Cameron Summerson
The second generation Nest Hub is a lot like the first-gen, but it offers one unique feature: sleep tracking. Or sleep sensing, rather. If you’ve had this little guy on your wishlist, today’s the day to buy—it’s just $80 at B&H.
There are a couple of things notable about this. For one, this is the best price we’ve seen on the second-gen Nest Hub since its release a few months ago. Second, it’s one of the more interesting sleep tracking devices on the market.
While the Nest Hub is used for everything from smart home control to music (the second-gen Hub also sounds better than the first) to its prowess as a digital picture frame, this one is special because of how it utilizes the Project Soli radar chip. If you recall, this chip was used in the Pixel 4 for gesture controls without touching the phone. While it was more of a novelty and had little value there, it makes a lot of sense in the Nest Hub.
It can be used to do things like snooze or disable the alarm without touching the screen. (For what it’s worth, that sounds like a great way to oversleep to me.) You can change songs, pause music, and more just by waving your hand, too. But it’s also how the Nest Hub watches you while you sleep. Note: it’s not as creepy as it sounds.
Without getting too into the weeds here (I’ll have a deeper look at the Nest Hub’s sleep tracking features coming soon), it essentially tracks your movement and respiration rate while you sleep to gauge how restless you are. It can also track how long it takes you to fall asleep and keep up with your normal sleep patterns.
In the big picture of sleep trackers, it’s a fascinating way to look at your sleep habits. I’m currently testing a few sleep trackers and the Nest Hub is very different than the others. It’s not worse (or better), but I think it might offer a more palatable way for “normal people” to get an idea of their sleep health.
But I digress, I’m getting ahead of myself—that’s a different story for a different day. If you’re interested in a second-gen Nest Hub, today’s your day. Hit the box below to grab one for an 80 spot.
Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen)
The second generation Nest Hub has all the options offered in the first gen, along with better audio quality, gesture controls, and sleep tracking.
