Syed Imran Haider 
Amazon has come up with the Echo Hub for people who are using Alexa for powering their smart homes. It is highly customizable and powerful and it is functional straight out of the box. It is essentially a touchscreen panel that hangs on the wall and you can re-arrange the visual elements as per your preference. Since you can do this in the drag-and-drop fashion, it is not very complicated.
Design and build
The look of the Amazon Echo Hub is similar to that of Echo Show 8. As, it boasts an 8-inch touchscreen display that has a resolution of 1200 x 800. It has a front-mounted onboard microphone array that responds to the Alexa wake word. And, the top has a pair of full-range speakers. However, there is no onboard camera here and the user-interface is also different from that of the Echo smart displays.
While it has been designed to hang on the wall, you can also use a stand to place it on a table or countertop. The stand will have to be purchased separately. On the right side of the Echo Hub, there are three buttons. These include the mic-mute button and the volume up and down buttons. When the panel is in sleep mode, it will display your selected photos in the Amazon Photos account, along with a clock and current date.
The top of its bezel has an infrared proximity sensor, which wakes the panel from sleep mode when you approach it. The panel weighs around 365 grams and measures 5.4 x 7.9 inches and is around 0.6 inches deep. It is available in just one color i.e. Glacier White.
Compatibility
The Amazon Echo Hub is not just a smart display; it is a full-fledged, powerful smart home hub that boasts a MediaTek MT81691A processor and comes with nearly every radio that homeowners are likely to use. These include Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Sidewalk and Bluetooth LE Mesh. It is also Matter and Thread compatible.
The Bluetooth radio can be used for streaming music to the onboard speakers, or the Hub can also be used for streaming to any Bluetooth speaker. Voice commands can also be used for controlling a connected Bluetooth speaker. A 6-foot USB cable and 12.5-watt wall-wart adapter is used to power the Echo Hub.
Setup
Setting up the Echo Hub is a very straightforward process. The home screen has a customizable smart home dashboard that comes with buttons for the Alexa-compatible devices in your home. It will show how you have grouped these devices, the ones that have been labeled as ‘favorites’ and the ‘rooms’ they have been assigned to. It is possible to control these devices separately, or you can do it all together as one with a single button press. They can also be controlled via the Alexa app, or through voice commands.
The bottom of the display has a row of buttons that are linked to widgets capable of performing various functions. These include adjusting the thermostat, setting up the Ring Alarm system and controlling any smart home devices.
The Verdict
With a price tag of $179, the Amazon Echo Hub may not be the cheapest. But, it is the least expensive Echo that comes with a display as well as Zigbee radio.
