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- Great value
- Control smart devices on screen
- Shows Google Photos
- Low-resolution display
- Average sound quality
The Google Home Hub Googles answer to the Amazon Echo Show is here and its something of a revelation. Its not surprising that the addition of a 7in display makes the smart screen more powerful than some of the best smart speakers that much is obvious but until youve used it, you dont quite know what youre missing with the Home and Home Mini.
The Home Hub doesnt feel like quite the finished article yet, but then nor do the companys other Home-branded smart speakers. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that itll only get better with time as Google further refines its user experience and adds new functionality. Even in its current form, I believe the Home Hub is well worth the £140 asking price.
Google Home Hub review: What you need to know
Googles Home Hub is powered by the same virtual assistant that helps with everyday tasks both on your Android smartphone and the companys range of smart speakers. The only difference is, being accompanied by a 7in touch-sensitive display, it can present info on screen, whether thats the weather forecast, upcoming events or Google Maps directions.
As youd expect, you can use it to play music and YouTube videos, and it can also show cooking instructions and display your best snaps from Google Photos. Its functionality doesnt stop there, however. The key advantage the Home Hub holds over its smart speaker counterparts is Home View, which lets you manage all your smart devices lights, thermostats, cameras, media devices and so on from one dropdown menu.
Last, but not least, you can also use the Home Hub to make free audio calls to mobiles and landlines. It can also make video calls, although the recipient will be unable to see you (you can see them) because Google has decided not to include a camera. Depending on your opinions on privacy, that could be a good or a bad thing, but at least you never need to worry about the smart screen capturing any embarrassing images.
Google Home Hub review: Price and competition
The Google Home Hub costs £140 in the UK, making it the best-priced smart screen on the market. Indeed, its only £10 more than the original Google Home (£130) smart speaker and £260 less than the beefed-up Google Home Max (£400).
Its best-known rival is the all-new Amazon Echo, which has a 10in display and costs £220, while Lenovos Smart Display, available in both 8in and 10in versions, starts at £180. The JBL Link View is another third-party smart display that uses Google Assistant, but its not available in the UK. When it does hit our shores, Id be surprised if it costs less than £180.
Google Home Hub review: Design and display
When I first took the Google Home Hub out of its box, I couldn’t help thinking it resembles a 7in tablet stuck onto a large pumice stone. However, despite its appearance, the tablet is not removable and the chalk-coloured, stone-like rear is actually a speaker that doubles up as its stand.
Although its unlikely to win any design awards, the Home Hub is not a bad-looking device and, thanks to its diminutive size and footprint, it can easily be accommodated on any bedside table, kitchen worktop or sideboard without being overbearing. Indeed, when looking at it square-on, you can only really see the Home Hubs display and not the slightly odd-shaped speaker behind it, making it look like any other small digital photo frame.
On its bezel, the Home Hubs screen has a two-mic array for picking out your voice, but theres no camera. Instead, theres a light sensor in the middle that enables the Home Hub to alter the displays brightness and white point based on the ambient light in the room.
Google calls this feature Ambient EQ and in practice it works very well, reducing the brightness to the extent that youd be hard-pushed to know the images on display werent prints. This is great for making sure you dont get too much blue light hitting the back of your retinas at night, but in darker environments, photos can often look as though theyd benefit from some additional backlight. If you find this to be the case, theres a handy auto-brightness offset tool in the Home app or you can turn Ambient EQ off altogether.
As far as the 7in display is concerned, Google doesnt list its resolution on the Home Hubs web page, but the company has since told Expert Reviews that its a 1,024 x 600 panel. Thats a pretty low resolution compared to Lenovos 8in Smart Display, which has a 1,280 x 800 resolution screen and is on par with the first-gen Amazon Echo Show. As such, photos never look as sharp as they would on your smartphone or tablet, but as youll be viewing the Home Hub from further away, youre less likely to notice. Whats more, it makes up for any lack of sharpness with colours that are both rich and accurate, and solid contrast levels.
Google Home Hub review: What does it do?
