Google Home Hub joins the fight to put a screen on your countertop

Google's new smart display is called the Home Hub, and it's available in four different colors for $150.

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Hey Google, what do you get when you combine a smart speaker, a touchscreen and a smart home control panel?

Answer: The Google Home Hub. We've heard rumors of Google's own smart display for months and saw leaked photos a couple of weeks ago -- now, Google's gone and made it official by announcing the thing at its Made by Google devices event in New York.

Thanks to the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View, we're already pretty familiar with what a Google Assistant-equipped smart display can do. Like those devices, the Home Hub will respond to Google Assistant voice commands just like the rest of the Google Home lineup does. You can control your smart home, check your calendar, search the web and more with a voice command.

The touchscreen shows extra info if you ask about the weather or search for local restaurants, and it certainly comes in handy when you want to check on your smart home cameras, pull up a map, look at pictures or watch videos. The Google Home Hub uses the same operating system and voice assistant as the Lenovo Smart Display and JBL Link View, both of which I liked when I reviewed them this past summer.

You can buy the Google Home Hub in charcoal, aqua, chalk or sand for a relatively inexpensive $150 when it comes out on October 22nd. All four color options will be available in the US, the UK and Australia. The US price converts to roughly £115 and AU$210. The price is pretty attractive, despite a relatively small seven inch screen. The Lenovo Smart Display costs $250 for the model with a ten inch screen and $200 for the eight-inch version. The JBL Link View costs $250 and has an eight-inch screen.

An unlisted video on the Made by Google YouTube account gave us a bit of a preview of the event.

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New tricks

Beyond what the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View can do, the Google Home Hub will offer a few new tricks to help it stand out from the increasingly crowded field of smart displays.

Unlike the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View, the Google Home Hub doesn't have a camera. The dot on the upper bezel that looks like a camera is a light sensor. Google wanted you to feel comfortable putting the Home Hub in any room, so removing the camera was meant to provide an increased sense of privacy. You can make calls with the Home Hub, even video calls with Google Duo, but they will be one-way video calls as the recipient won't be able to see you.

The light sensor will also make it easier for the Google Home Hub to blend in, as it aids another new feature called Ambient EQ, which essentially allows the Home Hub to adapt the screen brightness and warmth on the fly to match the surrounding lighting. Google wanted to avoid the Home Hub blaring a blinding image in a darkened room. This sensor and lighting effect will allow the Home Hub to stand out as perhaps the most versatile smart display with Google Assistant, as it can blend into any room.

Those who have adopted smart home devices will also appreciate the Home Hub's smart home control panel. If you swipe down on the screen, you'll see controls that populate automatically to support the specific settings for any Google-compatible connected household devices you might have installed. This is a feature we've wanted to see both on the other Google smart displays, but hasn't materialized until now.

Fortunately, the smart home controls will eventually roll out to the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View, so Google's not leaving its partners behind on that front.

I still find it odd that Google made a big show of its four third party smart displays at CES (including upcoming models from LG and Sony) then rolled out one of its own, especially since the smart displays from Lenovo and JBL have only just recently hit store shelves. Multiple Google representatives have insisted that the intention is not to undermine its partners, but to offer customers a variety of options. The absence of a camera on the Home Hub might be enough to keep Google's partners happy, although that feels like an obvious upgrade in a next-generation Home Hub. Then what?

Seen here beside a Google Home Mini, the Google Home Hub is relatively small, with a 7-inch screen.

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Hands on

I had a chance to spend some time with the Google Home Hub, and it's much smaller than I expected. Even knowing it had a 7-inch screen, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit in the palm of my hand. Aesthetically, it reminded me a lot of the Google Home Mini.

It sort of looks like Google tacked a small touchscreen onto a smart speaker. The design isn't nearly as seamlessly striking as the Lenovo Smart Display, but I didn't mind it. It's compact and odd, but a little cute. Clearly, Google wants you to feel comfortable sticking the Home Hub on any surface of your home, and you certainly won't have trouble finding space.

The Ambient EQ feature also worked quite well during repeated hands on demonstrations. A Google representative showed me an ordinary picture in a frame compared to the same picture on the Google Home Hub's touchscreen. Then, he turned off a nearby light, and the Home Hub adapted to the new ambient light perfectly. In a dark room, it was a little brighter than the actual picture, but it eliminated the blaring billboard effect.

Google leans on its new Live Albums feature to help the Home Hub moonlight as a super-smart digital picture frame.

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The rep then held his finger over the sensor to show how dark the screen could get, which would come in handy if you want to use it as an alarm clock in your room at night. Between the ambient EQ feature and the integration with the more robust Live Albums -- which allows Google Assistant to sort your pictures by people or place -- Google's put a lot of thought into making the Google Home Hub a digital picture frame when you're not using it for something else.

Fortunately, it still works quite well when you're actively using it. My favorite feature of both the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View was the voice-assisted, step-by-step recipe help. Google Assistant can not only walk you through what you want to cook, you can also ask it to pull up YouTube videos if you need extra instructions on a step. Plus, you can multitask and play videos, listen to music or add an ingredient to your grocery list. Google Assistant will save your place in the recipe so you can jump right back into cooking when you're ready. I'm glad to say this functionality is still intact on the Google Home Hub.

My favorite new feature was certainly the smart home control panel. Swipe down and you'll see buttons for common tasks like turning off your lights or broadcasting a message. You can also look through your devices room-by-room to access more in-depth controls.

I appreciate having a centralized place for managing your smart home and the control panel looks well organized. The quick access buttons change depending on what devices you own and mirror the new buttons of the Google Home app, so you'll be able to quickly do what you want with the same prompts whether you're on the road with your phone or at home near your Google Home Hub.

You can still control your smart home with voice controls, of course. The JBL and Lenovo screens also show you sliders and buttons for a connected device after a voice command if you wanted to make adjustments. If you turn the temperature down with a voice command, you can use a slider to tweak the temp of your smart thermostat further. The new controls on the Home Hub go one step further by letting you initiate commands with a touch, which will prove convenient if you're trying to be quiet or you just don't feel like talking.

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Trying to show up the Echo

Google initially partnered with companies like Lenovo and JBL to take on the first popular smart display -- the Amazon Echo Show. Both the Lenovo Smart Display and the JBL Link View succeeded in surpassing Amazon's competent but clunky Show, but Amazon's 2nd Generation of the Show is just now launching. It has full browser support and works with the company's newest streaming box -- the Amazon Fire TV Recast. Plus, the new Echo Show has a similar drop down menu with smart home controls.

The Google Home Hub will therefore not only have to outduel the brand new Show, but it has to have merit above and beyond a now-crowded field filled with other Google Assistant equipped options. Even Facebook got in the game with the Portal. Still, The Google Home Hub is building off of a sturdy foundation and the new features look helpful and well implemented. I'm hopeful the Google Home Hub can be a great multi-tasker that works well at the center of a seamless smart home.

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