We've had the Google Nest Hub formerly known as the Google home hub for a
little over six months now and overall I've really enjoyed the time I've gotten
to spend with this device now in this video what I'm going to do is go over
the best features of the Google Nest hub after six months of use how the device
has held up over the long term and ultimately what my recommendation is for
whether or not this device is worth it let's dive in
Google released what is now known as Google nest hub in the second half of
2018 after its release it was almost immediately on sale for the holidays and
it's safe to say that these devices seem to be a hit so what makes this device so
great for me it boils down to three main categories photo frame media playback
and smart home device controls first let's talk about photo frame which is
the name of the actual photo display feature for the Google nest hub photo
frame is typically the first thing you'll see when looking at the device
you can set the device to display a variety of photos provided by Google but
the real heart of this feature is its connection to Google photos we take so
many photos with our smartphones nowadays but how often do any of us
really go back to look at those old photos we took from a year ago and
rediscover the memories that those photos bring out now if you're
unfamiliar with Google photos it's a free service available on Android iOS
Mac and Windows and it allows you to send an unlimited number of photos and
videos up to the Google Photos cloud storage it's a great way to backup all
the photos you take on all of your devices with the nest hubs Google Photos
integration you can set it up to show pictures of yourself family friends and
pets and it will automatically create a people and pets album for you based on
your selections which the nest hub can actually be set to so it'll display
photos from this new people and pets album as you take these photos with the
people and pets you've identified for this album those photos will
automatically appear in the people and pets google photos album and
automatically start to come up on the google nest hubs display when it is in
photo display mode you can also set your nest hub to show specific albums you
already have in Google photos the other thing that makes the nest how fantastic
for displaying photos is the hubs display itself it has a brightness
sensor as well as an ambient light color temperature
so it'll make your pictures look correct in any given lighting situation the
screen displays photos with a realism I haven't seen from other photo displays
it displays photos how they would look if they were actually printed out and
framed in your home next up let's talk about media playback one of the major
and most useful features of Google home speakers is music and media playback the
Google Nest Hub sounds ok it sounds similar to the Google home but with less
space where the Google desktop really shines with music playback is with its
display it'll show you the current artists plane on the device or on a
speaker group it allows you to scrub through the media play pause stop and
skip tracks another great feature Google added to
the device was the ability to control the volume of the speaker in speaker
groups on the nest hubs display which is a really awesome feature if you have a
multi room audio setup why can I do in every room of my residence you can play
music from various services on the nest hub including YouTube music Spotify
Pandora tune in and soon hopefully Apple music as well also you can play video
content on the display you can play news videos from sources like CNN or the BBC
and you can of course play YouTube videos on the device as well the last
main feature of the nest hub that's been really important over the past six
months has been smart home controls the nest up basically acts as the central
hub for controlling all of your homes smart devices that work with the Google
assistant from smart lights to thermostats smart switches cameras
blinds and even doorbells getting to the controls for your entire smart home is
easy you just swipe down from the top of the nest hub screen there you can make
adjustments to your various smart home devices over the past 6 months I've
often found myself going to the nest hub screen to control smart home devices
rather than using my voice to give the Google assistant acum
the screen offers a level of functionality with certain tasks of
controlling smart home devices that you just don't get when using your voice and
giving a command to the Google assistant Google also added some quick controls to
this drop-down as well you can instantly turn the lights on or off in the room
that your nest hub is located in changing the temperature from the nest
hub is quite easy and one of the features i've used a lot over the past
six months another feature I use quite often is
with the smart light controls you can not only change the brightness of a
group of lights with the nest hub or an individual light but you can also change
the color of them as well if you're an owner of nest security cameras or the
nest to load or Abell those devices are nicely integrated into the Google Nest
hub software say for example if someone rings your doorbell the video from the
doorbell will pop up on the devices screen and allow you to answer the door
from the nest hub hey what's up if you use the nest hello's facial recognition
feature the Google Nest hub can actually announce who the person is at the door
and then show you the video feed on the nest hubs display now to wrap up this
review I'll close by saying that the Google Nest hub has been one of the best
technology purchases I've made over the past several years unlike a lot of
products out there almost every interaction I have with my Google Nest
hub is a positive one thanks to its best feature photo frame the photos look
natural and look better than on any other display I've ever seen photos
displayed on and the connection to Google photos makes keeping this thing
updated a breeze plus don't forget that the Google Nest hub comes with the
Google assistant and is able to answer all the commands you would normally ask
a Google home or Google home many with the addition of a screen which gives you
a lot more things that you can do with it
things like recipes getting definitions of words and deal
with lists as well as other tasks are just simply better on the nest hub
versus at Google home many thanks to the visuals that the nest hubs screen
provides as well as the audio that comes from its speaker I also like that Google
not only added a mute switch to the nest hubs microphone but made it a physical
switch that physically disconnects the microphones wiring giving you as the
user the peace of mind that the mic is truly off so after six months of using
this thing where's the best place to put one you may ask well personally in my
experience my favorite place to put a Google Nest hub has been on my desk I
can control all of the speakers in my bedroom speakers group and I just love
seeing the photos come across the screen as I work throughout the day now Google
just recently announced a larger version of the nest hub called the nest hub max
which will go on sale later in summer 2019
it'll sport a nest camera it'll have a 10 inch display and much better sound
than the nest hub so sound quality is important to you with your Google
assistant displays I'd say wait for the nest hub max to come out so you can try
it before deciding on whether or not you want to get a nest hub if sound quality
isn't as important to you and you like the idea of having a digital photo
display that's around the same size as a 5 by 7 inch photo frame then I think the
Google Nest hub will be the perfect device for that use case you're going to
find that the nest hub can fit in a lot more areas of your home versus the
Google nest hub max will based on the Max's larger size well that wraps up our
review of the Google Nest hub if you liked this video make sure to click that
thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more
Google related videos like this one also if you have any questions or comment
about the Google nest hub make sure to leave them in the comment section below
thanks again for watching this video I'm Josh Teder for 6 Months Later