Echo Hub (Newest gen) | 8" smart home control panel | Compatible with thousands of devices, with Alexa+ Early Access

this was my second purchase of this and I plan to buy more as they are great for if your room is filled with smart devices they are super easy to set up and pair with the Alexa app and are great for what I use them for with my smart home linking Alexa and Govee the screen size is perfect for what it is used for and the quality of the product is amazing however the only bit that needs improving is the sound quality however this is a non issue to me as I set the preferred speaker to a better Alexa in the same room you also need a pretty good wife network for it to work its best when toggling other smart devices and make sure your other smart devices are compatible with the echo ecosystem as I use Govee witch is - the price is also great when on sale as you can pick it up for around £100

I absolutely love this hub, it controls all of my smart light switches, Heating TVR’s and separate Hive as well as my security cameras and Ring cameras. I got this when it was £100 and it’s great value at that price. The only think that I don’t like is the notifications that suggest items to buy! It can be a little slow connecting to Ring when someone is at the door. Totally worth a 5 star review and capable of managing all the devices at home that I need and want it to.

Woks reasonably well.. has a few software glitches.. bit expensive at full price but I got it on an offer at £99

I am a huge fan of Amazon's Alexa. I have echo devices in all the rooms in the house, I only watch TV via the Fire OS using a mix of fire sticks, cubes and OMNI TV's. I have smart heating and light switches throughout the house. It's safe to say that I am heavily invested in the Amazon's Alexa echo system so you can imagine that I have been eagerly awaiting this product. On paper it does everything I wanted it to... but... in reality it just misses the mark on so many levels. Straight out of the box I noticed Amazon missed a huge opportunity in the design. The back plate that you mount it too is about the right size to mount to a 1 gang cavity backbox. So I though perfect, this is great for cable management, but NO, the holes are 1cm wider than a backbox! 1cm! come on Amazon, what a missed opportunity. It would have been so simple to make it backbox compatible but you didn't. And this is the theme all the way through, there are missed opportunities which make you wonder what they were thinking. The OS allows climate control - and as I have mentioned we use Tado smart TRV's in every room. in fact one of the reasons I wanted this is so that my family can control the smart home features without me having to get my phone out and open up each individual app. But frustratingly you can only adjust the heating in a room if it is already on. So if you have a schedule - like me - and the heating is set to off in a particular room, you can't turn it on from the smart hub. This is maddening! You cant even boost heating for all rooms like you can in the APP. if there was a dedicated Tado widget perhaps it would be possible to do from that - but - as I discovered while trying to get around this blatantly obvious issue, there isn't one. In fact there are surprisingly few widgets available. When Apple launched the iPhone there were 500 Apps in the app store ready to go, I only have 5 available smart home widgets in addition to the 6 that are already displayed on the home screen! That is woefully low. There are aspects of the hub which work really well. Functionality is sleek and smooth for the things on offer, but at this price point, and from Amazon, I was expecting much more! It just doesn't seem polished, or tested. It almost seems like the people developing it don't actually use smart home products in their own homes so they were trying to guess what a user might want and missing what we actually need. The fact that you can view you home cameras on it is great, but why the doorbell camera doesn't popup when someone rings it is baffling! Why miss this. It's simple. doorbell rings, camera should popup - it does on my TV! Why wouldn't it on the home hub. Just another missed opportunity. Also, while talking about price point, while not a must it seems nuts that the system which allows you to interface with your home automation, doesn't have a battery of any kind but is plugged in at the wall. if your wife unplugs it to do the hoovering, there is no backup power. not even 10 minutes. Why? Amazons own fire tablet is £50 cheaper than the home hub, and google nest home hub is nearly half the price at just £89. There is serious competition out there and Amazon just seem to have been very lazy with this product. There is more that I could write but this is already a very long review, the general gist is that there were so many missed opportunities that make the home hub really disappointing. Conclusion: It's hard to be impressed with the Home hub when comparing it to what else is on the market. Amazon really need to pull their finger out and get some serious software updates and widget options to justify the high price point. It is a shame because I have really been looking forward to this device and I wanted to love it sadly I am left disappointed.

