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Pictures leak of the “Google Home Hub,” Google’s version of a smart display

Google launched Smart Display software earlier this year; hardware is next.

Google's big hardware event is coming October 9, and we're getting a clearer picture of what to expect from the show as the days go by. The event is promoted as the "Pixel 3 launch event," but the company's previous two hardware events featured five or more product announcements. Besides the Pixel 3, a Pixelbook 2 is a good option, and with the launch of Google's Smart Display software on third-party hardware earlier this year, it seems inevitable that we'll soon see a first-party Google Smart Display.

As luck would have it, today MySmartPrice has scored pictures of the "Google Home Hub," a product that is clearly Google's flagship hardware for its Smart Display software. The device has a 7-inch touchscreen and basically looks like a 16:9 tablet mounted to Google Home Max. Some of the pictures, which look like a leaked store listing, show a few more specs: 802.11ac Wi-Fi at 2.4 and 5GHz, Bluetooth, an "Ambient light and color sensor," a "full-range speaker for crystal clear sound," and "far-field voice recognition." The listing shows the display available in two colors ("chalk" and "charcoal"), with Google's traditional mute switch on the back and what looks to be a video chat camera on the front.

With dimensions of 7.02in × 4.65in × 2.65in (178.3mm × 118.1mm × 67.3mm), the Google Home Hub is significantly more compact than Lenovo's 8-inch Smart Display (9.3in × 5.6 in × 4.38in (263.21 mm × 142.21mm × 111.36 mm)). But Lenovo's display is an inch bigger.

Hopefully the "Google Home" branding on this device means Google is going to patch up some of the feature disparities between a Google Home speaker and the Google Smart Display software. Currently, Smart Displays can't join a Google Home speaker group for whole-home audio, and neither do they support the "Continued Conversation" mode. The hub does at least look a lot like a Google Home, with the white color scheme and gray fabric speaker cover.

We'll hopefully hear more about the device on October 9 at Google's big show.

Listing image by MySmartPrice

Channel Ars Technica