Controlling influence
SMARTSCREEN| From £170 from Amazon www.snipca.com/49664
Amazon has been refining its smart-home products for some time and now offers a comprehensive range of devices, from its Ring smart doorbells and own-brand smart plugs to the smart speakers and screens you use to control them. Until now, however, you couldn’t always rely on Amazon’s voice-controlled Echo devices to work with non-Amazon products. The Echo Hub is a new unifying device that changes that, connecting with devices from all the key smart-home standards, including Matter, Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth.
The device looks similar to the Echo Show 8 (£150 from www.snipca. com/49665). However, instead of having a large speaker that doubles as a stand, the Echo Hub is designed to hang on a wall, from where it’s easily accessible for controlling your smart devices.
If you also want to listen to music and watch videos, the Echo Show remains a better option. But the Hub uses a faster processor and a more sophisticated operating system that makes it more of a control panel.
While you can still use the Alexa voice control to operate it, having everything at your fingertips on its 8in 1280x800-pixel screen is incredibly handy, offering quick and simple access to individual devices and Alexa routines.
On the left of the screen you’ll see the navigation menu, which lets you switch between the main dashboard, your routines, and whatever rooms you have set up in the Alexa app on your phone or tablet. If you use security cameras in and around your home, for example, you can also use the Hub to check in on your live feeds, viewing up to four at once via its Multiview feature.
On the back is a single USB-C port. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a chargeable battery and while the cable is discreet, it’ll still have to run down the wall to a plug socket, unless you can use your DIY skills to hide it.
SPECIFICATIONS
Six-core MediaTek MT8169A processor • 8in 1280x800-pixel touchscreen • Alexa-compatible • Wi-Fi 5 • Bluetooth • Supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh, Zigbee, Thread and Matter smart-home standards • 137x202x15mm (HxWxD) • 365g • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/49664
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