Update to my review. This is the worst Amazon device I've ever purchased. It's slow very unreliable and unresponsive. Half the time it is stuck on loading home screen or just a blank screen and unresponsive to touch so I have to pull the plug Says devices are on when they aren't. It's just unusable. Waste of money do not buy i will be attempting to return ****** I do really like this hub. It's great for keeping an eye on things and using routines. The speaker could be a little better but it's expected for such a thin unit. The interface is quite smooth when working correctly, however now and again it will completely lock up and freeze when pressing some things, including the view all smart plugs. It will lock up and then stay on loading home screen for some time before resetting it's self to the home screen. I think with a few firmware updates this should get resolved and I hope it does as it is very helpful and a great edition to my Alexa family

This is exactly what I was looking for. A smart screen with software dedicated for home automation vs trying to reverse engineer a tablet or another echo device. I have approx. 100 smart home devices and use homeassistant so I am not using the devices built in zigbee functions. Instead I am just exposing what I want the panel to have access to within homeassistant. The panel is a good size. Not too big and you are able to customise the menu to a good level. If you have a ring home alarm this is great as you can do away with the alarm pad and just use the screen. I have not tested direct integrations with the panel but things like matter support and zigbee are a good start and a good standards. Should hopefully mean this is future proof for anyone starting out their home automation journey. Simplycity is key for home automation. A decent panel like this solves allot of issues with imeadiate access to you smart home integrations vs using your phone or voice. There are few alternatives available for a dedicated smart panel and it feels like this definitely a great edition to the Alexa range. Yes you could use a tablet but this is ready for your automation. The display switches on when you go close to the panel.. Again I could mess around and set up a tablet to do somthing simular but this is already set up. Also comes ready to wall mount so looks sleek. I would definitely recommend this. I am normally hard to please but I really appreciate what Amazon are doing here. Well designed simple device which should suit experts and new entrants into the home automation.

This is precisely what I was seeking: a dedicated smart screen specifically designed for home automation, rather than attempting to repurpose a tablet or another Echo device. With approximately 12 smart home devices integrated into my system, I utilize Home Assistant as my central hub. To optimize functionality, I don’t rely on the built-in Zigbee capabilities of the panel; instead, I selectively expose the devices I want it to access through Home Assistant. This level of control ensures that I can tailor the panel’s functionalities to my needs. The panel itself is a well-thought-out size—neither too large nor too small—allowing for easy placement in various locations around my home. One of the standout features is the ability to customize the menu extensively, which enhances usability. If you have a Ring home alarm, this device is particularly advantageous because it allows you to eliminate the need for a separate alarm pad; everything can be seamlessly managed through the smart screen. While I haven't yet explored direct integrations with the panel, features such as Matter support and Zigbee provide a solid foundation. These are emerging standards that suggest the device will be future-proof, allowing new users to embark on their home automation journeys with confidence. Simplicity is critical in home automation, and a reliable panel like this effectively resolves many challenges by providing immediate access to smart home integrations, making it easier than constantly reaching for your phone or relying on voice commands. There aren’t many alternatives available for a dedicated smart panel, and it genuinely feels like this product is a stellar addition to the Alexa ecosystem. Although a tablet could serve a similar function, this smart screen comes pre-configured for automation, significantly reducing setup time and complexity. Another practical feature is that the display activates automatically when someone approaches the panel. While I could tinker with setting up a tablet to achieve something somewhat similar, this device is ready to go out of the box. It also includes the option for wall mounting, which contributes to a sleek and modern aesthetic. I wholeheartedly recommend this product. Normally, I am quite discerning when it comes to tech, but I genuinely appreciate what Amazon has accomplished with this device. It’s a well-designed, straightforward product that is likely to meet the needs of both experienced users and those new to home automation alike.

I really wanted to like this and it has so much potential but as much as I tried it wasn’t great. Firstly the Pros: The screen is nice and bright and a decent size, and I liked how it integrated seamlessly into my Alexa environment. I also liked how when my doorbell rang it comes up automatically to show me a live view. The sound quality was a bit meh but I didn’t intend to use it for music anyway so it wasn’t a problem for me. The Negatives: The screen freezes, becomes laggy and resets itself regularly while in the middle of using it. Its functionality is limited. I liked how you could create groups but that’s where the customisation ends. You can’t modify or display groups of lights or devices in any way other than how it wants to. The apps are extremely limited as well. It really does feel like a first gen product and since it was released over a year ago I was disappointed as it doesn’t appear that Amazon have put any effort into software updates as I see from reviews when it was first released mention the same issues I experienced. Overall it’s quite pricey for what it is and just isn’t worth it in my opinion and I am returning it. I am still interested in something like this but will revisit it when a newer model comes out.