Ecobee (5th Gen) review: Smart thermostat with Alexa voice control
Our Verdict
Ecobee has beefed up Alexa and the speaker quality in the company'due south newest smart thermostat.
For
- Improve speaker
- Full Alexa support
- Improved remote sensors
- Works with Spotify
Against
- Large
- Large bezel
- Not as bonny as Nest thermostats
Tom'south Guide Verdict
Ecobee has beefed upwards Alexa and the speaker quality in the company's newest smart thermostat.
Pros
- +
Improve speaker
- +
Full Alexa support
- +
Improved remote sensors
- +
Works with Spotify
Cons
- -
Large
- -
Large bezel
- -
Non equally attractive equally Nest thermostats
The Ecobee4 was one of the kickoff best Alexa uniform devices that wasn't a smart speaker first. It was a clever idea, i that several other companies accept adopted.
However, that thermostat lacked some of Alexa'south core functions, and the speaker wasn't all that bully. Ecobee has stock-still both issues with the Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control — yes, I wish they simply chosen it the Ecobee5 — and the company added a few more features, too. As the top shelf pick of the all-time smart thermostats with Alexa congenital in, this Ecobee (5th gen) review explains why information technology's the ane to become.
Editor'southward note (Oct. 2021): This review has been updated to reflect the fact that the Ecobee SmartThermostat at present works with Siri.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Cost and availability
The Ecobee SmartThermostat was first released in June 2019. Its cost then — as it is now — is $249, though you tin can often find it on auction.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Alexa features
Like almost tertiary-political party Alexa devices, the Ecobee4 didn't support Alexa calling, messaging or Drop-In. The new Ecobee SmartThermostat, however, includes all those features. That's a welcome comeback, which will make this device more than handy when you're calling the family to dinner.
When you lot wake Alexa, a blue bar on the top of the Ecobee lights up, pending your control. Fifty-fifty with music playing through the Ecobee, I was able to speak in a conversational voice from 15 feet away and nevertheless have Alexa hear me and translate my voice correctly.
However, I'm surprised that Ecobee hasn't developed a smart thermostat with Google Banana built in. I get that it'south not easy — Sonos took a year to figure this out — merely I would hope that it's on Ecobee'southward road map.
Still, you tin pair the Ecobee with Google Assistant (it'south i of the best Google Dwelling house compatible devices). It's ane of the best Homekit devices, and is IFTTT and SmartThings compatible, too.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Siri compatibility
An update to the SmartThermostat in October 2021 added support for Apple tree'southward assistant Siri. Notwithstanding, it works a chip differently than with Alexa. Unlike Amazon's banana, which is congenital into the thermostat itself, all Siri commands spoken to the thermostat take to become routed to a HomePod or a HomePod mini on the same network.
Setup is adequately straightforward and should only accept a few minutes, though you have to disable Alexa in order to use Siri. In my case, I had to disassemble and reattach the Ecobee from my wall to get things finally working, but this shouldn't be the case for virtually users.
Once up and running, Siri responded promptly to my commands when I spoke to the thermostat. Cleverly, the LED bar at the summit of the Ecobee, which lights up blueish when using Alexa, instead turns a variety of colors like to the top of the HomePod mini.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Audio
The speaker on the Ecobee4 was pretty tinny, then other than asking Alexa questions, you didn't want to exercise anything else with it. The Ecobee SmartThermostat's speaker is a bit beefier, making this a passable entertainment device. It's on a par with a very adept clock radio or somewhere between the second- and 3rd-generation Echo Dot. You're not going to use this thermostat to entertain guests at a party, only it's expert for playing music in the background while you're doing something else, similar cooking or reading a book.
Ecobee likewise added Spotify back up; Spotify joins Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and SiriusXM as music services supported by the thermostat, a very welcome addition.
The new remote sensor has a slightly smaller design, improved bombardment life (up to five years) and a longer range (upwardly to sixty feet).
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: New remote sensor
Alexa is overnice and all, but the all-time parts of Ecobee's thermostats have been the remote sensors, which can detect both temperature and occupancy. With these, you can do some pretty smart things, like tell the thermostat to make sure even the coldest parts of your business firm become warm, simply but if in that location are people in that area.
The new sensor, one of which comes with the SmartThermostat, has a slightly smaller design, improved battery life (upwardly to v years, thanks to a much larger battery) and a longer range (upwards to 60 feet from the thermostat). The latter comeback is particularly handy for me; when I tried to put the previous sensor in my attic, it went out of range of the thermostat. I had no such issues with the new sensor. You can purchase additional sensors in a pack of two for $79, and older sensors are also compatible with the new thermostat.
The Ecobee at present supports both 2.four- and 5-GHz Wi-Fi, which is nice merely not a huge deal. On your home network, devices, like the Ecobee, that require fiddling bandwidth should be relegated to the two.4-GHz network. Devices, such as streaming sticks, that require greater throughput should be assigned to the five-GHz network.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Blueprint
While its face is now glass instead of plastic, the newest Ecobee smart thermostat looks the same every bit previous versions: a square with rounded corners and a rectangular touch screen in the heart. When the Ecobee debuted, I idea its design was a nice divergence from Nest Learning Thermostat's circular design.
Over the years, though, I call up the expect of the Nest has held upwardly better than that of the Ecobee. For one, the Nest is more meaty, and in that location'south much less of a bezel around its brandish. On the Ecobee, it now just feels like at that place'southward a lot of wasted infinite.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Security monitoring
Since the launch of the Ecobee SmartThermostat, the company has expanded its offerings to include the Ecobee SmartCamera, a habitation security photographic camera with Alexa congenital in. The SmartCamera has a 180-degree field of view and can digitally zoom in and track individuals.
The Ecobee SmartThermostat tin exist integrated with the camera in a number of ways. For starters, the photographic camera has a thermometer built in, then it can be used as a remote sensor for the thermostat. Additionally, when the SmartThermostat enters Away mode, it can send a signal to the camera to activate. To enable these features, every bit well as salve deject recordings of videos, you'll need to subscribe to Ecobee Oasis, which starts at $5 per calendar month.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Energy-saving features
Similar to Nest, Ecobee uses the sensors in its thermostat to detect if yous're dwelling house and so adjust the temperature appropriately. I merely wish that yous could tie the Ecobee's Home and Away states to other smart home devices, as y'all tin with the Works with Nest program.
MORE: Best Smart Thermosta
Ecobee'southward other smart feature is called Follow Me, which takes advantage of the device's remote sensors to observe which rooms people are in and then arrange heating and cooling accordingly.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Verdict
The Ecobee SmartThermostat improves nicely upon the two core features of its predecessor. I like that information technology at present has the full functionality of Alexa paired with a better speaker and that its remote sensor has a better range. I wish information technology had Google Assistant congenital in, though.
If you're in the marketplace for a smart thermostat and use Alexa a lot, then you'll want to cheque out the Ecobee SmartThermostat. If you're an occasional Alexa user, the older Ecobee4 should suffice. And if you don't use Amazon's assistant at all, so the Ecobee3 Lite or the Nest are the all-time options for you.
The changes that Ecobee made to its latest smart thermostat aren't radical, but they are welcome. At present, nigh that name ...
Credit: Tom's Guide
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/ecobee5-smart-thermostat,review-6529.html
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