- You can breathe easy as Johnson Controls and Microsoft
have finally released a Glas Thermostat.
Today I'll tell you whether or not
this 320-dollar device is worthy of your home.
Stay tuned.
Alright, before we get started,
let's talk a little bit about the price
and the demographic for this device.
So this costs $319, which is around $70
more than the ecobee4 and the latest from Nest,
and this is more for the discerning home user
who wants, well, a new design, and let's be honest here,
this is one of the coolest designs for a thermostat.
In fact, I don't think I ever thought once in my life
I would do a video and talk about how cool a thermostat is,
but this one gets the award for,
but this is really geared towards people who
have an upper respiratory disorder, allergies, or asthma,
and otherwise, if you're just a regular homeowner,
well, this may not be the device for you.
The first thing we need to talk about is that touchscreen.
It's a 5.9 inch OLED touchscreen
that has a resolution of 480 by 272 pixels.
That's at the highest resolution,
but let's talk about the technology behind this thing.
When was the last time we saw a translucent OLED display?
And it is stunning, now I'll be honest,
if you're watching this video,
you're probably not gonna be that impressed by it,
but in person, this is a really stunning display.
It even has a very good brightness control,
and it can get super bright.
This is also running Windows 10 IoT Core.
Yes, this is a actual version of Windows,
and it's kinda neat when it does a system update,
you get the old-school cogs that you
Windows Phone users may be familiar with.
That also means this runs an operating system, technically,
and can be updated, and part of the out-of-a-box experience,
well, it did need to do an update.
It went a little bit slower than I had thought,
but that is actually a benefit here, too.
Now, because it runs Windows 10 IoT Core,
that means it can be updated in
the future with new features.
In fact, we're expecting some later this year.
In terms of installation, this feels very similar
to ecobee or Nest, if you've used those before.
It's a really nice out-of-box experience,
and they include a lot of stuff you'll need here,
including a seal that goes on the back of the device,
all the screws, and a really big backplate if you need it.
I have mine installed with a backplate,
but I'll probably take it off after this
to paint up my walls and get a cleaner look as well.
Now, one of the things that I'm really impressed with,
and it's definitely included in higher cost, is,
this includes a C-Wire Adapter.
If you don't know what that is,
it's for systems that are older,
and older homes have AC or heating systems,
you may need to have to connect up
to it directly in order for this to work.
The setup was pretty basic, it took me around 45 minutes,
taking my time, and I really don't have
any complaints about it.
Alright, so what can this device actually do that's unique?
Well it comes down to measuring air quality,
both in your home and outside of it.
What you need to know is,
this is measuring compounds in the air in your home,
as well as the relative CO2 and humidity,
and it gives you a measurement
of the air quality in your home.
Now, if you don't have asthma or
a upper respiratory disorder,
this may not be a big deal for you,
but it's still kinda cool to see.
I'm happy to see my own home.
It's between excellent and very good, so that works for me.
You can also see things outdoors,
like outdoor allergens, air quality index, and a UV index,
so that's also very good for those with health issues
or just want to know, do you need sunscreen
for that day, and all this works very well.
The design of the UI here is very cool-looking.
It's very simple, it's a touchscreen,
the OS itself is very responsive.
You can do other things, too.
Obviously setting the temperature is
switching between hot and cool or auto,
and doing things like Auto Fan,
But there are some other smart features here
as well that I was really happy to see,
including Smart Ventilation, Arrival Anticipation,
and Pre-Start, so these are all features
that basically help your system run better.
For instance, if your air quality indoors
is very good or excellent,
the system won't auto-run your fan every hour,
because your air quality is very good.
Conversely, if your air's a little bit dirty on the inside,
this thing will run the fan
automatically to better clean it.
Now, one of the things that is
missing here is a remote sensor.
So one of the favorite things I had with ecobee
and I used a lot is that it ships with a little tiny sensor,
and you can buy more of these to place into your rooms,
because if you have a large home,
the temperature's not gonna be even throughout the house,
and if you have zoned heating or air conditioning,
you use those sensors to allow the system to operate.
This doesn't have it, but I do hear that Johnson Controls
will be coming out with sensors at a later time
and that would make it a more interesting buy,
but if you rely on zone heating, well,
this may not be your solution, at least right now.
Now, one of the big features here is
that it supports Cortana directly,
and I have to admit, it actually works very well.
In fact, I've never seen Cortana work
this fast before on any system.
