My old Google Nest Hub was not doing a very good job at being the smart display that helped me run my kitchen.
A couple of months ago, I noticed it had become little more than an expensive clock for my kitchen counter. And like every other clock in the house, I barely even looked at it.
It didn’t work the way I’d envisioned, so I sidelined it. I wasn’t giving up on finding the kitchen assistant I actually wanted. I just decided to try something I’d heard others were trying.
So, I swapped the smart display for a cheap Android tablet to see if it could better serve my needs.
Why my smart display fails in the kitchen
Yours does, too
I’ve used smart displays before with zero issues, so most of my problems here are cooking-specific.
I thought the Google Nest Hub would work best in my kitchen when I got it, but I was wrong.
The first problem was the screen size. Due to blue light from screens, my eyes aren’t what they used to be, and a 7-inch screen on the kitchen island was hard to read from the stovetop.
Then there was the voice command experience, which struggled to pick up a command over two pots boiling and the general ambient noise in the house.
These two problems forced me to interact with the Nest Hub directly all the time, and I didn’t enjoy that experience. It felt sluggish even when it was new.
My first choice was the bigger, higher-spec Google Nest Hub Max, especially since most of the positive reviews I’d seen about the Nest Hub as a kitchen companion were about this device.
However, Google stopped selling it in mid-2025.
That sluggishness wasn’t really about my kitchen. Dedicated smart displays generally run on weak, dated processors, so browsers and video apps can feel a decade old right out of the box.
Furthermore, a dedicated display is built to keep you inside one company’s ecosystem, rather than serve you as openly as a general-purpose tablet does.
The Hub Max I wanted is already gone from shelves for good. A tablet doesn’t carry that same expiration risk, since Android’s app ecosystem is much bigger than any single company’s smart home lineup.
Choosing the right tablet for the job
Bigger is mostly better
Google needs to release a new Nest Hub Max, but there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon. So I needed to find a tablet that could do the job for relatively cheap.
Amazon’s Fire HD 10 was the first thing that came up. It costs well under $200 for the black, ad-free version, and it seemed to fit what I had in mind.
At 10.1 inches, it’s about the same size as the Nest Hub Max, which is one of the reasons I got it. I felt sure I’d actually be able to see it from across the room.
The current model runs a 2.0GHz octa-core processor with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, enough for streaming and the tasks I had in mind.
I ordered one and outlined what I wanted from a kitchen assistant before setting anything up.
Switching from Google Assistant to Alexa wasn’t a downgrade
I needed the timers more than the conversations
Moving to the Fire HD 10 also meant moving from Google Assistant to Alexa, since the tablet runs Alexa hands-free.
I expected to miss Google’s assistant, but that’s not really what happened after I started using it daily.
Alexa lets me set multiple named timers by voice, for example, one for the pasta and one for the oven. I can check or stop either one just by asking.
Google Assistant has always struggled with that specific task, since naming and checking several timers at once was never handled as cleanly.
It’s still better for general kitchen questions, like ingredient substitutes, but that’s not what I needed most while juggling three pans.
For my kitchen, the timer handling mattered more than the conversation, so the switch wasn’t the tradeoff I assumed it would be.
How I set it up
Kitchen essentials+
With the tablet in hand, I moved on to setting it up for actual use.
There are plenty of great cooking and recipe apps, but I wanted to keep things simple. Since I mostly use YouTube for new dishes, I chose Paprika for recipes.
I also installed the Alexa app alongside Paprika, mostly for the timer naming and routines I’d come to rely on.
I also set up widgets like Countdown to run multiple timers, plus the smart home apps for my kitchen appliances.
I saw more complex setups that could add extra utility, but I wasn’t in the mood to run a home server. I was keeping things simple.
After taking care of my software needs, I turned to the hardware side of things.
First, I needed the tablet in a readable position, so I bought a counter stand that fit the room and the tablet.
A more pressing consideration was the battery.
Since the tablet needed to stay on almost permanently, it also needed to stay plugged in permanently. A long, braided charging cable and a few zip ties took care of that in a few minutes.
However, I noticed that constant charging would wear down the battery over time.
To fix that, I used a smart plug to protect the battery, cycling power every couple of hours to keep the charge between 20% and 80%.
Finally, I switched to manual brightness and set the level to my liking after noticing that auto brightness was going to be a pain.
A cheap tablet did what an expensive display couldn’t
It’s been a few weeks now, and my smart display problems are solved.
The Fire HD has handled cooking timers and recipes with less friction than the Nest Hub ever did, Alexa included.
What changed my mind wasn’t only the bigger screen. It’s that my kitchen-specific tablet doesn’t have the same built-in expiration date or ecosystem strings that a dedicated display does.
- Storage
-
32 or 64 GB
- CPU
-
Mediatek MT8183
- Memory
-
3 GB
- Battery
-
Up to 13h
- Camera (Rear, Front)
-
5 MP, 2 MP
- Display type
-
10.1″ 1920 x 1200
Amazon’s Fire HD lineup isn’t known for its versatility, but instead for its streamlined user interface and remarkable convenience. The 2021 update of the Fire HD 10 continues that tradition, as the best large tablet for users who enjoy Amazon’s shopping, streaming, and other services. Its crisp, Full HD display makes most streamed content look great, and a surprisingly good battery life ensures you won’t have to search for an outlet every few hours. Aside from the Amazon ecosystem, it does work well with a great deal of other services and apps such as Netflix and Disney+. It has its limitations, though, since it doesn’t run pure Android, but instead a customized fork creatively named Fire OS. In other words, look elsewhere if you need to load obscure or resource-intensive apps; if you’re just looking for a dependable, durable, affordable media device that’s easy to use, though, the Fire HD 10 is worth a look.
