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Vankyo Matrixpad Z4 Android tablet review


REVIEW – I am a fan of tablets that can perform well and allow me not to always grab my iPad Pro for every use. I use my iPad Pro for photo and video editing when on the go, but at home I prefer to have another go-to tablet for simple tasks like surfing the internet and watching TV or YouTube videos, etc, The Vankyo Matrixpad Z4 Tablet is has a 10 inch screen, and would be perfect for the task if it performs well.

What is it?

The Vankyo MatrixPad Z4 10-inch Tablet runs on the Android 9.0 Pie Operating System. It features 2 GB RAM, 32 GB Storage, an 8MP Rear Camera, a Quad-Core Processor, a 10.1-inch IPS HD Display and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

What’s in the box


1 x Vankyo Matrixpad Z4 Tablet
1 x AC Wall Adapter
1 x Micro USB Cable
1 x User Guide

Design and features

Features

  • Native Android 9 Pie
  • 2GB RAM & 32GB ROM
  • 8MP Rear Camera
  • Dual Speakers for Sound Quality
  • Google Assistant Voice Control
  • Eye Health Function for Night

Specifications

On top of the back of the tablet, there is the rear-facing camera, and on each of the lower sides, there is a speaker.

On the front top bezel of the tablet, there is the front-facing camera.

On the top edge of the tablet, as shown below, there is the reset port, power on/off button, volume up/down button, headphone jack, micro SD card slot, and the micro USB charging port.

Performance

The tablet arrives well packaged. The first thing that I did right out of the box was to fully charge the device.

The screen below shows the start-up screen when you first power on the tablet.

Once the tablet was up and running, I went through the usual set up processes including choosing, location, language, connecting to my wireless network, etc.

Once all of that was done, I then proceeded to download some apps to test. As I thought about my uses for this tablet, loading the Spectrum TV app was primary since I use a tablet to watch TV in areas of my home that lack a standard TV.  Loading apps from the Play Store was normal, and soon I was ready to test with the TV app.

That is where everything started to go downhill. The playback from the app constantly freezes and the picture quality seems to constantly go from acceptable to fuzzy.

In terms of the sound, unless the surrounding environment is quiet, the speakers are woefully underpowered and since they are at the back of the tablet, the sound travels away from your listening position. I decided to add Bluetooth headphones to be able to hear the sound properly, but that was another buggy experience. After several attempts, I was able to pair my earbuds but then the tablet continued to play the sound through its built-in speakers despite the Bluetooth earbuds being selected repeatedly. Eventually, the sound was redirected via Bluetooth and even then the connection did not seem clear.

Next, I decided to simply browse a few popular websites to test the performance. Once again, it was evident that this tablet is woefully underpowered and the touch response requires several touches to complete an action. It seems like the slowness is compounded by a combination of the lacking touch response and the slowness of the tablet.

I tested taking a picture with the built-in camera and then emailed it to myself. The process of taking the picture and sending it took well over 5 minutes for one picture. The following is the picture that left much to be desired:

As I was testing the tablet, I was thinking of who would benefit from using it. I think that my 87-year-old dad who uses an older iPad would run out of patience, I certainly would, and my young kids would simply turn away from it.

What I like

  • The screen size
  • The Micro SD slot to add storage

What I’d change

  • The processor to increase power and response
  • Include a case with the tablet
  • Reduce the price
  • A Better touchscreen response
  • A Better Bluetooth connection process
  • Better speakers

Final thoughts

The Vankyo Matrixpad Z4 Tablet is a nice size for a tablet, but in a world filled with affordable tablets, this one comes up really short. Although it runs on Android 9, it is woefully underpowered, the touch response leaves much to be desired, the display is just ok, the Bluetooth connection process is buggy, the rear-facing speakers are also underpowered, and it freezes/hiccups during video playback. I really wanted to like this tablet, but there are many better performing tablets available in this price range. While I know that it cannot be compared with the iPad, it is still a big miss for me.