Most of whats interesting about the Home Hub happens via its screen, but its core interface is pretty straightforward, displaying only weather info and upcoming events on the first page. Swiping shows recommendations from Spotify and YouTube, along with Top stories for you, which are also sourced from YouTube. The smart display also has two persistent cards showing tips for other things you can do with your Home Hub.
To open Home View, which lets you control your lights, media, thermostat and cameras all from one place (as well as letting you send Broadcasts to your other Home speakers), you simply swipe down from the top of the screen at any time. Ive only used the Home Hub with other Google devices so far, such as the Chromecast and Chromecast Audio (well be using it with smart lights and cameras soon), but its already obvious that it will make life much easier. Its also helpful not having to remember the exact name of all of your smart devices.
Aside from this, though, youre still encouraged to control the Home Hub using your voice and when you do, it quickly becomes clear how much it has to offer compared to its display-less siblings. Ask how cold it is outside, for example, and the Home Hub will give a verbal response, but also detail the weather forecast for the next six hours in an eye-friendly graphic. And when you ask how long itll take to drive somewhere, the Home Hub can illustrate any areas affected by bad traffic and let you expand the map to look at the route in more detail.
Another standout feature is being able to find recipes and follow their step-by-step instructions on screen, but you can also benefit from seeing countdown timers, calculations, translations and to-do lists on screen. Sadly, though, although the Home Hub boasts that it can play live TV, I was disappointed to see this only works via YouTube.
That is unless you have your phone nearby, in which case you can cast from apps including BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, BT Sport, and All 4. Strangley Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are not among this list, so fingers crossed well see that rectified in the near future. For now, though, you can at least watch the news and other live TV from your Home Hub as you do the cooking.
In the simplest terms, having a screen helps you make decisions. Where youd ordinarily need to know what you want to listen to and instruct your Google Home speaker accordingly, the Home Hubs offers the luxury of recommendations. Say OK Google, open Spotify, for example, and it shows a number of albums and playlists based on your recent listening.
Perhaps my favourite thing about the Home Hub, though, is how it interfaces with Google Photos. Along with various other options, the Google Home mobile app lets you show albums from your Google Photos on the Home Hub (as well as the time and weather) when its not in use. Its a very similar feature to that on the Chromecast, except that youre actually likely to see your pictures on the Home Hub because the display is always turned on.
It might seem trivial, but with everyone taking more photos than ever, its incredibly easy to never revisit them. Being able to show your favourite snaps in a never-ending slideshow at the touch of a button ensures thats not the case. And unlike naff digital photo frames of old, you can change the images that the Home Hub shows at the tap of a button no messing around with memory sticks and SD cards.
Google Home Hub review: Sound quality
As youd expect from a £130 device with such a small footprint, the Home Hubs sound quality wont blow you away. Having said that, for its size its decent enough and is a good step up on the Home Mini. Although theres still a distinct lack of bass, mid-range frequencies and treble are nice and clear up to around 70% volume. Beyond this, the sound doesnt distort too badly but simply becomes too harsh to enjoy listening to.
Its perfectly adequate as a kitchen or bedside radio, but I wouldnt recommend buying it as the main speaker for listening to music. For this, youre better off picking up a Chromecast Audio to add to existing speakers and simply selecting it as the primary music output for your Home Hub. Alternatively, the Google Max remains the best-sounding of Googles own smart speakers.
Google Home Hub review: Verdict
Bar a few small gripes with the way its software works it seems impossible to clear recipes and videos youre finished with manually, for example my overall experience with the Home Hub has been overwhelmingly positive.
Swiping through its interface, it might not appear to offer a huge amount at first, but Im confident this is a deliberate decision by Google to avoid blurring the lines between smart display and tablet, and overcomplicating the Home Hub at this early stage in its development.
After all, it achieves everything it sets out to do, which is to make it easier to interact with Google Assistant and to control all your smart devices from one place. Consider its low price and that it also doubles up as a brilliant digital photo frame, and its impossible not to recommend it as our pick of Googles Home speakers.
