(Pocket-lint) – Google’s second generation of its smallest Google Assistant speaker comes in the form of the Nest Mini.
The Nest Mini replaces the Google Home Mini, and while it looks very similar, there are a few differences and a few upgrades. Here’s how the Nest Mini compares to the Home Mini and what the differences are.
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What’s the same between the Nest Mini and Home Mini?
Design
Features
Price
The Google Nest Mini and Home Mini share the same cute puck-like design and they offer the same dimensions too. They are both circular with a material covering and they both feature LED lights at the top, which light up when Google Assistant is activated.
The two devices also offer the same main features in that they both offer Google Assistant built-in, like the other Google Home devices and Nest Hub devices, allowing you play music, control smart home devices and ask Google pretty much any question you want an answer to, whether that be what the weather is like, what your calendar is like for that day or how old Einstein was when he died.
The launch price was also the same between the Home Mini and the Nest Mini with both costing $49/£49, though you might struggle to get your hands on the Home Mini now.
What’s different between the Nest Mini and Home Mini?
There would be little point in releasing a second generation model if there were no improvements, so unsurprisingly, the Nest Mini offers some upgrades to the Home Mini.
Design
Nest Mini: Built-in screw mount, more sustainable
Home Mini: Accessory required for wall-mounting
While the main design between the Google Home Mini and the Nest Mini is the same, the Nest Mini adds a screw mount on the rear, allowing the device to be wall hung.
This makes the Nest Mini much more flexible when it comes to placement, given the wall-hung option is built-in rather than requiring an additional accessory, like the Home Mini.
Additionally, the Nest Mini is more sustainable than the Home Mini, made from 35 per cent recycled plastic, while the fabric is made from recycled bottles.
Home Mini: Tap volume controls, physical microphone mute button
The Google Home Mini has a physical microphone mute button and it’s also possible to control the volume with a tap on each side of the device.
The Nest Mini meanwhile, also has a physical microphone mute button, but the volume tap controls are next to the LED lights on the top of the device and there’s an ultrasound detector built-in that lights up when your hand approaches, allowing you to tap to pause too.
Sound
Nest Mini: 40mm driver, 360-degree sound
Home Mini: 40mm driver
The Google Home Mini is a great little device for an entry point into Google Home and Nest speakers, but its sound quality isn’t as good as the other devices in the range. Fine for background music and for answering your questions, but not necessarily a device you’d use to listen to music day-in-day-out.
The Nest Mini meanwhile, has an improved hardware platform and 40 per cent better bass response compared to the Home Mini.
Features and hardware
Nest Mini: Three microphones
Home Mini: Two microphones
Along with sound improvements, the Nest Mini adds a third microphone compared to the Home Mini. It enables the second generation model to respond to voice better and faster than the original model.
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Conclusion
The Google Nest Mini retains the cute, compact design of the Home Mini that we know and love, but it makes it more sustainable, whilst adding the convenience of a built-in wall mount.
The second-gen device also improves the sound quality, adds more on-device control and adds an extra microphone for better voice response, whilst retaining the same price.
The Nest Mini is a no brainer over the Home Mini if you are choosing between the two. If you are considering an upgrade, you’ll get some good improvements over your Home Mini, but it’s probably worth considering the Nest Mini as an extra Google Assistant device in your home, rather than a replacement to the Home Mini as the Home Mini is still great.
Voice control isn’t the sole preserve of wireless smart speakers, you know. Barking “Alexa, open Just Eat” at your Echo Dot (or other Alexa speaker), or “Hey Google, what’s in my calendar for today” to your Google Assistant speaker just for the joy of hearing that your schedule is clear, is now commonplace. But using spoken word to command the main music system in your home – your serious, great-sounding hi-fi setup – may not seem so natural. It may be a jump many audio enthusiasts are reluctant to take, even. But give this a moment’s thought, music lover, because verbal control over your hi-fi might be just what your household needs.
Here, we explain the various ways in which you can have voice control as part of a hi-fi system, whether you are keen to use Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant or Apple’s Siri platforms, and whether you want to bring your a traditional ‘dumb’ system into 2021 or are looking to invest in a new set-up with virtual voice assistance at its core…
(Image credit: Amazon)
Add voice control by connecting a smart speaker
One of the easiest routes to giving your vintage hi-fi system a voice is by connecting an external smart speaker to it.
Add Alexa The Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker comes with its own built-in driver under its little spherical fabric jackets, but you can beef up its audio by making it play through the speakers in your sound system instead. (Amazon launched a speaker-less Echo Input device a few years ago for this very purpose, but it’s now been discontinued.) This may be handy, but note that audio quality will be limited here.
The Echo Dot offers wired and wireless connectivity, and will work with just about any integrated amp, receiver, soundbar or pair of active speakers with a 3.5mm aux input or Bluetooth connection. With either connection, all of the audio – including Alexa’s verbal answers – will play through the connected speakers in your system.
The diminutive, cheap and cheerful Amazon Echo Dot has a 3.5mm output, which means you can wire it to any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input. Alternatively, it features built-in Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) Bluetooth, meaning you can connect it wirelessly to any Bluetooth-enabled receiver, speaker or soundbar.
Best Alexa speakers 2021
Add Google Assistant Want Google Assistant to run the show instead? Similarly, you can pair a Google Nest Mini* (Google’s version of the Echo Dot) over Bluetooth for voice commands and music to play through your Bluetooth-toting system. However, it does not have a 3.5mm output.
*Older Google smart speakers, such as the Home Mini, can also do this.
Best Google Assistant speakers 2021
How about hi-fi with Alexa or Google Assistant integrated?
As we’ve explained, almost any receiver, integrated amp or powered speaker with a 3.5mm input or Bluetooth connection will essentially ‘work’ with Alexa (or Google Assistant, for that matter), if you’ve already got an Alexa- (or Google-) powered device to physically or wirelessly connect it to.
Products with Alexa and*/or Google Assistant baked in, however, do not require you to already own and connect a third-party smart device. These products – ‘smart’ themselves – have integrated microphones to pick up your commands, and run Amazon’s voice software internally, rather than simply being able to work with the technology. These are, for now, more or less limited to wireless ‘smart’ speakers, though.
*Some wireless speakers are platform agnostic and support both Alexa and Google Assistant, such as the Sonos One.
How about the Amazon Echo Link/Amp or Sonos Amp?
(Image credit: Sonos)
If it’s an Amazon Echo device, that means Alexa must be built in, right? Wrong. The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp – Amazon’s music streamer and music streaming amplifier respectively – don’t have integrated microphones so still need a third-party Alexa device, such as an Echo Dot, connected to be obey commands and be part of voice-controlled music groups throughout your home.
Similarly, the Sonos Amp – which you may well think would be voice controllable – doesn’t have an in-built microphone for voice control. It will, however, respond to voice commands issued to connected Alexa-, Google- and Siri-powered devices, including, naturally, the Sonos One.
Sonos: everything you need to know
Multi-room hi-fi platforms with Alexa support
If you’ve yet to buy a hi-fi system and want to get one that puts voice assistant friendliness at its core, there are now several hi-fi and home cinema components that have Alexa-friendly multi-room platforms built in. These include those based on Yamaha’s MusicCast, HEOS by Denon, and BluOS, all of which offer an enhanced Alexa experience when a third-party Alexa device (like an Amazon Echo) is connected to them through specific Alexa ‘skills’.
MusicCast MusicCast is a wireless multi-room audio system built into several Yamaha AV receivers, soundbars and wireless speakers. It allows these devices to be connected together through your home wi-fi network and controlled by an app on your smartphone or tablet. By adding Alexa through a third-party Alexa speaker, you can kick back on the sofa and simply ask for music on your MusicCast AV receiver.
