Even though the Canadian Lowe’s site leaked it last week, the fifth generation ecobee SmartThermostat and new SmartSensor are now officially on sale today, everywhere (including Canada).
The More Things Change…
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for wondering what exactly has changed with ecobee’s latest. Other than dropping the generation number from the name, there doesn’t appear to be much difference when the units are side-by-side.
Ecobee has smartly kept using their distinctive “squircle” shape, but has upgraded the exterior materials (the face is now glass instead of plastic) and interior hardware. What’s even nicer is that installation of the new thermostat is exactly the same as the fourth generation. If you have a ecobee4 on your wall, pop it off and put the new ecobee on the existing base. Run through initial setup and you’re done with installation!
It’s On the Inside (and Outside) That Counts
The new glass screen means the display is clearer and the touchscreen more responsive. Handy for when you’re trying to blearily adjust the temperature in the middle of the night. The processor gets a quad-core upgrade, giving it better natural language processing and speech detection. If you use the built-in Alexa features of your ecobee often, you’ll notice a lot less “Hmmm, I can’t help you with that.”
The wifi capabilities have been improved as well, with 2.4 and 5GHz support. Especially if your thermostat is in an odd corner of the house that doesn’t have great connectivity, the newest ecobee should maintain a connection much easier than its predecessor.
Can You Hear Me Now
The speaker is much better in the latest ecobee as well. With improved clarity and volume, I think it’s actually better than the 2nd gen Amazon Dots I have scattered around the house. It’s definitely got enough power to wake up both kids in the morning for school (I’ve enjoyed torturing them with 80′s hits).
That’s why support for Spotify is actually something to take interest in with this update. Rather than just another bullet point on a press release, it’s something I can forsee myself utilizing (I mean, not often…it is still a thermostat in a hallway, but it’s good to have options).
Cute Enough To Display
But despite the upgraded insides of the latest ecobee, it’s the newly upgraded and redesigned SmartSensors that really steal the spotlight.
Not only are they more powerful than the previous generation, using wide-angle detection to more quickly update room occupancy, they’ve gotten a major facelift. Now the diminutive sensor looks more like a pop-art vinyl toy than a thermostat sensor. The metal base is magnetic and a distinct improvement over the clear plastic base of the previous generation.
The new ecobee comes with one SmartSensor, but you can buy multipacks of two for $79.
How Much Is It?
Especially as Nest goes through major changes, ecobee is standing strong. With this new hardware, they’re poised to dominate the smart thermostat market. I’ve found it to be easy to use and reliable…which is really all you need.
The new ecobee SmartThermostat with SmartSensor is available now on ecobee’s site (and Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, and, yes, Lowe’s) for $249.
Thank to ecobee for sending an early sample for testing. Opinions are my own.