Price: $109.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Vankyo.

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Vankyo Matrixpad Z4 Android tablet review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 8, 2019 at 9:30 am.

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How the gadgets my daughter took to college are working out so far

Previously I have reviewed three different gadgets with the intention of giving them to my daughter as she headed off to her first semester of college:  the Osprey Tropos everyday backpack, the Kensington Thunderbolt 3 Nano dock, and the BunkTrunk PhD footlocker.  At the time of these reviews, I believed that each of these would work well and be a help.  Now that she has been at college for 3 weeks, it’s time to find out what my daughter thinks of them.  I gave her a call on Discord, and we talked about each gadget, what she liked and what she didn’t, what was working well and what was annoying.  At the end, I asked her to rate each one:

  • 2 Thumbs Up – The gadget is great and she uses it a lot
  • 1 Thumb Up – The gadget is good and she uses it some
  • 0 Thumbs Up – The gadget is bad and she doesn’t use it

Let’s see what she thinks!

Osprey Tropos Everyday Backpack

Overall, my daughter really likes her Tropos; it’s a good backpack.  When we picked this particular pack, we picked it because it was one of the larger everyday packs; in fact, it’s a guys’ pack, which makes it even bigger than the equivalent gals’ pack.  She’s come to realize that it’s way bigger than she needs.  It turns out that she only takes her laptop and a couple books or notebooks to class, and the Tropos has more than enough space for carrying these items.  If she could pick again, she would get a smaller backpack and probably get one designed for gals.  The lesson learned is that sometimes it’s good to try before you buy, which is why it’s good that Osprey’s website has links to local stores.  Despite being big, the Tropos works great.

She has found that the Tropos is generally very comfortable, but it can get a bit uncomfortable after extended use.  I suspect that this is mostly due to the fact that she is not used to carrying a pack for long periods of time, and that her tolerance will increase as the semester progresses.

Her favorite feature about the Tropos is the small compartment on top where she carries her phone, headphones, a bottle of Advil, and some quarters for the vending machines. It’s super convenient to have this small, dedicated space.  She also found that the kickstand works really well, so long as she has a few books in there, and it’s a very useful feature to have in class, as it keeps the Tropos in an upright position beside her desk.

Her biggest disappointment is the Airspeed ventilated backpanel system.  It’s designed to keep the backpack off her back and allow some ventilation, thus keeping her back cool.  It doesn’t seem to work very well, as she almost always finds that her back is hot and sweaty after a long walk to or from classes.  There’s only one thing about the Tropos that annoys her, and it’s a small thing.  If she opens the front compartment, where she stores all her pens and pencils, to get a pen, leaves it open, and then she opens the main compartment to get a notebook, the front compartment flops over and her pens and pencils are dumped out onto the floor and scattered everywhere.  This has happened to her 3 times, and it’s not a lot of fun.  She showed me a picture of this, and it seems to me that the front compartment lacks the structural integrity to remain upright on its own.  There’s probably not a solution for this, so my daughter has simply learned to be careful and not open these 2 compartments at the same time.

In the Tropos review, we had a fair amount of discussion on where to put her laptop.  In the end, she put her laptop in the final compartment, the one that is intended to carry laptops, but to compensate for some of the lack of padding, she put a small towel in the bottom.  This has worked out really well for her, and she’s happy with the protection it provides.

Rating:  2 thumbs up!

She loves this backpack and uses it all the time.

Kensington Thunderbolt 3 Nano Dock

Of the three gadgets here, my daughter had the least to say about Kensington’s dock, and the reason for this is that it just simply works.  It sits there quietly and unobtrusively doing exactly what she expects it to do.  This sounds kind of boring, but for a gadget like a dock, it’s actually high praise.

Her favorite feature is that the USB C port that connects the dock to her MacBook Pro also charges it. That means she only has one cable to plug and unplug when she takes her laptop to and from class, and she finds that to be very convenient.