In case you didn’t know, Alexa provides capabilities (called ‘Alexa Skills’) that enable us to create a more personalised experience according to the kit we own, which can be downloaded from the Alexa Skills store, or simply by saying “Alexa, enable [skill name].” Since said skills are cloud-based, they don’t take up space on your device, so there’s no limit to the amount you can enable. There are two Alexa skills that work with MusicCast: the MusicCast Smart Home skill and the MusicCast skill.
The MusicCast Smart Home skill brings standard Alexa commands such as power on/off, volume control and play/pause/skip to the party. To turn on the AV receiver in your living room, you just say, “Alexa, turn on the Living Room.”
The MusicCast skill goes beyond the basics, giving you control of unique MusicCast functions, like linking/unlinking rooms and direct access to playlists and favourites. In order to access the MusicCast skills, you need to add “ask MusicCast to” after the “Alexa” wake word (or whatever your wake word is): for example, “Alexa, ask MusicCast to link the Living Room to the Kitchen.”
(Image credit: Future)
BluOS
An operating system developed by NAD Electronics and its sister brand Bluesound, BluOS sits at the core of connected products from those two brands, plus Dali and Monitor Audio.
To add Alexa voice control to your BluOS multi-room system, simply download the BluOS Voice Control skill in the Alexa app and link your BluOS-enabled products. You can then tell Alexa to play songs or playlists from subscribed services like Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer, adjust volume levels or pause what’s playing with a single voice command.
BluVoice is the voice-control interface (or trigger word) that acts as the intermediary between BluOS and a compatible voice assistant, so BluOS owners can ask their Echo device: “Alexa, ask BluVoice to play new songs on Tidal”.
DTS Play-Fi Similarly, to use Alexa with DTS Play-Fi hi-fi products, you’ll need to ask a connected Alexa-supporting speaker to play music, which it can then do across the rest of your compatible Play-Fi products.
HEOS When it comes to the HEOS platform, we’d point you towards the What Hi-Fi? 2020 Award-winning Denon AVC-X3700H (above). It’s an 8K-ready home cinema amplifier, but those intending to use it for music playback can also take advantage of the AVC-X3700H’s hi-res audio decoding of files up to 24bit/192kHz and double-speed DSD. Most importantly – in regards to voice control, at least – there’s a HEOS Home Entertainment skill to enable in the Alexa app, which means you can control all of your HEOS-enabled devices by conversing with Alexa through.
HEOS-based Denon and Marantz kit that supports AirPlay 2 can also benefit from Siri voice control when controlled by an iOS (iOS 11.4 and later) device, too. Which leads us to…
Can I voice control my system using Siri?
In a word, yes – as long as something in your system supports AirPlay 2.
While Apple’s Siri voice assistant is integrated into the Apple HomePod or HomePod Mini smart speakers, other speakers (such as the Sonos One) and streaming systems (such as the Bluesound Powernode 2i and KEF LSX) rely on AirPlay 2’s connection to your iOS device to speak to Siri. You simply have to Open the Apple Home App on your iPhone or iPad and select ‘Add Accessory’ to add, group and then voice control your device over Siri.
However, Siri’s usefulness is more limited than Alexa’s and Google Assistant’s, only allowing you to directly ask to play music that’s either on Apple Music or stored locally on your iOS device. You can ask to play from Spotify too, but you’ll need to say “on Spotify” after your request.
MORE:
See our pick of the best smart speakers 2021
Or the best multi-room systems 2021
Starting from scratch? Read up on the best hi-fi systems 2021
Whether you’ve fully committed to the smart home ecosystem or are just dabbling in the space for the first time, picking up a smart speaker is a no-brainer for most people. If you haven’t yet grabbed an Amazon or Google smart speaker, however, Adorama is taking $31 off the Google Nest Mini as part of its latest flash sale through Sunday, May 9th. Simply use the promo code EXTRAOFF11 at checkout to knock an additional $11 off the listed sale price and receive free shipping.
Like its predecessor, the Google Nest Mini offers a range of voice-activated features, only with bolder sound, capacitive touch zones, and an improved design that allows you to hang the device on your wall. At the core of the fabric-lined puck is Google Assistant, which allows you quickly set reminders, stream music, control your smart lights, and carry out a range of other tasks with nothing more than a quick “Hey, Google.”
The sound isn’t as robust as, say, the Google Nest Audio, but this marks the lowest price we’ve seen on the Nest Mini this year. It’s even available in two colors, chalk or charcoal.
Google Nest Mini
Google Nest Mini
$19
$49
62% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Nest Mini is Google’s smallest Assistant smart speaker, and it can fit almost anywhere in your home. Through Sunday, May 9th, Adorama is offering an additional $11 off the sale price at checkout with promo code EXTRAOFF11.
$19
at Adorama
If you’re looking for additional Mother’s Day gift ideas — and don’t mind opting for in-store pickup — we’ve also rounded up a set of eclectic ideas, from bath balms and AirPods to a classic pair of sandals.
Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), the awkwardly-named-but-interesting smart home partnership between Apple, Amazon, Google, and over 170 other companies that’s supposed to make everything more compatible should finally start showing some results later this year. According to a webinar hosted by the Zigbee Alliance earlier this week, companies participating in the program will be able to get smart home devices certified for the standard by late 2021, which means we might see some things on shelves for the holiday shopping season. That first wave of devices will include things like lighting, blinds, HVAC controls, TVs, door locks, garage door openers, security systems, and Wi-Fi routers.
The CHIP standard is built around three technologies: Bluetooth LE for setup, WiFi for high-bandwidth use cases, like streaming video from a security camera, and the still-nascent Thread mesh network protocol for low-bandwidth devices such as motion sensors. (Thread has been a work in progress for a while, but it’s now on the Apple HomePod Mini, the newest Google Nest Hub, and Eero routers, so maybe it’s finally going to happen.)
Manufacturers will be able to bring CHIP support to older products through bridges, as well, so there’s a chance that devices you already own might work with CHIP products in the future.
The program, which was first announced back at the end of 2019, has had some delays due to the pandemic. It was originally supposed to have products within the CHIP standard by the end of 2020, but then the group announced last September that we wouldn’t see anything until sometime in 2021. That time apparently is the end of 2021, so it’s very possible this launch could slip even further into 2022.
The goal of CHIP is to offer a unified standard for smart home products so that customers don’t have to worry if a device they buy will work with the other devices they already own. Its technologies replace older smart home protocols such as Zigbee and Z-Wave and are designed to work with whatever voice assistant you prefer. Of course, a new standard isn’t a guarantee to solve any confusion, and it’s very possible that the CHIP program will just add yet another option to the list of standards already out there.
Stacey Higgenbotham at Stacey On IOT has a deep dive on all the announcements made by the Zigbee Alliance this week, including how it plans to improve smart home security through… the blockchain, so I suggest reading her analysis for more on the subject.
Amazon’s bringing Zoom compatibility to more devices. The company announced today that it’s making the Echo Show 10 devices in the US compatible with the popular video calling software. Users who have their calendars linked up to the Alexa will have their meetings started automatically while people who haven’t done that can say, “Alexa, join my meeting” or “Alexa, join my Zoom meeting” to join one. This is the second Echo Show to gain Zoom access; the Echo Show 8 started supporting the videoconferencing platform in the US in December.
The Echo Show 10’s camera tracks users as they move throughout a room, meaning callers can see the screen no matter where they sit or stand. Presumably, this functionality will work with Zoom, putting it on par with other competitor devices like the Facebook Portal and Google Nest. Google pulls Zoom meetings from users’ calendars while Facebook allows its Portal camera to track users around the room so that they’re always in frame, just like it does with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp calls.
Although people might start commuting into the office more frequently, Zoom and other videoconferencing software will likely remain a standard for many workplace meetings, especially as workers shift to working from home more frequently.