It's just very rapid, it responds to your voice commands.
You can say, and I'm sorry if I'm
gonna activate your system, hey Cortana, or Car-tana,
and it just translates very, very quickly
and responds to those actions faster than I've ever seen.
Hey Cortana, is it supposed to rain tomorrow?
- [Cortana] No, doesn't look like it.
The forecast for tomorrow shows mostly cloudy skies
with a high of 70 and a low of 56.
- And the good news for those of you
who have Amazon Alexa or Google Home usage,
you can connect up the Glas Thermostat as a skill
and control it directly through your apps that way, as well.
So that means, yes, I can use my
Amazon Echo at home to control the thermostat,
or the thermostat itself can listen to me through Cortana.
Now, for those of you on Windows 10,
you just use Cortana to control the thermostat,
but if you're using Android or iOS,
there is an app you could download,
and it's actually a pretty solid app.
It didn't crash on me, it ran very well,
and it looks great too.
It actually completely mirrors what's
on the thermostat, which is really clever.
I do have to admit, though, there is a bit of a latency
between the first time you launch the app,
a cold start, and it actually connects to your thermostat.
That can be a little frustrating,
but also I had, at least once,
the thermostat itself disconnect from WiFi.
We've seen these things before with Nest and ecobee as well.
These are some early bugs, I think,
that need to be worked out, but overall,
the system was pretty stable,
and I give the apps a pretty high rating,
at least out the door.
Alright, let's bring it all in,
and what do I think of the Glas Thermostat?
Well, I'm actually really impressed.
Like I said, I've been using ecobee for a long time.
I've had a Nest before, as well,
so I'm very familiar with those systems,
and honestly, it's gonna be the look of this thing
that's the big selling point, at least for myself.
It just looks really cool,
but I don't love everything about it.
For instance, it does have a sensor to detect your presence.
Otherwise, though, it shuts off when it's not being used,
and that's a smart thing to do.
It is an OLED display, so they don't wanna necessarily
get screen burn-in, but what it also means is,
I have to be really close to this thing before it turns on,
meanwhile, ecobee and Nest basically detect
your presence as you're walking towards it.
I'll love to see them tweak this and in theory, they should.
Like I said, this is running an actual operating system,
so they should be able to tweak that
and give users a setting.
I'll like to see it a little bit more aggressive there.
There's also not a ton of smart features here
that other thermostats currently don't have.
The real big selling point here is gonna be
the air quality index stuff and the ability
to measure the volatile compounds.
I don't really wanna dismiss that.
For some people with health concerns,
this is a really big deal.
Also, I wanna talk about the company behind this.
Johnson Controls has been around since the 1800s.
In fact, they're the first company
to actually make a home thermostat,
and, well, it's kinda neat because
you're not investing some fly-by-night company here.
This is a company that's been around for a very long time,
they're very huge, and it's clear to me
they can really innovate around this area.
This is a really neat thermostat,
but what I'm really more interested in is
what this thing is going to be capable of in the future.
Like I said, this actually runs IoT,
it has a motherboard on it,
it has all sorts of chips and sensors,
and it runs a version of Windows 10.
That means, yes, it does get over-the-air updates,
and it can, at any time, add new features and tweak things.
That makes this device very interesting for the future,
because I'm really curious what other things
they can add to it and improve to it,
including smart home features.
Now, using Cortana or Alexa, you can use this to
control other things in your home,
and that's really useful too,
and for those of you who don't use Cortana,
well, it's a complete option.
You don't even need to install or enable it,
but you can use your current Alexa
or Google Home stuff to control it.
Overall, though, the price is pretty significant at $319.
Like I said, it's about $70 more than the competition and,
unless you don't need those things
or you don't want a really cool-looking thermostat,
you're probably better served getting an ecobee,
which has, in my opinion, a better system
that's set up, at this time, but let's keep an eye on this.
I think this is a really cool device and,
considering this is their first one out the gate,
this is more like ecobee2 level,
and they've already got a lot right.
So let's see what they have for the future.
I should also point out,
this is only United States availability right now.
Hopefully that'll change in the future.
Alright, so there's a quick look at the Glas Thermostat,
and if you want more information about this device,
make sure you go to the description below.
We'll have a few links there.
If I left anything out, leave me a question,
we'll see about maybe doing a follow-up to this
if there's a lot of interest.
Otherwise, give us a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching, take care everyone.