**Thermostat Showdown: Amazon vs. Google**

In this article, we will pit two popular smart thermostat options against each other: Amazon's Echo Thermostat and Google's Nest (formerly known as Nest Learning Thermostat). We'll delve into their features, functionality, and user experience to determine which one reigns supreme.

**Amazon Echo Thermostat Test 1: Click-Heavy Interface**

Our first test involved creating a schedule for the thermostat. We started by opening the Amazon app on our device, navigating to the "Settings" tab, and selecting "Create Schedule". Then, we added two blocks of time and set them with precise times using the scroll tap method. We repeated this process three more times to create multiple schedules and save the changes. The total number of clicks required was 18. While the interface may seem click-heavy at first, it's surprisingly intuitive once you get the hang of it. Once you're already on the schedule, only four clicks are needed to complete the process.

**Amazon Echo Thermostat Test 2: Geofencing**

Next, we put both thermostats through a geofencing test. We set up a camera in our car and left for a few miles with both devices. To our surprise, neither thermostat worked as expected. We reached out to Amazon's customer support team and found that the infrared sensor might have been detecting the camera person, rather than the actual temperature changes. Google's Nest, on the other hand, uses hunches and ropes in information from other smart speakers, but we couldn't confirm whether it was working correctly.

**Thermostat Experience: Voice Controls and Physical Controls**

We switched gears and put both thermostats through their paces when it comes to changing temperatures using voice controls or physical controls. Both devices proved intuitive, with the Amazon Echo Thermostat's physical controls being more functional and less clunky than expected. The Nest thermostat, however, had a weird dial that was not very user-friendly.

**Routines and Smart Home Integration**

Both thermostats can be added to grouped commands called "routines" or "scenes". This allows users to set up custom schedules and save energy with just one voice command. For example, you can say "Goodnight" to your smart speaker, and the lights will turn off while your thermostat turns down the temperature.

**The Verdict: Amazon Echo Thermostat**

In the end, we declared the Amazon Echo Thermostat the winner of our showdown. While both devices were very close in terms of features and functionality, Amazon's device was just slightly cheaper and more intuitive to use. If you're smart assistant agnostic or prefer not to have a Google-centric ecosystem, the Amazon Echo Thermostat is an excellent choice.

**Amazon vs. Google: Which One is Right for You?**

Ultimately, the best thermostat for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. If you already have a smart home built around Google Assistant, Google's Nest might be the better choice. However, if you're looking for an affordable and easy-to-use thermostat that complements your existing setup without being tied to a particular brand, Amazon's Echo Thermostat is an excellent option.

