Google’s OnHub Is a Mysterious and Slightly Terrible Device

TheOnHubis Google ’s latest weird experiment . It ’s a $ 200 router stuffed with fourteen antennas that ’s being marketed as a cure - all for citizenry who have a jillion wireless devices with unlike web needs . But what does that in reality think ? I tore down my OnHub with the hardware hacker at iFixit to find out .

For those of you who do n’t knowiFixit , they’re a small California company devoted to the melodic theme that every machine should be repairable . Founded in 2003 by Kyle Wiens and Luke Soules , iFixit sells unbelievable puppet kit and replacement share for every manner of gadget — but most significantly , they tear down new gadget as they run into the securities industry , cautiously document the process , and post innocent repair manuals for all of them online . If you have a unexampled gadget like the OnHub , which is notoriously undocumented , iFixit is there for you with everything you could desire to know .

Except when I contacted Wiens to ask about the OnHub , it become out they had n’t mother one yet . So I volunteered to give the one I had pre - ordered , in the name of bully knowledge . And the more we ripped it apart , the more outlandish things got .

Starship Test 9

I watch as iFixit teardown passe-partout Andrew Goldberg and Samantha Lionheart get to knead . As you’re able to see above , the OnHub comes in a fitted plastic cowling , and has a glowing LED ring around the speaker on top to let you experience whether your gadget is in distraint or working normally . There is a tiny light detector embedded in the loudspeaker system , which we speculated was plausibly for dimming the gadget in darkened suite .

Also , what you ’re seeing in that picture is really the back of the machine . As we quickly discovered , the main directional antenna is locate on the other side , so you want that power cable , your USB 3.0 larboard , and your connection cable television service face away from whatever room you ’re in . Which — that ’s vexing if you ever want to , I dunno , plug thing into it easily .

Hot Naked Antenna Array

If you look at the image at the very top , you ’ll see what the OnHub look like defenseless . It ’s ribbed for your pleasance , and behind those spline bushwhack a automobile in hunt of a purpose . Opening the thing up — with a special creature just for poke open cases — left Goldberg with at least one bloody finger , and pass on the casing with several broken clips . Not for the last time , we all wish well the OnHub had been designed to be acquire apart easily .

Our wish became even more ardent when it commence to dawn on us that this gadget was n’t meant for average hoi polloi . Above , you could see the motherboard snuggle between two striking oestrus sinks , a double - diamond directional feeler clipped to the casing , and a closed chain - shaped transmitting aerial display panel at the top amplifying no less than twelve feeler . And you ’re not even seeing the “ congestion detection ” antenna that was sitting on top of all that . So yes , we ’re talking fourteen antennas stuffed into this weird twist with a speaker system and a light sensor … but no microphone , and only one electronic internet port . The whole matter , manufacture by router manufacturing business TP - Link , reeks of prototype .

Below , take a closer look at the connector between the feeler and the motherboard . Yep , all those little atomic number 79 connectors lined up nicely are for the feeler ( six of them do 2.4 GHz and six do 5 GHz ) . Each of those black squares hold two feeler , mostly for even wifi — but one is for bluetooth , and another for a wise home networking communications protocol known as 802.15.4 .

Lilo And Stitch 2025

Below , you’re able to stare in fetishistic reverence at the antenna board again , ring the speaker . Why the snake pit does this gadget demand so much antenna world power when it can do almost nothing ? “ It ’s observational antenna club ! ” Lionheart quipped as she shot scene .

Below you may ogle the motherboard , detached of its oestrus sinks , helpfully label by iFixit in their teardownafter we did some research . Nothing super noteworthy here , other than theZigBeeconfirming that we ’re looking at a hub that ’s partly purpose - built for smart home . ( ZigBee is a non-profit-making pool that produce capable standards for affiliated devices like the ones you ’d happen in a smart home . )

A Device for a World That Doesn’t Exist

But permit me dawdle for a moment on the idiom “ partly function - built ” above . Because yes , the OnHub is partly for a smart place or any space with a forest of connected machine . But it ’s also for run - of - the - manufactory wifi . And bluetooth . But it only has the one measly mesh port , which mean it ’s essentially useless for any pumped-up internet — which , get ’s face it , most of us still have a lot of wires in our lives . And without a mike for voice commands , the only way you could control it is via Google ’s OnHub app .

When Wiens and I peer at the motherboard more closely , we realized that some of the chips had been fabbed belatedly last twelvemonth and some in the first place this yr . Contrast this scenario with what Wiens says is typical of an Apple gimmick , where the chip have often been fabbed just a calendar week before he gets it . What this suggests is that the OnHub was not manufacture at scale , and was cobbled together out of off - the - shelf components over many calendar month . It was indeed experimental aerial club , and data-based everything else too .

In some ways , that ’s because OnHub is made for a widget environment that does n’t quite survive yet . In five years , when many more people are controlling everything from lights and locks to pet feeders and cameras via wireless — well , then it might be obvious why OnHub is needed . ( Even then , I would produce my eyebrows at the deficiency of a microphone and paucity of ports . ) It ’s a hub for a man of wireless things that speak many communications protocol .

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But for now , this is a equipment that does not yet have a design . My surmisal is that Google is hoping that developer and hardware hacker like the iFixit work party will do on the button what we did — tear it aside , assess , and give them ideas for the next iteration . Indeed , the next looping is already underway , at Asus rather than TP - Link .

Unrepairable

Often when we experiment with new twist , we forget to involve a very basic doubt : How sluttish is it to take this matter apart ? Most consumers worry about usability and apps , but those are actually beside the point for the teardown skipper at iFixit . In fact , they did n’t even turn the OnHub on at all . They just desire to do it about its natural hardware capableness , and whether its parts can be removed , replaced , or recycled .

As you may see above , iFixit scored the OnHub a 4 out of 10 on repairability . This gadget seemed almost contrarily project to prevent people from postulate it apart well . That intend if you shell out $ 200 for an experimental ridicule piston chamber that shoots radio receiver wave , you believably ca n’t fix it . Which means you probably wo n’t be using it for very long . And when you throw it out , recycling midpoint will have a difficult time deoxidize the OnHub to its component contribution quickly enough to make it worth the money to recycle .

So Google ’s OnHub is designed fancifully for a twist ecosystem that does n’t be . And its unrepairability will almost certainly harm the ecosystem that does . So I judge that means the OnHub is from a dystopian future ? Let ’s go for that Asus can change the timeline with the next interpretation of this machine by give us something genuinely utilitarian that can be repaired by anyone with the correct tools .

Photo: Jae C. Hong