Google is killing off its dedicated Google Wifi app for managing its routers, rolling that functionality over to the Google Home app as the company continues to “help our customers control and manage all their connected products in one place and enable routines across them.”
The switchover to the Google Home app will come in two phases: first, Google will disable most of the functionality of the Google Wifi app on May 25th. Starting then, users will only be able to view the current status of their networks — but any changes, including adding new routers or access points — will have to be done in the Google Home app.
Then, sometime in June, Google will remove the Wifi app from the Play Store and iOS App Store, funneling all users to exclusively use the Google Home app. (It’ll also stop supporting the old app at that time for existing users, too.)
Google points out that migrating existing Wifi setups to the Google Home app will offer some new benefits, including the ability to use Google Assistant for things like pausing the Wi-Fi connection, testing your current internet speed, and (in a neat bit of product synergy) showing a guest Wi-Fi password on a Google Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max display.
Migrating a network setup seems to be a relatively simple process, although Google’s how-to warns it’s a one-way street: once you switch over to the Google Home app, you can’t go back.
Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.
This week, Nilay and Dieter talk with Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert about this week’s rumors about the next big Apple product announcements after invites were sent out for the company’s annual WWDC event, which will again be virtual-only. After more AR headset leaks, the crew also discusses whether Apple has the bandwidth to support all of its product categories, especially with the Apple TV left alone for some time.
Later in the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman joins to discuss her coverage of social audio platform Clubhouse. Recently, we’ve seen a rise in potential competition in the social audio space from already-established platforms like LinkedIn, Slack, and Spotify. Ashley analyzes whether there is a winner-takes-all scenario or a more segmented space dedicated to genres of content.
There’s a whole lot more in the show — like Dieter’s explanation of the “cookiepocalypse” brought by Google Chrome’s changes to ad tracking on the browser — so listen to the full discussion here or on your preferred podcast player to hear it all.
Further reading:
Real-world evidence shows that the COVID-19 vaccines work
Biden administration looks to organize ‘vaccine passport’ development
Apple Maps will show COVID-19 travel guidances so you know what to expect at the airport
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine highly effective in adolescents
Amazon gets FDA authorization for an at-home COVID-19 test kit
Errors ruin 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine
Apple WWDC 2021 announced as online-only event
Apple Aiming to Announce Mixed-Reality Headset With In-Person Event in ‘Next Several Months’
Ming-Chi Kuo Says Apple’s AR/VR Headset Will Weigh Less Than 150 Grams
Apple reportedly plans revamped AirPods for as early as next year
New iPad Pros reportedly launching as soon as April, and the 12.9-inch model may have a Mini LED screen
Apple reportedly mulls rugged smartwatch coming as soon as this year
Casio announces first Wear OS smartwatch in iconic G-Shock lineup
Google Chrome FLoC: how it replaces cookies and what it means for privacy
T-Mobile is betting big on Google’s Android services: RCS, YouTube TV, Pixel, and more
T-Mobile is already shutting down its live TV service, partners with YouTube TV and Philo
Ring’s new $249.99 Video Doorbell Pro 2 is the best video doorbell yet from a company that has nearly become a household name for video doorbells. It has an excellent field of view and video quality; plenty of customizable features for notifications and recording zones; and speedy performance, whether that’s sending alerts to your phone or smart speaker when someone rings the bell or pulling up the live feed from the Ring app on a phone. If you can tolerate the price tag, are able to install a wired doorbell at your door, and aren’t put off by Ring’s Neighbors app or police partnerships (both of which you can opt out of), the Video Doorbell Pro 2 is one of the best video doorbells you can get right now.
The new Video Doorbell Pro 2 is Ring’s top-of-the-line model, replacing the original Video Doorbell Pro from 2017. Unlike Ring’s other doorbells, the Pro 2 does not have a battery option; you have to have wiring running to it for power. But because it doesn’t have to house a battery, the Pro 2 is much smaller than Ring’s battery-powered options and has faster response times when you want to pull up the feed on your phone or an Echo Show smart display. It also can work with an existing doorbell chime in your home if you have one.
Despite its higher-than-average price tag, the Pro 2 doesn’t really look all that much more premium than other Ring models. The housing is made entirely of plastic, and there’s a big Ring logo stamped on the bottom. If sleek design is what you’re after, Google’s Nest Hello or the Logitech Circle View Doorbell are better choices.
Ring has added a number of new features this time around, but the most significant change is how the Video Doorbell Pro 2 captures video clips. Unlike the prior model and every other Ring doorbell before it, the Pro 2 shoots 1536 x 1536-pixel square video, which lets you see visitors from top to bottom. It also makes it much easier to see if packages have been left at your doorstep because you can see the ground right in front of the doorbell.
On my doorway, the Pro 2’s wide and tall field of view was able to let me see the entirety of my small porch much better than the older 16:9 format Ring doorbells or others that have a tall but not as wide aspect ratio, like Logitech’s Circle View Doorbell. The Pro 2 captures a sharp and detailed image, complete with HDR for balancing bright skies and visitors’ faces. It also has a dedicated infrared night mode that will come on automatically if the light levels are low enough. The porch light I have at my doorway was sufficient enough to keep the Pro 2 in normal video mode, so I was able to have full-color video captures at night without blinding visitors with a light on the doorbell itself like what happens with the Circle View Doorbell.
Thanks to support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, pulling up the Pro 2’s video feed through the Ring app on my phone is a painless process that just takes a couple of seconds. Likewise, asking an Echo Show to display the feed is quick and easy. The Echo Show and Fire TV devices will even automatically display the feed from the camera whenever the doorbell is rung. Older video doorbells used to take an agonizing amount of time to show their video feeds. I’m glad to see this newest crop is much faster than before.
The Pro 2 also has a new “3D Motion Detection” feature that lets you see the movements of someone on your property even if they are out of frame of the camera. The name oversells what this is doing a bit: the app will show a top-down view of movements represented as colored dots on the map of your home overlaid over the recorded video clip. It’s designed to let you see where someone has been on your property before they show up on the primary camera. But the range for this feature is limited to only 30 feet — that’s about enough to reach a third of the way down my driveway — and while it’s a neat demo of technology, I didn’t find much utility in it.
The Video Doorbell Pro 2 shows more of my front porch than other doorbells. The new 3D Motion Detection feature provides the bird’s-eye view of movement on my property, seen in the right image.
The other thing I didn’t find much use for is the Alexa Greetings feature, which lets you have Alexa answer the door through the Ring doorbell if you don’t get to it within a set amount of time.
There are two reasons I didn’t really like this feature. One is since we’re still spending the majority of our time home due to the pandemic, I don’t really need someone else to answer the door for me — I’m always there. The other is the idea of having Amazon’s Alexa robot speak to a visitor in my place. Alexa can ask couriers to leave a package in a particular place you specify or record a message from other visitors that will be sent to your phone. In my tests, it works like a typical Alexa interaction, with a slight delay between each prompt.
But in general, it feels a bit off-putting and rude to force visitors to interact with an unexpected robot. I feel the same way about using the two-way audio to talk to someone at the door through my phone. While there may certainly be great accessibility use cases for these features, they weren’t helpful for me, and I left them turned off. I think basic package detection and notifications, which other doorbells offer, would be more useful, but Ring doesn’t have any features like that.
The Alexa responses feature requires a subscription to Ring’s Protect plan, which starts at $3 per month and enables other features such as a six-second pre-roll recording for motion alerts, the option to only get alerted when a person is detected, video history for up to 60 days, and the ability to save and share clips. You can use the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 without paying for this subscription, but you’ll be limited to motion alerts, live view, two-way talking, and six preset responses if you’re not home. Neither one of Ring’s plans, paid or free, offers continuous 24/7 recording. If that’s something you want, Google’s Nest Hello is a better choice.
