Honeywell Home’s first Matter thermostat costs just $80

Sadly, not all smart thermostats are things of beauty like the latest Nest Learning Thermostat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t save you some cash.

This week, Resideo announced the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat, an entry-level smart thermostat that looks utilitarian but costs just $79.99 and works with Matter. This means it supports Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and other systems for smart home and voice control of your HVAC system.

Launching this spring, the X2S is designed to be simple, straightforward, and deliver big energy savings. It features a big, bright screen and large, spongy push buttons for controlling the temperature. It’s compatible with existing Honeywell Home thermostat wiring plates — so you might not have to do any wiring at all to install it. Resideo says that if you use the app’s recommended set points, the X2S can save you an average of 22 percent on heating and 17 percent on cooling.

The X2S is the first Honeywell Home thermostat to work with Matter, which allows you to control the temperature and mode from any compatible ecosystem. It also works with Resideo’s First Alert app for more advanced features, such as scheduling and setting up an automatic away mode that uses geofencing to set the thermostat back when you leave home, helping save energy.

The Energy Star-rated thermostat requires a C wire and is compatible with up to two heating and cooling stages on conventional systems or up to two heating and one cooling stage on heat pump systems. It can also monitor humidity and offers air filter replacement reminders, but it won’t work with Honeywell Home’s room sensors.

According to Resideo, close to 80 percent of homes still don’t have connected thermostats, and this product is designed to be a simple, inexpensive way to upgrade. The addition of Matter, which should simplify the process of connecting to any smart home platform, is also something that would help push broader adoption of the technology.

“The Honeywell Home X2S’s price point and feature set make it the ideal upgrade from a non-connected to a connected thermostat, and Matter compatibility helps unlock other smart home benefits across other ecosystems,” said David Kaufman, director of strategic initiatives at Resideo.

In terms of competition, Google’s non-learning Nest Thermostat supports Matter but costs more at $129.99, and Meross just announced a Matter thermostat for $99. Both have more style than the X2S and rely on touch-sensitive interfaces rather than big buttons. Amazon has a similarly priced Smart Thermostat, but it only supports Alexa.