A smart thermostat does the thinking you don’t want to do. It can learn your schedule, turn itself down when nobody is home, and balance temperatures around your home to make you comfier while using less energy (talk about win-win). Our extensive testing shows that the Google Nest Thermostat E is the best smart thermostat because it manages your home with the least amount of input, it’s simple to use, and it’s cheaper than higher-end Nests, yet it doesn’t sacrifice much functionality.

The Google Nest Thermostat E learns your heating and cooling preferences and then intelligently creates an optimized Schedule to maximize efficiency, so you don’t have to program it yourself. It installs easily (though it’s compatible with slightly fewer HVAC systems than other Nest models) and works with Nest Temperature Sensors, which you place in trouble spots to better keep all your rooms comfortable. It also has a clean, spare design that many people find more appealing than the previous black-and-metal models. The Nest E integrates easily with other Nest devices and is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Although the Nest E does lack a few features compared with the standard Nest model, we think for most people those omissions are a nonissue.