Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been in the market for a wi-fi thermostat for a LONG time (like 3 years). My main wish list of features was: -- Something MODERN looking...like a small cell phone stuck to the wall. -- Ability to remotely control my AC (obviously that's the whole point of a wi-fi thermostat) -- Reasonable price -- Easy programming -- Maybe cool bonus features like playing music, reading email, etc. Based on this list, I considered the Nest but then decided against it. Nests have really nice screens, but I don't like the round look. That does not say "modern" to me. Also, I work from home so I really didn't like the idea of having Nest "learn" when I am away (because when I am sitting in my office working, I am not away, but Nest would probably think I was gone). I also looked at a few other brands, but many of these were already looking older/tired. I kept waiting for someone to come out with a new model, but nothing new ever arrived. So, when I saw this Sensi thermostat I thought -- hmm, could that be the one? Well, I bought two of these a few days ago from my local big box home store (the blue one, not the orange one). They happened to have a 10% off sale (they were trying to compete with Amazon's Prime day), so the price was really reasonable. As for the units themselves -- they certainly met my criteria of looking like a cell phone stuck on the wall....so CHECK to that box! They also have a cool back light feature which Emerson refers to as a "night light". If you've ever seen the movie Ex Machina, there are scenes where they show some sort of keypad on the wall that's backlit with very bright blue LED lights. I always wanted something like that, but that's not really what you'll get here. First, the night light is very dim, and the light is just plain white. Sort of a missed opportunity there -- it seems like for maybe 5 cents more, they could have given you the option of multi-colored backlighting with various brightness levels. Ho-hum, maybe the next version will include that. Anyway, overall I am VERY impressed with these things. The backlight is still pretty cool, even though it's not terribly bright. The screen is also VERY nice....not quite as nice as a modern cell phone, but much sharper and better than other brands I've looked at. One minor complaint -- you can't actually leave the screen on full time. Instead, the screen will "sleep" after about 10-15 seconds. At that point, you have the option of allowing it to go full dark, or you can have the screen remain on with only the temp showing, but with a very dim screen. Some of the photos attached to my review show this -- if you see just the number 78 on the screen with nothing else, that's the "sleep mode". It's very dim, but the screen instantly returns to full brightness if you tap it anywhere, so no huge issue. I feel like this is not a big deal....do you really need your screen to remain on when you're not using it? I don't, but on the other hand the screen is so nice, it would be better to give consumers the option of leaving it on. My guess is they will push out a firmware update that add that option, and even if they don't, it's not a deal-breaker. If I have any other complaint, it's just that the default temperature setting did not seem to match my room temp (I have other thermometers in the same room reading 84 degrees when my Sensi is displaying 78). Yes, there is a setting in the app to adjust this, but you can only go +/- 5 degrees. In my case, I adjusted the setting by a full 5 degrees, and I am not sure that's enough. This isn't a life or death problem....you can always just set the cooling temp a few degrees lower to make the room comfortable (i.e., I used to keep my AC set to 78, but now I need to set it to 74 because the thermostat thinks the room is colder than it actually is). Having said all this, I still think these units deserve a strong 4.5 star review....which I'll round up to 5. Yes, they have a few minor issues, but overall they are a solid value if you're in the market for a new thermostat (and no, they don't play music, but really, that wasn't a serious requirement). P.S. These also were VERY easy to integrate with my Amazon Echo, so now I can change the temp just by yelling out: "Alexa, set downstairs to 76 degrees." This works instantly and seamlessly. Very impressive. P.P.S. I hate the lack of user-submitted photos, so I have attached a bunch...enjoy!