If she could make a change to the Nano Dock she would add a couple more USB A ports.  She has a number of other gadgets that are charged and/or powered by USB, including her iPhone, a set of Beats headphones, a BlueTooth speaker, a wireless mouse, and a small LED lamp, and the extra ports would be handy.  Despite this, she wouldn’t trade it for another dock.

Rating:  2 thumbs up!

I think it’s safe to say that my daughter has one of the more tech-savvy setups in her dorm, and she’s really happy to have her Kensington Dock sitting in the middle of it.

BunkTrunk PhD Footlocker

When I took my daughter to college, I helped her to install the BunkTrunk over the foot of her bed. She likes it there, and she uses it every day.  When we talked, my daughter was quick to point out the Achilles Heel of this gadget: The metal legs.  As I discussed in the review, they are not sufficiently rigid to hold this footlocker firmly in place; in fact, my daughter described the BunkTrunk as “very wobbly.”  She can’t put anything tall or fragile on top of it, as climbing in or out of her bed causes it to rock back and forth.

After my daughter mentioned this, I was expecting her to say that she doesn’t use her BunkTrunk very much, so I was pleasantly surprised to hear just the opposite.  She uses it every day, primarily for two different reasons. One, she stores her valuables and gadgets in here when she leaves the dorm.  The keypad and lock work great, and she feels that her possessions are safe. Peace of mind is valuable for college kids.

Two, she uses it for a desk. This really surprised me, because of the unsteady legs that I’ve already mentioned.  Although she can’t press or lean on the BunkTrunk, she still finds it very comfortable to sit on her bed, put her laptop on one side and a notebook on the other and then touch-type.  She wishes that the locking mechanism was not right in the middle, as it’s very annoying, but she’s learned to work around it.  She uses this so much that she often puts the Kensington Dock inside and connects everything together.

One of the features that she really likes is that the BunkTrunk designers left plenty of room for cables.  The shelf on the left side doesn’t go all the way from the front to the back, and the horizontal divide has a slot cut in the back.  This leaves plenty of room for the various cables and cords that connect her gadgets together.

BunkTrunk was gracious and sent us the PhD version of their footlocker, which came with 3 extra items, so we talked about each of them:

  • LED Lamp – My daughter described this little lamp as “fabulous!”  It’s her favorite of the 3 items.  On the one hand, it’s a fairly simple, little lamp.  On the other hand, it has some really handy features.  It’s a clip-on, so she can connect it anywhere on the BunkTrunk where she needs the light.  It’s easy to turn on and off:  Just touch it.  It’s bright enough to light up her side of the dorm room, and she recently discovered (by accident) that she can press and hold the lamp in order to adjust the brightness.  If her roommate’s asleep, she can dim it down to avoid keeping her awake.  She originally expected that she would use this item the least, but it turns out that she uses it the most.
  • Powerstrip – The small power strip is another simple item that works well.  She is grateful for the extra USB A ports, as the Kensington dock doesn’t quite have as many as she needs.  If she were to make a change to it, she would put all the power outlets on the same side.
  • Bluetooth Speaker – My daughter doesn’t use this speaker very often, mostly because she prefers to use the Beats headphones that came with her MacBook Pro, but when she does, she likes it.  It sounds good and is plenty loud for a small dorm room.  The only problem she had is that cannot connect her MacBook Pro to it; it can’t find it via BlueTooth.  The good news is that her iPhone connects to it just fine.

When we installed the BunkTrunk over her bed, I wondered if she would bump it during the night.  She admitted that she has occasionally bumped her feet while moving around at night, but in general, it has not been a problem; it’s in a good place.

Let me finish this by saying that her BunkTrunk gets more compliments than the rest of her gadgets combined.  All college kids have backpacks, and the dock is small and unobtrusive, but every girl who comes into her room goes, “Whoa!  Cool!  What is this?”  My daughter explains, and they love the idea.

