Many call The Google Home Hub a cheaper alternative to The Amazon Echo Show, but when it comes to getting accurate information through voice commands, The Google Home Hub definitely has an edge, simply because over the years, as the world’s favorite go-to search engine, Google has built a very advanced AI algorithm.
It also has an edge because you have already been using most of the voice commands with your Android mobile phone and tablet, and the very same commands (and many more) can be used with Google Home Hub.
Initially it looks like an almost 7-inch tablet fitted in a tilted manner on a sliced cone. The design doesn’t exactly take your breath away. But you can place it anywhere – in the kitchen, in the sitting room, and basically anywhere it can hear your voice and react accordingly.
Compared to 1200 x 800-pixel display that comes with Amazon Echo Show, Google Home Hub gives you 1024 x 600-pixel display but since most of the time you will be interacting with the device from a distance, it doesn’t matter much and everything on the screen appears crystal clear.
Technologically Amazon Echo Show, and other variants of Amazon Echo (read Amazon Echo review here) may seem superior compared to Google Home Hub, but considering the price gap between the two home automation devices and the degree of accuracy offered by Google Home Hub, it is a worthy contender.
What exactly is Google Home Hub?
Every technology company worth its salt wants to dominate the “Internet of Things” market because this is where big money is to be made. The conventional Internet is plateauing and in a few years, even the mobile technology may plateau. But when appliances, general domestic fittings, gadgets and devices begin to communicate with each other, an entire new world of opportunities begins to manifest.
Google Home Hub is not exactly a smart home hub that changes the game. It poses no challenge to Amazon Echo or Samsung Smart Things, but on its own, it holds its ground if you are looking for an interactive speaker, an intelligent digital photo frame, and a smart device that beams messages to different devices.
It takes commands with the Google Assistant and every command needs to be preceded with “Google” or “Hey Google”. It has a light sensor or an ambiance detector that dims and brightens the screen according to the light available in your room environment. It even adjusts the colors on the screen according to its surroundings.
So, if you want to understand what Google Home Hub is, it is a speaker that is not of very good quality, it is an excellent digital photo frame, it is an interactive device that gives you all the information that can be given through a gadget with a touchscreen, and if you have some gadgets, appliances and fittings at home that can be controlled through an app, they can be controlled with Google Home Hub.
Why many people call it a digital frame is more than likely because it has taken this feature from the legacy Google Chromecast screen on TV – when you are not watching anything, it shows images from Google Images.
The same thing happens in Google Home Hub. It randomly displays images when you are not using it. Instead of Google Images, you can set it up to display your family images connected to your Google account.
You can connect your Google Home Hub to your photo albums that you have created in Google Photos or the albums that have been shared with you and these photos will be displayed on the hub’s screen.
There is a feature called Live Album that automatically collects the photos that you take and then stores them in your cloud account. Using machine learning, the feature filters out blurry photos, overexposed photos, and even duplicate photos.
It doesn’t have a battery, just in case. There is 15W power adapter that you need to use. This means, when you take the device from one room to another, it will be switched off and it will need to be restarted.
Review of the sound quality of Google Home Hub
Since it is a speaker (aside from being a digital photo frame), it is but natural that you would like to know how it sounds when it plays music or even simply when it interacts with you.
The sliced cone that we referred to above upon which the tablet-like screen of Google Home Hub is attached, is a speaker.
With a fabric cover, the speaker almost has the same finish and look as Google Home and Google Home Mini. The cover comes in sand, aqua, chalk and charcoal color.
Remember that compared to home automation hubs like Sony SmartThings and Amazon Echo Show, Google Home Hub is not an expensive device (roundabout $150) and hence, the sound quality of its speaker isn’t exactly out of this world. It sounds like an average speaker, but it sounds quite nice as long as you don’t maximize the volume. Bass is missing. It works good on mid-range frequencies and treble.
Consequently, you wouldn’t use it in a party or with a group of friends but yes, if you want to enjoy some quiet music in your bedroom or even in your kitchen, the quality of the sound is sufficient enough.
The speaker is powered by Google Assistant and it is well-known that the capacity of this voice-command system is way stronger than Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri. Even if you knowingly mispronounce certain expressions, using its search engine-type prowess, Google Home Hub digs out just the right information you need.
Review of the display of Google Home Hub
As explained earlier, when you are not actively using Google Home Hub, it randomly displays images and you can use it as your family digital photo frame. It can also show you your calendar entries and weather updates when you’re not using it.
