Amazon Echo Hub (2023)
A purpose-built, wall-mountable smart home control panel that genuinely centralises your connected home — but works best if you're already deep in the Amazon ecosystem. 8.2 / 10
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Overview
The Amazon Echo Hub arrived in late 2023 as something genuinely new in the Echo lineup: not a speaker, not a display designed for video calls or entertainment, but a dedicated smart home command centre. Its 8-inch touchscreen is purpose-built for controlling lights, locks, thermostats, cameras and routines — all from a single panel you can mount flush on the wall like a light switch.
Amazon is pitching this squarely at the growing number of households that have accumulated a sprawling collection of smart devices across different apps and platforms. If you've ever found yourself juggling four separate apps just to get ready for bed, the Hub's promise of a single, always-on control surface will sound very appealing. It supports Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread and Bluetooth alongside Wi-Fi, which means it can talk directly to many smart home devices without a separate hub.
The target buyer is a tech-savvy homeowner who has already built — or is actively building — a smart home, and wants something more permanent and intentional than a tablet propped up in the kitchen. It is not, however, the right choice if you stream music, watch video, or want a general-purpose Alexa screen. Amazon deliberately stripped those features out, and that restraint is both the Hub's greatest strength and its most divisive quality.
Key Features
A bright, responsive 8-inch panel optimised purely for smart home dashboards, device tiles and camera feeds — not media playback.
Integrated Zigbee, Z-Wave (Plus v2), Matter and Thread radios let it control hundreds of devices directly, eliminating the need for a separate bridge or hub.
Ships with both a flush wall-mount bracket and a desktop stand, so it works in a hallway, bedroom or kitchen counter equally well.
Far-field microphones pick up Alexa commands across a room, so you can control devices, run routines and check the weather hands-free.
View live feeds from Ring, Blink and compatible third-party cameras in a multi-camera grid view directly on screen — ideal near your front door.
Drag-and-drop device tiles, scenes and shortcuts let you build a home screen tailored to your exact routines and device mix.
Full Specifications
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Display size | 8 inches |
| Display resolution | 1280 × 800 (HD) |
| Processor | Amazon AZ2 Neural Edge |
| Smart home radios | Zigbee, Z-Wave Plus v2, Matter, Thread, Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Wi-Fi | Dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) |
| Microphones | Far-field array with wake word detection |
| Speaker | 1.6-inch, 3W (voice/alerts only — no music streaming) |
| Camera | None |
| Power | Wired (power adapter included, no battery) |
| Wall-mount | Flush mount bracket included |
| Dimensions (with stand) | 202.5 × 138 × 127.1 mm |
| Weight | 505 g (without mount) |
| Colour options | Charcoal |
| Release year | 2023 |
| RRP (at launch) | $179.99 / £179.99 |
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Excellent multi-protocol hub (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, Thread in one device)
- Clean, intuitive dashboard that's genuinely faster than reaching for a phone
- Well-designed wall mount — looks intentional, not bolted-on
- Camera grid view is practically useful, especially by front doors
- Responsive touchscreen with good brightness for a hallway setting
- No subscription required for core smart home features
- Routine triggers via on-screen widgets work reliably
Cons
- No music or video streaming — a deliberate but polarising omission
- Speaker is adequate for voice only; not suitable for audio content
- Works best within the Amazon/Alexa ecosystem — third-party depth varies
- No built-in camera for video calls or home monitoring
- Dashboard customisation, while good, can feel clunky on smaller tiles
- Requires a wired power connection — cable management matters
- $179.99 feels steep compared to a cheap Fire tablet running a similar dashboard
Performance
Day-to-day, the Echo Hub does exactly what it promises with very little friction. Tapping a light group tile to dim the living room or triggering a "Good Night" scene that locks the front door, turns off every downstairs light and drops the thermostat takes about two seconds from intention to execution. That immediacy — versus unlocking your phone, opening an app and navigating to the right device — is where the Hub earns its keep. After a week of living with one, reaching for a phone to control smart home devices starts to feel oddly inefficient.
The multi-radio hub capability is a genuine differentiator. During testing, pairing Zigbee bulbs, a Z-Wave door lock and a Matter-over-Thread sensor all worked without touching a separate hub or bridge. Device discovery was fast, and reliability over several weeks was excellent — the kinds of dropped connections that occasionally plague third-party Zigbee coordinators simply didn't appear here. Amazon's infrastructure seems well-tuned to keep its own hub radio stable.
The camera grid view deserves a mention: pulling up four camera feeds simultaneously on the 8-inch panel near the front door is genuinely practical when a delivery arrives or someone rings the bell. Ring and Blink cameras loaded quickly, and the feeds were smooth enough to be useful. Latency was around two to three seconds, which is typical for cloud-relayed camera streams but means you're seeing the past, not quite the present.
