Echo Hub review: is Amazon’s control panel the best smart home hub you can buy?
In T3’s Amazon Echo Hub review, I put this new smart home control panel to the test to see if it made my daily tasks and smart devices easier to organise and maintain. After a month of testing, I’m loving using my Echo Hub and think it might be the best smart hub on the market today.
The Echo Hub is the newest product from Amazon and falls under the same category as Amazon’s best smart speakers and displays. What sets the Echo Hub apart from Echo Dots and Echo Shows is it's primarily designed to be the focal point of your smart home, giving you easy control over every smart device around your home.
So, how does the Echo Hub perform? Does it appeal to more than just smart home enthusiasts? And will it become more popular than Amazon’s Echo Shows? Keep reading for my full Echo Hub review.
Echo Hub review: price and availability
The Echo Hub is £169.99 and available to buy at Amazon. Having launched in early 2024, it’s unlikely that the Echo Hub will fall in price anytime soon, but if it does, it’ll be during the Amazon Prime Day sale. You can buy the Echo Hub on its own or with a smart bulb for £184.98.
Echo Hub review: unboxing and set-up
The Echo Hub arrived in a small, compact box which contained the hub, its charger and cable, wall mount and screws. As it’s designed to sit on your wall, the wall mount and screws are provided for the installation, and the instructions manual takes you through the entire process.
The Echo Hub is extremely lightweight, weighing just 365g and measuring 202 x 137 x 15mm. Setting up the Echo Hub was extremely easy, and it was a similar process to the Echo Show 8 that I tried previously. All I had to do was plug in the Echo Hub, turn it on and follow the steps on the screen, which involved setting up my Amazon account, logging into the Wi-Fi, naming my device and setting up the room it’s in. It only took a few minutes to get the Echo Hub set up and ready to go.
Echo Hub review: design and features
The Echo Hub is an 8-inch control panel with 1280 x 800 resolution, and looks like one of the best tablets. While the screen looks similar to that of an Echo Show, the Echo Hub doesn’t have that big bump on the back for the speakers audio system, so it can sit flush against your wall or in a stand, if you don’t feel like adding more holes to your home.
As an Amazon product, the Echo Hub comes with Alexa and has a voice and touch-enabled control panel. Amazon has worked to make the Echo Hub more responsive with features like Adaptive Content, as it uses infrared technology to detect when you're nearby and ready to interact with the device.
Designed to make smart homes more connected and efficient, the Echo Hub is your smart home hub for all your smart devices. By tapping the display or using your voice, you can control your security cameras, video doorbell, smart plugs, lights and much more, plus the Echo Hub supports Bluetooth, Matter, Thread and Zigbee.
The display is yours to customise, and you can set up your dashboard with your favourite apps and widgets, like your calendar, most used devices, routines and more. The Echo Hub has a pair of top ported full range speakers with stereo playback, and it can play music, podcasts and other entertainment when you connect a speaker. It also has a microphone which you can turn on and off via a button on the side (next to the + and - volume buttons) for better privacy.
Echo Hub review: performance
Having previously used an Amazon Echo product, I was looking forward to seeing how the Echo Hub would differ and if I’d prefer it to the third generation of the Echo Show 8. While the two are similar in many aspects, they differ greatly in terms of design and functionality, as an Echo Show is tailored towards entertainment whereas the Echo Hub is for controlling your smart home.
The Echo Hub’s smart home features are the standout elements of the smart display (as to be expected). It cleverly scans to find your devices before automatically adding them to the touchscreen, ready for you to customise. For example, I paired the Echo Hub with my Philips Hue smart bulb and had immediate access to my light at the bottom of the screen’s display.
From there, I could use Alexa voice commands or the touchscreen to turn my lights on and off, change the brightness and colours, and set up routines and timers. I found this incredibly useful and as someone who gets a bit overwhelmed with the occasional smart home tech, I appreciated that the Echo Hub did most of the work for me! I also hate having too many apps on my phone but I didn’t need to download anything to control my lights as I had the Echo Hub.
I’m a big fan of Alexa and definitely noticed that it was much more conversational than before. When I’d ask a question, Alexa would give an answer as well as ask if I needed any additional help on the specific task at hand. Its timers and reminders were always prompt and helpful, too. I particularly loved the Echo Hub’s display, as at a quick glance, you can see all your applications and widgets in one place. As you approach the Echo Hub or enter the room it’s in, it also lights up and is ready to show you and help you with what you want.
Echo Hub review: verdict
If you’re a smart home fan or looking for a hub to keep all your smart devices in one place, the Echo Hub is the one to buy. It’s easy to set up and use, has an attractive touch-enabled display and takes care of all your smart home needs for you. It's compatible with so many smart home gadgets so you’ll never have to worry about downloading hundreds of apps when you have the Echo Hub.
Not everyone will want to mount the Echo Hub on the wall, but its petite size means it won’t look like an eyesore if you decide to install it that way or keep it on a stand. The only negative I have is that you have to connect a speaker to the Echo Hub for it to play music. This isn’t the case with an Echo Show, so I think the Echo Hub might not appeal to as many people.
While an Echo Show doesn’t have the extensive smart home capabilities that the Echo Hub has, it still offers good smart home features while also playing music and streaming your favourite TV shows. If you’re after a smart home hub, I’d recommend the Echo Hub but if you want an entertainment display with smart home features thrown in, I’d choose the Echo Show.
Echo Hub review: alternatives to consider
As mentioned throughout the review, a good alternative to the Echo Hub is the Echo Show 8 (3rd gen). The Echo Show 8 has most of the features that the Echo Hub has, except it’s cheaper and has better audio.
If you want a smart hub from a different brand, the Google Pixel Tablet is ‘half tablet, half smart home hub’. It comes with Google Assistant and Chromecast, and has a good battery life and dock to stand in for all your smart home needs. However, at £599, it’s significantly more expensive than the Echo Hub.
