The new Samsung Home Hub is what the Amazon Echo Show 15 should be

The new Samsung Home Hub is what the Amazon Repeat Prove 15 should be

(Image credit: Samsung)

Among all the TVs and appliances Samsung announced at CES 2022, one device in item caught my attention: the Samsung Dwelling house Hub, which promises to brand information technology a lot easier to control the smart home devices in your dwelling. And information technology's something Amazon, Google, and Apple would do well to re-create.

The Home Hub volition have an 8.4-inch touchscreen that volition sit in a charging dock. Two microphones will send your voice commands to Bixby(!), and 2 speakers will let y'all play music and more. In addition to smart home devices, the Home Hub will allow y'all command other devices in your habitation such as appliances, monitor energy use and air quality, and look up recipes.

Even though it no longer makes one of the best smart home hubs, Samsung'southward SmartThings platform is still one of the best when information technology comes to connecting and decision-making smart home devices. It'southward easy to create pretty circuitous integrations between lots of unlike products.

Notwithstanding, unless you want to take the SmartThings app permanently open on a tablet, yous take to either connect information technology to Alexa or Google Assistant, or dig out your phone if you want to plow the lights on.

Vocalism control is useful, only being able to tap on a screen to adjust your lights or to quickly view your video doorbell is incredibly handy. The Amazon Echo Show 15 and its smart home widgets get you some of this functionality — equally does the Google Nest Hub — but don't allow yous actually create a customized interface from which you tin arrange lights, start routines and more.

While I like the spaciousness of the Echo Show fifteen, an 8- or 10-inch tablet feels the right size for this sort of application. In a perfect world, Amazon would brand a wall-mountable Evidence Style charging dock with built-in speakers for its Fire tablets. That would give you the greatest flexibility of where you desire to place information technology, and let you lot use the tablet equally an Repeat smart speaker.

But, without a ameliorate smart home interface, any hardware would be for naught, which is what'due south and then appealing nearly Samsung's Domicile Hub. Besides working in Samsung's favor is that, unlike Google and Amazon, information technology also makes connected appliances, then it could make a more seamless experience if you wanted to wait until y'all left the house to start your washing automobile, or wanted to preheat your oven when starting a recipe.

Samsung likewise appear that it was joining the Habitation Connectivity Alliance, and then presumably in the future, y'all'd exist able to use its Home Hub fifty-fifty if you had a GE dishwasher or a Trane air conditioner.

Samsung didn't provide a price for the Home Hub, but said it would launch in Korea in March, with global distribution to come up after. Whenever it arrives in the U.Due south., I can't wait to effort it out.

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom's Guide overseeing the dwelling house, smart abode, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, as well as all ownership guides and other evergreen content. When he's non testing out the latest running watch, skiing or training for a marathon, he'southward probably using the latest sous vide machine or some other cooking gadget.