Resideo’s newest thermostat looks like a compelling alternative to Nest or Ecobee if you’re looking for a premium smart thermostat. The Honeywell Home X8S is compatible with Matter, supports room sensors, and features a sleek 5-inch touchscreen that works as an intercom for Ring and First Alert video doorbells.
The $219.99 thermostat launches this week, and thanks to Matter compatibility works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, and other smart home systems. It also includes indoor air quality monitoring, plus humidity and ventilation control.
At $220 ($250 with a room sensor), it’s cheaper than the flagship $280 Nest Learning Thermostat (4th gen) but the same price as the $250 Ecobee Premium Thermostat, both of which come with a room sensor. Ecobee’s thermostats also act as video doorbell intercoms, but only with Ecobee’s doorbell camera. Nest thermostats don’t work with any video doorbells. (Bear in mind, this feature is mainly useful if your thermostat is in a convenient position for you to check as you head to your front door.)
The EnergyStar-certified X8S supports dual-band Wi-Fi, comes in black and white, and uses Honeywell Home’s universal wall plate, which should make for an easy upgrade. It supports up to four heat and two cool stages for heat pumps and up to three heat and four cool stages for conventional systems. It does require a C-wire.
The 5-inch display shows indoor humidity, outdoor temperature, time, the current system settings, and thermostat controls. Customizable idle screens offer a five-day weather forecast, a digital clock, or IAQ info, and Residio says you can choose design themes and color combos to match your home décor.
An onboard radar sensor feeds presence data to the system’s auto-away feature, which adjusts its settings to save energy when you’re away. You can also use the new X8S wireless room sensors to include temperature, humidity, and occupancy data from other rooms. The X8S is backward-compatible with newer T9 sensors.
Somewhat confusingly, remote control is through the First Alert app — because Resideo (which acquired the life safety company First Alert in 2022) is moving all its consumer products there. The Honeywell Home and Resideo apps still work for older products, but everything will eventually migrate to First Alert.
The X8S is Resideo’s first new premium consumer thermostat since the T9/T10 line launched in 2019. Earlier this year, the company introduced its first Matter-compatible model, the lower-priced X2. The X8S’s main advantages are its support for more advanced systems and room sensors, its touchscreen interface and display, and video doorbell integration.
You can buy the X8S now as a self-install model from HoneywellHome.com or Amazon, or if you want pro-installation, that’ll be the ElitePRO S1200 model.