Rating:  2 thumbs up!

My daughter really wishes that the BunkTrunk came with a sturdier pair of legs, but despite this, she loves it and uses it all the time.

Summary

As expected, my daughter is happy with all three of these gadgets, and she’s glad they are at college with her.

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How the gadgets my daughter took to college are working out so far originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 8, 2019 at 8:21 am.

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KASE Go Original iPhone Slim case review

REVIEW – A phone without a case is just unsafe, or so the saying (that I just made up) goes. While thicker cases add protection, they also add bulk, often obscuring the original design of your phone. Enter the Go Original iPhone Slim case from KASE. This slim covering is designed to add minimal bulk while providing a bit of scratch and drop protection.

What is it?

The Go Original iPhone Slim Case is an ultra-thin case measuring 0.35 mm thick. It covers the back and the sides of the phone but leaves the screen edges unprotected. As it is made of polypropylene, it is quite flexible and easy to install.

What’s in the box?

  • KASE Go Original iPhone Slim ultra-thin case and that’s it

Design and features

It’s clear from the first glance that this ultra-thin case is not designed with protection in mind. What it is designed for is to allow you a bit of protection while minimally altering the form factor of your device. The frosted black color is translucent, so you can see the branding on your phone.

The case extends up the sides of the phone but does not form a lip around the screen like others, so it’s still completely susceptible to drops where the phone lands on its face. As it is, I’d want to pair this with some form of screen protector.

The cut-outs for the buttons on the sides are aligned correctly, as are the speaker ports and space for the lighting jack. Oddly, the speaker areas are just holes in the case. While my 49 year old ears couldn’t detect and volume loss or muffling, it seemed a strange choice rather than simple cut-outs.

What I like

  • Very thin
  • Translucent, allowing you to see more of the phone’s design
  • Light

What I’d change

  • Very slippery
  • No protective lip around the screen

Final thoughts

This case is a good bet if you’re looking to preserve the original dimensions, look and feel of your phone. It provides a modicum of protection against short drops and scrapes. It will not, however, protect the screen from direct hits and/or more severe drops. Its main weakness, though, is that it’s almost as slippery as the phone is without a case. As such, I’d prefer more of a grippy case for something that is marketed as an ultra-thin cover for your device.

Price: between $10.00 and $16.78 depending on where you purchase.
Where to buy: KASE or on Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by KASE.

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KASE Go Original iPhone Slim case review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 7, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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DEENKEE DK600 robot vacuum review

REVIEW – For years my wife and I have looked with envy at the Roomba robot vacuums.  We have always looked at them as a luxury item though and have never pulled the trigger to get one.  So when competing products started coming out and the prices started coming down, we started looking again.  At a price point of $220, the DEENKEE is considered a budget robot vacuum that has many of the features of the more expensive products.  But are there enough features to make a clean-freak like my wife happy?  Let’s find out.

What is it?

The DEENKEE is a robot vacuum that cleans the house for you and returns to its charging base when done.

What’s in the box?

  • The DEENKEE robot vacuum
  • 4 side brushes
  • 2 Hepa filters
  • Docking/charging station
  • Power supply
  • Cleaning tool
  • remote control
  • owner’s manual

Hardware specs

  • Dimensions: 12.4 x 12.4 x 2.7 inches
  • Weight:  8.8 lbs
  • Runtime:  100 min
  • Charge time:  5-6 hrs
  • Dust collector capacity:  .6 L (20 fluid oz.)
  • Battery:  DC 14.4V Li-ion 2600mAh
  • Maximum suction power:  1500Pa
  • Sensor technology:  infrared

Design and features

Like other robot vacuum cleaners, it has a charging base where it sits to charge and then after it cleans it returns to the base.  It can clean about 100 min before returning to the base, so that is just about enough time for it to cover the entire bottom floor of our house which is about $1,500 square feet.  It sits 2.7 inches tall and it easily goes under all our furniture which is nice.  The dust under there never gets cleaned of course, so the first time it cleaned our floors the dust bin was packed!