The Video Doorbell Pro 2 has a traditional grayscale infrared night mode (right), but if you have enough light, it will fall back to its color feed at night (left).
Since Ring is an Amazon company, the Pro 2 works best and offers the most utility if you have Amazon Echo speakers or smart displays. In addition to the ability to automatically show the feed when the bell is pressed, you can have Echo speakers announce when someone’s at the door so you never miss a visitor. This feature isn’t available with Google Nest smart speakers or displays; again, the Nest Hello would be a better choice if you’re running a Google smart home. (Likewise, if you’re running an Apple HomeKit smart home, the Logitech Circle View Doorbell is a better choice.)
Lastly, I can’t cover a Ring product without mentioning its controversial Neighbors app and police partnerships. The Neighbors app is a separate app that collates crime and safety reports from other Ring owners in your neighborhood. By default, the Neighbors feed is integrated into the Ring app, allowing you to see other posts and share video clips from your camera.
Similarly, the Public Safety feature allows police and other public service agencies to request video clips from your camera to aid in solving crimes. You then have the option to approve or deny the request.
Ring has made it easier to manage these features. Both of them are controlled in the app’s Control Center section, where you can disable the Neighbors feed and block public agencies from requesting clips from your video camera. You can also enable end-to-end encryption, which will disable these features and limit the ability to share video clips with others. But I wish Ring would go even further and disable both of them by default, letting owners decide if they want to opt in or not during setup.
Ring’s portfolio of video doorbells has grown significantly over the past couple of years, and it can be confusing to figure out which one is right for your needs. The Pro 2’s pitch is simple: this is the best video doorbell camera Ring sells, provided you have the ability to hook it up to existing doorbell wiring or run new wiring to it. If you want the best performance and are in Amazon’s Echo ecosystem, the Pro 2 is the doorbell to get.
As vehicles are increasingly defined by their digital features, tech companies are seeking out ever-closer partnerships with carmakers. A new collaboration between Google and Fiat, though, is the most extreme we’ve seen yet.
Three new special edition Fiat 500s — the Fiat 500, 500X crossover, and 500L MPV — have been branded with Google livery that extends from using the tech giant’s corporate colors in the cars’ seat upholstery to placing “Hey Google” badges above their front wheel arches. Having this sort of branding inside a car is not unusual, but this is the first time we’ve seen a tech company’s logo appear on a vehicle’s exterior.
A press release from the Italian automaker (translated by Google, of course) boasts that the vehicles demonstrate “where Google technology meets coolness” and offer “the perfect mix of iconic design, freshness and coolness”(yes, they keep on italicizing coolness for some reason). You’ll have to be the judge of that, though:
All three vehicles come with 7-inch touchscreens with Google Assistant built in, naturally, but offer some unique features thanks to integration with Fiat’s Mopar Connect service.
These will let users monitor and control certain aspects of their car remotely through Google’s digital assistant on their phone or Google Nest Hub. They can check on the car’s fuel level, see if it’s locked, switch on its emergency lights, or even find the closest Fiat service station. Alerts can also be sent to the owner if the car exceeds a certain speed or leaves a certain geographic area. (Though not all these features will be available globally.)
Owners can use Google Assistant and Fiat’s Mopar Connect service to control the car remotely. Image: Google
The real flair in this partnership, though, comes from the design changes to the Fiat. We’ve already noted the Google upholstery and exterior badges, but even the car’s B-pillars match the company’s colors and tags on the seats are branded with the Hey Google logo. According to Motoring Research, the cars also come with a Google goodie bag, which includes a Google Hub, branded tote bag, and matching key cover.
The new Fiat 500s will be available in 10 European nations, including the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland. According to AutoExpress, prices in the UK start at £16,005 ($22,046) for the hatchback and £18,655 ($25,695) for the cabriolet.
If you’re dying for more information, you can also watch this 20 minute segment from Fiat unveiling the cars:
(Pocket-lint) – The Google Nest Hub (second gen) updates Google’s first smart display, which originally launched as the Google Home Hub.
Sporting a 7-inch display, it rivals Amazon’s Echo Show models, looking to bring a visual experience to Google Assistant, and slot the Mountain View company into the centre of your home.
This time around, however, Google has eyes on your bedroom.
Design and build
120.4 x 177.4 x 69.5mm, 558g
Four colours
Floating display design
Glance and you’ll miss it. The design of the second-gen Nest Hub is essentially the same as the old, but there are some minor differences on the spec sheet – not that you’ll really spot that from across the room.
The new Nest Hub remains a cute smart display and we’ve always liked this design. It fits in with the mesh covered designs we’ve seen from other Google devices over the past few years, using safe fabric colours to help it blend into your home décor.
Pocket-lint
It’s a 7-inch display, so not huge – but glance at the offering from Amazon and you’ll find it sandwiched by the likes of the Echo Show 5 and the Echo Show 8, although we do think it looks a little more sophisticated.
There’s some bezel to the display – now incorporating a range of expanded sensors and mics – while there’s a volume rocker on the rear right and a physical mute switch on the centre rear, within easy reach.
It’s still a great looking device and while some might think that a 7-inch display is too big to have on your bedside table, that’s exactly where Google wants you to put it.
Setup and introducing sleep sensing
Google Home app
Sleep tracking calibration
Setting up the Nest Hub is easy. You’ll need to have the Google Home app on your smartphone, as this serves to control the device and gets setup underway. Once plugged in, it’s a few simple steps to get the Nest Hub up and running – the important part being connecting to your Wi-Fi and logging in with your Google account.
If you’ve used any Google devices before, this will now be familiar – and like Amazon’s Echo devices, signing in gets Google Assistant ready and so you’re quickly connected with everything that you have setup without Assistant already.
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That’s great, because it means that all your connected smart home devices will now work from your Nest Hub, if you have Voice Match in Google Assistant active then it will know who you are and tailor results to you, so you’re good to go.
That would be just about it for a regular Google device, but sleep sensing brings with it some additional requirement: calibration.
Sleep sensing on the Nest Hub uses a range of sensors, including temperature, light, sound and the Soli radar chip we previously saw in the Pixel 4 phones. Together, these sensors will be able to give you a complete picture of how you slept and the conditions you were sleeping it.
But first and foremost you need to make sure that the Soli radar will be able to see you. It sends out low power short-range electromagnetic waves allowing it to detect motion. It’s important to understand that it’s not using cameras for this, so it’s not visually spying on your while you’re asleep.
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This means that positioning is important and there’s a calibration process you’ll have to run through to get the Nest Hub in the right position so it will work. It doesn’t take long and all you have to do is basically lie in bed with the device on your bedside table and it will do its stuff. If it’s in the wrong position, it will ask you to adjust it.
There’s a few things you need to know here: firstly, it needs to be focused towards your upper body and secondly, it actually needs to be about level with you. If it’s too low, it won’t be able to detect anything because it’s looking at the side of the bed, so it’s no good putting it on the floor or on a bookcase a metre higher than you.
For most, it should be simple and within a few minutes it was all setup – but you have to remember you can’t then move it too much and you can’t put things in front of it, like a glass of water, because you’ll block the view.
Sleep tracking and bedside performance
Sensors to detect sleep
Personalised sleep summary
Syncing to Google Fit
Using all the sensors, the Nest Hub gathers data and, using an algorithm, can understand what’s going on.
From this data it can tell when you get into bed, when you go to sleep, when you’re disturbed during the night and when you get up. It also knows when you’re awake but lounging in bed refusing to get up.
This is the first converged device to offer sleep tracking that doesn’t require any physical touch. We’ve seen and used sleep tracking from the likes of Apple, Fitbit and Garmin where you need to wear a watch. We’ve used systems like ResMed SleepScore and Withings Sleep Analyzer – but the Nest Hub is likely to be more popular.
