Google Nest Hub Review

Video Review

Take a look at the Google Nest Hub in action while Gabe Turner puts it to the test.

Design of the Google Nest Hub

The Google Nest Hub plugs in via a 1.5-meter power cable. It’s available in sand, mist, chalk, or charcoal, which is a nice little array of options. It’ll connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and its screen is seven inches, making it a fine addition to your nightstand, but not really a substitute for even a laptop when it comes to actually watching content. So, if you want to skip the screen altogether, you might want to head over to my review of the Google Nest Mini instead.

The ambient EQ feature uses a light sensor to automatically adjust both screen brightness and color temperature to match your room’s lighting. This makes photos look natural whether it’s bright daylight or dim evening light. Next to the sensor, it has two microphones enabling two-way audio, as I said, but if you want to turn the mics off, you can do so through a physical control on the back of the hub.

The back also contains a button to control the volume, an up switch and a down switch. If you hold down both, you can easily reset the device. Finally, on the back of the Google Nest Hub you have the power port. As the hub connects over Wi-Fi, you won’t need an ethernet adapter. The bottom of the Google Nest Hub is made out of rubber, preventing it from sliding around.

Installing the Google Nest Hub

Installing the Google Nest Hub is super simple. All you need to do is plug it in, download the Google Home app, and follow the setup instructions. From the outset, I will state that it takes fewer than 10 minutes to go through the entire Google Nest Hub installation process, but the real time will be spent in setting up your home routines and ensuring your connected objects are well…connected.

Features of the Google Nest Hub

One of the biggest draws of the Google Nest Hub is that it comes with Google Assistant. Just say “Hey Google” or “OK Google” and you’re ready to control your smart home with over 10,000 tasks and commands. You can get answers to questions, manage your daily schedule, and a whole lot more. Now, I can’t talk about every single task the Assistant can do for you, but here’s a general overview.

Music

The Nest Hub lets you play music via YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon Music, or Deezer. There are plenty more services you can connect as well. If you use YouTube Music, the kids can sing along to their favorite songs with the Nest Hub’s on-screen lyrics.

Video

Unfortunately, as we mentioned up top, you can’t make video calls with the Nest Hub. You’ll need the Nest Hub Max for that. But you can stream TV and movies through YouTube, Netflix, Max, Hulu, Sling, CBS All Access, Disney+, and more. The only issue here is screen size. Even for kitchen streaming, the Nest Hub’s 7-inch display is kind of puny. You can get used to it, but if you’re looking for something more tablet-sized, then the Nest Hub Max would probably be a better fit. Read our complete Nest Hub Max review for our experience testing the Max.

That said, if all you want to do is watch the news while cooking or getting ready for work, or you want to stream an episode here and there, the Nest Hub will get the job done.

Photo Frame

Photo Frame transforms your Nest Hub into a slideshow of your favorite pictures. It pulls photos from your Google Photos albums and displays them in a continuous slideshow. All you have to do is select the ones you want to see. You can also customize what’s displayed with options to show you the weather and air quality, or to flash banner notifications of upcoming calendar events.

Smart Automations

This is where the Nest Hub gets interesting. There are plenty of neat, old-school automations you can set. Like morning routines. “Tell me about the weather, tell me about today’s events, play the news.” You can get the Assistant to do that for you by adding a trigger like “Hey Google. Good morning.”

But if you’ve jumped on the smart automation bandwagon, the Nest Hub also lets you “turn on the lights” and “turn up the heat,” depending on what kind of smart devices you’ve installed in your home. You can even integrate the Nest Hub with smart security systems to better secure your smart home against intruders. There are literally thousands of possibilities here.

It’s thrilling that all 2nd-generation Nest Hubs now have full Matter support. Matter has quickly become the industry standard, with over 1,000 certified products already available.1What this means is that any new smart device you buy should be compatible with your home hub of choice and can be controlled via any OS you happen to be using. Like I said, big news.

Google Shopping

Google Shopping on the Nest Hub lets you browse and purchase products using voice commands or the touchscreen. The feature integrates with your Google account to show personalized recommendations based on your search history and past purchases. You can say things like “Hey Google, order more paper towels” and it’ll pull up your usual paper towel brand.

If you’re fully committed to the Google ecosystem, the big G knows all about you courtesy of your mammoth search history, so voice shopping could be neat. If you’re a sporadic user, or prefer your privacy, it’ll probably be a hodgepodge of cordless vacuum cleaners, LED strip lighting, and mini pizza oven offers your brother-in-law sent you last Christmas.

Google’s Customer Support

If you need help with your Google Nest Hub, check out their online help center first. But if you want to talk to someone, you can do it over the phone, through Facebook messenger, Twitter, or live chat. I like that they have so many ways to contact them, but let’s see what customers had to say.

On Google, the Google Mountain View headquarters maintains a 4.2 rating with over 9,500 reviews. Of course I can’t read them all, but the reviews are really varied. Some are about the campus itself, some are from business owners who are angry that Google won’t take down their negative reviews, some are from people trying to get their personal information deleted from Google, and some are about customer support. Also, Google has such a wide variety of products and services, so this wasn’t the best place to look for customer support reviews.

Unfortunately, the Google Nest Hub isn’t sold on Amazon, so I couldn’t look there either.