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At its annual Fall Hardware event, Amazon announced the new Echo Hub. This is a $179 8-inch display that mounts onto your wall, and allows you to control every smart home product, right from that display. It reminds me a lot of the Echo Show 15, but in a smaller form-factor.
The Echo Hub is obviously powered by Alexa. And it’s going to give you a nice smart home control panel that you can use to control your lights, thermostat and even see who’s at the door. Routines will also work on the Echo Hub here, which can really extend its functionality.
Echo Hub has Adaptive Content, so it is using infrared technology which is able to detect when someone is nearby and will naturally transition from a home screen with a beautiful clock to the smart home control screen.
As you might expect, the Echo Hub works with Zigbee, Sidewalk, Thread, Bluetooth and of course Matter. Everything that Amazon announced today comes with Matter support, which is a really big deal. As we’re seeing more and more products getting updated with Matter.
This seems to be a really good all-in-one product from Amazon, and something that is meant to be mounted by your front door, so you can easily turn off the lights, and do different things as you leave the house.
When can I buy the Echo Hub?
Amazon says that the new Echo Hub will be available later this year. Currently, customers are able to sign up to be notified when pre-orders start. As mentioned already, it’s going to cost $179. Which is honestly only about $30 more than the new Echo Show 8. Which was also announced today (and the same size).
There will be decorative frame accessories to really make the Echo Hub your own, and those will start from $19.99. These will be available in wood, metallic and paintable white. There is also a counter stand accessory that will be available for $269.99.