The problem with wearing something is that it can disturb you as you move around – and you’re sweating into it all day and all night. The problem with some of the other detection devices is that they only do one thing – whereas Nest Hub is your familiar Google-based smart display and your sleep tracking buddy.
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We’ve been sleeping with the Nest Hub over the last week and found the sleep tracking to be pretty accurate. But first of all, there’s no need to be concerned about having a 7-inch LCD display next to the bed – it dims really well so it’s not glowing at the side of the bed and keeping you awake.
Detection on getting into bed appears to happen at any point that you get into bed. Come back from a run and flop onto the bed while you check your Strava stats and you’ll see the on-screen notification telling you that it has detected you.
But the Nest Hub is smart enough to figure out what’s happening when. Because there’s processing to be done there are moments when you’ll be told that it’s processing – for example when you wake up. That’s mostly because it’s waiting to see when you leave bed so that it can report on how long it took you to get up and so on.
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Data is available to tap though on the display in the morning or you can ask Google Assistant. The results also sync to Google Fit so you can examine them on your phone, but again, these will vary and might change slightly depending on when you look at Google Fit and how that corresponds with any processing that the Nest Hub is doing.
The results are interesting and certainly accurate, but there’s no breakdown of heavy or light sleep like you’ll get from Fitbit. It also won’t think you’re asleep on the sofa when you’re watching a movie like Garmin sometimes does, but there are limits.
For example, on a disturbed night, you might try to sleep, then do some reading, toss and turn a bit and as a last resort, attempt to get to sleep by putting yourself into a meditative state. Anyone reading who suffers from insomnia will know what it’s like to clear your mind, calm your breathing and just lie still, hoping that you’ll get to sleep – and it’s here that Google thinks you are asleep, when you’re not.
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Otherwise, on normal sleeping days, we’ve found the reports to be accurate, detecting those middle of the night toilet breaks, and knowing when you’ve woken up earlier than you wanted to. It also detects snoring and coughing, which can be a bit thing that disturbs sleep.
Google’s analysis then attempts to give you feedback to improve your habits. For us, our average sleep time has been a little short and the Nest Hub tells us that we’re sometimes going to bed too early and staying in bed awake when we should be getting up in the morning. It’s trying to establish a better routine.
It all makes sense too: those days where we’re told sleep is “fairly restful” we’re awaking feeling refreshed; on the days when it’s been “restless”, we can feel that too. The thing is, we don’t need telling that. Whether this information is useful will be a personal decision.
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What Google doesn’t seem to be doing is putting this into context with anything else. There’s no relationship between sleeping and activity like you get from Garmin’s Body Battery. It’s also unclear what you might have to pay for this data in the future.
That’s right – it’s a free preview through to the end of 2021, but then Google says: “After the preview ends, paid subscription may be required.” Currently we don’t know what that cost might be. We also don’t know how this data might integrate with Fitbit, but Google has said it’s looking at how that might work.
Of course, if everything above fills you with horror, it’s an opt-in service. You don’t have to have sleep tracking at all.
Display, interface and sound quality
7-inch 1024 x 600 pixels
3 mics, 1.7-inch speaker driver
Google Assistant
There’s a 7-inch display on the front of the Nest Hub, with a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. That’s not hugely high in terms of resolution, but we’ve nothing to complain about when it comes to quality.
There’s a visually engaging interface presented by Google and we think it’s better than Amazon’s equivalent on the Echo Show models: it just looks and feels a little more useful. Much of that comes down to the fact that Google has more information to pull in to serve you content you like, like relevant news.
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You can swipe through the screens to access various sections – wellness, home control, media, communication, including the discover section. The media option will already be connected to your Spotify account (if you’ve linked the two) while YouTube is front and centre.
Google can also take advantage of Chromecast support, allowing you to cast content to the Nest Hub too – so it can be a little more dynamic than Amazon’s device.
Google Assistant remains as smart as ever and has progressive developed over the past few years. We’ve one criticism and that’s the hiss that accompanies spoken replies. That was detectable on the Nest Audio too – something that Google really should fix to increase the overall offering – it’s not something that Alexa does.
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Of the two, we’d say that Google is a little smarter, often being able to give smarter replies, but there are some services better optimised for Echo devices – like requesting the BBC news: it’s just better when Alexa serves that up.
When it comes to speaker quality, the Nest Hub has a single 1.7-inch driver. It has boosted bass over the previous version for a richer overall sound and we think it’s great as a bedside unit, perhaps a little weak if you’re planning to use it as a main speaker in a room – you’d want the Nest Hub Max for that instead.
Comparing that to Alexa briefly and the Echo Show 8 – slightly larger than this model – does have a bigger sound too. The smallest Echo Show 5 also has a 1.7-inch driver, giving you an idea of how these devices compare.
Smart home and expanded functions
Thread, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
Chromecast built in
There’s no camera by design on the Nest Hub and Google had to opportunity to put one on this refreshed version and decided not to. For some people that will be a major downside, for others, a significant advantage.
There are a range of other connectivity technologies however and we’ve covered most already – Wi-Fi for the connection to the internet, Chromecast via the same route, Bluetooth to use your Nest Hub as a speaker or to connect it to a Bluetooth speaker.
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Then there’s Thread. Thread is a relatively new wireless smart home protocol which works on a mesh network. The Nest Hub can be part of a Thread system, just as the Apple HomePod Mini can be – very much working in the same was a Zigbee on the Echo models.
As this is a technology that’s just starting to establish itself, we haven’t tested it. We did test the Nest Hub with the wider set of smart home devices we’ve already linked to Google Assistant via the Home app and found no problems – and in the future, if you are buying Thread-equipped devices, the idea will be that you can control those directly from the Nest Hub without the need to a dedicated hub for whatever those devices are.
All in, the Nest Hub is still a super-connected device, able to play its part as the centre of your smart home, just as the name suggests.
Verdict
This new version of the Nest Hub only makes a couple of changes from the previous version: indeed, if you’re not interested in the sleep tracking, then you might be better off trying to find the older model at a discounted price, because you’re not missing out.
The sleep tracking adds a new dimension. As people are increasingly turning to technologies to track wellbeing, and sleep being a growing area. While the technology works, uncertainty about future subscription costs might give pause for though – or you might want to try it and cross that bridge in 2022.
Fundamentally, the Nest Hub 2021 is a good device. It’s connected, good quality, a refreshingly simple interface and offers the best voice assistant in the business. If you want your home to be smarter, this is a great place to start.
Alternatives to consider
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Lenovo Smart Clock
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The Lenovo is a compact bedside device that gives you all the advantages of Google Assistant in a small package.
Read the full Lenovo Smart Clock review
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Amazon Echo Show 8
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The Echo Show 8 is larger, but features a camera as well as the full skills of Alexa.
There’s a new Google Nest Hub smart speaker in town, and it comes with a boatload of upgraded abilities.
Such as? It’s louder, with a new design and faster processor. It can also track your sleep, but more on that later.
It looks nigh on identical to the previous Nest Hub, but now comes in a new light blue option to go with the light pink, light grey, and dark grey finishes. The bezel now sits flush to the screen, too.
A larger, 43.5mm diameter speaker claims to provide up to 50 percent more bass, while a third mic and on-device machine learning chip supposedly make it more responsive to voice commands.
It still bears a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen LCD with automatic ambient brightness and colour adjustment. But there’s no built-in camera, so for video calls, you’ll need the bigger, pricier, Nest Hub Max.
Now, onto its smarts. The headline feature in this regard is sleep tracking, which comes courtesy of Google’s Soli sensor technology. This measures your movement during the night to see how restless you were, even down to your breathing patterns. While it might not be as accurate or detailed as a wearable device, many people will prefer not having to wear a sensor.
