If your lucky the setup will go well, if not you'll probably want to rip the thermostat off the wall and throw it at someone. The setup is probably the single factor that determines if people will leave a 1 or 5 star review. While I did eventually get mine to work, there was nothing great about the product to make me want to give it more than 1 star.
The phone app is horrible for setting up the thermostat and there's no other way to do it with this model. You should be able to setup the wifi using the thermostat and control it with a laptop, tablet, or phone but you can't; you're stuck with the phone app. I ended up in an endless loop of adding the thermostat only to see that it was not added. The thermostats (I was blessed with two of these) were installed in my new home so it was looking like I'd need to use the physical buttons. After hours of trying to add the thermostat in the mobile app I came across a comment that the setup didn't work on all phones. I had an old phone (about 4+ years old) around so I charged it, installed the app and was able to add the thermostat, SMH. Fortunately, once added I could use the app on my current phone.
Now I've got the app, so what can i do? Basically, the same things that the old programmable thermostats did. I don't use the geo-fence so other only thing I do is occasionally adjust or check the temperature without getting up. As with most "smart" devices, the product is only as good as the software that runs it and this software really doesn't make my thermostat any smarter. The basic features were working well until the app started to repeatedly prompted me to set up the thermostat again. I didn't want to do that because I'd need to charge my old phone again. I just lived with that for about 2-3 months, then it stopped as mysteriously as it started.
I'm left questioning if most people really need a "smart" thermostat, especially this one.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Response from resideo.comBy Joey, Support, January 27, 2023
Hi, we'd be happy to help get you connected so you can manage your thermostat remotely. Find ways to get in touch by visiting our Support Center link at the top of the page.
Extremely difficult to set up . Registration was very difficult. Made several attempts with the Honeywell tech and he too had great challenges. Once set up it worked fine.