Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) review

Last week, I thought I would take the plunge and purchased the Google Nest Hub 2nd Generation. The Primary reasons for purchasing the hub was for music and reminders.

Below is my review on the Hub with a link on how to purchase.

Overall Verdict

You can purchase the Google Nest Hub for a budget price of £45 via the following link : https://ebay.us/6V3AHr

Features

Google Assistant

This comes with added visuals, for example, you can ask Google what the weather is like and you will get a weather graphic for the day. Ask google for a route to a certain destination, it will bring up Google Maps. Ask google to play a playlist of Spotify, it will find it and play it whilst also showing your album with on screen controls.

Voice Recognition

Ask Google how your day is working, it will tell you about your diary.

Mute

There is a mute button on the back of the device, so when you dont want the device listening to you, you can ensure it wont be listening.

Home Automation

Although this feature is not something i have utilised yet, you can connect the hub to Hive Active Hearing system. You can also set up the Nest up with your Google Home app

Digital Photo Frame

You can display all google photos on your hub on a loop, and whats more you can even ask the devide to play your photos from a location or a specific date.

Sensors

The Ambient EQ sensor, which detects the light in the room and adjusts the screens brightness to suit you.

Sleep Sensor

I don’t particular use this as it will be a paid feature in 2023, but it may be something i use in the future. Google added a sleep tracking feature called ‘Sleep sensing’. This feature detects motion, so placing the hub on a bedside table and it will start gathering sleep data where is checks for movement, breathing at night which ultimately helps you gain a better understanding of your sleep patterns. Over the course of time, the hub will begin to offer recommendations on things you can do to improve your sleep.
The size of the detailed below

Quick Gestures

The quick gestures lets your play or pause a song or video or snooze the alarm by waving your hand. It works by the built in motion sense technology that detects your hand moving without the use of a camera. I would defo recommend using the demo on the app on how to get this to work, as it can be a bit tedious)

Broadcast to Nest Speakers

This is a cool feature where it allows you to attach Nest Speakers around the house to play music all around the house. You can adjust the volume on individual speakers in each room.

Design

The 2nd Gen Hub looks just like a tablet with a edgeless screen perched on a fabric covered oval stand with a speaker in it, giving the floating display vibe. The 7inch size is a perfect size to watch video clips, You Tube or even Netflix..
The Display has a Ambient EQ, which uses a sensor to adjust the ambient light in the room. It detects and matches over 16 million combinations of light and colour to blend in.

The design spec is as below :

Size : 7 x 4.5 x 2.7 inch
Display : 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixels
Speaker : 1.7 inch tweeter
Camera : None
Wireless : 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI, Zigabee,Bluetooth 5.0

Audio Quality

The Hub uses a 1.7 inch tweeter and has three built in far field microphones.
If you are looking for the best sound, I advise purchasing additional Nest Speakers which you can attach to the hub

Privacy

The device is designed without a camera, (and for good reasons, as it can be placed in a bedroom). This means there is no room for any breaches in privacy.
The microphone can also be turned off from the back, when off, the small orange indicator light appears.

Conclusion

I personally think, for the price you are paying, Google have offered a fantastic product, features such as streaming support, smart skills, sleep monitoring, acceptable sound, couple with the ability to add Google Nest speakers to the hub offers a fantastic all round product. The fact there is no camera and the ability to switch of the microphone gives me confidence my privacy is maintained.

The Hub needs to be plugged in at all times, it would have been nice to have battery operated device which you could charge as the hub needs to be close to a socket in order to work.

Google Duo is required to take advantage of the voice calling, which is OK if both people use Duo, for me personally, I don’t know anyone that uses Duo.

I would recommend changing a few settings in the Google Home app to ensure activity is not monitored or saved, but apart from that a perfect device for the price I paid : )