You don’t have to tell it when you’re going to bed, either. Just head to Bedfordshire, and it does the rest. You can even configure it to avoid your bed partner, so it doesn’t confuse their movements with your own.
The Soli tech was previously seen in the Pixel 4 from 2019 and Google’s Nest Thermostat.
The new Nest Hub will go on sale on 30th March, and cost £89 ($99, AU$149).
(Pocket-lint) – Google offers the Nest Hub Max and second generation Nest Hub, as the two devices within its smart display portfolio. The second generation Nest Hub succeeds the older Nest Hub, formerly known as Google Home Hub, which you might find cheap now.
With a very similar design apart from physical size, how do Google’s two Nest Hub’s compare? Here are the similarities and differences. You can read how the old Nest Hub and new Nest Hub compare in our separate feature.
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What’s the same?
Design
Interface
Main features
The Google Nest Hub Max and the original and second generation Google Nest Hubs all feature the same design with a screen with white bezels that offers the appearance of floating on the speaker base. The second generation Nest Hub has an edgeless screen however, while the Nest Hub Max and Next Hub both have a lip at the edge of their displays.
A microphone on/off button is positioned at the top on the rear of the three devices – this button also turns the camera off on the Nest Hub Max – while volume controls are on the left on the rear.
The three devices feature the same interface and they offer many of the same features including smart home control, built-in Chromecast support, Google Assistant and its range of offerings, the ability to use them as a digital photo frame, as well as the ability to watch YouTube, Netflix and Disney+.
What’s different between the Nest Hub Max and the Nest Hub?
Despite offering a very similar design, interface and features, there are a few differences between the Google Nest Hub Max, the second generation Google Nest Hub and the original Nest Hub.
Display
Nest Hub Max: 10-inch, 16:10, HD, touchscreen
New Nest Hub/Nest Hub: 7-inch, LCD, touchscreen
The Google Nest Hub Max has a 10-inch touchscreen display, putting it in the same category as the Amazon Echo Show.
The Google Nest Hub and second generation Nest Hub meanwhile, have a smaller 7-inch touchscreen LCD display, falling into a similar category to the smaller Echo Show 8.
Size
Nest Hub Max: 250.1 x 182.55 x 101.23mm
New Nest Hub/Nest Hub: 178.5 x 118 x 67.3mm
As the Google Nest Hub Max has a larger display, it is unsurprisingly a larger device overall too.
The increase in size makes the Hub Max the better device for viewing content from across the room, while the second generation Nest Hub and original Nest Hub are better suited for a bedside table, for example.
Sound
Nest Hub Max: 2.1 speaker arrangement
New Nest Hub/Nest Hub: Full-range speaker
The larger footprint of the Google Nest Hub Max allows for a 2.1 speaker arrangement compared to the second generation Nest Hub and original Nest Hub’s full-range speaker.
It means you get bigger sound from the Nest Hub Max and while the sound of the Nest Hub Max doesn’t match that of speakers like the Sonos One, it is a big improvement on the Nest Hub. The second generation Nest Hub does offer 50 per cent more bass than the original Nest Hub though so its sound should be closer to the Hub Max.
Camera
Nest Hub Max: Built-in 6.5MP Nest camera
New Nest Hub/Nest Hub: No camera
The Google Nest Hub Max has a camera at the top of the display, which the second generation Nest Hub and original Nest Hub do not. In place of a camera, the second generation Nest Hub and original Nest Hub have an ambient sensor to adjust the display brightness according to its surroundings.
The camera on the Nest Hub Max is a Nest camera, which means it offers most of the same features as the Nest Cam IQ, including intruder alerts if you have a Nest Aware account. There are no familiar face alerts however, and no night vision, but the camera within the Nest Hub Max is still an excellent addition for those that want the advantage of a security camera too.
Without a Nest Aware account, you can still see what’s happening in the room you place the Nest Hub Max into, as well as use it for Google Duo video calls and Face Match for up to six people. It also allows for gestures like holding your hand up to pause or play audio, which is great in use.
Features
Nest Hub Max: Google Assistant, YouTube/Netflix/Disney+, Chromecast, smart home control, digital photo frame, music, Duo audio and video calls, gestures, Face Match, security camera
New Nest Hub: Google Assistant, YouTube/Netflix/Disney+, Chromecast, smart home control, digital photo frame, music, Duo audio calls, gestures, sleep tracking
Old Nest Hub: Google Assistant, YouTube/Netflix/Disney+, Chromecast, smart home control, digital photo frame, music, Duo audio calls
The Google Nest Hub Max, second generation Nest Hub and original Nest Hub offer many of the same features, including control of any compatible smart home devices, access to YouTube, Netflix and Disney+, displaying Google Photos, playing music, and the plethora of features offered by Google Assistant.
The Nest Hub Max has a couple of extra features thanks to that built-in Nest camera. You’ll not only be able to take part in Duo video calls but the Nest Hub Max doubles up as a security camera too, whilst also offering Face Match and gesture control, as we mentioned above.
The second generation Nest Hub also offers some additional features over the Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max however. It doesn’t have a camera, but it features Google’s Soli chip inside, which not only allows for Quick Gestures like the Nest Hub Max, but it also offers sleep tracking when placed on a bedside table. You can read more about the sleep tracking feature in our separate feature.
Price
Nest Hub Max: £219
New Nest Hub: £89.99
The Google Nest Hub Max usually costs £219 in the UK, but you get quite a lot for the extra £130 over the cost of the second generation Nest Hub.
The original Nest Hub was priced at £139 when it first launched, but its price then dropped to £79.99 in the UK. You’ll likely find it cheaper now the second generation Nest Hub has launched.
The second generation Nest Hub goes on sale for £89.99 in the UK. It is available to pre-order now.
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Colours
Nest Hub Max: Chalk and Charcoal
Nest Hub: Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua and Sand
New Nest Hub: Chalk, Charcoal, Mist and Sand
The Google Nest Hub Max is available in Chalk and Charcoal colours.
The original Google Nest Hub is available in four colours, including Chalk and Charcoal, as well as Aqua and Sand.
The second generation Nest Hub is available in four colours, including Chalk, Charcoal and Sand like the original, as well as Mist.
Conclusion
The Google Nest Hub Max is pretty much a larger, more expensive version of the 7-inch Nest Hub, but it adds a few extra, useful features for the increase in price. The second generation Nest Hub has some extra, but different features compared to the Nest Hub Max however.
The Nest Hub Max’s built-in camera not only offers video calling through Google Duo, but it doubles up as a great security camera, whilst also offering gesture control and Face Match for up to six people, both of which are excellent features.
The second generation Nest Hub meanwhile, has the Soli radar chip on board to also offer gesture controls like the Nest Hub Max, as well as sleep tracking when on a bedside table.
The decision between these devices will therefore likely come down to where you want to put your Google-made smart display, as well as what you want to use it for. For the bedroom, the smaller Nest Hub is perfect for a bedside table with sleep tracking an added bonus, whereas the Nest Hub Max is an excellent addition to a kitchen or living room.
(Pocket-lint) – Google has launched a second generation Nest Hub, which succeeds the three-year old Nest Hub and sits alongside the Nest Hub Max. The name stays the same – Nest Hub – though you’ll find it called new Nest Hub, Nest Hub second generation and Nest Hub 2 in this feature to help differentiate it from the older model.
We’ve put the specifications of the new Nest Hub against the old Nest Hub to see what has changed and what are the differences are.
Design and display
Old Nest Hub: 7-inch floating display, fabric-covered base, three colours
New Nest Hub: 7-inch floating display, fabric-covered base, four colours
The Google Nest Hub features a 7-inch floating display that sits on a fabric-covered speaker base. It measures 178.5 x 118 x 67.3mm and it weighs 480g.
