Here is the situation:
I am working from home, on Zoom and Microsoft Team meetings all-day
My son is taking his first year of school from Zoom with 25 other students.
My wife’s college classes started, and guess what? all on zoom
We have nine months old who needs to be occupied with something while we’re working.
So YouTube or other streaming services are on throughout the day.
All of this puts immense pressure on the network router, and I happened to be using the router that is over ten years old. I somehow managed to make it work over the years, but this poor guy got sick from transferring baby videos to the iPad.
This scenario puts me in the market to shop for a decent router, after extensive research I came across the following three:
I went with Google Nest Wifi without looking into all the fine details; it appears to be the best looking router and most online reviews rated is very high. It is not a typical WiFi Router but rather a mesh network system. Mesh network places devices across the house to give you the best coverage possible without compromising the speed. In contrast, a standard router runs into a dead spot that traditionally requires WiFi Extender and compromised speed. My home is pretty large, with several dead zones, and occasionally, I sit outside by the pool to work and need the best possible coverage for zoom calls and streaming. Nest WiFi appears to be a perfect choice.
The unboxing
Unboxing the Nest felt like an unboxing of Apple products. The box is sleek, does not include many user guides. There is one small guide suggesting you download Google Home App, and it’ll start the process. The exterior design is also very Apple-like, showing a picture of the device with minimal text and no specs written all over! Inside the main box, you get one Router, which you attach to the Modem and two extra points to put across the house. You can extend it by adding another point.
The setup process
The setup process started by downloading the Google Home app and following instructions, it was simple to follow, and each step, you felt something was accomplished that is a sign of Good user experience. I ran into a few issues where errors were erroneous. The software setup each device and tests its speed before moving on to the next device. I bought the package with three extenders, and so far, I am only using two, and seems to have great coverage around the house.
Hardware
The product design is the highlight of this product. It does not look like a typical router with Antenna sticking out; instead, it is a slick speaker design that blends well in a room. Unlike Alexa Echo, this device does not have any buttons on top. Volume buttons are touch, which only can be seen when you touch the device. I was expecting the speaker to sound muddy for this small device, but surprisingly, it is good quality. Great for listening to the Podcast and some light music. The mic is pretty decent but not as good as Alexa; I’ve had some trouble getting Google Assitant attention in a noisy environment. Alexa mic sensitivity is just a bit better. Google Home allows you to set the sensitivity level.
Software
The design language used in the Google Home App is simple, intuitive and animations are brilliant. I will prefer it if Google starts to take this design language across the products. They’ve been pushing Material design for mobile design for years, yet, their Apps are not using Material design. Material design was great when it first started, but the modern App requires fluid experience. Since I user of other Google products (Calendar, Gmail, Search), I think it gives Google assistant an edge over other devices because it already knows a lot about you. Google search and speech recognization is best, in my opinion.
The Surprise Element
Every great product should have a surprise element, an added feature that can delight customers. Typical routers are boring products; you set it up once and never touch it until you have to restart or replace, which was ten years in my case. The Google Nest is different; each extender (The Point) is a Google Assistant device with a built-in Smart Speaker. While setting it up, I realized that I am setting the Smart Home’s foundation with Google Nest as the controlling device for all things connected.
- Broadcast – This is a cool feature in Google Assitant. Once you setup multiple points across the house, you can broadcast a message in all the speakers. A great feature to wake up the kids or call them for dinner!
- Group Speaker – If you have multiple points or other smart speakers, you can group all of them. This is great if you like music to play across the house.
The Future
This product opens up all possibilities for me to turn my home to Smart Home with Google Home devices controlling everything. I recently bought a Sprinkler timer, which can be controlled via APP; my garage opener can be connected to Google Home, and lately, I’ve been slowing adding bulbs that can be controlled via Alexa. The future of home automation is here!
Conclusion
Google Nest WiFi is the best mesh network device in the market by far, but as a bonus, it is also a Google Assistant device with a built-in Smart Speaker. As you already guessed, my review hardly talks about its WiFi capabilities, but I focus on the additional features and all the future possibilities. I never thought I would be reviewing a Router in this blog; there are plenty of sites for that. I was impressed with it’s added capabilities. It is a very pricey device, but I am pleased to pay the premium due to many existing and unlimited future use cases. I came across a few bugs while setting it up and had much trouble using the smart speaker as a Bluetooth device, but overall I am satisfied with the experience.
