Reviewers Love Nest's New 'Smart' Smoke Detector, But Say Its Too Expensive

It's hard to imagine how to make trivial household items cool but somehow Nest Labs has done it.

After creating the Nest Thermostat, the company followed up with a new device called the Nest Protect Smoke Alarm.

More reviews have come in praising various features of the device such as the motion sensors which react quickly and efficiently when the actual alarm needs to be shut off.

While the alarm has an easy setup, the one downside these reviewers have pointed is the price ($130). See what else the critics are saying below.

Lindsay Turrentine, CNET:

One of the Nest Protect's charms is the ability to wave to silence the alarm when something small like a burnt toaster pancake sets it off. While Nest says that small children and pets cannot hush the alarm, both my 10-year-old (he's tall) and I were able to silence the alarm with a pleasant but persistent wave. It's a good thing that you have to work to silence the Nest Protect because you want to be certain an area is safe before calling off the hounds, so to speak. I did notice that while the Nest Protect can work at recommended heights on both walls and on the ceiling, the ability to silence by waving works much better when the Nest Protect is mounted on the ceiling.

Edward Baig, USA Today:

Prior to blasting a shrill alarm, Nest gives you an early warning. "Heads up, there's smoke in the entryway" or "Heads up, there's smoke in the living room," which gives you chance to act before the situation escalates. Nest says pleasant sounding female voice alarms help wake up the kids better than standard alarms.

David Pogue, writing on his personal blog:

The Protect smoke alarms are all connected wirelessly. They talk to each other (even if you don't have a home WiFi network, thanks to a proprietary Nest-to-Nest network called Nest Weave). So if you're in the bedroom, you'll be alerted to smoke in the basement, or whatever.

Now, you can't shut up an alert from a different room. You have to wave at the one that's actually sensing the smoke, which is very smart. You're forced to go see what the problem is.

There is also, of course, an app for that. When there's a heads-up or an emergency at home, your iPhone or Android phone gets alerted. Wherever you happen to be, you get notified immediately that something Bad might be happening at home.