At the top of the LCD touchscreen display is an Ambient EQ Light Sensor and far field microphones, while the back of the display features volume controls and a toggle to turn the microphone on or off. There’s also a power port.
The new Google Nest Hub has a very similar design to the Nest Hub, though it makes some refinements. There’s a floating display with a fabric-covered base, an Ambient EQ Light Sensor and far field microphones, but there isn’t a lip around the display on the new Hub, making for a more seamless finish.
You’ll find the volume controls and switch to turn off the microphone on the back though so as with the Nest Mini and Google Mini, it’s mainly internals that have changed from the original Hub, aside from some small changes.
The Nest Hub comes in Chalk and Charcoal colour options in the UK, as well as a Sand option in the US. The second generation Nest Hub is available in four options, comprising Chalk, Charcoal, Sand and Mist.
Hardware and specs
Nest Hub: Full-range speaker, two-mic array, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
The Google Nest Hub comes with a full-range speaker, along with a two microphone array. It offers both Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth 5.0 and it has Chromecast built-in and support for multi-room audio.
The second generation Google Nest Hub offers an improvement in audio quality, with Google claiming it delivers 50 per cent more bass than the original Nest Hub. It’s also thought to have moved to a three-microphone array, which should make for a better experience when using Google Assistant and puts it in line with the Nest Mini and Nest Audio.
The new Nest Hub also features Google’s Soli chip, which will be used for sleep tracking and gesture controls, and it also has Thread on board – like the Nest Hub Max – which should make controlling some smart home devices easier.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on board again for the Nest Hub 2, as well as Chromecast support and multi-room audio.
Features
Old Nest Hub: Google Assistant, Translator mode, smart home control, music, YouTube, Netflix
New Nest Hub: Additional sleep tracking, gesture controls
The Google Nest Hub offers a number of features, including things like translator mode, the ability to watch Netlflix, control smart home devices, listen to music, watch YouTube, read news, and everything that comes with Google Assistant of course. It can also be used as a digital photo frame.
The Nest Hub 2 offers everything the current Nest Hub does but with a couple of additional features. The Nest Hub second generation is able to track your sleep thanks to the Soli chip when on a bedside table, which will then link to Google Fit. The feature is called Sleep Sensing and it uses Motion Sense enabled by Soli to detect movement and analyse movement and breathing.
Sleep Sensing can also help you detect sleep disturbances like coughing and snoring, as well as light and temperature changes in the room to better understand what could be impacting the way you sleep.
Additionally, the Nest Hub 2 has Quick Gestures, or gesture controls like the Nest Hub Max, allowing you to raise your hand to pause a track for example. Thread is also on board, meaning the Nest Hub 2 should make controlling compatible smart home devices easier.
Price and conclusion
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The Google Nest Hub 2 offers an identical design to its predecessor, but makes improvements on the hardware and feature side of things.
The audio quality is said to have improved and features like gesture controls and sleep tracking should make an already great device, even more useful.
In terms of price, the Nest Hub 2 costs £89.99 in the UK, which is less than what the original Nest Hub launched at. It means it continues to be a cheaper option to the Nest Hub Max and an option without a camera.
It’s worth noting that if you’re not interested in the extra features or improvements to audio that the Next Hub 2 offers, you might find the original Nest Hub at a great price now.
You can read all the details surrounding the Nest Hub 2 in our separate feature.
(Pocket-lint) – Google’s second generation Nest Hub features a similar design to its predecessor, along with a few improvements and extra features. Its size puts it in direct competition with Amazon’s Echo Show 8, but which should you buy?
We’ve compared the Google Nest Hub to the Amazon Echo Show 8 to help you work out how they differ in terms of design and features, and which might be the right one for you and your home.
Design and display
Nest Hub: 7-inch display, four colours
Echo Show 8: 200.4 x 135.9 x 99.1mm, 8-inch display, two colours
The Google Nest Hub has a very similar design to its predecessor, offering a 7-inch floating display on top of a fabric-covered speaker base. The display is edgeless, ditching the lip found on the original Nest Hub, but it still offers a white bezel surrounding the LCD screen on all colour options.
At the top of the display is the Ambient EQ Light Sensor and far-field microphones, while a volume toggle is positioned on the rear of the display, as well as a microphone mute physical toggle switch and power port. The Nest Hub comes in Chalk, Charcoal, Sand and Mist colour options.
The Amazon Echo Show 8 meanwhile, has an 8-inch display with a triangular-shaped, fabric-covered speaker on the rear. The display has a slight lip at the edge, but it’s a neat and compact design overall. Colour options are black and white, with the bezel surrounding the display respective to each colour.
There’s a front-facing camera in the top right of the display within the bezel, while the top of the device has a camera cover toggle, microphone on/off button, volume up and down buttons and microphones. There’s also a power port and 3.5mm audio output on the rear.
Echo Show 8: 2-inch speaker with passive bass radiator, 4 mics, 1MP front camera
The Google Nest Hub has a full-range speaker on board, which is said to offer 50 per cent more bass than the original Nest Hub. There are three far-field microphones – like the Nest Audio and Nest Mini – and there’s an Ambient EQ Light Sensor.
The Nest Hub also features Thread – allowing for easy control of compatible smarthome devices – and importantly, it comes with Google’s Soli radar chip, which allows for gesture control and sleep tracking.
The Amazon Echo Show 8 has 2-inch speakers with a passive bass radiator. It has four microphones on board, and it also has a 1-megapixel front camera with built-in cover as we mentioned.
The Echo Show 8 runs on the MediaTek MT8163 processor and there is a 3.5mm audio output.
Both the Nest Hub and the Echo Show 8 feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Features
Nest Hub: Google Assistant, digital photo frame, Netflix/Disney+/YouTube, Quick Gestures, sleep tracking
Echo Show 8: Amazon Alexa, digital photo frame, Netflix/Prime Video, video calling, Alexa calling
The Google Nest Hub runs Google Assistant so it offers all the features that brings with it, including setting timers, playing music, using the translator mode, checking the weather, finding out the news etc. You can also watch Netflix, Disney+ or YouTube on the Nest Hub, use it as a digital photo frame, control smart home devices and audio call through Google Duo.
Thanks to the Soli radar chip on board, the Nest Hub offers support for Quick Gestures – allowing you to raise a hand to pause music for example – and it also offers sleep tracking when placed on a bedside table for the person closest to the display. Sleep information will appear on the device in the morning, as well as through Google Fit.
The Amazon Echo Show 8 runs Amazon Alexa, and all the features that come with Alexa, which like Google Assistant include timers, music, weather, jokes, news and games. You can also watch Prime Video or Netflix on the Echo Show 8, use it as a digital photo frame and control smart home devices.
The camera on board the Echo Show 8 enables you to video call friends and family, but the Echo Show 8 also offers Alexa calling, allowing users to call any friends or family with an Echo device or the Alexa app.
Both the Google Nest Hub and Amazon Echo Show 8 support multi-room audio, though only the Nest Hub offers Chromecast built-in.
Price
The Google Nest Hub is available to pre-order now and costs £89.99. As mentioned, it comes in four colour options: Chalk, Charcoal, Sand and Mist.
The Amazon Echo Show 8 costs £79.99. It comes in two colour options: Black and White.
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Conclusion
The Google Nest Hub and Amazon Echo Show 8 are similar in terms of what they offer, with a couple of differences, but the main difference is the Nest Hub runs on Google Assistant and the Echo Show 8 runs on Alexa.
If you already have Google Assistant-enabled speakers, then you’ll likely want to stick with it and therefore the Nest Hub will be the one for you, while those with Alexa will likely want the Echo Show 8.
