For years, Apple’s smart home pitch has had one obvious gap: a screen on the kitchen counter or the living-room wall that every family member can use. Amazon has the Echo Show and Google has the Nest Hub. On October 13, at its “Welcome home” event, Apple finally answered with HomeView, a 7-inch smart display that it hopes will become the control centre for the Apple-powered home.

Pre-orders opened on October 13, and both models ship on November 13, according to Apple’s announcement as reported by 9to5Mac and The Mac Observer.

Price and availability

HomeView costs $299 in the US (£299 in the UK) for both the tabletop and wall-mounted versions. The Mac Observer reports that pre-orders opened in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India, with Singapore following on October 15. South Africa gets both models through Apple Authorized Resellers. The reports reviewed here do not give an India price.

It will not be sold in the European Union, because Siri AI is not available in iOS there. Apple says it is “working constructively with the EU in an attempt to find a path forward.”

What you get

• Display: a 7-inch square Liquid Retina screen with True Tone, adjusting from 500 nits down to 0.3 nits for bedside use.
• Chip: Apple’s A18, with Secure Exclaves handling camera and microphone data, according to Apple’s newsroom as reported by The Mac Observer.
• Tabletop model: a domed speaker base with a stainless steel hinge that tilts the screen. It comes in silver, starlight, rose pink and space gray.
• Wall-mounted model: space gray or silver, attached with one of three mounts from Schneider Home, sold separately. Two cost $59.95 and $79.95, and a Power over Ethernet version at $129.95 is due in early 2027.
• Sound and camera: two full-range drivers, a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators in the tabletop model, plus a Center Stage camera for FaceTime.

A screen that knows who is looking

Apple’s central idea is that one device should serve a whole household. HomeView recognises up to six people by face and gives each a personalised Home Screen with their own apps and widgets. Apple says personal content stays private from others, while shared albums and music are open to everyone.

The interface also changes with distance, showing simpler information that is “viewable from across the room” and more detail up close. Home Camera view can show up to nine camera feeds at once. Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said: “Apple HomeView is designed to be shared by everyone in the home yet feel completely personal to each user.”

The device controls lights, thermostats, locks, blinds and cameras by touch or voice. It supports Matter, and its role as a home hub for Apple’s new Home Collection of accessories arrives in December. The reports reviewed here do not state HomeView’s RAM or storage.

Siri AI, with limits

HomeView is built around Siri AI, which is arriving in beta in English in markets including India, the US, UK, Canada and Australia, per The Mac Observer. It handles general questions and music discovery without an Apple Intelligence iPhone. Personal context, such as Messages and Calendar, needs a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad.

There are caveats. Server-side Siri features have daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access “will be available for a fee in the future.” The expressive customisable voices also need recent hardware, including an iPhone 17 Pro or later or an M4-or-later iPad with at least 12GB of memory.

How it stacks up against Google and Amazon

Forbes called HomeView “Apple’s answer to Alexa’s Echo Hub” and said Google’s Gemini-powered Google Home revamp “hasn’t yet delivered the boost the platform needed.” It also said Amazon’s AI smart home revamp hasn’t “proved too successful.” These are the outlet’s assessments, not test results.

The reports reviewed here do not include hands-on reviews, so claims that HomeView will “beat” rivals are premature. How well Siri AI works on a $299 device, and whether the daily limits irritate people, will decide that once it ships.

Also announced

Apple also announced a new Apple TV 4K with an A19 chip at $299, a HomePod mini 2 at $149 with the S10 chip, both shipping October 30, and a Home Collection of LG and Schneider Electric accessories, including a $249.95 video doorbell, from December.