Ecobee (5th Gen) review: Smart thermostat with Alexa voice control
Our Verdict
Ecobee has beefed up Alexa and the speaker quality in the company's newest smart thermostat.
For
- Better speaker
- Total Alexa support
- Improved remote sensors
- Works with Spotify
Against
- Big
- Big bezel
- Not as attractive as Nest thermostats
Tom'south Guide Verdict
Ecobee has beefed up Alexa and the speaker quality in the company's newest smart thermostat.
Pros
- +
Better speaker
- +
Full Alexa support
- +
Improved remote sensors
- +
Works with Spotify
Cons
- -
Large
- -
Large bezel
- -
Not as bonny as Nest thermostats
The Ecobee4 was one of the beginning all-time Alexa compatible devices that wasn't a smart speaker first. It was a clever idea, one that several other companies accept adopted.
Notwithstanding, that thermostat lacked some of Alexa's core functions, and the speaker wasn't all that bully. Ecobee has fixed both problems with the Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control — yeah, I wish they but called it the Ecobee5 — and the company added a few more features, also. As the meridian shelf pick of the best smart thermostats with Alexa built in, this Ecobee (fifth gen) review explains why it's the one to get.
Editor'south annotation (Oct. 2021): This review has been updated to reflect the fact that the Ecobee SmartThermostat at present works with Siri.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Price and availability
The Ecobee SmartThermostat was first released in June 2019. Its price and so — equally information technology is now — is $249, though you can often find it on sale.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Alexa features
Similar nigh tertiary-political party Alexa devices, the Ecobee4 didn't back up Alexa calling, messaging or Drop-In. The new Ecobee SmartThermostat, however, includes all those features. That's a welcome improvement, which will brand this device more handy when you're calling the family unit to dinner.
When you wake Alexa, a blue bar on the top of the Ecobee lights upwards, awaiting your control. Fifty-fifty with music playing through the Ecobee, I was able to speak in a conversational voice from 15 anxiety away and still accept Alexa hear me and interpret my vox correctly.
However, I'm surprised that Ecobee hasn't developed a smart thermostat with Google Assistant congenital in. I get that it's not piece of cake — Sonos took a year to effigy this out — only I would hope that information technology's on Ecobee'southward road map.
However, you tin pair the Ecobee with Google Assistant (it's one of the all-time Google Home compatible devices). It's one of the best Homekit devices, and is IFTTT and SmartThings uniform, as well.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Siri compatibility
An update to the SmartThermostat in October 2021 added back up for Apple's assistant Siri. Still, it works a bit differently than with Alexa. Unlike Amazon'southward assistant, which is built into the thermostat itself, all Siri commands spoken to the thermostat accept to get routed to a HomePod or a HomePod mini on the same network.
Setup is fairly straightforward and should only take a few minutes, though you have to disable Alexa in club to employ Siri. In my case, I had to detach and reattach the Ecobee from my wall to get things finally working, but this shouldn't be the case for most users.
In one case up and running, Siri responded promptly to my commands when I spoke to the thermostat. Cleverly, the LED bar at the top of the Ecobee, which lights up blue when using Alexa, instead turns a variety of colors similar to the top of the HomePod mini.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Audio
The speaker on the Ecobee4 was pretty tinny, so other than asking Alexa questions, you didn't want to practice annihilation else with it. The Ecobee SmartThermostat'southward speaker is a fleck beefier, making this a passable entertainment device. Information technology's on a par with a very adept clock radio or somewhere between the 2d- and third-generation Repeat Dot. You're not going to use this thermostat to entertain guests at a political party, merely it's good for playing music in the background while you're doing something else, like cooking or reading a book.
Ecobee as well added Spotify support; Spotify joins Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and SiriusXM as music services supported past the thermostat, a very welcome addition.
The new remote sensor has a slightly smaller design, improved battery life (up to five years) and a longer range (up to sixty feet).
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: New remote sensor
Alexa is overnice and all, just the best parts of Ecobee'south thermostats accept been the remote sensors, which can notice both temperature and occupancy. With these, you lot can practise some pretty smart things, like tell the thermostat to brand sure even the coldest parts of your house get warm, but only if at that place are people in that area.
The new sensor, one of which comes with the SmartThermostat, has a slightly smaller design, improved battery life (upwards to five years, thank you to a much larger battery) and a longer range (up to 60 feet from the thermostat). The latter improvement is especially handy for me; when I tried to put the previous sensor in my attic, information technology went out of range of the thermostat. I had no such problems with the new sensor. You lot can buy additional sensors in a pack of two for $79, and older sensors are too uniform with the new thermostat.
The Ecobee now supports both ii.4- and 5-GHz Wi-Fi, which is dainty but not a huge deal. On your home network, devices, similar the Ecobee, that require little bandwidth should be relegated to the 2.iv-GHz network. Devices, such as streaming sticks, that require greater throughput should be assigned to the 5-GHz network.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Design
While its face up is now glass instead of plastic, the newest Ecobee smart thermostat looks the aforementioned equally 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 dainty divergence from Nest Learning Thermostat's circular design.
Over the years, though, I think the look of the Nest has held up better than that of the Ecobee. For ane, the Nest is more compact, and there's much less of a bezel around its display. On the Ecobee, it now just feels similar there's a lot of wasted space.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Security monitoring
Since the launch of the Ecobee SmartThermostat, the company has expanded its offerings to include the Ecobee SmartCamera, a home security camera with Alexa built in. The SmartCamera has a 180-caste field of view and tin can digitally zoom in and track individuals.
The Ecobee SmartThermostat can exist integrated with the camera in a number of means. For starters, the camera has a thermometer built in, so it can be used every bit a remote sensor for the thermostat. Additionally, when the SmartThermostat enters Abroad mode, it can send a betoken to the camera to actuate. To enable these features, as well as save deject recordings of videos, you'll demand to subscribe to Ecobee Oasis, which starts at $5 per month.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Energy-saving features
Similar to Nest, Ecobee uses the sensors in its thermostat to detect if yous're home and so conform the temperature accordingly. I only wish that you lot could necktie the Ecobee's Habitation and Abroad states to other smart home devices, as y'all can with the Works with Nest program.
MORE: All-time Smart Thermosta
Ecobee'southward other smart characteristic is called Follow Me, which takes advantage of the device's remote sensors to detect which rooms people are in then adjust heating and cooling accordingly.
Ecobee SmartThermostat review: Verdict
The Ecobee SmartThermostat improves nicely upon the two core features of its predecessor. I like that it at present has the full functionality of Alexa paired with a improve speaker and that its remote sensor has a ameliorate range. I wish it had Google Banana congenital in, though.
If you're in the market place for a smart thermostat and use Alexa a lot, then y'all'll want to check 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 best options for you.
The changes that Ecobee made to its latest smart thermostat aren't radical, simply they are welcome. Now, about that name ...
Credit: Tom's Guide
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/ecobee5-smart-thermostat,review-6529.html
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