AMAZON’S NEW ECHO HUB IS IDEAL FOR YOUR SMART HOME

Will the new Echo Hub eclipse the popular Echo Show range?

It goes without saying that smart home technology has become the norm in most households. Whether you’ve got a smart bulb for more colourful lighting or a smart speaker for better audio, chances are you have some type of smart device within your home.

With the continued popularity of smart home products in mind, Amazon debuted its most recent device earlier this year: the Echo Hub (£169.99, amazon.co.uk). The new Echo Hub has adapted Amazon’s well-known smart home displays, like the Echo Show, but in this iteration, it puts your smart home at the forefront of its design and capabilities.

Designed to act as a smart home wall panel, the Echo Hub can be mounted on the wall or sit in a stand for ease of use. Like the Echo Show 8, the Echo Hub has an eight-inch touchscreen display but where it differs is its slim and lightweight design. It’s as thin and portable as a tablet, and unlike Echo Shows, doesn’t have the big speaker bump at the back.

Simply put, the Echo Hub is your one-stop-shop for all things smart home. Having it easily accessible like this means you can quickly ask its Alexa voice assistant questions, check the weather, add things to your calendar, and play music. This all sounds fairly similar to what an Echo Show or smart speaker can do, but the Echo Hub has these features and then some.

The first thing about it that will grab your attention is its dashboard. When you call to the Echo Hub’s Alexa or simply walk near the panel, it’ll immediately light up and show you your customised dashboard. From there, you can see and access all your widgets and applications, in particular your smart home devices.

The beauty of the Echo Hub is its compatibility with other devices. As the name suggests, it acts as your central smart home hub, so you can use it to check on and control your security cameras, smart lighting, thermostats, video doorbells, speakers, locks and more. It’s not just Amazon products you can put on the Echo Hub either, as you can also sync it with Ring, Philips Hue, Yale, Blink, Hive, Zigbee, Matter and Thread.

If you’re a smart home enthusiast, the Echo Hub is for you. From personalised routines and voice commands to constant support and easy management of your everyday tasks, smart home hubs don’t get any better than this.