**Thermostat Tips: Sleeping and Energy Efficiency**

We also took a moment to discuss our personal preferences when it comes to thermostats. Specifically, we talked about our preference for sleeping in a chilly environment, which some might find unusual. We also discussed the idea that people often overlook how common it is to sleep with the thermostat set low, but may feel self-conscious about doing so due to societal norms.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, our comparison of Amazon's Echo Thermostat and Google's Nest has come to an end. Both devices offer impressive features, intuitive interfaces, and seamless integration with their respective ecosystems. While neither device is perfect, we believe that the Amazon Echo Thermostat offers a slight edge in terms of affordability and user experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhy pay big money for a smart thermostat when a cheap one can do the trick hold on to your dollars we are comparing two affordable smart thermostats from amazon and wise to find out which one is the best one for you so you're probably wondering what do i get if i pay more for a smart thermostat and the answer is mostly that it's gonna look nicer our favorites from companies like nest and ecobee are definitely purty but you do get some features as well ecobee has a built-in voice assistant you can usually get some remote sensors for different rooms and it used to be that you had to pay up to get smarts at all the 200 plus high-end models were also the baseline not anymore now in fact you have two good options for less than 100 bucks the amazon smart thermostat is 60 and the wise thermostat is 71 but i'm guessing you don't need two different thermostats in your home unless you like collecting oddly shaped paper weights so which one is the best or more specifically which one is the best for you we're going to find out we'll go through the basics and the features of each and then we'll put those features to the test by seeing how easy it is to create a schedule in each of them and then how well geofencing works so that the thermostats can act on their own then we'll put it all together and name a winner let's go all right the basics i mentioned the prices above but with amazon you have to pay extra if you need a c wire adapter it's included with wise note the adapter is for if your system doesn't have a c wire it means your hvac system is a little older and it means you're going to need an adapter and a little bit more installation time regardless of which model you pick for amazon the adapter is an extra 30 on its own or you can pay 75 up front for both the thermostat and the adapter instead of 60. you can save some money by knowing whether you need the adapter before you order but note that if you need the adapter amazon's thermostat is actually more expensive than wise get them installed and you get what you expect from a smart thermostat they both have physical controls you can control them with an app both respond to voice commands amazon only works with the company's own assistant wise works with google assistant as well as amazon neither works with homekit and siri both let you create schedules both have a version of geofencing so you can change the temperature when you come and go both use your phone's location for that and amazon also uses a feature called hunches which is where its assistant tries to proactively anticipate what you need and that's it given the similar set of features it sure looks like wise has an advantage given that it includes an adapter and is compatible with google assistant but let's see how they both hold up once we start to use them test number one scheduling let's see how easy it is to create a schedule for each thermostat using the app we'll actually tally the number of taps it takes and we'll throw some anecdotal notes in there about how intuitive the process is for each for both i'm going to set a sleep schedule on saturday and sunday let's say i'll sleep from midnight to 10 am and like it chilly let's do amazon first because the alphabet starting with the amazon app open click the devices tab at the bottom then the thermostats category then the specific thermostat three taps but now we're actually at the device from here hit the gear icon and then thermostat schedule now tap use thermostat schedule weirdly you can't use a set schedule and geofencing amazon uses its own proactive hunches for changing the temp most of the time this is you saying no no i want to do it six total taps so far now notice the days at the bottom of the screen it already has some standard time set for most days let's adjust the weekend specifically tap the s on the right for saturday tap the set sleep time and let's move it to midnight tap the time and scroll tap save now i'm not waking up until 10 tap the bs 8 am time tap again and scroll to 10 save i'll delete this superfluous 5 pm event delete now the schedule is set so i hit copy schedule to another day tap sunday tap save and we're done 12 clicks once i'm already on the schedule 15 once i'm at the device and 18 overall not counting the scrolling so it's click heavy but intuitive enough with wise you can see the device right away tap it then the gear icon schedule create schedule tap the s and s now we add a block sleep scroll to set the time and save add the second block scroll to 10 am save then you need to hit save once again to bank the whole thing and that's it wise does win this one with fewer clicks only four clicks before you're actually creating a schedule and eight from there for a grand total of 12 again not counting the scrolling it's straightforward simple but not really that much less than amazon especially if you like having those default options in there to start so you don't need to insert everything yourself test number two geofencing let's see which one works better and more reliably we started with wise we set up a cam on the thermostat and with us in the car and took off with