The Nest Wi-Fi is a follow-up product to the successful Google Wi-Fi mesh router
system that the company released a few years back. The main value prop of the
Nest Wi-Fi is that it'll give you better Wi-Fi coverage in your home versus the
setup that most people still seem to have which is just one router in one
point of their home. Using its mesh network set up the nest Wi-Fi system can
expand to meet the needs of your individual home. Now we've had our system
now for the past six months and in that time I've grown to really like the Nest
Wi-Fi system, its core features, and it's setup experience. Now there are some
things that I don't like about the Nest Wi-Fi system and I'll get into those a
little bit later on in the video but for now let's dive into the main components
of the Nest Wi-Fi system. Now in our review of the Google Wi-Fi router we had
several comments from people asking if they still needed to pay for internet
service when buying one of these router systems. Yes you will still need to pay
an Internet service provider otherwise known as an ISP money for your internet
service in order to use the Nest Wi-Fi system. Now here in the US Google does
have an internet service in select locations called Google Fiber, so that
could be why some people were originally confused with the Google Wi-Fi product
on whether or not they needed an ISP. Now I also think it's important to point out
that you do also need a working modem with your nest Wi-Fi. The nest Wi-Fi does
not include a modem. Typically in any Internet system there are three parts:
the service coming in to your home from the ISP, a modem that acts as a
translator between your devices and your ISPs network, and then finally a Wi-Fi
router which enables your devices to connect to the internet wirelessly. You
can either take the modem provided to you by your ISP or go out and buy your
own modem that's certified to run on your ISP's network. Now let's talk about
what makes the nest Wi-Fi system so different from your typical Wi-Fi router
setup and that is that it is a mesh Wi-Fi router setup. A mesh network allows
you to add more points to the network to expand your Wi-Fi coverage to make sure
that you get good Wi-Fi signal in in your residence. One Nest Wi-Fi router
will give you up to 2200 square feet of coverage, a setup with a Nest Wi-Fi
router and a point will give you up to 3,800 square feet, and a router and two
points will cover up to 5,400 square feet. Now you may be wondering what the
difference is between a Nest Wi-Fi point and the Nest Wi-Fi router. The router is
designed to be plugged into the modem and is the central part of the Wi-Fi
system. It also includes an extra Ethernet port so you can hardwire
devices into it. The points are basically smaller routers with less powerful
antennas that you place throughout your home to help blanket your home with good
Wi-Fi coverage. The points have another purpose, they can act as Google Assistant
speakers. You use the top of the Wi-Fi point to control the Google Assistant
it's very similar to the controls found on the Nest Mini and the sound is great
on the nest Wi-Fi point.
(Test music playing)
It sounds better than a Nest Mini, has more bass, and overall I think it's
pretty comparable to the Google Home speaker but with a clearer sound in my
experience. Now instead of lights at the top like you have with the nest mini
there is a really cool ring light at the bottom that will glow different colors
for different assistant tasks like phone calls, being on mute etc. Now I'm not
going to go into everything the Google Assistant can do in this video but if
you're interested in learning more about the Google Assistant, make sure you check
out a video that we did a couple of months ago on what the Google Assistant
can do I'll leave a link to it in the card here in this video and in the video
description below. If you don't want to use the Wi-Fi point as a Google
Assistant speaker, no problem, you can simply mute the microphone at
the back of the device which will physically disconnect the microphone
from power. You can turn off the light at the bottom of the Nest Wi-Fi point in
its settings in the Google Home app. You can also turn off the status light on
the Nest Wi-Fi router in its settings through the Google Home app as well.
Google designed these routers so they look like something that you'd be fine
putting out in your home and not something so alien looking with a bunch
of antennas that you'd rather just hide in a cabinet somewhere and there is a
reason for this, you get better Wi-Fi coverage when you leave your router and
points out in the open. Overall I found the design really nice. I'm a big fan of
the matte finish that Google has been giving their products as of late like
with the new Pixel Buds. video on those in the video description below. The matte
finish allows the Nest Wi-Fi router and point to pick up some of the ambient
light around it, making it blend in a bit better to its environment. Alright, now
let's talk about some of the specs. Both the router and the point support 802.11s
mesh Wi-Fi as well as WPA3 encryption and they'll get automatic security
updates as well. Now do note that this system is not a Wi-Fi 6 system, which is
the latest Wi-Fi standard known for being able to handle many more devices
on a network. Now given the slow ramp-up from consumer
tech companies like Apple on supporting the Wi-Fi 6 standard, I don't think it's
as big of a deal as some people make it out to be that the Nest Wi-Fi doesn't
support Wi-Fi 6. For most people out there I think
Wi-Fi 6 at this point is just a nice to have but if you are the type of
person that has to have that bleeding edge brand-new spec, you are going to be
disappointed. The Nest Wi-Fi system does other things to help improve your
network performance like proactive band steering and channel optimization, which
allows the router system to look at all of the channels in your environment and
utilize the less busy ones, giving you better performance. The Nest Wi-Fi's
hardware is only half of the experience, the other half is the software that you
use to interact with the Nest Wi-Fi system. You can control the Nest Wi-Fi
system by using the Google Home app available for both Android and iOS, which
is the same app that you use if you have other Nest and Google Home devices in
your home. Google also has a Google Wi-Fi app that you can still download and use
with your system as well if you're upgrading from a Google Wi-Fi system. The
setup process is relatively straightforward for the router system.