There are 6 modes of cleaning that we have to choose from:

  • edge cleaning mode – clean just the edges of the rooms
  • spot cleaning mode – clean a small area of the floor about 3 feet by 3 feet. (this is helpful if you have a spill of debris and want the DEENKEE to clean it up for you)
  • maximum power mode – this mode greatly increases the suction for things like rooms with carpet, but it also means that you reduce the operating time.  We only use this mode when we use it in bedrooms with carpet.
  • timed mode – you can set a specific time, like in the middle of the night, to start cleaning the house.
  • single room mode – put the DEENKEE In the room and close the door, and it stops when the room is done
  • auto mode – this is the mode we use the most. We just press the auto button on the remote and it cleans as much of the house as it can before the battery dies.

There are buttons on the remote for all 6 of these modes.  There are also buttons on the remote to make the DEENKEE return to the base immediately, set the time on the vacuum, schedule the timed mode, and pause the vacuum and manually control the direction of the vacuum.

One of the best features of the DEENKEE, in my opinion, are the side brushes that allow it to get into corners and sweep debris under the vacuum.  I have looked at more expensive Roombas at twice the price that have only 1 side brush.  I have also picked up the DEENKEE in the middle of a cleaning mode (like for this review for example) and then set it back down in a different direction and it still finds its way back to the base.

When I asked my wife for her opinion of the DEENKEE she commented, “Well, it doesn’t completely replace my upright, but I would rather have it than not.  It does a great job of cleaning the floors.”  High praise from a person who prides herself on cleaning the house.  To give up some of the work to a robot is a pretty big deal for her!

It has edge-sensing technology so that when we use it upstairs it won’t fall down the stairs.  It hasn’t damaged any furniture either because it gently bumps into things and backs away.  The advertising says it is one of the quietest robot vacuums at 55dB and that you should be able to sleep with it running.  Well, I don’t exactly agree with that, as I will explain in the next section!

We haven’t had any issues with the DEENKEE not going over any of our rugs or floor transitions.  The only small issue is that we have a sisal natural fiber rug.  For those who know about those types of rugs, the fibers easily shed I guess you could say.  So if we let the DEENKEE run over it, the bin fills up in minutes.  So this is what we do in the dining room when we run the DEENKEE.

Pretty silly, I know.  But it also helps with getting the dust under the rug!

And what would a robot vacuum be without some interesting stories, right?  So let’s go!

Interesting stories

Our dog kinda freaked out the first time we used the DEENKEE.  I mean, he went bananas.  So after an hour or so he just jumped up on the furniture to get away from it while he barked at it, and after a week or so he pretends the vacuum isn’t even there.  I would also say that our dog doesn’t make messes in the house, so we haven’t had to deal with those horror stories you have read about dog poop and robot vacuums.  Thank God.  But we did give the robot a name, “Tinky”, so that our dog would know what is getting ready to happen when we tell him that “Tinky” is getting ready to go.  Yeah, that’s a little silly too, but hey, you do what you gotta do.

We decided to set up the DEENKEE to run overnight so that the house would be clean while we sleep because they said it was really quiet.  Perfect, right?  Not so much.  At 3am Tinky starts coming down the hallway (we have hardwoods through the entire main floor) and it sounded like a train was coming down the hall.  So the next night we decided to put up the doggy gate in the hallway to prevent it from coming down the hall into the bedroom and it spent a few minutes bumping into the gate over and over at 2am.  So we don’t do that anymore.

If you don’t get your cables up off the floor, this happens:

We accidentally left the door open to the washroom where the dog’s food dish and water bowl are located, twice.  So it knocked the water bowl over and water went everywhere.

