Presented at the end of last year, Amazon finally brings its Echo Hub to Italy.
It is a small tablet that incorporates the classic interface of Echo smart speakers but with a main focus on the connected home.
Its usefulness is evident: hung on the wall rather than placed on the desk, it represents a fast and smart method with which to manage webcams, locks, thermostats, security sensors and everything supported by the Amazon Alexa ecosystem, including devices that communicate with the universal Matter protocol.
First approach
From an aesthetic point of view, the Hub has an 8-inch display, similar to that of the Echo Show 8 with three buttons on the right: the volume controller and the one for muting voice command recognition with Alexa.
On the top, two audio outputs that provide clean sound, also excellent for music, films and videos.
In the sales package, Amazon has included a rear plate to be fixed to the wall and into which the Hub can be slid, locking it.
This is a mechanism similar to that of the Amazon Echo Show 15, the gigantic smart speaker which was already a way to have a home hub on the wall, although much heavier and "bulkier".
The housing for the superfluous cable is also excellent, which allows you to hide the remaining power cord without leaving it dangling, so as to create a clean wall installation.
The functionalities
Customizing the interface takes a few minutes to get used to menus and shortcuts but the end result can be interesting.
The Amazon Echo Hub is the only device from the e-commerce giant that features an organization focused on home control.
Here then, on the homepage, it is possible to quickly access the faulty rooms of the house, appropriately created by the Alexa app.
Just click on the name of a room to open the window with all the connected devices present and manage them.
Amazon also provides the creation of a widget dedicated to a room, with everything it contains.
The rest of the widgets are those that we have also come to know on other speakers of the brand: music, photos, calendar, shopping list, favorite contacts and so on.
Unlike other Echoes, we don't have a built-in webcam here: the Hub can show live video from all supported cameras but can't broadcast anything.
Two sensors, one proximity and one light, allow you to optimize energy consumption, turning on the Hub only when a person passes by, displaying a screensaver with the time for the rest of the time.
Watch out for multimedia
As it is powered by the Echo Ship platform, replacing Fire OS, on board the Hub there are also third-party apps for web browsing but, above all, for listening to music and viewing videos, such as those of Prime Video.
In this case, the main intended use as a home hub is also enriched with greater multimedia, completing the usefulness of the display.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread and Matter devices sync seamlessly with the built-in smart home hub, allowing you to control compatible devices, such as lights, switches and plugs, even if the Internet is down.
You can control all connected devices on the dashboard from groups or favorites widgets, a group panel, or shortcuts, depending on your preference.
Some shortcuts also offer on and off controls, so you can access additional controls on selected devices, such as lighting colors, fan speed or accessory mode selection, by tapping the three dots on the devices in question.
You can also view your favorite photos and memories on the screen by choosing images from your Amazon Photos account.
Once selected, just say "Alexa, start photo frame" to display a collection on your home screen.
At first glance, the Echo Hub may seem like a duplicate of something already seen at Amazon but instead it is one of a kind, what was missing in the large and vast catalog of the American brand.
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