New Ecobee Premium and Enhanced thermostat leaks, support for Alexa and Siri built-in

When you’re looking for information on upcoming but as yet unannounced hardware, everyone knows you should head to Canadian Tire. No, really, of all the retailers to out a new product, here we are. As highlighted by ZatsNotFunny and a Reddit thread, Ecobee has a new Premium and Enhanced model thermostat on the way it seems.

Looking first at the Premium, this looks like being a replacement for the current flagship Ecobee thermostat. There appears to be built-in support for two voice assistants, specifically Amazon Alexa and Apple’s Siri with microphones to talk to them. But new on the agenda seems to be air quality monitoring, with one of the renders showing the thermostat recommending opening a window to improve ventilation.

The user interface appears to have been given a spruce up, with the temperature appearing a little larger on the “vibrant display with a cinematic interface.” Yeah, we have no idea what that means, either. Presumably, it’s marketing speak for “it looks really nice.”

If the Canadian Tire listing is accurate, the Premium model will go for $330 Canadian, which is around $250 in the U.S., the right ballpark compared to the current flagship model. You can’t buy one, naturally, but there’s also no indication on when you will be able to, either.

The Enhanced model appears to be a replacement for the current Lite model, though there’s less information available right now. It appears to benefit from the same updated interface but as this one hasn’t come from a store listing, there’s not as much to go on. Both of the current models these will be expected to replace are currently out of stock on Ecobee’s own store so the launch could well be imminent.

While Google Assistant users might be less enthused, more competition is never a bad thing. It’s a tough arena to be in right now, though, with the likes of Nest and Amazon able to undercut on price. It’ll be interesting to hear more about these two new thermostats and why you’re going to want them.

via The Verge

The post New Ecobee Premium and Enhanced thermostat leaks, support for Alexa and Siri built-in appeared first on XDA.

from XDA https://ift.tt/xnVUAFB
via IFTTT