display, interfering with radar sensing. I also imagine that if I shared my bed with another human, my readings could be less accurate, although Google says this shouldn’t be a problem. But on most nights, my Apple Watch’s and the Google Nest Hub’s sleep duration readings fell within 10 minutes of each other, giving me confidence in contactless sleep tracking.
The Nest Hub's interface is intuitively organized and easy to navigate, with tabs at the top for Your Afternoon , Wellness, Home Control, Media, Communicate, Family, and Discover. Your Afternoon is a home screen from which you can access the weather, news, smart home controls, your previous night's sleep data, and other useful features based on the time of day. The Ambient EQ feature is undoubtedly why videos look so good on such a small screen, but it's at its best when the Nest Hub has a picture on display. All of these features are the same on all of the Google Assistant-equipped smart displays, and my favorite feature of both the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View has made its way intact to the Google Nest Hub. Search for a recipe by voice, or find one in your phone and send it to your display. Google Assistant will read the ingredients and directions out loud and you can see them listed on the screen.
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