Why you’ll love it: The Google Home Hub integrates perfectly with the Google Assistant and other Google services, plus it has a nice-sized screen and isn’t overly expensive.
There are some nice budget Google-powered smart displays, too, like the Google Home Hub. The Google Home is a serious bargain for what it offers. It comes with a 7-inch screen that can show weather, maps, news, YouTube videos, and more. Plus, it has the Google Assistant to control your smart home and answer questions.
As you would expect from a Google-powered smart display, the Google Home Hub is largely built around allowing you to control your smart home. It offers a quick view for easy access to all the smart home devices that you have set up, and it connects with Nest devices very well.
Our senior editor Malarie Gokey uses the Google Home Hub every day at home to catch up on news briefings in the morning and get alerts about the weather and potential delays on her subway commute. She also loves the YouTube integration when it comes time to call up video recipes while cooking.
The Hub also serves as a great clock, as you can have it display the time all day long and use it as an alarm clock. The display automatically adjusts to the right brightness level based on the amount of light in the room, so it automatically turns off at night when you shut off the lights.
There are a few downsides to the hub. For example, while the display is pretty big for a device this big, the resolution isn’t as high in pixels as others, coming in at 1,024 x 600 pixels. On top of that, the device’s speaker is perfectly fine for talking to Google, but it probably won’t be your go-to for music playing.
Still, despite the downsides, the Google Home Hub has gotten excellent reviews. TechRadar gave the device 4 out of 5, while CNET gave it an even better 4.5 out of 5.
Pros: Nice display size, powerful smart home control, Google Assistant
Cons: Display resolution isn’t great, audio performance could be better
Buy the Google Home Hub on Best Buy for $149