And finally, we have had a couple of instances where Tinky just stopped and didn’t return to base.  For example, it went into our bedroom bathroom, into the room with the toilet which is a very small room.  It moved between the toilet and the wall and just stopped.  It didn’t back out and continue.  But I would say that probably 2 times out of 30 times that we have run the vacuum it stopped with something like that.  I can live with that.

What I like

  • Large number of features and cleaning modes
  • Great price
  • Does a great job of cleaning
  • It has a remote to control it

What needs to be improved

  • You can’t specify protected zones to prevent the vacuum from going to certain places.
  • There is no smartphone app to control it.

Final thoughts

For the money, this vacuum is awesome.  We only use it when we are home and we control which rooms it goes into and monitor it so we can catch it quick if it snags a cord.  As I researched other more expensive vacuums and the features they had, I found that paying the extra price for those features wasn’t worth it to me.  I don’t need a smartphone to start the vacuum while I am on vacation.  And we have developed a routine with the DEENKEE where we don’t need to set up virtual walls or protected zones.  The DEENKEE has all the features we want at a price that is affordable.  It doesn’t replace our upright vacuum completely, but I will say that our upright is starting to gather some dust.  How’s that for a vacuum joke?

Price: $220
Where to buy: DEENKEE or Amazon (Use coupon code: 578BI79 to save 15%. Code expires 10/06/2019)
Source: The sample of this product was provided by DEENKEE.

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DEENKEE DK600 robot vacuum review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 7, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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Google Nest Hub review

REVIEW – Remember a few years ago when digital photo frames were a popular gift? These days people don’t want a gadget that can only do one thing, they want a jack of all trades, and that’s what the Google Nest Hub aspires to be. Let’s take this photo frame on steroids for a spin.

What is it?

The Google Nest Hub is a digital photo frame, speaker, smart home control hub, digital assistant, and more.

Hardware specs

Display: 7” LCD touch screen
Speaker: Full Range Speaker
Microphones: 2 mic array
Connectivity: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support
Power: 15W adapter
Ports: DC Power Jack
Dimensions & Weight: 7.02 in W x 4.65 in H

What’s in the box?

  • Google Nest Hub
  • AC power adapter

Design and features

The Google Nest Hub is a small touchscreen tablet that has a built-in stand so that it’s always at the perfect angle for viewing video and photos.

At the top of the display are two far-field microphones with an ambient light sensor between them.

On the back edge of the Nest Hub is a mute switch at the top and on the side is a volume button.

The Google Nest Hub is available with a Sand, Aqua, Chalk, or Charcoal material covered stand that has a small Google badge attached in the center.

A power port is located at the bottom of the stand. It uses a proprietary connector instead of a USB-C cable. Oh well.

The bottom of the stand has a bright orange rubber pad that keeps the Nest Hub from sliding around when you’re interacting with the touch screen.

Setting up the Nest Hub

You’ll need a mobile device with the Google Home app to get the Nest Hub up and running.




The Google Home app is where you configure settings like the clock style, which photos albums you want to as a backdrop slideshow when the Hub is idle, and connecting a variety of other devices that can be controlled with Google Assistant.

What can it do?

Although the Nest Hub is marketed as a digital photo frame, there’s a lot more to this device than just being able to view your latest vacation pics. Let’s check out the main features.

Digital photo frame

Let’s start with the main feature which the ability to show your favorite images on the 7inch display. To use this feature, you’ll need to have your images already stored in Google Photos. Then in the Google Home app, you can specify which albums you would like to show and you can create live albums images of your family and friends that will automatically update as new images are added to your Google Photo archive.

As a digital photo frame, the Google Nest Hub has a nice looking display (although small at only 7 inches) that is crisp and vibrant. The display uses an ambient light sensor to adjust the brightness so the images look good in any lighting conditions.

I like that the slide show includes the current time, the name of the album where the images are coming from, and the current weather / temperature.

If you have images in portrait orientation, you can configure a setting where it will show multiple images on the screen like the ones you see above. You can also swipe either direction in the center of the screen to see the previous or next picture.