If you’re new to the smart display arena, then the Nest Hub offers some interesting features over the Echo Show 8 in terms of sleep tracking, gesture control, the ability to watch Disney+ and the Thread protocol for easier smarthome control. The Echo Show 8 has a larger display though, as well as Alexa calling and video calling thanks to the built-in camera.
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While many of us moved to home offices when companies sought to avoid COVID-19 infection, for some people, working at home is the norm. One of those people is Sam Byford, Asia editor for The Verge, who works out of a home office in Tokyo, Japan.
We talked to Sam to find out how he has equipped his own home office and to see whether it matters these days if your remote desk is five miles away or about 6,700 miles away from your organization’s main office.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at The Verge.
I’m from the UK, and I’ve been based in Japan since 2008 — first in Osaka, now in Tokyo, where I live with my wife and our dog and our bunny. I came on board The Verge just as the site launched in 2011.
I am now The Verge’s Asia editor, which means two things really. I handle much of our Asia-specific coverage, of course, but I’m also an editor who happens to be in Asia, which is helpful from a time zone perspective. If critical news breaks after the US signs off and before Europe wakes up, or if someone needs an edit on a piece that we’re timing for the morning in the US, that’s often me.
That’s a great space you have. Was that an existing setup, or did you put it together once you knew you’d be working at home?
I’ve been working from home for as long as I’ve been with The Verge, but this is still quite a new setup. My wife and I moved into a bigger place at the end of last year, and it turned out to be good timing since we now both have our own offices and are both at home all day. I didn’t bring any furniture in the move and essentially started from scratch.
The “gaming” desk is on the left; the “working” desk is on the right.
I didn’t expect to see two desks! It looks like one is for gaming and the other for working.
That is exactly what they’re for! In our last place, I had a giant integrated setup on a single L-shaped glass desk. But I found it impossible to keep things organized, and I never really felt like I was off work. With this room, I decided to abandon the idea of coherent, tasteful interior design and went for an unassuming wooden desk for my Mac with an ostentatious gaming setup on the left.
Tell me about the desks themselves. Where did you get them, and how did you decide which ones to get?
They’re both from Rakuten, which often has a bunch of third-party sellers offering near-identical products of unclear origin. The wooden one is simple, but it has convenient storage and a shelf to raise the monitors. The gaming desk came from a seller called PandaTech, and it has RGB lighting, a cup holder, cable management, a USB hub, a controller rack, a headphone hanger, and a fitted mouse mat. I’m not usually into the RGB-heavy gamer aesthetic, but I thought it’d be fun to lean into it as a way to create distinct spaces in the same room.
Did you choose your chair especially, or is that just something you had available?
It’s a Herman Miller Sayl, which is a common chair — Vox Media’s NYC office has hundreds of them. I bought one without arms, though, because it works a little better for my posture. I’m tall, and it’s hard to find chairs that don’t encourage me to slouch. Also, I like the red.
This is obviously going to take a while, but could you tell me about your tech setup?
*deep breath* Okay, so my main work machine is a 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro. I basically never use it as a laptop unless I’m going to trade shows, which, for obvious reasons, I haven’t done since CES 2020, so I like this Brydge vertical dock that turns it into a skinny desktop computer and saves a ton of space. I go through quite a lot of mechanical keyboards, but right now, I’m using a Keychron K2, which is working out great. It’s comfortable to type on, looks good, and works seamlessly with macOS.
The MacBook is hooked up to two LG UltraFine 4K monitors, the discontinued 21-inch model and the current 24 inch. Below them, there’s an Apple HomePod for music and Mac audio, and next to that is one of three original Google Wifi routers we have around the apartment. The camera is a Nikon Df, which I use for most of my personal photography, and I also keep my Nintendo Switch Lite charging on this desk. There are a bunch of dongles, power cables, and wireless chargers in easy reach, plus my two current personal phones: an iPhone SE and a Pixel 4A.
My gaming PC lives under the other desk, and it’s a custom build from 2016. The monitor is an Asus PG279Q, and the speakers are Harman Kardon Soundsticks, which are also hooked up to my Sony record player across the room over Bluetooth. (I’m not an analog purist.) There’s an Oculus Quest VR headset, a Thrustmaster Airbus flight stick, and a Neo Geo Arcade Pro fight stick. There is a dedicated button on my gaming desk to cycle through the colored lighting.
And the Google Nest Hub?
The Google Nest Hub is a recent addition that I got for two specific reasons: to control my Hue smart lights and to keep an eye on Pascal, our unhinged Shiba puppy who spends most of the day upstairs and occasionally tries to destroy our living room. I have a cheap TP-Link Kasa camera hooked up, which does the job.
That’s a great toy collection. Do you have any favorites?
I would say the cacti, which come from an amazing cactus-themed zoo (yes) near Mt. Fuji that my wife and I went to this summer. You can pick the cacti yourself and choose the pots to plant them in, and I like bears and dinosaurs, so.
Cacti, bears, and dinosaurs.
Okay, I need to know about those polar bear basketball players hanging around your computer.
The bear is, for reasons I’m not sure I understand, the mascot character of a Japanese cosmetics brand called Smelly. There’s a store in Harajuku with a gacha machine featuring it in various poses, and I liked the basketball one, so I gave it a shot. Thankfully, it came out quickly.
Do you do game playing on both desks? (I see controllers on the right-hand desk.)
Not unless it’s work-related. The Switch just lives there on its charging dock, and those little handheld consoles are Game Gear Micros that I was in the process of reviewing. There aren’t really any situations where I’d play a game on a Mac when there’s a PC right next to it.
How do you keep the world out while you’re working — or do you need to?
I get locked in pretty easily. The outside light is super bright in the mornings here, even on cloudy days, so I just close the curtains for a few hours and settle in. We live in a mostly quiet neighborhood, so the biggest distraction is our dog, really.
I see you like basketball. (That may be putting it mildly.) Is there anything special about that poster?
My Torontonian wife got me into the Toronto Raptors soon after we met, and now I’m a big fan. This is a print of Kawhi Leonard scoring his iconic Game 7 buzzer-beater over the Sixers to send the Raptors to last year’s Eastern Conference finals on their way to the NBA championship. It’s a great, inspiring image that has taken on new meaning after Kawhi bounced to LA only to see his Clippers collapse embarrassingly in the playoffs this year. I should maybe get it framed or something, but honestly, I kind of like just having sports posters on my wall.
The Toronto Raptors and an OK Computer CD cover.
How about the small print on your wall?
That’s an OK Computer CD cover signed by Thom Yorke from Radiohead. My dad used to be an obsessive autograph hunter, and back when I lived in the UK, we’d often go to gigs together, and he’d wait around for hours afterward to get things signed. Radiohead was one of my favorite bands as a kid, so it’s a neat thing to have that reminds me of home.
Is there anything you’d like to change about or add to the current setup?
I’m mostly good, but I don’t think my gaming PC is going to last very long once next-generation consoles with much better CPUs are on the market. So I’ll probably be looking to rebuild in a year or so. I would also love for Apple to make a version of its 6K pro monitor that doesn’t cost $6,000.
Also, I recently bought Belkin’s ridiculously named Boost↑Charge Pro 3-in-1 Wireless Charger with MagSafe. Charging Apple devices has gotten more complicated recently, at least for me. Now that the Apple Watch tracks sleep, I’ve been charging it with a messy cable at my desk for an hour or so when I start the day instead of overnight. And the iPhone 12 mini turns out to be too small for most stands — the charging coil isn’t high enough on the back of the phone. Belkin’s new charger solves both of those problems.
Update February 11th, 2021, 5:15PM ET: This article was originally published on October 21st, 2020. Several links and prices have been updated, and the Belkin Wireless Charger has been added.
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