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PREORDER: Slated for a March 30 release date, Google’s second-generation Nest Hub is available for preorder at Walmart for $99.98.
A deadly pandemic that’s had the country in a tailspin for over a year now isn’t exactly conducive to a great night’s sleep. (Disruptions to people’s routines, continued uncertainty, and other COVID-19-related stressors have led to a rise in “coronasomnia” since last spring, per the BBC.) But if you’re having an extra hard time catching some z’s lately, Google’s latest smart display could help you understand why.
Announced in mid-March, the second-gen Google Nest Hub comes equipped with a new opt-in Sleep Sensing feature that can tell how well the person closest to the display is snoozing, offering valuable sleeping tips (including bedtime suggestions) after a few nights of analysis. You can take it for a test drive as soon as April 15 — that’s its estimated delivery date from Walmart at the time of writing, where it’s available for preorder for $99.98 ahead of its March 30 release.
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Best Buy is also doing preorders, FWIW, but you’ll pay a whole cent more — Walmart technically has the best pricing, if you want to get *really* picky about it. (We do.)
Surveillance concerns with the new Nest Hub are minimal — it doesn’t even have a camera, nor do you have to wear some sort of tracker for Sleep Sensing to work. Instead, its readings rely on a combination of Soli chip-powered Motion Sense technology, built-in microphones, and ambient light and temperature sensors that pick up movement, disturbances (like coughing and snoring), and environmental changes, respectively, to better understand the factors that may be impacting your sleep. (For more info on Google’s privacy safeguards, click here.)
If you don’t want to turn on or pay for Sleep Sensing — it’s only free ’til next year — you can play around with the Nest Hub’s dimmable display and Sunrise Alarm feature for help falling asleep faster and waking up easier.
Aside from sleep tracking, the second-gen Nest Hub’s other notable upgrades from the original Hub include a speaker with 50 percent more bass, a machine learning chip that’ll speed up its Google Assistant’s response times the more you use it, an extra mic (three instead of two), and an additional “Mist” colorway. With 7-inch displays and fabric bases, the two devices’ designs are almost identical otherwise.