Ecobee's New HomeKit-Enabled Smart Thermostat Premium Launches for $249

by

Following multiple leaks, smart home accessory maker Ecobee today officially announced its new Smart Thermostat Premium, with key new features including a premium design with higher-end materials, a larger display, a refreshed user interface, improved sensor technology, indoor air quality monitoring, and more environmentally friendly packaging.

ecobee smart thermostat premium official
Like the popular Nest thermostat, the Smart Thermostat Premium features a glass face with a metal enclosure, whereas previous Ecobee models have a plastic design. The thermostat has a 50% larger display with improved responsiveness, and the user interface has been enhanced with larger temperature sliders and simplified navigation.

The thermostat comes with Ecobee's SmartSensor, which can be placed anywhere throughout the home to detect motion and provide a more accurate reading of the home's occupancy and temperature to help manage hot or cold spots.

Ecobee said the new thermostat is built with the company's most advanced sensor technology for improved temperature readings, occupancy detection, and motion detection, while a new built-in air quality sensor monitors indoor air quality, including estimated levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as relative humidity. The thermostat displays a home's air quality status directly on the screen.

Like other Ecobee models, the Smart Thermostat Premium is compatible with Apple's smart home platform HomeKit, and a built-in speaker supports "Hey Siri" voice commands for tasks such as setting the temperature and sending Intercom messages (requires a HomePod or HomePod mini connected to the same Wi-Fi network). The thermostat is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and automation platform IFTTT.

Ecobee's latest smart thermostats can double as home security systems, with professional monitoring available for $10 per month in the United States.

The Smart Thermostat Premium has 30% smaller packaging compared to the previous model, according to Ecobee. Inside the box, the company said recycled paper has been replaced with compostable tapioca starch trays, and paper manuals are no longer included. An installation guide can be accessed using a mobile device.

The Smart Thermostat Premium is available to order starting today on Ecobee's website and through select retail partners, including Amazon, Lowe's, The Home Depot, and Best Buy, with pricing set at $249.99 in the United States. A lower-end Smart Thermostat Enhanced model without features like air quality monitoring and voice control is also launching for $189.99, while the Ecobee3 lite will remain available for $149.99.

Tags: Ecobee, HomeKit Guide

Top Rated Comments

itsanewworld Avatar
itsanewworld
25 months ago
New features in premium


* Built-in radar occupancy sensor
* Built-in indoor air quality monitor
* Spotify & Bluetooth streaming
* Hands-free calling and intercom
* Smoke Alarm Detect
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
UnseenLlama Avatar
UnseenLlama
25 months ago

thread support?
It does support Thread and can be updated to Matter support, but the company has not committed to it yet. Source: [MEDIA=twitter]1526549904788795392[/MEDIA]
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
braket Avatar
braket
25 months ago
Does Nest have patents on having the outside edge of the thermostat be a physical ring that rotates? It seems like the natural interface for a thermostat over sliders on a touchscreen. Unfortunately Nest seems to have stagnated development to focus on their entry-level models. I mean, I know it’s just a thermostat, but these things should all have Thread and Matter support by now if the manufacturers really want smart homes to reach critical mass.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
profets Avatar
profets
25 months ago
Any mention of what display tech they’re using? I hope it’s OLED, would look gorgeous with this design.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
profets Avatar
profets
25 months ago

Still seems like it is LCD according to the verge review. But the pictures make it appear to be better quality than the iPhone 3G era LCD of the last model.

It does look nicer with the better materials, larger display, and not having that odd kidney bean IR window on the corner, but the only way I'd upgrade is if I can just pop off the old one and pop this one on...I'm not sure if they use the same back plate.
Thanks for that. Definitely a nice improvement overall and I’m sure newer LCDs do look much better. I’m quite tempted to swap out my ecobee3 for it just for aesthetics alone.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
siddavis Avatar
siddavis
25 months ago
I currently have 2 Ecobee thermostats. They have Alexa built in and it is utterly irritating. The microphones and definitely the speakers are not as good as Echo devices, so the results are more annoying than helpful. I wonder if this is improved on the premium device. I'd prefer Siri integration.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Read Full Article • 268 comments
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Read Full Article • 412 comments
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Read Full Article • 70 comments
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Read Full Article • 214 comments
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Read Full Article