Placement tip: The Echo Hub makes most sense mounted at eye level near your main entrance or in a hallway. This gives you a natural "leaving the house" and "arriving home" control point without dedicating premium living-room wall space to it.
Alexa voice commands work exactly as they do on any Echo device — reliably for Amazon-native tasks, occasionally frustrating for complex third-party integrations. The microphone array picks up commands clearly from across a medium-sized room even when there's background noise. One notable gap: you cannot make or receive video calls on the Hub, which some users upgrading from an Echo Show 8 will find a step backward.
Value for Money
At $179.99, the Echo Hub sits in genuinely awkward pricing territory. On one hand, it bundles a Zigbee coordinator, Z-Wave controller, Matter/Thread border router and a dedicated touchscreen into a single, attractively designed unit — buying those components separately would cost considerably more. For a household already paying for multiple smart home bridges, the Hub could consolidate real hardware costs over time.
On the other hand, a Fire HD 8 tablet costs around $99, can run the Alexa app with a smart home dashboard, and adds music, video and video calling. If you're primarily after a wall-mounted touch interface and already own a separate smart home hub, a Fire tablet in a cheap wall mount is a hard argument to dismiss. The Hub's value proposition hinges almost entirely on the integrated radio hardware and the tighter, purpose-built software experience.
Who gets the most value: The Echo Hub makes financial and practical sense if you currently own a separate Zigbee hub (like a Philips Hue Bridge or SmartThings hub), a Z-Wave stick, and a Matter controller — replacing all three while adding a dedicated dashboard screen is a genuinely good consolidation deal.
For new smart home builders starting from scratch, the Hub is a strong foundation purchase: buy it first, then fill in devices knowing they'll all connect natively. For casual smart home users with just a few Alexa-compatible bulbs, it's almost certainly overkill.
Final Verdict
The Amazon Echo Hub (2023) earns a confident 8.2 out of 10. It is a rare product that knows exactly what it is and executes that vision with real discipline. The combination of Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter and Thread in a single wall-mountable panel with a clean, fast touchscreen dashboard fills a genuine gap in the smart home market — and fills it well. The deliberate removal of music and video streaming will frustrate some buyers and liberate others, but it keeps the experience focused in a way that pays dividends every time you use it.
If you have a growing smart home, a mix of protocols across your devices, and you've been hunting for a way to bring it all together without living in a phone app, the Echo Hub is the most thoughtful answer Amazon has produced. Just make sure you're genuinely invested in the smart home use case — this is not a device you buy hoping to grow into it.
Can the Echo Hub replace a Philips Hue Bridge?
Yes, for most users. The Echo Hub includes a Zigbee radio that can pair directly with Philips Hue bulbs and other Zigbee devices. However, some advanced Hue features — like Hue-specific effects, Entertainment Sync and the Hue app's full creative controls — require the Hue Bridge to remain in the system. If you rely heavily on the Hue app experience, keep the Bridge. If you control Hue lights primarily through Alexa anyway, the Hub can take over.
Does the Echo Hub work without Wi-Fi or if the internet goes down?
Some local control is possible for Zigbee and Z-Wave devices that are directly paired to the Hub, but the dashboard and many Alexa features depend on Amazon's cloud. During an internet outage, expect degraded functionality — direct Zigbee commands may still work, but routines, voice processing and camera feeds will not.
Is the Echo Hub difficult to wall-mount?
The mounting process is straightforward for anyone comfortable with basic DIY. The bracket attaches to the wall with two screws, and the Hub clicks onto it securely. The main challenge is cable management: the power cable needs to be routed either through the wall (requiring an electrician) or tucked along a baseboard with a cable tidy. Amazon sells an in-wall power adapter kit as an optional accessory for a cleaner finish.
Can I stream music or watch Netflix on the Echo Hub?
No. Amazon deliberately excluded media streaming from the Echo Hub. It has a small speaker adequate for Alexa responses and alerts, but there is no music playback, no video streaming and no web browser. This is a hard limitation of the device — it is not a general-purpose screen and cannot be unlocked or sideloaded to add those features.
Does the Echo Hub support Google Home or Apple HomeKit devices?
Not natively via those platforms. Google Home and Apple HomeKit devices are not directly controllable through the Echo Hub's Alexa interface. However, devices that support the Matter standard can be added to both ecosystems and may be controllable through the Hub's Matter radio, depending on the specific device and its Matter implementation. For a household split between Google and Amazon, the Hub is firmly in the Amazon camp.