It'll tell you if you've placed your points in the right places around your
home and overall it's just a very easy setup experience. I really like how you
can access the Nest Wi-Fi settings right from the main Google Home app when
you open up that part of the app, you'll see the status for your points router
and internet connection. Clicking on either of these icons will bring you to
the network page where you can test the mesh network as well as click on the
routers and points in your network to get to their settings page. The settings
page for each device allows you to do things like rename your device and
switch which room it is in your home as well as adjust the status light
brightness. For Wi-Fi points you have more options in the settings page for
things specific to the Google Assistant like alarms and timers, night mode, lower
volume when listening, default speakers etc. Clicking show password on the main
Wi-Fi settings page will show you your network password with handy buttons to
share the password over email and text message. Going back to the main Wi-Fi
page you'll see the area for your network connection. You'll see your
download speed and upload speed and you'll never have to worry about
manually testing your network again since the system does it every day
for you automatically. Scrolling down further you'll see a list of current
devices on your network you can set a priority device right from the screen.
Prioritizing a device will cause the Nest Wi-Fi network to reserve more
bandwidth for that specific device do you note you can only select one device
to prioritize at a time. Further on down in the app you can set up family Wi-Fi
which will allow you to schedule a pause to your Wi-Fi on your kids' devices at
bedtime or in the moment via the app or the Google Assistant. You can also block
adult sites on any device from here as well. Below that you'll see the option to
easily set up a guest network. When you click the gear up at the top it'll take
you to a page where you can rename your network and edit your Wi-Fi password and
this is also where you'll have the ability to reset your network and
factory reset it. Now one last thing that I want to mention is if you're buying
this system for somebody else in your family so you can help them manage their
Wi-Fi network and you want to be able to do that remotely, when you're setting up
the Nest Wi-Fi system for your family member or friend, make sure that you add
yourself as a member to their home in the Google Home app wen you're setting
this thing up. That way you'll be able to remotely reset their Wi-Fi network as
well as diagnose any issues that may be going on with their Nest Wi-Fi system.
Alright moving on, now let's talk about some things I don't like about the Nest
Wi-Fi system. First is the power jack. Google changed the shape of the power
jack with the nest Wi-Fi system to a round shape which makes it more of a
pain to try to plug it into a power surge protector that already has a lot
of things plugged into it. Also I preferred what Google did with their
Google Wi-Fi product which was they had managers just for the Wi-Fi network
versus having members of a home that have access to every single Google
device you have in your home on the Google Home app. Now that solution may
not have been as simple as what Google did with the nest Wi-Fi, I still think it
was better. I just don't like the idea that in order to manage somebody else's
Wi-Fi set up remotely I need permissions that will give me full
control over every device in their Google Home setup. I wish that they would
provide better permission controls here. Over the past six months I have not
experienced any issues with my Nest Wi-Fi system it's performed solidly,
considering I have about 40-plus devices on it at any given time. Alright now
let's move on to recommendations. Do I recommend the Nest Wi-Fi? Yes, it's a
solid upgrade over the Google Wi-Fi system thanks to the new Wi-Fi point's
Google Assistant integration. How many should you get? I'd use Google's tool on
their website to help determine that and do keep in mind depending on the build
of your house, how many stories, the building materials, how open the floor
plan is, all of those can factor into how many points and routers you may need in
your setup. Now do note that if you don't care about the Nest Wi-Fi points and
their Google Assistant functionality and you just want Wi-Fi routers, Google
sells a 2 pack of the routers on Amazon that I'll link below. The Nest Wi-Fi
system starts at $169 US dollars and it's available in various colors and
configurations on Google's website and at major retailers. If you liked this
video and found it helpful, make sure you hit that thumbs up button below and
subscribe to the channel to see more Google product related videos and six
months later reviews like this one. well that'll do it for me,
I'm Josh Teder for 6 Months Later, thanks for watching.