Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium & Enhanced review: bigger, better, and more beautiful

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The first new products to launch since the company was bought by a generator giant are two new smart thermostats. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium and Ecobee Smart Thermostat Enhanced are included in the Ecobee3 lite. The new models are available at a number of stores.

The Premium model addresses the criticism that Ecobee's thermostats are not as attractive as its main competitor, the Nest Learning Thermostat. Ecobee's new flagship model has a sleek zinc body and an expanded glass screen. A subtle overall redesign adds smoother edges and a slimmer look but doesn't break with the company's overall style. It looks and feels a lot nicer.

The thermostat adds an indoor air quality monitoring feature and a new radar sensor for motion and temperature detection. It still has the built-in smart speaker capabilities, but it requires additional hardware and a monthly subscription, and is a hub for Ecobee's smart security system.

The Ecobee Smart Sensor is bundled with the Premium for monitoring temperature and motion in another room of the house. Ecobee's biggest selling point is the wireless sensors, despite competitors such as Wyze and Nest imitating them. You place the sensors in different rooms so that your system can maintain a consistent temperature everywhere and target your preferred temp to the room you are in, rather than just heating and cooling wherever the thermostat is. How effective this is depends on your home's layout, construction, and the age of your heating and cooling system.

The Enhanced thermostat is $60 less expensive than the Premium and doesn't include a Smart Sensor, but it does have an air quality monitor. It has the same design and upgraded screen, but it is made of plastic. You can still use a third-party speaker to control the smart assistant with your voice, even though there is no speaker or microphone onboard.

If you aren't interested in having a voice assistant on your wall, the Enhanced is an excellent option. You are spending more than the Premium model if you add smart sensors. If you have a multi-zone system, live in a small apartment, and don't need a second sensor, the Enhanced is the best secondary thermostat. The Ecobee3 lite doesn't have a built-in motion sensor, so you have to buy a two-pack to use many of the Ecobee features.

The larger screen is my favorite feature of the new thermostats. It is an improvement over the old design that is easier to use and looks better for people with fat fingers. The thermostat is the same size as the previous models, but the color screen is 50 percent larger, a 4-inch diagonal square compared to a 3.5-inch diagonal rectangle. The display has been bumped up to 540x540, making it sharper and bigger. The result is a more seamless and integrated interface than the previous rectangular space the screen occupied, which looked like a smartphone app stuck on your wall.

The larger screen gives the user interface room to breathe, with the controls spread out and easier to select. The temperature wheel is a much more intuitive scrollable temperature wheel, replacing the annoying sliders control that you used to have to deal with to manually change the temperature. There are no knobs or buttons in this picture.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

The PIR motion sensor was replaced with a new radar sensor, which gave Ecobee more space for its bigger, better screen. The company says that this provides more accurate temperature readings and better motion detection, as it spans a larger range, has wider angles, and can sense from further away and around corners. The thermostat was able to recognize that I was home even from 15 feet away.

The Premium model had a limited use for the new indoor air quality feature. I never received an alert that the indoor air quality was poor because it stayed on the scale. The app should have given me tips on how to improve it.

It's placement in my front entryway is not ideal for this use case. According to testing with other indoor air quality monitors, the kitchen is where the pollutants come from, which is far away from the thermostat and likely producing particulate matter to pollute the air, something this doesn't measure. You can see the clean air score on the device and in the app, but instead it only measures VOCs, carbon dioxide levels, and relative humidity. The remote sensors don't measure air quality, so you can rely on them to help.

The connected features of the new smart thermostat are the same as those of the previous models. Smart scheduling, smartphone app control, and automatic temperature adjustments are included. The Premium and Enhanced are Energy Star certified, so you can get a rebate from your energy provider. If your provider offers Time of Use savings and demand response programs, they work with them. Both of them work with Amazon and Apple.

Concerns about how the data they collect is protected are brought about by bringing connected devices into your home. The company whose smart home products we review has safeguards in place for your data.

The Ecobee thermostat collects data related to its functions, such as estimated home age, number of occupants, heat/cool temperature settings and overrides. Ecobee collects your email, location, and other information when your heating and cooling systems are available and hooked up to a thermostat. The air quality data is collected by the Smart Thermostat Premium.

Ecobee does not sell this data and any data collected is fully secured and deleted when it is no longer needed. Users can request a copy of their Personal Information and Device Data at any time, and request it be deleted by following these instructions.

Ecobee users can opt in to sharing their data with scientists and researchers working on energy and sustainable research projects.

Ecobee's existing Eco Plus software is on by default. The two key features of this are.

• Smart Home & Away Sensing — where the thermostat uses its sensors and geolocation of you and your household members’ smartphone (which is opt-in)
• Smart Scheduling — preset Sleep, Home, and Away schedules that adapt when the system senses you aren’t there, and a Schedule Assistant that monitors your behavior and suggests schedule changes (but doesn’t automatically implement them)

You can choose which features you want or not, but these work in concert with each other. I have two zones in my house. I work from home, so I had to turn off Smart Home and Away upstairs, even though I wasn't using that space.

