Google Nest Hub Review: Your Complete Smart Display Companion

Google Nest Hub Review: Your Complete Smart Display Companion. Smart home hubs have become essential for controlling various devices in today's tech-driven households. The Google Nest Hub stands as one of the most popular choices, offering convenience, voice control, and connectivity across a wide range of smart home devices. This review will dive deep into the Google Nest Hub, examining its design, features, performance, and how it stacks up against other smart home displays.

Google Nest Hub Review: Your Complete Smart Display Companion

The Google Nest Hub, formerly known as the Google Home Hub, has solidified its place as one of the most versatile smart displays on the market. Combining the powerful voice assistant Google Assistant with a compact, intuitive display, it offers an excellent user experience for both beginners and seasoned smart home enthusiasts.

Released as a smaller version of the Google Nest Hub Max, the standard Nest Hub is designed for everyday tasks like checking the weather, controlling smart lights, watching videos, and displaying photos. With its 7-inch touchscreen, it serves as an unobtrusive yet functional device that can blend seamlessly into any room in your house, particularly in the kitchen or bedroom.

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1. Design and Build Quality

The Google Nest Hub’s design is sleek and minimalistic, making it an aesthetically pleasing addition to any home. Available in colors like chalk, charcoal, sand, and mist, the device is compact with a 7-inch display that sits atop a soft fabric-covered base. The design may not be extravagant, but it's practical and fits well in a variety of settings.

One of the standout features of the Google Nest Hub is its ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the display brightness based on the lighting in the room. This ensures that the display isn’t too harsh in dim settings or too dull in bright environments, providing optimal visibility at all times.

Build Quality:

• Dimensions: 4.65 x 7.02 x 2.65 inches
• Weight: 16.9 oz
• Materials: Plastic frame with a fabric-covered base

The overall construction is sturdy, with a rubberized bottom that helps prevent slipping, ensuring the device remains stable on various surfaces. While it’s not built to be portable, the Nest Hub feels premium in hand and well-built for stationary use.

2. Display and Screen Functionality

At 7 inches, the display on the Google Nest Hub is smaller compared to competitors like the Amazon Echo Show 8 or the larger Google Nest Hub Max, but it does its job well. The touchscreen is responsive, allowing users to swipe through menus or tap to select options with ease.

Features of the Display:

• Resolution: 1024 x 600
• Ambient EQ: Adjusts brightness automatically
• Touch Input: Responsive and easy to navigate

While the resolution isn’t groundbreaking, it’s sufficient for quick glances at recipes, checking the weather, or streaming videos from YouTube. The screen size is perfect for smaller rooms but might feel too cramped for those who want a larger display for tasks like watching movies or video calls.

3. Audio Performance

The Google Nest Hub delivers surprisingly good sound for its size. It may not replace a dedicated speaker system, but it can fill small to medium-sized rooms with decent audio quality, making it suitable for casual music listening or podcasts while you go about your day.

Key Audio Features:

• Speakers: Full-range speaker with 80 dB sound output
• Sound Quality: Clear mids and highs, limited bass

While the Nest Hub excels at mid-range clarity, bass-heavy music may sound somewhat thin, especially at higher volumes. It won’t outperform larger speakers like the Google Nest Hub Max or Amazon Echo Studio, but for a small smart display, the audio is more than sufficient for casual use.

4. Smart Home Integration and Control

One of the Nest Hub’s most compelling features is its smart home integration. Whether you have smart lights, thermostats, cameras, or locks, the Nest Hub serves as a centralized hub for controlling them all via voice or touchscreen.

Supported Smart Home Devices:

• Lights: Philips Hue, LIFX, etc.
• Thermostats: Nest Thermostat, ecobee, etc.
• Cameras: Nest Cam, Arlo, Ring
• Locks: August, Schlage, Yale

You can control individual devices or create “routines” that automate several devices at once. For instance, you can set a “Good Morning” routine that turns on the lights, reads out your schedule, and plays the morning news, all with a simple voice command.

The Google Nest Hub is also Matter-compatible, meaning it will work with a growing number of smart home devices from different manufacturers, making it future-proof and flexible in an ever-evolving smart home ecosystem.

5. Google Assistant: Your Virtual Helper

Google Assistant is one of the most advanced voice assistants available, and it truly shines on the Google Nest Hub. Simply say “Hey Google” to activate it, and you can ask questions, set timers, control smart home devices, and more.

Key Google Assistant Features:

• Voice Commands: Control music, ask questions, set alarms, etc.
• Google Search: Powered by Google’s vast search database
• Smart Home Control: Works with thousands of devices
• Language Support: Can understand multiple languages and accents

The voice recognition is excellent, and Google Assistant can handle a wide range of queries, from simple tasks like weather updates to more complex ones like controlling smart home scenes.

6. Streaming Options: Music and Video Services

While the Nest Hub isn’t designed primarily as an entertainment device, it supports a variety of streaming services for both music and video.

Supported Music Services:

• YouTube Music
• Spotify
• Pandora
• Apple Music

You can ask Google Assistant to play your favorite playlists, albums, or radio stations, and the music will stream directly from the Nest Hub’s built-in speaker. Additionally, you can cast content from your smartphone or tablet using Google Cast.

Supported Video Services:

• YouTube
• Netflix
• Hulu
• Disney+

Although the 7-inch screen is small, it’s great for catching up on YouTube videos or streaming Netflix while cooking or relaxing. However, if you want a more immersive video experience, you may want to consider the larger Nest Hub Max.

7. Google Photos and Ambient Mode

The Nest Hub doubles as a digital photo frame thanks to its seamless integration with Google Photos. You can select albums to display when the screen is idle, turning the device into a personal slideshow that features your favorite memories.

Ambient Mode Features:

• Google Photos Slideshow: Select specific albums to display
• Clock and Weather Info: See time, weather, and calendar events at a glance
• Ambient EQ: Adjusts screen brightness based on room lighting

This feature is especially useful for keeping the Nest Hub functional even when you’re not actively using it, making it both a practical device and a decorative one.

8. Privacy Features

With the rise of smart devices, privacy is a common concern for many users. Google has implemented several privacy features into the Nest Hub to address this.

Key Privacy Features:

• Microphone Switch: Physical switch to disable the microphones
• No Camera: Unlike the Nest Hub Max, the standard Nest Hub does not have a camera, ensuring you won’t be recorded
• Data Controls: You can review and delete voice recordings in the Google Home app

These features give users more control over their data and ensure that your conversations aren’t being recorded unless you explicitly enable it.

9. Installation and Setup Process

Setting up the Google Nest Hub is quick and easy. Simply plug it in, download the Google Home app, and follow the on-screen instructions to connect it to your Wi-Fi network.

The Google Home app will guide you through connecting smart devices, setting up routines, and customizing settings for your household. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes, making it one of the most user-friendly smart displays available.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this article with more in-depth information about the Google Nest Hub's performance, user experience, and its competition with other smart home displays!