You can also tell the Hub what images to display just by saying “Hey Google, show me pictures from my vacation in California”. At least that’s what it’s supposed to do. It was really disappointing when the Nest Hub informed me that it could not show images from that account when I used this voice command. With a little research, I discovered that if you have a Google Suites account, which I do, that this feature doesn’t work. <sniff>

Smart home hub

You can also use the Google Nest Hub as a smart home hub for all your connected devices like Nest thermostats (which I have), security cameras, and many more.

On any screen, you can pull down from the top for a dashboard of your connected devices. From there you can interact with them either manually with your finger, or with your voice by saying “Hey Google, show me my porch camera”, or “Hey Google, turn up the temperature”.

I found that I was able to easily control my older Nest Thermostat buy using the onscreen controls or my voice.

Using the Nest Hub to see live footage of from my Wyze security cams wasn’t quite as easy. A lot of times, I’d see a blank screen like I show above.

Eventually, after pausing, and playing, the live view would show up on the screen. One cool feature is associating commands like “show my camera…” and “play a video of…” to a specific screen like a TV. My Vizio TV happens to have Chromecast built-in, so I could use my voice to cast a video to the TV which would then automatically turn on and start playing. The only downside is that once you associate another display with the Nest Hub, it’s difficult to get a video to show on the Hub’s display instead of the TV.

Streaming music

Using the Google Home app, you can associate streaming services like Google’s Music service, Spotify, and Pandora with the Hub. Then you can just say “Hey Google, play music from Post Malone”.

The Google Nest Hub isn’t going to impress an audiophile, but for a small speaker, it sounds pretty good. Having the album art and song titles right there where you can see them is nice too.

You can also swipe up from the bottom of the display to get access to touch buttons for volume and brightness, or you can use the physical buttons on the back of the display.

Assistant

Since I use an Android phone, I already use Google Assistant on phone, so using it with the Google Nest Hub is not different other than the fact that you have a nice large display to see the results.

Asking questions like “Hey Google, what’s the weather like today” brings up a nice display and sound effects like birds chirping in the background.

I did run into another G Suites problem when I try the command “Hey Google, what appointments do I have today?”. I’m told that the command isn’t available but that she’s learning new commands all the time. Gee thanks Google… not.

Another assistant feature is the ability to create routines that you can trigger with your voice like saying “Hey Google, good morning”, or “Hey Google, I’m home”.



Using the Google Home app on your mobile device (it sure would be nice if you could also use the Hub to customize these features too) you can create a list of things to happen once you say the trigger words to launch a routine.

One annoying issue I’ve run into is that saying “Hey Google” to interact with the Google Nest Hub would also trigger any Android phones or tablets also in the same room. At least when I would ask to play music or video, it would only play through the Hub and not all the devices at the same time 😉

Alarm clock

If you long swipe from the left edge of the screen, you can put the Google Nest Hub into clock mode which just shows the time of day. You can also use commands to set alarms, to turn the Hub into your bedside alarm clock. The only downside is that you can set different alarm sounds for the alarms.

Watching videos

You can ask the hub to play videos from on Youtube by saying something like “Hey Google, play Taylor Swift videos”. I found that works great for the first video but then it will usually switch to playing some other videos. For example, I asked it to play Sam Smith videos and it played one and then switched to playing Taylor Swift videos.

What I like

  • Simple setup
  • Easy to use
  • No learning curve if you’re already used to using “Hey Google”

What I’d change

  • Make all the Google Assistant commands work with GSuite accounts

Final thoughts

As a digital photo frame and smart home controller, the Google Nest Hub is an affordable device with enough features to keep you happy. It has a nice display, decent speakers, and you can control most features just with your voice. As long as you’re not a GSuite user like I am, it’s a useful gadget for your home.

Price: $99.00
Where to buy: Google
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Google. Please visit their site for more info.

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Google Nest Hub review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 6, 2019 at 10:00 am.

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