It looks like Google couldn’t wait until Thursday to announce all of its upcoming hardware. In a couple of blog posts this morningthe company announced two additions to its Nest line of smart home products: a new Nest Doorbell and the Nest WiFi Pro.
The latter bolsters the company’s dead-simple mesh Wi-Fi offering. The main feature here is the addition of Wi-Fi 6E. The “E” there is short for “extended,” a reference to the new 6GHz radio band, which promises speeds “up to two times faster” than standard Wi-Fi 6.
Furthermore, the core of the product remains: an ultra-simple installation. Google has done a great job of removing some of the most annoying things about setting up Wi-Fi for home use. The new hardware keeps up with that, putting the Google Home app at the center of the process and promising that everything can be up and running in ‘minutes’.
Once installed, the app can run speed tests, share passwords, and continue to monitor the network for potential issues. The system will alert you if a connection problem occurs and guide you through the process towards a solution. There are also a number of family-friendly features on board, including content blocking and Wi-Fi scheduling for kids.
The router is made from 60% recycled content by weight and comes in four pastel colors, as part of Google’s effort to make home networking devices a little less ugly. A one-pack is $200, the two-pack is $300, and the three-pack is $400 — the latter of which is designed to cover up to 6,000 square feet. Pre-orders start today and the system will ship on October 27.
There is also a new version of the Nest Doorbell. The second-generation wired product stores an hour’s worth of “key events” locally in the event of a Wi-Fi outage. The camera has been enhanced with HDR support for different lighting conditions. That’s available today, starting at $180.
Image Credits: google
That’s all because the company is announcing a long-awaited redesign of the Home app, in parallel with the release of the Matter 1.0 standard. The new app offers quick Matter pairing, which will appear as an update to its smart speakers, displays and older routers. There are also new customization options on board, as group product manager Anish Kattukaran points out:
For me, it’s important to make sure our doors are locked and watch our security cameras, while my wife loves quick access to the thermostat. Favorites let you set your own personal view of the devices, actions, and automations that matter most. And this also means you can favorite all of your Nest cameras, so you can watch your live streams right when the app opens, with no extra taps.
There will also be an update to the Wear OS version of the app after the Pixel Watch hits the market.
