Echo Hub 8: Smart Home Control Panel with Alexa Integration – Ultimate Home Automation Solution

Okay, lets get the obvious out of the way. Is the Echo Hub what it could be, should be, or will be? That’s a big NO!

Is it what it is?, Yes, and that seems to be what people are missing. Almost without exception the early purchasers of the Hub are the techies that have already automated part or all of their home using some combination of devices that include the Amazon ecosystem. They are intimate with every function, switch, routine, and process. They can almost Grunt and their home responds.

Each of the early adopters were looking for a Next-Level panel control. It’s true, the current options, including converting various tablets for wall mount and cobbling together various shortcuts and apps to “act” as a central hub are lacking. Woefully so. Worse, is using the wide variety of apps on a phone or tablet to run their operation. My own system has devices from 8 manufacturers, each happily pushing their own app at me. It’s a pain for me, and impossible for my spouse.

The Echo Hub had – and has – the potential to be this device, but it is completely lacking in capability, customization, and next level function. So to almost every reviewer, it falls woefully short of their expectations.

I get it…kind of. See, I’m that guy too, and had high expectations that this was next-level tech that would boost my Smarthome to the next level. I hit the product page at least weekly for the last four months, eagerly anticipating it going live. When it finally dropped, it fell short of my lofty expectations, so…complain, complain and slam it in the reviews.

Okay, we know what it isn’t.

HOWEVER, let’s look at what it is. I am the master of my Smarthome domain, and can grunt and have my home respond. It’s Awesome…. for me. But my spouse has to yell from the back porch to have me turn on the yard lights. House guests use the bathroom nearly dark, because they don’t understand my next level lighting routines. House-sitters won’t come back because they couldn’t turn off the music, and on the TV.

My home has inadvertently become the coffee table full of remotes from yesteryear where only a precise combinations of buttons would result in the TV playing the source, and audio that was desired. The wrong combination might take hours (and lots of swearing) to reset back to “normal” operation. I get it, but it’s a mystery to everyone else.

So the Echo Hub is band-aid that really isn’t for me, or most of its initial purchasers & reviewers. It’s actually for my spouse, house guests, and visitors. It lets them interact with my Smarthome creation and be empowered to control their environment. Not only do they not notice the inherent limitations of the Echo Hub, they marvel at it’s capabilities, power, and ease of use. Go figure.

It will force me to get better at groups, routines, and favorites in the Alexa ecosystem, and I’d say in about a week I’ll have it fully tuned, FOR THEM!, Not me.

So, once I got over my own disappointment, I realized that while what I wanted at this juncture, it’s what I needed. Not next level, but empowering additional users to interact with this level and the current capabilities of my home.

I’m disappointed, I expected more, and I’ll take two more please.

Lastly, I want to address a couple of other common complaints.
“8 inches is too small.” Well, you ordered an 8” device, you colossal idiot. That’s like buying a 6-pack and complaining that there aren’t 7 bottles. It is what it is – precisely what it was advertised to be.

“Its too expensive.” Amazon has spoiled us by having advertising support the actual hardware costs of development and manufacturing of all their devices to date. Most reports indicate that the Alexa division inside Amazon is under-performing and not overly profitable. Thats kind of what you get when you sell a $24 Echo Dot, which is a marvel at voice recognition and cloud powered user response, and then wager I’ll order tons of stuff from Amazon via that portal. I won’t. (Ever? Nope. I would never order a single thing by voice. We’ve all seen the Amazon product listings that show 1 item for $14 and 2 for only $43. If listings ever become less deceptive…maybe. But it’s a hard NO for now.)

The Echo Hub has no advertising, so far. This means the device has to sell for development costs, plus manufacturing costs plus margin. You know, the traditional business model of a product. While it is costly for an Amazon device, a similar product from Apple would run $750 – $1,000. Get over it. Boggles my mind that people pay an amount, and then complain about the amount when the purchasing is entirely within their control. Just return it.

“The speakers suck.” This is interesting. When playing around with the device, I accidentally figured out how to watch a video, and I have to admit that I thought the sound sounded decent. Not noticeably better or worse than the Ipad Mini, of approximately the same screen size. However, the Echo Hub is essentially a remote control for other people to interact with your smart home. Best speakers on a remote control that I’ve ever heard. The people complaining about the speakers no doubt have awesome speakers, surround systems, and audio throughout their home, they and others can now initiate music on those devices via the Hub. Frankly I couldn’t care less about the speaker quality on a wall mounted 8” screen. If I’m ever standing in a hallway, facing an 8” screen and watching a movie, SHOOT ME!

Again, I understand why people are underwhelmed. The Echo Hub isn’t what it could be, should be, or likely will be. Just admit it right now, it’s not for you. But it’s a wonderful gift to your spouse, roommates, house guests, etc. who are frustrated by YOUR Smarthome. Maybe they’ll like it enough to actually encourage you to purchase the next level device when it drops.