What appliances will be the hub of the smart kitchen of the future, and while companies like LG and Samsung seem to be pointing to refrigerators, GE believes the Kitchen Hub, a microwave oven unveiled at CES 2020, will be the centerpiece.

The exterior of the Kitchen Hub has a huge 27-inch touchscreen powered by Android. It looks like a large tablet attached to the microwave, through which you can stream movies with apps like Netflix, control smart home devices, and do almost everything you can do with an Android tablet. It also has Google Assistant built in, so you can do anything with voice commands.

But to call this a microwave oven with an Android touchscreen would be to miss a more interesting feature. The trick starts with the three cameras embedded in the kitchen hub: one facing inward, one facing forward, and one facing down on the cooktop. The hub uses computer vision to identify objects, such as ingredients, and suggests recipes that use those ingredients. In our house, this is always a challenge later in the week when we have the right ingredients but don't know what to make for dinner.

The hub then guides me through each step and can even control other connected GE appliances while preparing the meal. In addition, the operation changes depending on how well the food is cooked. [For example, let's say you are cooking a roast chicken. When the chicken is being seasoned, the Kitchen Hub can tell the oven to start preheating. Once the chicken is in the oven, the Kitchen Hub monitors the cooking process using either a thermometer or a camera on the oven itself. When the chicken is done cooking, the kitchen hub automatically lowers the oven temperature and keeps it warm to prevent overcooking. It also uses a smartphone app to monitor progress, as well as cameras on smaller smart ovens, such as the June smart oven.

I like the idea of having a screen on the microwave door instead of that on the fridge. I like cooking, but I hate having to dash between the kitchen and living room to see how the Eagles are doing when I'm making Sunday gravy during football season. Besides, when I'm cooking something, it makes more sense to have the recipe right in front of me than to look over the refrigerator display.

GE launched a kitchen hub last year that was essentially a large over-the-range exhaust fan and didn't have the AI features of this year's model; adding a 1.9 cubic foot capacity microwave oven, especially for those (like me) whose microwave is mounted above the stove would certainly make it more attractive to those who have a microwave mounted on top of their stove.

The new version of the Kitchen Hub also includes Bluetooth, so you can stream music from your cell phone to the Hub's speakers.

According to GE, the new Kitchen Hub will be available at the end of 2020, with pricing yet to be determined. Given that the previous model cost about $1,200, it would not be surprising if the new model will be in the same price range. This "microwave" can do more than just reheat burritos.

Be sure to check out our CES 2020 hub for the latest news and hands-on impressions from Las Vegas.