TESTED AMAZON ECHO HUB
Looking like an Echo Show that’s been squished against the wall, is Amazon’s Echo Hub the way to harmonise all your smart home gadgets?
£170 /go.stuff.tv/EchoHub
Adedicated Amazon smart home controller has been bouncing around the rumour mill for a while, and I for one was excited about it. Sure enough, the Echo Hub promises much… but the dream is a little unfulfilled.
The key problem we all have with smart home gear is that different devices often don’t work well together (although with the Matter standard ensuring better compatibility and easier setup, this is getting better). Another issue is that nothing we do in terms of the smart home is as simple as the effortless functionality of flicking a ‘dumb’ light switch.
Amazon’s Echo Hub aims to help you in both of these areas, by bringing everything together. You do still need to have a good handle on how things are set up, however –as we’re about to see, there’s a good dollop of having to work out how to customise its functions and configure your different rooms.
Thriving home for crispness
The 8in display and rather large bezels (1) could be a little more subtle, but the screen is great for showing the likes of calendar info. Alexa is naturally on board and there are three mics, so you can voice-control everything. But I found the touchscreen to be a more effective interface.
Asort of home-plumbing
You can wall-mount it using the included plate, or there’s a separately available stand. As with any wall-mounted product, there is a wire to deal with (2). This one is nice and long at 1.8m, but hiding it discreetly is tricky and putting it through the plaster feels rather permanent.
At home he’s a purist
This new device uses Amazon’s widget-based interface from the Echo Show (3). This has improved over time, but there is still a lack of widgets available. You can rearrange them in a row here, which does make sense –they work better than the arrangement on the larger Show.
Home suite home
The Echo Hub is designed for maximum compatibility, supporting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Matter, Sidewalk and Thread devices. All of these are auto-detected. Indeed, finding other devices (4) has always been one of Alexa’s strongest suits and that doesn’t change here.
Subterranean home-sync blues
You need to really configure Alexa device groups and Routines to get the most out of this thing. I’ve got quite a complex Alexa-based smart setup with different rooms (5), Echo devices, Ring gear, Philips Hue lights and so on, and I had to make adjustments to get it all in tune
