Nest wifi, Google’s follow-up to its original product, is now available. In comparison to Google wifi, Nest wifi, which starts at $169, promises 25% better coverage and up to twice the speed. As a bonus feature, you can use the Nest wifi Points, or secondary units, around your house to create a mesh network and use them as Nest Mini smart speakers with voice control.
What people love?
- Performance that is superior to that of Google wifi.
- The setup of a guest network is a simple process.
- Smart speakers can be used as secondary points.
- Manages the guest network through integration with Nest smart displays.
What is bad?
- Two Ethernet ports on the router and no ports on the Points.
- Some advanced features require the use of two separate apps.
- Purchase from Google for $169.00. / You can get it from Walmart for $169.00. Buy from Best Buy for $169.00
A modem is not included with the Nest wifi, so you’ll need to connect it to your current modem to get it to work. That meant connecting to my gigabit fiber link from Verizon Fios, which is what I had to do. In contrast to Eero and other routers, Nest wifi doesn’t work in a “bridge” mode, complicating setting it up with Fios. See this Verizon forums post for more information on getting Nest wifi to work with a Fios connection.) The main floor living room is where I get this connection. A few feet below my router, I installed a Point in my home office.
To get the most out of the Nest wifi, you should place it in an area where it can be seen. If you are looking to purchase the google nest wifi , check out nest wifi deals.
Devices consistently receive faster speeds from the Nest wifi than the Google wifi and comparable speeds from Eero Pro and Netgear Orbi when they were connected to the primary router and not the Point. Speeds were halved when using the Point, possibly due to the Point’s inferior antennas and the lack of a dedicated backhaul channel for the router to communicate with the Point, as is the case with the Eero Pro and Orbi systems. Despite the fact that I have gigabit internet, I only had about 100 megabits of upload and download bandwidth available in my house, compared to the 900 megabits that are delivered to me. It is likely that most people will be able to make full use of their ISP’s service with Nest wifi, given that the average US home broadband speed is just over 100 megabits per second (Mbps).
To make matters worse, the Point has no Ethernet jacks, so you can’t connect it to the router using Ethernet backhaul or plug devices directly into the Point itself.
However, the Point makes up for its lack of wifi capabilities by also serving as a voice-activated smart speaker. For the most part, it’s an original Google wifi puck with Nest Mini speakers attached. It has a similar sound to the Nest Mini and a glowing ring at the bottom that turns white when you speak to it and orange when you turn off the microphone. To adjust volume or pause playback, you can use the same touch controls as on the Nest Mini. In order to maximize wireless and smart speaker performance, Google designed the Point to look more attractive than a typical router. White, pale blue and pale pink are all available, whereas the main router only comes in white.
In order to use any smart device, you now have to agree to a series of terms and conditions that no one reads. It’s not possible for us to go through each and every one of these agreements and analyze them. As a result, we started keeping track of the number of times you have to agree to use a device when we were reviewing them because these are agreements that most people do not read and can’t negotiate.
There are terms of service and privacy policies specific to Google Accounts that apply to the Nest wifi. Additional information about your home network, devices, and nearby wifi networks will be stored in the Nest wifi cloud services. In addition, Google keeps track of the devices and apps you use, as well as information about how you interact with Google Home and Google Wifi. Opting out of these cloud services and stat collections is an option available to you as a customer.
The Nest wifi will create a “voice model” based on clips of your voice that it uses to identify you if you use the Google Assistant’s Voice Match feature. In order to “temporarily send to Google” when identifying you, this model of your voice is stored locally on the device.
