Apple’s HomeView is the company’s first dedicated smart home display, and it arrives with a $299 price tag, a square 7-inch screen, and a fundamental identity crisis. After spending a week with pre-release hardware, I think I understand what Apple was going for — but I also understand why it frustrates me.
The HomeView sits at the intersection of Apple’s two biggest pushes right now: smart home control and Siri AI. It has the hardware chops to compete with Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub. But Apple made a series of software and ecosystem decisions that make this feel like a product from a different era.
What Gets It Right
Let me start with the good stuff, because there’s genuinely good stuff here. The 7-inch Liquid Retina display is sharp at 220 ppi, and the 500-nit peak brightness handles my kitchen’s morning sun without trouble. The A18 chip means everything is snappy — no lag when swiping between widgets, no stuttering on FaceTime calls.
The 12MP Center Stage camera is the standout hardware feature. It recognizes up to six people by face and gives each person their own Home Screen with their own apps, widgets, and photo albums. It works remarkably well. My wife and I each see different calendars, different reminders, and different photo highlights just by walking up to it.
The four-microphone array picks up voice commands from across the room even with the TV on. Spatial Audio from the speaker base fills a small kitchen comfortably. Build quality is what you’d expect from Apple — aluminum body, stainless steel hinge, woven cable color-matched to the device.
Apple’s new Home Collection — accessories co-developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric — rounds out the ecosystem nicely. Cameras, thermostats, a smart deadbolt with UWB, a video doorbell, and temperature sensors all connect with one tap and work through the Home app. No separate accounts, no separate apps.
Where It Falls Apart
Here’s where I start scratching my head. The HomeView has no App Store. None. You get Apple’s own apps, a handful of third-party exceptions like Spotify and Audible, and widgets. That’s it. No Paprika 3 for cooking. No OmniFocus for task management. No YouTube or Netflix — which, given the square screen, might be a blessing in disguise, but still.
The square display is Apple’s most divisive design choice. I get the aesthetic appeal — it looks like a giant Apple Watch, symmetrical and clean. But practically, it’s a compromise every time you use it. Following a recipe means constant scrolling because the square aspect ratio fits fewer lines. Video calls crop awkwardly. Any video content is either cropped or distorted.
This feels like Apple prioritizing form over function in a way that doesn’t serve the product’s purpose. A smart display is a functional device first. The rectangular Echo Show and Nest Hub exist because that shape actually works for the things you do on a screen.
The Siri AI Bottleneck
The HomeView is entirely dependent on Siri AI. There’s no touch-first interface, no app drawer, no real way to navigate except voice and the limited widget system. Apple delayed the HomeView for over a year waiting for Siri AI to be ready, and it shows.
Siri AI has gotten better — genuinely better. It handles most home commands fine. But it still has moments that make me cringe. During my review period, it decided to prepend my name to every text message I sent. It confused me with three different contacts named Carl when I asked for directions home. It still stumbles on Apple Music requests that should be trivial.
Having Siri be the sole interface means every one of those hiccups is a hard stop. On an Echo Show or Nest Hub, you just tap the screen. On the HomeView, you’re stuck repeating yourself and hoping Siri gets it right this time.
Ecosystem Lock-In Is Real
The HomeView requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later for full functionality. Not just any iPhone — a 15 Pro or newer. That means anyone whose phone is more than three years old is essentially locked out of the best features. Reading text messages, checking your calendar, certain Siri functions — all gated behind Apple’s newest hardware.
And of course, Android users need not apply. Apple Home remains an island. Google Home works on Android and Apple devices alike. Even Microsoft Defender now supports Linux, showing how far cross-platform security has come. Amazon’s Echo ecosystem works on everything. The HomeView doubles down on Apple’s walled garden at a time when smart home standards like Matter are supposed to be breaking walls down.
The Home Collection accessories all support Thread and Matter, which is good. But the hub itself — the device that ties it all together — remains firmly inside Apple’s ecosystem. You can mix and match accessories, but you can’t escape the garden.
The Camera Question
The 12MP camera on the HomeView is genuinely good hardware — f/2.4 sensor, Center Stage tracking, face recognition for up to six people. But Apple blocks you from using it as a security camera. It only works for FaceTime calls, facial recognition, and distance awareness. If you want to check on your pet or monitor your front door, you need to buy one of LG’s Home Collection cameras instead.
This is Apple being Apple — locking hardware capabilities to drive accessory sales. It’s frustrating because the hardware is right there, perfectly capable, but artificially limited by software. Amazon and Google let their smart displays double as security cameras. Apple wants you to pay extra for the privilege.
Mount-ain of Price Problems
The standard HomeView costs $299, which is competitive. But if you want the wall-mounted version — same $299 price — it literally won’t function without a separate mount and power supply. The USB-C mount costs $59.95. The AC-powered version is $79.95. Suddenly you’re at $359.95 for the privilege of putting it on your wall, and the wall-mounted version loses the speaker base.
Colors are limited to Silver, Starlight, Rose Pink, and Space Gray. All sleek, all sophisticated, all very MacBook. None of them make a statement in your actual home. This is a device that’s supposed to live in your kitchen or living room — the most personal spaces in your house — and Apple gave it the personality of a laptop.
Where Does This Leave Us?
The HomeView is a classic Apple product: excellent hardware hamstrung by software and ecosystem decisions that feel deliberately restrictive. The hardware competes with anything in the smart display category. The software feels like it’s waiting for the App Store that may never come. Siri AI is better but not good enough to be the sole interface. Compare that to Anthropic allowing outsiders to audit its AI — Apple keeps Siri AI entirely closed.
If you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem — iPhone 15 Pro or newer, HomePod, Apple TV, iCloud+ — the HomeView is the best smart display you can buy. It integrates beautifully, the hardware is top-notch, and the face recognition genuinely works well. The iPhone Duo and HomeView together represent Apple’s clearest vision for a connected ecosystem.
If you’re not fully invested in Apple’s world, this is an easy pass. An Echo Show 11 or Nest Hub costs less, runs more apps, works with Android, and doesn’t care how old your phone is. Even the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra doubles as a smart home hub with the right software.
Apple built a beautiful piece of hardware and then wrapped it in software that feels like it’s from 2007 — the original iPhone, before the App Store existed. History doesn’t always repeat as triumph. Sometimes it repeats as a missed opportunity.