Honeywell’s been doing its thing for well over a century now, with its thermostatic roots stretching back even further to the 19th century days of coal heating. The company’s connected thermostat history, meanwhile dates roughly back to 2013, with the simply named WiFi Smart Thermostat, released following a bit of a patent dustup with Nest.
Announced today, Honeywell’s latest offering looks to undercut the competition on pricing, with a $149 MSRP — $100 less than both Nest and Ecobee’s most recent offerings (and $50 less than its own Round WiFi offering, announced back at CES). The Lyric T5 is square and monochrome – looking akin to an oversized 1980s digital watch.
The new thermostat has Apple HomeKit functionality built in, making it controllable by way of Siri or iOS 10’s new Home app. There’s also built in support for Amazon’s Alexa offering and the Stringify protocol. It’s also, naturally, compatible with Honeywell’s own Lyric app, a new version of which is due out next month, with improved control settings.
As with most of the competition, the Lyric T5 features adaptive learning to adjust to users’ preferences, along with geofencing settings change settings when someone is within range. There are also built in warnings for extreme temperatures and when time comes to change a filter.
The differences between Honeywell’s current thermostat offerings are as follows,
· Intelligent Comfort Control (factors in both indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity)
· One-touch (and in-app) access to weather forecasts
· Compatible with additional integrations, such as Samsung SmartThings and Apple Watch control (additional for the Lyric T5, beyond the announced Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Stringify will be available later)
· Different back/wall plate
The new thermostat is due out next month.