The Amazon Echo Hub makes smart home control a piece of cake

Amazon announced the new Echo Hub in September 2023, but the device has now been released in several regions worldwide, including the US and UK. The Echo Hub can be purchased in the US for $179.99 for its wall mount configuration, while a pack with a Stand can be yours for $209.98.

The basic premise of the Echo Hub is to take the pain out of controlling your smart home. While you can control your smart home through your phone and your voice via smart speakers, these methods aren’t immediately noticed by or accessible to other people, like guests at your home. There is also a slight learning curve to figuring out how to control what, and tech-averse individuals and older people may not be well equipped for the task. Gatekeeping controls for a smart home may not be the smartest strategy, especially if more than one person resides in the house.

The Echo Hub solves this modern-age problem. It is a dedicated Alexa-equipped smart home controller, with no other nonsense or fluff added to achieve this task. There is an 8-inch touchscreen where you can see and control your smart home devices. It can be mounted on a wall or propped on a table with a desktop stand. Amazon also sells decorative frames for the Echo Hub, which helps it become a part of your home.

There’s no camera on board, so you can’t use it for tasks like video calls, but that’s a selling point here. It also has a dedicated mic-off button.

What makes the Echo Hub a good product is that it supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Sidewalk, Thread, and Matter, so it is well-equipped to handle practically all of your smart home devices, regardless of the brand or manufacturer. It can also control select devices, such as certain lights, switches, and plugs, even if your internet is down.

You can customize the Echo Hub’s Home dashboard to display your most frequently accessed devices, pull up camera feeds, play music, or even start Routines. You can also use the device to arm and disarm your Ring alarm with a tap. The Echo Hub uses infrared to detect when you are nearby and transition from displaying your photos to its smart home dashboard.

Of course, you can do a lot of what the Echo Hub does with other devices. But other devices come with extra functions at extra cost. If you need something simple that gets the job done, the Echo Hub demands your attention.