Inspirations and More Four Chairs Furniture and Design

The MadeByGoogle event last month launched the Pixel 3 as expected. but there was a surprise or two as well, not least the new home Hub.

What Is It?

The Google home Hub is a smart home voice assistant with a 7 inch (1024 x 600) touchscreen display. The whole unit is a relatively neat 18cm broad x 12cm high x 7cm deep. It turns out this is a near-perfect size for a bedside table.

I purchased it on release at £139 and it currently comes with a YouTube premium totally free trial offer of 6 months of video and music services (T&Cs apply).

The hardware list includes 2 far-field microphones, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz/5 Ghz) Wi-Fi and a ‘full range’ speaker. The built-in ambient EQ light sensor adjusts the colour temperature of the display (similar to Apple’s true Tone feature) as well as dimming and brightening it when the ambient light changes.

Round the back there’s a volume rocker on the best hand side and an on/off mute switch for the microphones along the top edge, plus the DC power socket for the neat wall-wart PSU that’s include. You can also manage the volume and brightness by swiping up from the bottom for on-screen controls.

The speaker housing / stand of the unit is covered in fabric like the other Google home gadgets with 4 colours options – Chalk, Charcoal, Aqua or Sand. There’s no IP rating here, not even for splashes, so best not to place it too close to a kitchen or restroom sink.

Set Up

Setup needs Android, iOS, Mac, Windows or a Chromebook, plus the the Google home app (you may have it already if you are using a Chromecast). It’s a easy guided procedure and takes around 5 minutes.

During initialisation there was a firmware update and a chance to configuration the photo albums to share on the display. I love Google photos and use it instead of Apple’s service. At first I selected the ‘recent highlights’ options and while it did pick some of my photos that I’d have expected (left), it also showed me pics of items I was selling on eBay (right) and other rubbish. So much for Google’s AI. In the end I altered it to albums that I selected manually instead.

in Use

The Google assistant can now use its Voice match feature to recognise individual users.

The market bumph tells us that the unit homes a ‘high adventure speaker with 2″ chauffeur + dual 2″ passive radiators’ and that it ‘delivers remove highs and rich bass’. Hmmm. The speakers is perfectly adequate, and really quite good for voice assistant duties, especially in a regular sized bedroom. There are mid-range frequencies here but as you’d expect, not really any bass. If you want better sound you can always pair it to a Bluetooth speaker though. The unit can also form part of a multi-room audio configuration with other Google home devices.

You’ll find yourself back in that Google home app to change things like the music service you want to use with the home Hub. The app is pretty awful though. It’s not whatsoever friendly and settings and options seem buried in some very unintuitive places.

A feature I really like is broadcast Message. record a quick voice message on your phone, or say “Hey Google, tell everyone [your message]” and it gets pushed to all the gadgets around the house – “Dinner’s ready!”

The kitchen is another apparent location for these gadgets and with its display the GHH has some amazing utilizes here too. “Show me recipes for chicken curry” brings up a step by step guide – or – “how do I chop onions” gets you a YouTube video to improve your technique.

As well as YouTube you can cast Plex to the screen too which is very nice. now it feels like something that would benefit from a built-in battery that would allow you to carry it around the house. So far casting is limited though. Netflix doesn’t work – please make this a thing Google!

Google have made the best decision not to included a video camera here, making it much simpler to live with in our bedroom. and once you turn the lights out the display dims down and switches to a dark clock face. I imply really dark. Perfect.

I’ve also tried it as an alarm clock and it’s very impressive. You can also configuration Routines. For example say “Hey Google, good morning” to launch a series of events – Take your phone off silent (only when initiated through an Android device). adjust lights, plugs, thermostats etc. tell you about today’s Weather, Commute, calendar and Reminders. check out the Google home Hub features page for more.

Smart home Controller?

We’re currently in short-term lodging after selling our house, so I’ve had very bit opportunity to set up anything yet.

That said the smart home controller (swipe down from the top) is impressive. It includes a helpful By room function that groups all gadgets in each area. Of course full voice manage is there too – “Hey Google, turn off the bedroom light”.

There’s no built-in Zigbee here (like the Amazon Echo’s), or Z-Wave. But thehome Hub can integrate with nest thermostats and can display images from the Nest video camera range too. There’s a list of compatible safety and security cameras here but I’ve also read that only Nest cams work currently.

Although in the world of supported smart home equipment, the Google home list is still far short of the Amazon Echo one.

There seem to be some safety and security problems with the current firmware, hopefully this is something that Google can patch quickly.

Summing Up

The segment for home assistants with a display is getting busy. Google has already been involved in similar offerings with its partnerships on the Lenovo smart Display, the JBL link View and the LG WK9. and that’s in addition the new 2nd gen Amazon Echo show and the Facebook Portal. The GHH is less expensive than all of the above though, with its aggressive £139 price point.

It distinguishes itself in a few other ways too. Its smaller dimensions are certainly an advantage in the bedroom and makes it a ideal size for a night stand. The lack of video camera is a smart decision and makes it much simpler to live with too.

The new Google home Hub has sufficient sound and can pleasure with just the photos it displays. It’s a clock radio, an alarm, a count down timer a TV and has native access to the services I use most. good work Google.

Available now for £139 from the Google Store

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Last update on 2021-10-04 / affiliate links / images from Amazon product advertising API