 I like my Google Nest Hub. It can do a ton of things like play music, display photos, and control my smart home. But the one thing I feel like it's been missing is sleep tracking. Said probably no one ever. Despite this, Google's second gen Nest Hub just launched and it can track your sleep using those same fancy Soli radar sensors that made the Pixel 4's air gestures such a huge hit. Again, no. But before you pass judgment, let me tell you that I've been testing the new Nest Hub out and there might be a few reasons to be excited about what it means for the future of the smart home. Just like I'm excited about this segue to our sponsor, Origin PC. Today's video is brought to you by Origin PC. Origin PC laptops can be customized with 11th gen Intel Core processors and Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series graphics with Max-P design. They're also backed by a 24 seven support team, so check out Origin PC at the link below. The second gen Nest Hub has basically the exact same physical design and dimensions as the first gen model with only one obvious difference. The glass for the seven inch display now sits on top of its plastic housing instead of being set into it, which gives the front a bit more of a cleaner look and won't allow gunk to get stuck in there as much, which is great news for those with gunky hands. It's a problem. The rest of the changes are inside. It's got a better processor, more powerful speaker, a thread smart home radio, and in the top right of the display, apparently, some project solely radar sensors. These let you use air gestures with the Nest Hub, just like you would with the Pixel 4. So you can tap the air to play and pause music or videos and it actually works from like a foot and a half away. So I can see how this would be useful if you're using the Nest Hub in the kitchen and your fingers are covered in meat grease and squashed avocados, tasty. However, you can't air swipe to change tracks even though you can swipe to dismiss alarms. And that's all you can do. It would be really nice to be able to say, change volume by rotating a finger, like you can do with some car-based gesture systems, but nope. I wanna talk about this for a second because man, Project Soli looked so cool when Google first announced it back in 2016. I mean, they were showing off a concept smartwatch that used a super tiny radar chip to let you swipe through screens, adjust volume, and zoom in and out on maps just by performing these tiny midair gestures with your fingers. Instead, the first consumer product we got with Soli sensors was the Pixel 4 in 2019 with the revolutionary ability to control music with air swipes and taps, just like you could with the Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014. They didn't bring Soli tech back for the Pixel 5, which no one was sad about, but they did say it would return in one form or another. And I guess the new Nest Hub is where it ended up. It's disappointing to see this technology return with no new useful gestures, but there is something new, the sleep tracking. Google calls it sleep sensing, which may be partially because it doesn't actually track much. There's a calibration process, which involves placing the Nest Hub next to your bed and laying down next to it, like you're going to tell it about your personal problems. It doesn't ask you how you feel about that. That's the next model, probably. Once it's calibrated, the Nest Hub will tell you how long you actually slept once you got into bed, whether you coughed or snored, and whether the light changed in the room. Over time, the Hub will give you reminders to get to bed earlier or turn down the temperature, but as far as actual tracking goes, that's about it. The sleep tracking provided by many smartwatches and fitness trackers will go more in depth, giving you information about how long you spent in light, REM, or deep sleep, your heart rate, even calories burned. And the Nest Hub doesn't give you any of that, although if you link the Google Fit Android app, it can tell you your respiratory rate. But what the Nest Hub lacks in depth, it makes up for in the fact that you don't have to wear a smartwatch to bed, which I don't like doing, but I did for this video because I care about you. It is pretty convenient to have this extra information about my sleep from a device that I might use as a bedside alarm clock anyways for no extra charge. However, that's probably gonna change. The Nest Hub tells you that sleep sensing is in preview for free right now, but once Google launches Google Fit Premium, or whatever brand it's gonna slap on, Fitbit Premium, it looks like sleep sensing will be part of a paid subscription. I'd rather spend my money on the fantastic products on lttstore.com, that's just me. But Google's sleep sensing feature might make sense for someone who would get that subscription anyways, and who's having trouble sleeping. I'm not, because I have a baby. When I have time to sleep, I sleep. So while sleep sensing is nice to have now, it's also one of the things that just confuses me about Google's strategy with Soli and smart home stuff in general. I think it's cool that Google is experimenting with new technology, but it's like they don't even care whether people actually need or want it. Hey, we made a phone that will tell you whether you need a haircut or not. You need it. All right, time to finally talk about the rest of the stuff that's changed with the new Nest Hub. It does have larger speakers with 1.7 inch audio drivers. Google says they give the hub 50% better bass performance. And while I didn't run the numbers on that, you can definitely hear the difference. This model sounds a lot better than the original. It's also gotten a processor upgrade from the quad core 1.5 gigahertz Amlogic S95D in the original to a 64 bit 1.9 gigahertz ARM CPU. Yeah, Google won't say the actual brand and model of this processor, which makes me think that maybe Google used an in-house design. Is this the first device with Google Silicon? I certainly hope not. Because while this chip is supposedly faster on paper, the touchscreen on the second gen Nest Hub is just as choppy and laggy as the first gen model. Like I understand you gotta save money somewhere, but it's pretty disappointing to get a first party Google device with a super clean look and minimalist aesthetic, and then have it perform like an uncertified Android device you got off AliExpress. Apple wouldn't let this happen. Also inside is something that to me is more exciting than the Project Soli sensors, or at least more exciting than the implementation of them that we have here. It's an extra radio that will make the hub compatible with a Thread smart home network protocol. If you don't know what that is, it's basically going to be the way that smart home devices talk to each other in the future. All the cool kids on TikTok will have Thread enabled RGB LED lights in the background. Okay, it's just, get ready. So really quickly, Thread is backed by Google, Apple, Samsung, and all the other big boys, and it's a mesh protocol, meaning devices don't have to connect to a central hub. They just connect to each other for a low latency, low power setup. So instead of tapping a button and waiting a second for your smart light to turn on, it'll turn on right away. Now there are very few devices that support Thread right now, Apple's HomePod Mini and Nanoleaf's Essentials bulbs being among them. So even if the Nest Hub's touchscreen is laggy and the sleep sensing is, eh, at least you're future-proofing if you get it. All in all though, I can't complain about the second gen Nest Hub. It can do everything the first one can do plus extra, and it's $30 cheaper at a hundred bucks US. I've been using it as a baby monitor with a Nest Cam and photo frame is great. You can use it to play Netflix and Disney Plus and ask Google a million silly things. I like to take the time to think about all of the possible solutions so that I can give you the best, most helpful result. I mean, sure, it's not perfect, but you know what is perfect in my heart? Our sponsor, Squarespace. You may have heard about Squarespace as the easy way for you to make a website in minutes. Well, they are. They're a leader in website design and an all-in-one platform for all of your website building needs. You can even buy domains through them to also create email campaigns. Squarespace can help you make any type of website from personal portfolios, resumes, fan fiction, even shopping sites. 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