Google Home Hub is official, costs just $149
As with pretty much everything Google is announcing today, the Home Hub has been leaked more than once in recent weeks. Google's own-branded Assistant Smart Display, as expected, resembles a tablet glued onto a fabric speaker base, and it's sadly not removable so it can't be used as a standalone tablet.
The display is a 7" touchscreen LCD, which makes it smaller than the efforts from Lenovo (8" and 10") and JBL (8") already on the market. Those smart displays also have cameras for Duo video calling, something conspicuous by its absence on the Google Home Hub. The front does house two far-field microphones either side of ambient light and color sensors — there's an Ambient EQ setting that finetunes the brightness and color of the display throughout the day. On the back of the screen there's a volume rocker and switch to mute the mics, while on the fabric part we see the familiar Google logo and the port for the 15W power adapter.
Naturally, Bluetooth and WiFi are on board, just like any Google Home device. The screen bezels are still white on each model, but with the UI being mostly white that might actually look better. Functionally, the Home Hub works the same as pre-existing smart displays, but with a few updated UI elements and a new feature called Home View that gives you an overview of all your smart home products.
The most important detail of all is the price. We knew it was going to be competitive, and it is — Google Home Hub costs just $149, going some way to explaining the lack of a camera (although Google also said privacy concerns were behind this decision. That's $50 less than the 8" Lenovo Smart Display, $100 less than the JBL Link View, but most importantly it's $70 cheaper than Amazon's 2nd generation Echo Show, which is the one rival Google is really going after with this product.
To sweeten the deal even further, Google will give you six months of YouTube Premium for free with each purchase (until December). The Chalk and Charcoal colorways that leaked before today are also joined by (not?) pink and aqua options too. Google Home Hub is available to pre-order today, and it will be in stores from October 22nd in the US, UK, and Australia.
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