Apple’s new smart home hub is called HomeView, and it costs considerably less than what I was expecting 

What can it do?

Mainly, Apple intends for HomeView to be a smart home hub, and it will work with accessories that support Apple Home and HomeKit. Apple also designed a collection of accessories with LG and Schneider Electric, but unfortunately these won’t be available in Singapore just yet.

There are two main ways to interact with HomeView: touch and view. Users can come up to the screen and use touch to operate it; or they can use voice. It supports Siri AI, so it can understand natural language commands better. 

It also use facial recognition technology to tell who is using the device, and when it identifies a user, it can show that user’s customised home screen. It locks the moment the user goes away, and won’t allow someone else to view that user’s personal contents. I saw this in action and process of unlocking and locking was very quick and seamless.

Apart from controlling smart home devices, users can use it to play music, take FaceTime calls, check their schedules, reply messages, and more. And because its lock screen can be customised, it can even act as a digital photo frame. 

Apple thinks many users would put their HomeViews in kitchens – after all, it’s a common gathering place for many families. So it has a special cooking mode where it can grab and process recipes online and present them in a step-by-step way, including prompting timers where required. For example, if the recipe states that you need to stir for five minutes, it can prompt you to start a five-minute timer when you are at that step.

First impressions

I had the chance to demo the device briefly and was impressed by its design. It’s compact, but more importantly, it looks modern and chic. This is important because it will inevitably become a centrepiece of users’ homes.

The screen is larger than you expect, and the sound it can produce is remarkable despite its rather diminutive size. I only had a couple of minutes, but I think it sounds about as good as a HomePod mini. Certainly, it gets loud enough to fill even a pretty large living room I was in.

Crucially, it costs less than what I had expected. I had expected it to cost upwards of S$600, but at S$399, and considering how good it may look in a home, I think it could be affordable enough to entice people to give it a try – even if they don’t have an immediate need for a smart home hub. As always, more time is required to evaluate it, but first impressions are positive and it shows promise.

Availability and pricing

The HomeView is priced at S$399 and will be available to pre-order on Apple’s website starting 9am on 15 October 2026. It goes on sale on 13 November.