By way of Canadian Tire (!?) and reddit, we learn ecobee has two new models in the pipeline — its first since being acquired by a generator company last year.
The new ‘ecobee Premium Smart Thermostat‘ looks to replace the existing flagship model. As such, microphones and both Siri or Alexa voice assistants remain onboard for customers to choose between. What’s new is a more elegant appearance, with an iPhone-esque flatter metallic bezel and “vibrant display with a cinematic interface” (whatever that means). On the new feature front, air quality monitoring makes its first ecobee appearance — visualized on-screen and in-app.
Slotting in between the “Premium” tstat and the existing ecobee 3 lite (which may see its its own refresh) is the ‘ecobee Enhanced Smart Thermostat‘. The exterior design of the “Enhanced” is similar to the “Premium” but more plasticy and the primary change over the 3 Lite appears to the refreshed interface.
ecobee remains largely neutral in the thermostat space, despite the voice tie-ups, with the ability to integrate with nearly all smart home ecosystems. Although, the marketplace may be shifting with increased interoperability (hopefully) as Matter comes online… allowing something like Google’s Nest to be controlled by an Apple HomePod. Of course, the best bang for the buck remains the Amazon Smart Thermostat, which retails for all of $60 (without a C-Wire adapter) — a whopping $90 less than the ecobee 3 Lite.