Apple debuts HomeView smart display at $299, its first smart home hub

Apple has entered the smart display market with the HomeView, a 7-inch touchscreen hub the company unveiled alongside a second-generation HomePod mini, a new Apple TV 4K and a slate of smart home accessories made by partner brands LG and Schneider Electric, including a video doorbell. The device starts at $299 in the US, £299 in the UK and AU$449 in Australia, with preorders opening October 13 and sales beginning November 13. TechRadar, which saw the HomeView demonstrated, noted the pricing came in below the roughly $350 that rumors had suggested.

Two configurations will be offered: one with the display mounted on a speaker base via an adjustable arm that tilts and rotates, and a screen-only version designed to be mounted on a wall. The screen is a 7-inch Liquid Retina panel paired with a 12MP Ultra Wide Center Stage camera, a four-microphone array and, on the speaker model, a multi-driver audio system. It runs on Apple's A18 processor, but not on iPadOS, tvOS or iOS — instead it uses an all-new HomeView Software. Colors are Silver, Starlight, Rose Pink and Space Gray, and an iPhone or iPad is required for setup.

The interface borrows heavily from Apple's existing products. Users can choose clock faces in the style of Apple Watch faces or the Apple TV 4K screensaver, including a returning Snoopy option and a reworked Flow face whose shapes react to what the camera sees. Up to six family members can be recognized by the camera, each with their own faces, apps and widgets, and Apple says personal data is not stored on the device and Siri requests are not recorded. Unlike the Echo Show, the HomeView carries no advertising, which TechRadar described as making it feel less like a billboard on a kitchen counter.

There is no App Store on the HomeView; Apple is curating the experience around first-party apps including Messages, Music, Weather, Reminders, Calendar, Safari, Find My, FaceTime, Apple TV, Podcasts, News and the Home app. Select third-party media apps that already support CarPlay will also work, potentially including Spotify. Siri sits at the center of the product and can chain context across requests — in one demonstration TechRadar saw it locate a recipe a friend had recommended, calculate travel time from an airport for a family member's incoming flight and then surface brunch options. Content can also be handed off from an iPhone by tapping it or holding it near the display, covering recipes, FaceTime calls and music.

Apple has built a more elaborate audio setup than a typical smart display, with two custom drivers in the screen for high frequencies plus a down-firing woofer and two force-canceling woofers in the speaker base. During a kitchen demo, TechRadar heard a Bad Bunny track play loudly without distortion while lyrics appeared on screen. The speaker-mounted version is pitched at shared spaces like a kitchen island, where the screen can be angled toward whoever is using it, while the wall-mounted model has audio tuned for that placement — though TechRadar did not get to test music on it.

As a hub, the HomeView works with existing Apple Home- and Matter-compatible devices, letting users control lights, thermostats, locks and cameras through the Home app and view up to nine camera feeds at once. It arrives ahead of Apple's Home Collection, a line of smart home products developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric that is expected in December and will include a video doorbell, a smart lock, and security cameras and sensors. At $299, the HomeView undercuts nothing — it is $100 more than Amazon's Echo Show 8 — but TechRadar suggested privacy and tight integration with Apple devices could give it an edge for people already in the ecosystem.