Two-and-a-half years later, the Nest Home Hub stays one among my favourite sensible screens available on the market. Maybe that’s a commentary on the speed of enchancment within the class, or possibly Google simply received issues fairly proper the primary outing. It stays one of many best-looking merchandise available on the market, constructed from stable however understated materials. The measurement is true and Google clearly put numerous thought into the performance.
Of course, these client electronics have spent just a few a long time coaching us to count on massive, annual updates to product classes (gotta maintain that demand up). By that measure, the second-gen machine is one thing of a disappointment. There’s not likely lots new right here. The product now does sleep monitoring and the speaker’s bass is a little more full. And that’s actually just about it.
Perhaps essentially the most fascinating factor concerning the new model is how Google’s engineers labored inside their very own self-imposed limitations. I recall very distinctly seeing authentic Google Home Hub at a pre-release occasion and asking the corporate concerning the determination to not embody a digital camera. Surely firms like Google and Amazon had been dedicated to amassing as a lot info as potential on gadgets like these.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
I gave the corporate kudos on the time for holding the digital camera off the machine — and I’m glad to say it continued to take action with gen 2 (in fact, that was made simpler with the next launch of the camera-sporting Nest Hub Max). And I’ve to say, having examined the brand new Echo Hub, which truly bodily strikes to observe you across the room, solely cemented my appreciation of the intentional omission.
That determination was, little question, an integral a part of why the Nest Hub has change into a well-liked bedside machine. Most of us don’t need a digital camera educated on us whereas we sleep and do…all the different issues individuals do in mattress (eat crackers, watch scary motion pictures, and so on.).

Designing a second-generation model of what has change into a well-liked bedside product made sleep monitoring a no brainer. But there’s an issue: A digital camera looks like a fairly apparent approach to do sleep monitoring. But including a digital camera would nearly definitely make individuals much less inclined to ask the product into their bedrooms. So, what do you do? If you’re fortunate, you discover a expertise mendacity round that some firm spent a bunch of cash on, however finally had no thought what to do with.
So, what are the percentages of one thing like that taking place? If you’re Google, surprisingly excessive, it seems.
Project Soli is a kind of bizarre Google anomalies. It was a cool expertise in quest of an issue. The preliminary downside the workforce designated was, I suppose, that we contact our touchscreens an excessive amount of. So it constructed the tech into the Pixel 4, permitting customers to work together with a bespoke Pokémon sport and some different issues. By the time the Pixel 5 rolled round, the expertise was mainly forgotten.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
On the face of it, camera-free sleep monitoring is a way more logical implementation of the Soli tech (assuming you will get across the preliminary strangeness of getting primarily miniature radar within the digital machine sitting subsequent to your mattress). Here’s the breakdown from Google’s product web page:
Sleep Sensing makes use of Motion Sense to trace the sleep of the particular person closest to the show. With a low-energy radar, Motion Sense detects motion and respiration. Other sensors in Nest Hub detect feels like loud night breathing and coughing, and environmental components like gentle and temperature within the room. That’s how Sleep Sensing determines not simply once you went to mattress and the way lengthy you slept, but additionally the standard of your sleep.

Certainly the inclusion of sleep monitoring doesn’t make the product distinctive amongst client electronics. It looks like each firm is racing to get into sleep — understandably so. Most of us aren’t getting wherever close to sufficient — a pattern that dates again properly earlier than COVID-19 made insomniacs out of many people. What makes the product comparatively distinctive, nevertheless, is that it guarantees to take action with out making contact with both you or the mattress.

As somebody who has examined dozens of health trackers and smartwatches through the years, I can attest that sleeping with a wearable round your wrist type of sucks. I imply, I’ve sufficient bother attending to sleep with out one on (if I didn’t, I in all probability wouldn’t be that keen on sleep monitoring within the first place).
For my cash, when you’re on the lookout for a pure sleep tracker, I’d nevertheless, check out one thing like Withings Sleep Tracking Mat, which sits beneath your mattress. It’s minimally invasive and doesn’t require having a display close to your mattress. I can’t suggest the brand new Nest Hub based mostly purely on sleep monitoring, however when you had been already contemplating sticking a sensible show subsequent to your mattress, this makes top-of-the-line fashions available on the market that rather more compelling.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
One of the downsides of the Soli monitoring is that there isn’t a ton of flexibility in the place you possibly can put the machine. I don’t presently have a nightstand, for example, so I needed to improvise with a chair for testing. The machine must be on the aspect of the mattress (not the pinnacle or foot) and stage with you on the mattress. The display needs to be about one or two toes from you when you sleep.
There’s a calibration course of, too, although it’s fairly fast and also you solely really want to do it the as soon as, assuming you’re not going to be transferring the product round. This was the one time I discovered myself lacking one of many Echo Show’s new options: particularly, a display that you could manually tilt up and down. It could be an amazing function to see in all the merchandise, going ahead.

I’ve been utilizing the sleep monitoring for a number of nights now and have discovered it fairly correct — notably for a product that sits a few toes away from the sting of my mattress. (Spoiler: I sleep like crap). The on-board wellness function drills down on the data, as properly. In addition to plain data like length and general high quality, it can let you know what number of occasions you coughed within the evening, what number of minutes you spent loud night breathing and what your common respiratory charge was all through the evening.
Other data is obtainable, together with room temperature (which makes use of a nonetheless comparatively underused built-in thermometer) and sleep high quality, damaged down by wake/sleep/restlessness. It’s pretty fundamental, and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see how a lot element the corporate is finally capable of drill down on with the given {hardware}. Given the concentrate on respiratory well being, sleep apnea looks like a no brainer, however that may seemingly require some updates, coupled with regulatory scrutiny.
Image Credits: Brian Heater
It appears that, so far as sleep is worried, there’s seemingly a great deal of room for enchancment utilizing the prevailing {hardware}. That’s doubly the case, now that Google’s Fitbit acquisition has formally closed. Expect some tighter integration on that entrance. For now, there’s nonetheless some considerate sleep integration with issues like wake alarms and bed room sensible gentle performance.
At $99, Google’s dropped the asking worth by a full $50, which definitely softens the blow of what’s finally a reasonably minor replace. Two and half years after its introduction, the Nest Hub remains to be top-of-the-line sensible screens you should purchase, bolstered by Google’s stable Assistant and software program choices. The new model wouldn’t be the primary on my record of sleep trackers, however when you’re on the lookout for a beside sensible show/alarm clock, it’s a pleasant bonus.