You can manage the system on Ecobee's web portal or its app, but you can't do everything on the thermostat. The new interface on the thermostat is mimicked by the app. More information about how Ecobee manages your system is added by this. When you make an adjustment on the device or using a voice assistant, a notification appears below the temperature indicating what state it is in and when it will next change. You can use this for more options.

The hold duration setting is available in the app. You can tell the thermostat how long to stick with a change, until the next scheduled event, or ask every time. It was easy to leave your thermostat on an incorrect setting when it was buried in the web settings.

Despite the interface improvements, the app still suffers from occasional connectivity issues, and I was repeatedly told that it had lost its connection when I opened it. The process of using the app for a temperature change was slowed by it.

Since I first started testing Ecobee thermostats, there have been big improvements to Home and Away Sensing, but it's still not the most efficient way to make sure your system doesn't go off when you're not home. It can take upwards of two hours to change over; in my testing, occasionally, it didn't switch at all despite my being out of the house for three hours in the middle of a hot day.

Check for compatibility.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium and the Smart Thermostat Enhanced are compatible with most heating and cooling systems in North America. They can work with a lot of different types of equipment. Check your system's compatibility here.

I think this feature is a safety net. If your main goal is with a smart thermostat, there are more reliable ways to make sure your system is saving as much energy as possible. You can manually switch to Away on the thermostat, add a 4-degree setback to a voice triggered Routine, or create a HomeKit or SmartThings smart home automation that does the same when you lock.

There is an upgrade to the Smart Thermostat with Voice Control that has been available since October of last year. The bubble on the screen is a more visible indication that it heard you than the previous blue light strip. You can see what music is playing at the bottom of the home screen. If you use the built-in assistant, you will see notifications, alarms, and timers. You don't need a separate smart speaker to use theAlexa integration in your home.

Both Ecobee thermostats are used as hubs for Ecobee's smart security system. It works with Ecobee's excellent $100 SmartCamera, which works with HomeKit Secure Video, and has an Amazon built-in. The security system's door and window sensors can be used to turn off the heating and cooling system if a window or door is left open for five minutes. After the door or window has been closed for at least 30 seconds, it will resume.

The feature of this was that it sent a notification when action was taken. Ecobee's integration doesn't require a setup because you can set it up yourself using contact sensors and a home automation system. It is automatic. Smoke alarm detection and freeze detection are only available on the Premium model, which has a microphone, if you have a $5 monthly subscription. You can add professional monitoring for $10 a month.

Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium is my new favorite high-end smart thermostat because of the simpler user interface and clarity on how Ecobee is handling your climate. For years, I have preferred the third-gen Nest Learning Thermostat, and while it is still a great thermostat, Ecobee is innovating faster and harder. The last hardware upgrade to the Nest Learning Thermostat was seven years ago, and while I am not a fan of changing out your smart thermostat every two years, I do want to see some more innovation from Nest when it comes to smart home climate control.

Ecobee's are better than Nest's because they only measure temperature and you have to program individually. If your system doesn't have a C-Wire, Ecobee supplies a power extender kit to get around this, but it's not a simple solution. I didn't cover installation in this review, but I will refer you to our previous Ecobee review if you need tips.

The only smart thermostat that doesn't require any scheduling on your part is Nest, you can just let it learn your routine and automatically create a schedule for you. Ecobee comes pre-populated with a schedule that you have to change to fit your habits. It's easy to do in the app, but it's not as easy as the Nest experience.

If you want to upgrade from an existing fifth-gen Ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control, the only reason I can see is if your thermostat is in a less-than-ideal location in your home. That is going to be a minor improvement.

The Premium model of the Ecobee has a better speaker and microphone than the 4th generation model. All of your existing sensors will work with the new models.

The main reason to buy an Ecobee is the remote sensor integration, and there is lots of competition here, with Nest, Wyze, and Honeywell Home all offering remote sensors. We haven't tested Wyze's new sensors, but the T9 model of the thermostat works with HomeKit, which is a big reason people choose Ecobee thermostats. The T9 is less expensive than the Ecobee's Premium model, and its sensors can detect humidity. If that is important, you might prefer the T9. It has a more old-school thermostat design vibe and no motion sensor in the thermostat itself. Living with the T9 isn't quite as nice of an experience as it is with Nest or Ecobee, as my colleague Dan Seifert said in his review.

The Ecobee and Nest thermostat world is as divided as theAndroid and iPhone worlds, and people seem to love one and hate the other. Ecobee has better integration across smart home platforms. Ecobee has the capability to support Thread and Matter, as well as a future firmware update that could support Matter. The new Nest Thermostat is a more basic device. The new smart home standard is called Matter and it promises to improve interoperability. They support the standard but don't have anything concrete to share at the moment.

The photos were taken by Tuohy.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it. It is impossible for us to read and analyze all of these agreements. We started counting how many times you have to agree to use devices when we review them.

To use an Ecobee smart thermostat, you need to download the Ecobee app and create a free Ecobee account. Accepting Ecobee's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use is required.

You will need to agree to Amazon's conditions of use if you want to enable voice control on the Smart Thermostat Premium. You need to agree to the Apple terms of service agreement if you want to use Apple's Siri.

There are two optional agreements and one mandatory agreement.