![]() ![]() While there are some video doorbells I like more (namely the Arlo Wire-Free), the Nest Doorbell (battery) is a solid device. And for icing on the cake, many of these best features come right out of the box - no monthly subscription to Nest Aware necessary. The Nest Doorbell with battery is an affordable $180 and offers a slew of neat features: two-way talk, high-def resolution, a 145-degree field of view with a 3:4 aspect ratio, smart alerts, facial recognition and a few other cool perks. While its predecessor Nest Hello (now called the Nest Doorbell (wired)) is still available for purchase, the battery-powered option has a more impressive design and better performance, making it an upgrade on almost every level. Wrapping this up with another one from Nest, but to be fair, the Nest Doorbell with battery isn't just the newest video doorbell from Google, it's also a top-notch wireless device with different specs and unique perks. Even if they both hear you, only the closest one will respond. If you put a Google Nest Hub in your kitchen, you can put a Nest Mini in a different room, and both will be able to control any compatible smart devices you set up. The Nest Mini also makes for a good secondary device. At $50, it's the least expensive way to try smart home features without any sacrifices in voice control. The Nest Mini is also cute and comes in four colors. The audio quality of the Nest Mini is surprisingly good, especially in this second-gen model. Control compatible gadgets, search the web, play music and use its other features just by asking. Google's small smart speaker is now in its second generation and offers all of the same Google Assistant-enabled voice commands as the rest, plus helpful extras like intercom functionality and stereo pairing with multiple Minis. If having an extra screen in your house would annoy you, the Google Nest Mini makes another good smart home starting point. It's useful even if you don't have a lot of smart home gadgets, but it's indispensable if you want a smart home that works with Google Assistant. The Nest Hub is our favorite smart display overall and boasts a reasonable $100 price. The control panel is well organized and helpful, particularly if you have family members who struggle to remember how to phrase voice commands. You can then tap to see a room-by-room (living room, kitchen, etc.) overview of all of your devices. Swipe down from the top for shortcuts that turn off the lights or let you check your smart home security cameras. You can plug it in and set it up on your Wi-Fi network using the Google Home app and ask the Google Nest Hub any question you'd ask the original Google Home.Īll of these voice control features make the Nest Hub useful in a lot of ways, but a simple control panel makes it the best choice for your central connected home device. Set a timer, play music, add an ingredient to your shopping list - the Nest Hub will even keep your place in the recipe when you need to check it next. The Nest Hub is also a great kitchen helper, as it can walk you through recipes step by step and you can multitask while you cook. Google's Soli is also onboard this second-gen model for Sleep Sensing and Quick Gestures like pausing media with an air tap in front of the display. You can set it to play a scrolling slideshow of family pics as your screensaver. In fact, unique adaptive brightness sensors make the Nest Hub a great digital photo frame, as it adapts to both light levels and color temperature so it always looks like a physical photo in a frame. Plus, you can use this smart home hub to watch videos or scroll through family pictures. The touchscreen will show you extra info when you ask about the weather, search for restaurants and so on. It uses Google Assistant to respond to all of the same voice commands as a Google Home smart speaker. The Google Nest Hub (formerly the Home Hub) is a great way to kick off a Google-centric smart home. ![]()
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