Review: Google Nest Learning Thermostat (4th Gen)

Nest's smart thermostats have been an icon of the smart home since they hit the market in late 2011. Nothing said smart like a device that could learn your habits and make your home operate more efficiently without having to fiddle with settings and automations. In the 13 years since, Nest Learning Thermostats have been easy to identify, with the same thick silver bezel and compact circular screen. This design was radical at a time when most smart thermostats looked like boring, rectangular, beige boxes.

Google's fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat has an entirely new look, transforming what now looks like a basic tech gadget into something of an art piece for your wall. It's got new smarts too, and includes a temperature sensor to place elsewhere in the home. It's a refreshing upgrade to a longtime staple, and feels smart without being intrusive or overly complex—an important middle line not all smart devices find.

Slim Setup

Photograph: Nena Farrell

If you're hoping to pop the fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat onto the backing of a previous Nest thermostat, you're out of luck. The thermostat base for the new model is a different size, so you'll have to switch out the old base for the new one.

While the third-generation thermostat itself is smaller, its base is a little larger with larger connectors; the new thermostat base is smaller with positively tiny connector buttons. You'd think with the larger 3.9-inch screen that the base would be larger, but it has a smaller footprint on your wall, which is nice. It comes with an optional plate as with previous generations, but the new version is an oval rather than a rectangle. A 3.9-inch screen might not sound that big, but it looks surprisingly large on the wall if you're used to the smaller Nest thermostats, or even something like my previous thermostat, the square Honeywell T6.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Installing the Nest is easy; make sure your system is compatible and that you've flipped off the relevant breaker to cut power. The Nest app is no longer at play with this model. Google has been gradually transitioning many of its features and capabilities to the Google Home app, and that's what you'll use for this new model. Google Home walks you through the steps of removing your old thermostat, labeling the wires, and installing the new thermostat over it.

My first attempt at installing an older Nest thermostat took the better part of an hour, between confirming the right switches in my breaker box to learning my way around the various wires and connectors. This time around, the installation took about 10 minutes. WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu also installed the new model in his home but said the app forced him to contact Nest support to ensure his existing wiring was compatible. The process was quick and Google support walked through the rest of his installation, which took less than 20 minutes.

My main complaint with installing the fourth-generation model is that the connector buttons where you place the wires are miniscule. I have small hands and fingers, and I still had to angle my finger just right to click the correct connector down and secure each wire. I'd recommend a precision screwdriver to press the buttons down if you have thicker digits.

Slick and Smart

Photograph: Nena Farrell

I've been living with this thermostat for a couple of weeks now, and it's worked consistently well and is easy to control. I've yet to experience random drops in connectivity or situations where the app and thermostat show different active settings, as I did with my previous Honeywell. The Google Home app, which is how you set up and configure the Nest Learning Thermostat, has been simple enough for me and my less tech-savvy husband to control.

You can't deny this version of the Nest Learning Thermostat is downright beautiful on the eyes. The finishes and color choices inside and out almost look like a piece of modern art. The rounded screen is reflective and looks like a funhouse mirror as light—or your face—reflects off it, reacting and warping as you get closer or farther away. It's readable, but the colors behind the text could change at any moment based on your position around the thermostat.

That's not the only part of the thermostat that reacts to your position. One of the new features, Far Sight, lets you choose between one of six home screens—including two clocks and the weather—that will appear when you get closer to the device. (This is powered by Google's Soli radar technology.) I chose one of the clock options and found the Nest coming to life whenever I was about 11 feet away; then the clock would adjust to a smaller clock and show more details when I was about 3 feet away. If I was farther than that initial 11 feet, or stood still long enough, the thermostat's screen would switch off and go back to being a decorative mirror of sorts.

The screen isn't as bright as the previous Nest Learning Thermostat—I prefer it this way, and had no trouble reading it during the day. But if you're coming from an older Nest, it's worth noting there are no settings to boost the brightness. The larger screen size is what really feels like the big upgrade when directly comparing it to the third-gen Learning Thermostat, though both perform similarly.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

The thermostat is straightforward to navigate. You'll click the thin frame once to see the temperature and adjust it, and click a second time to enter the thermostat's menus to control things like Eco Mode, your home's fans, and other settings. The slim, barely-there bezel feels lovely to adjust and there's a nice ticking sound as you turn the wheel and move through the menus. There's no haptic feedback, though that would've been nice. The larger size makes it a little easier to rotate precisely; I found it easy to overshoot my rotations on earlier and smaller Nest models.

In the app, you can activate Smart Schedules, an AI-powered scheduler that reacts to your usage and can set up schedules on your behalf. You can choose in the app for the Smart Schedules to implement automatically, or choose Suggestion if you want these schedules run by you in advance. The Smart Scheduler does seem to require some consistency in your habits to learn and suggest something though, so you might not see custom suggestions right away.

You can also set up Home and Away, along with Presence Sensing, so that the Nest will start cooling or heating your home appropriately based on whether anyone is home (this is available on older models too). It'll switch to Eco Mode, which has minimum and maximum temperatures you're willing the house to hit without anyone home—and makes it easier to cool your home, for example, if you come home to 79 degrees (my Eco Mode setting) instead of the mid 80s.

Presence Sensing primarily uses your smartphone to detect if you're home, and it works well, but if you have multiple adults who come and go, you'll need to invite everyone via the Google Home app so that their phone's location can be taken into account. Otherwise, if you leave, the air switches off automatically for everyone. (They can still turn it back on manually.)

There are also two other new smart features: System Health Monitor, which will alert you if it notices problems that could indicate a repair is needed (like rooms aren't heating or cooling at the rate they should), and Smart Ventilation, which will check outdoor air quality and humidity before ventilating your home. Both are handy, though you won't notice these features until you need them. This thermostat is also certified Matter-compatible, meaning you can connect it to Apple's HomeKit and operate the device completely in Apple's Home app.

The Extras

Photograph: Nena Farrell

The latest iteration of the Nest Learning Thermostat comes with a little friend: a Nest Temperature Sensor. This is often a separate purchase with smart thermostats, so it's nice to see it included. (You can buy them separately for $40 or three for $90 if you need more sensors around the home.) Place the sensor in a room and set the thermostat to prioritize that temperature instead of the temperature it measures with its built-in sensor. You can quickly toggle off a sensor in the app too, which is helpful if you have the sensor in the bedroom and no one is in there during the day.

I placed the temperature sensor in my toddler's room so I could control my upstairs temperature based on his stuffy room, rather than the breezier hallway. Even when I wasn't using it to cool my home, the temperature sensor was useful to check on his room and to compare against my baby monitor to see how accurate it was. If you already have the first-generation Nest Temperature Sensor and want to keep using it, the good news is that works with this thermostat.

Even with the included sensor, is it worth the $280? The Nest is more expensive than the similar Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium ($250) and Honeywell T9 Smart Thermostat ($210), both of which include a temperature sensor. The Ecobee offers many of the same learning functionalities as the new Nest model, but I have not tested it yet. Ultimately, the Nest Learning Thermostat blends beauty with smarts in a way I've yet to see in other smart thermostats, though you can get similar or “smart enough” features without spending as much (even from Nest's cheaper models).

That said, if your thermostat is in a visible spot in your home—mine's at the top of the stairs right near the front door, so it's one of the first things I see—it doesn't hurt to spend a little more to have something that looks nice. If your thermostat is tucked away in a corner, and you don't mind fiddling with it, you may as well go with a cheaper option.