It’s a 7-inch screen that responds to “Google Assistant” commands.
When you want to use it, simply touch the screen and then swipe right.
Intriguingly, it is one of the few devices of its category that does not have a camera. Yes, when you can make video calls from every other device under the sun, you cannot do so on Google Home Hub.
But there’s a reason.
Google wants to give you a home automation hub that cannot intrude upon your home environment even on the sly. If there is no camera, no one can hack into your hub and take over your camera to film you secretly. So, you can safely keep it in your bedroom. At least this is the explanation Google has been giving.
The display shows the information in the form of the cards that you see on your phone if you use Google Now or any of its variants Google keeps launching and alternating between.
It automatically turns off at night.
Can Google Home Hub be used as a home automation gadget?
Depends on your requirement and the degree of sophistication that you expect of a home automation device or gadget.
Swipe down from the top of the Google Home Hub screen to access the Home View menu. There is a collection of icons to represent various categories of devices, appliances and fittings in your home, for example “Lights”, “Thermostats”, “Cameras” and “Locks”, just to name a few.
This is a feature that makes Google Home Hub a home automation device. You can control the devices that can communicate with your Google Home Hub. For example, if your lighting system is a smart lighting system, you can switch off the lights, increase and decrease brightness and even schedule when they should be switched on and switched off, from the Google Home Hub app.
Some of the device and appliances Google Home Hub automatically detects and some you may have to add manually.
It can also launch a bunch of utilities and programs. For example, if you say to it, “good morning” it shows you the weather outside in your area, your commute if applicable, your calendar if applicable and a list of your reminders if you have set them.
To boot, it can also tell you news according to the sources you have originally selected, play you some nice music to kick start your day, switch on the radio or a pre-designated podcast. It can also switch on the lights and activate other home devices through the same command.
Just like “good morning” you can spend some time with Google Home Hub to create your own custom phrases and custom commands, clubbing many activities into a series of executions.
Google Assistant, that controls Google Home Hub was previously just limited to creating shopping lists, but now you can also create your to-do lists, notes and gift lists with your voice. Google has also promised to integrate other renowned to-do services and apps including Google Keep, Any.do, Bring! And Todoist.
The parent company of Google, Alphabet, has been working on its own range of “intelligent” home products including thermostats, cameras, video doorbells, door locks and smoke and alarm systems. These products are promoted under the brand name of “Nest”. You can monitor, automate and control all these gadgets and appliances from your Google Home Hub interface.
For example, if a visitor rings your video doorbell you will get a notification on your Google Home Hub and the visuals will also be streamed directly to the hub from the camera attached to your doorbell from Nest.
No support for Netflix, iPlayer or Prime Video. No web browser. The only video streaming service that you get is YouTube. Since there is no browser support, you cannot access any other video streaming service, which can be a bummer for many.
Worried that the kids will be watching videos that they shouldn’t be watching? You can define Filters on your Google Home Hub to make sure that only family-friendly content is available on YouTube.
For streaming audio and music, you can use a few music streaming services but if you use Google Play Music you can also see the song lyrics scrolling on the screen.
Talking of kids, you can add your family members so that they can interact with Google Home Hub easily. For them to be able to interact with the device, the device needs to recognise their voice so in the beginning, a little bit of training will be required.
Kids can listen to audio storybooks. Google is aiming to add hundreds of Disney books to the collection.
Although Google Home Hub supports Wi-Fi, it doesn’t come with other communication protocols like ZigBee and Z-Wave. So, although it is being touted as a complete home automation hub, it works best if you are using Nest products within your household.
Concluding review remarks on Google Home Hub
So, should you buy Google Home Hub as your preferred home automation hub?
If you are big on the Nest range of fittings and appliances, it is prudent that you stick to Google Home Hub because eventually all Google devices will be hooked to each other and hence, will be able to interact with each other seamlessly.
Google has also promised multiple times that users should also be able to use devices from Philips, Samsung and other electronics companies, but in the current device these features and capabilities are missing so if these are your immediate requirements, you may like to explore other options.
For initiating yourself into the world of voice assistants and tabletop speakers that respond to voice commands, Google Home Hub may be a good choice. Compared to other voice-activated speakers available in the market, this is much more affordable. Being from Google, it is definitely robust. People are quite happy the way it shows recipes. It can be an efficient scheduler and an entertainment center.
Except for the missing camera (it could have included shutters for the camera for privacy), it is a good choice for a first time home automation hub.