a logged on phone nothing happened we reached out to the company and found out the infrared sensor might have been detecting the camera person fair enough round two no cam on the thermostat just us in the car nothing we tried with amazon and we just started by leaving with no camera thermostat since it uses hunches and it ropes in info from other smart speakers and whatnot we reached out to amazon 2 to confirm that and still nothing so it's possible there's still more going on under the hood we went several miles with both tests which should be enough if you live in a city you might work closer than five miles to your home and we went well beyond that without access to reliable triggers we're sticking a fork in this one and calling it a draw and finally let's talk about what it's like to just use the thermostats changing the temperature with the app or with voice controls is intuitive for both you can raise and lower the temp with your voice or you can set a specific temp both can be added to your grouped commands called routines so say goodnight to your smart speaker and the lights will turn off while your thermostat turns it to that perfect level of chili so you have a great excuse to nestle under a pile of blankets they differentiate when you want to use the device itself the amazon thermostat has fine physical controls they're functional they're basic but the why is thermostats clunky the dial is weird and not all that intuitive which is surprising why is normally nails the basics and this probably isn't that big of a deal you're gonna be using the app you're gonna be using your voice but sometimes you like to press things or turn things and amazon makes that better than once but given how close they are in the tests it's enough for us to give the overall victory in this close battle to the amazon thermostat both are great options if you need an affordable smart thermostat but amazon's device is just that much cheaper especially if you have a modern hvac system and it's that much more intuitive to use now the best for you might still be wise if you have a smart home built around google assistant consider watts if you don't have a modern hvac system and you really want the cheapest option for your setup consider wise if you want a smart thermostat that kind of complements you with its very name that also be was but if you're smart assistant agnostic or you lean amazon yeah this is your pick it's actually cnet's editor's choice winner for best affordable smart thermostat so pick this one up save some money and you're going to get just about all the same features as if you were paying twice as much thank you very much for watching please hit that thumbs up button if you enjoyed the video and subscribe to cnet's youtube channel for more check out the links below in the description if you want to see the full written cnet reviews of each of these thermostats and we've also included links to retailers and comment below to let me know if you think i'm a weirdo for liking it really chilly when i sleep or comment to let me know if you think it's weird that i think it's weird to sleep while it's chilly because of how common that is or comment below if you think it's weird that i think it's weird that i'm calling it weird that you might think it's weird about the whole sleeping thing and or you can comment to let me know if we made the right pick about thermostats you do you thanks for watchingwhy pay big money for a smart thermostat when a cheap one can do the trick hold on to your dollars we are comparing two affordable smart thermostats from amazon and wise to find out which one is the best one for you so you're probably wondering what do i get if i pay more for a smart thermostat and the answer is mostly that it's gonna look nicer our favorites from companies like nest and ecobee are definitely purty but you do get some features as well ecobee has a built-in voice assistant you can usually get some remote sensors for different rooms and it used to be that you had to pay up to get smarts at all the 200 plus high-end models were also the baseline not anymore now in fact you have two good options for less than 100 bucks the amazon smart thermostat is 60 and the wise thermostat is 71 but i'm guessing you don't need two different thermostats in your home unless you like collecting oddly shaped paper weights so which one is the best or more specifically which one is the best for you we're going to find out we'll go through the basics and the features of each and then we'll put those features to the test by seeing how easy it is to create a schedule in each of them and then how well geofencing works so that the thermostats can act on their own then we'll put it all together and name a winner let's go all right the basics i mentioned the prices above but with amazon you have to pay extra if you need a c wire adapter it's included with wise note the adapter is for if your system doesn't have a c wire it means your hvac system is a little older and it means you're going to need an adapter and a little bit more installation time regardless of which model you pick for amazon the adapter is an extra 30 on its own or you can pay 75 up front for both the thermostat and the adapter instead of 60. you can save some money by knowing whether you need the adapter before you order but note that if you need the adapter amazon's thermostat is actually more expensive than wise get them installed and you get what you expect from a smart thermostat they both have physical controls you can control them with an app both respond to voice commands amazon only works with the company's own assistant wise works with google assistant as well as amazon neither works with homekit and siri both let you create schedules both have a version of geofencing so you can change the temperature when you come and go both use your phone's location for that and amazon also uses a feature called hunches which is where its assistant tries to proactively anticipate what