I've been using the Echo Hub I reviewed earlier this year every day since. This 8-inch touchscreen panel makes controlling all of my smart lights, smart locks, and even my smart thermostat effortless to save serious time. Each one of the best smart home devices I've installed gets its own widget on the main menu and this streamlines adjustments or power controls, so I can turn off lights or pull up a security camera feed with a tap.
Right now, the Amazon Echo Hub is on sale for $129.99 when you use the code HUB50 at checkout. That's $50 off its usual $180 price tag (a savings of 28%). Not only is this one of the best smart home hubs (with Matter and Zigbee protocol support) but also one of the best Alexa devices you can buy.
Unlike the Echo Show, the Echo Hub is bloat-free and you can completely customize and organize its screen layout. While I wish it shipped with the temperature and motion-sensing triggers built into the cheaper Echo Dot, this is an impressive first-generation device.
The Echo Hub is Amazon's first attempt at a true smart home controller in the vein of much pricier options such as the Brilliant panel. This smart home dashboard can either be mounted on your wall or placed on a stand, which is how I prefer to use it. Initially, I swapped it between my living room and my office where I spend most of the day. But after the first month, I found it had a permanent place on my nightstand. I love the fact that it doesn't have cameras like any of the Echo Shows, so it fits into my bedroom naturally. It's convenient to view security cameras and control my devices before bed or after waking up.
Even more exciting is its built-in Matter and Zigbee radios to double as a smart home hub that connects local smart home devices like smart locks, lights, and sensors to your Alexa smart home without needing an extra hub. That cuts down on bandwidth consumption and is faster than Wi-Fi. It instantly recognizes new Matter devices like the Eve smart plug or LIFX lights I recently installed, and adds them right to my Alexa smart home in seconds.
It's also stacked with useful Alexa features. I use mine as an intercom with other Echo smart speakers and smart displays in other rooms or to link them all up for a whole-home music listening experience. When it's not in use, my Echo Hub gives the best digital photo frames a run for their money. Without the ads and recommendation bloat found on Echo and FireTV devices it's useful for displaying pictures unmarred by UI elements as well as the time at a glance.
You can still use the best Alexa skills, listen to music, or watch shows—they're just not front and center. Keep in mind that its flat dual-speaker performance won't blow you away. Even Amazon encourages you to cast to your other Echo devices instead. Despite this, the active media controls tab lives on the front screen so you can pause and cast on the fly. Overall, this has been one of the most exciting smart home devices I've added to my collection, and I find it as useful as I first did all these months later.