you need and that's it given the similar set of features it sure looks like wise has an advantage given that it includes an adapter and is compatible with google assistant but let's see how they both hold up once we start to use them test number one scheduling let's see how easy it is to create a schedule for each thermostat using the app we'll actually tally the number of taps it takes and we'll throw some anecdotal notes in there about how intuitive the process is for each for both i'm going to set a sleep schedule on saturday and sunday let's say i'll sleep from midnight to 10 am and like it chilly let's do amazon first because the alphabet starting with the amazon app open click the devices tab at the bottom then the thermostats category then the specific thermostat three taps but now we're actually at the device from here hit the gear icon and then thermostat schedule now tap use thermostat schedule weirdly you can't use a set schedule and geofencing amazon uses its own proactive hunches for changing the temp most of the time this is you saying no no i want to do it six total taps so far now notice the days at the bottom of the screen it already has some standard time set for most days let's adjust the weekend specifically tap the s on the right for saturday tap the set sleep time and let's move it to midnight tap the time and scroll tap save now i'm not waking up until 10 tap the bs 8 am time tap again and scroll to 10 save i'll delete this superfluous 5 pm event delete now the schedule is set so i hit copy schedule to another day tap sunday tap save and we're done 12 clicks once i'm already on the schedule 15 once i'm at the device and 18 overall not counting the scrolling so it's click heavy but intuitive enough with wise you can see the device right away tap it then the gear icon schedule create schedule tap the s and s now we add a block sleep scroll to set the time and save add the second block scroll to 10 am save then you need to hit save once again to bank the whole thing and that's it wise does win this one with fewer clicks only four clicks before you're actually creating a schedule and eight from there for a grand total of 12 again not counting the scrolling it's straightforward simple but not really that much less than amazon especially if you like having those default options in there to start so you don't need to insert everything yourself test number two geofencing let's see which one works better and more reliably we started with wise we set up a cam on the thermostat and with us in the car and took off with a logged on phone nothing happened we reached out to the company and found out the infrared sensor might have been detecting the camera person fair enough round two no cam on the thermostat just us in the car nothing we tried with amazon and we just started by leaving with no camera thermostat since it uses hunches and it ropes in info from other smart speakers and whatnot we reached out to amazon 2 to confirm that and still nothing so it's possible there's still more going on under the hood we went several miles with both tests which should be enough if you live in a city you might work closer than five miles to your home and we went well beyond that without access to reliable triggers we're sticking a fork in this one and calling it a draw and finally let's talk about what it's like to just use the thermostats changing the temperature with the app or with voice controls is intuitive for both you can raise and lower the temp with your voice or you can set a specific temp both can be added to your grouped commands called routines so say goodnight to your smart speaker and the lights will turn off while your thermostat turns it to that perfect level of chili so you have a great excuse to nestle under a pile of blankets they differentiate when you want to use the device itself the amazon thermostat has fine physical controls they're functional they're basic but the why is thermostats clunky the dial is weird and not all that intuitive which is surprising why is normally nails the basics and this probably isn't that big of a deal you're gonna be using the app you're gonna be using your voice but sometimes you like to press things or turn things and amazon makes that better than once but given how close they are in the tests it's enough for us to give the overall victory in this close battle to the amazon thermostat both are great options if you need an affordable smart thermostat but amazon's device is just that much cheaper especially if you have a modern hvac system and it's that much more intuitive to use now the best for you might still be wise if you have a smart home built around google assistant consider watts if you don't have a modern hvac system and you really want the cheapest option for your setup consider wise if you want a smart thermostat that kind of complements you with its very name that also be was but if you're smart assistant agnostic or you lean amazon yeah this is your pick it's actually cnet's editor's choice winner for best affordable smart thermostat so pick this one up save some money and you're going to get just about all the same features as if you were paying twice as much thank you very much for watching please hit that thumbs up button if you enjoyed the video and subscribe to cnet's youtube channel for more check out the links below in the description if you want to see the full written cnet reviews of each of these thermostats and we've also included links to retailers and comment below to let me know if you think i'm a weirdo for liking it really chilly when i sleep or comment to let me know if you think it's weird that i think it's weird to sleep while it's chilly because of how common that is or comment below if you think it's weird that i think it's weird that i'm calling it weird that you might think it's weird about the whole sleeping thing and or you can comment to let me know if we made the right pick about thermostats you do you thanks for watching\n"