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Apple finally has a smart display. It is called HomeView, it costs $299, pre-orders opened on October 13, and it ships on November 13. I have had a Nest Hub on my kitchen counter for years and an Echo Show 8 in the bedroom, so the question I actually care about is simple: does HomeView replace either of them, and what does it quietly expect you to already own?
I went through Apple's spec sheet and the pre-order flow line by line. Here is what matters.
HomeView in its four tabletop colours. Image: Apple
What Apple HomeView is, in one paragraph
HomeView is a 7-inch square touchscreen with a speaker base, a FaceTime camera, and Siri AI built in. It sits on a counter or nightstand, or you can buy a flat version that bolts to the wall where a light switch would go. It controls your Apple Home accessories, shows camera feeds, plays music, takes calls, shows photos, reads recipes, and recognises up to six people in the household by face so each person sees their own calendar and messages. Think of it as the screen Apple's smart home has been missing since HomeKit launched in 2014.
The Home Modular face: your accessories, scenes and cameras on one screen. Image: Apple
The spec sheet, translated
Apple's tech specs page is dense, so here is the plain-English version.
Display and sound
The screen is 7 inches on the diagonal, 1088 by 1088 pixels, and it goes from 500 nits in a sunny kitchen down to 0.3 nits so it does not glow at you from the nightstand. The square shape is the giveaway that this is a glanceable panel, not a tablet for watching video.
The tabletop model has two full-range drivers in the screen plus a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators in the base. Apple says it supports Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos content. The wall-mounted model drops the base and keeps only the two drivers, so expect noticeably thinner sound from it.
Chip, camera, microphones
It runs an A18, the same chip as the iPhone 16. The camera is 12MP with Center Stage, which keeps you framed during FaceTime. Four microphones handle far-field "Hey Siri".
The privacy detail worth knowing: camera and microphone data is processed in what Apple calls Secure Exclaves, a sealed-off area the operating system itself cannot read.
Connectivity and sensors
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6.0, and Thread. The Thread radio only talks to HomeKit or Matter accessories, but that covers most new smart home gear. There are also temperature and humidity sensors, which means you can build automations like "turn on the fan when the kitchen hits 26 degrees" without a separate sensor.
Siri AI
This is the headline feature and it is in beta. Siri AI is the new conversational Siri with world knowledge, and it arrives in HomeView software version 27.2. It launches in English only, in eight countries: the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, and South Africa. Apple says some server-side features have daily usage limits and that it plans to charge for expanded access in the future. That sentence is in Apple's own press release, so plan for a Siri subscription tier eventually.
Apps
There is no App Store on HomeView. The built-in apps are Alarms, Calendar, FaceTime, Find My, Home, Intercom, Messages, Music, Podcasts, Reminders, Safari, Settings, Timers, Weather, and World Clock. Audiobooks, Classical Music, News, and TV come across from your iPhone, and some third-party audio and video apps work the same way. You cannot install Netflix or a games app on it.
What you need to own before HomeView is worth it
This is the part Apple's launch page glosses over. HomeView is not a standalone gadget. It is an accessory to an iPhone household.
Required
You need an iPhone running iOS 27.2 or an iPad on iPadOS 27.2 just to set it up. Every person who wants a personal profile needs their own Apple Account and a compatible iPhone or iPad in the shared Home. Android households should stop reading here. HomeView will work as a guest device for them (timers, weather, music, accessory control), but none of the personal features will.
You also need a power outlet. Both models are wired. There is no battery version, and the wall-mounted model does not even ship with a cable or adapter. You buy a Schneider Home Power Mount separately: $59.95 for the USB-C version (adapter also sold separately), $79.95 for the hardwired AC version, or $129.95 for a Power over Ethernet version that is not coming until early 2027. So the wall model realistically costs $360 to $430 installed.
The wall-mounted HomeView. The mount, cable and adapter are all sold separately. Image: Apple
Strongly recommended
The personal half of Siri AI, the half that reads your messages and calendar and acts across apps, only works when a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad is on the same Wi-Fi and was recently unlocked. If your phone is an iPhone 15 or older, HomeView still answers world-knowledge questions and plays music, but the "find the recipe my sister texted me" tricks will not happen. Apple also says the new expressive Siri voices need an iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air, or an M4 iPad with 12GB of memory or more.
You also need something for it to control. Apple is launching its own Apple Home Collection with LG and Schneider Electric in December: an LG smart lock at $349, indoor camera at $199, outdoor camera at $299 (or $399 with a floodlight), wired video doorbell at $249, and two thermostats at $199 each. If you already have Matter or HomeKit gear, you are fine. If you have a house full of Alexa-only or Google-only accessories, factor in replacing them.
The Apple Home Collection, made with LG and Schneider Electric, starts arriving in December. Image: Apple
Optional
Apple Music for the lyrics view, Apple News+ for audio stories, and a HomePod mini 2 ($149, on sale October 30) if you want multiroom audio. None of these are necessary.
The real cost: HomeView vs Echo Show vs Nest Hub
Sticker price is the wrong number to compare. The right number is what you pay over two years for the device plus whatever subscription unlocks the AI assistant.
Apple HomeView: $299, Siri AI included during the beta. Apple has said paid tiers for expanded access are coming, but there is no price or date, so for now the two-year cost is $299.
Amazon Echo Show 8 (2025): $179.99 list for an 8.7-inch screen with a 13MP camera. Alexa+ is free if you already pay for Prime. Without Prime, Alexa+ is $19.99 a month, which turns the Echo Show 8 into a $660 purchase over two years. The Echo Show 11 is $219.99 and the same maths applies.
Google Nest Hub (2nd gen): $99.99 on the Google Store today, no camera, 2021 hardware. Gemini for Home is rolling out to replace Google Assistant on it, but Gemini Live, the conversational mode that competes with Siri AI and Alexa+, requires Google Home Premium at $10 a month (or $20 for the Advanced tier). That is roughly $340 over two years. If you already pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra, Premium is included and the Nest Hub is the cheapest option by a mile.
So HomeView is the most expensive box but, right now, the cheapest assistant. That inverts once Apple names a price for its Siri tier, which is exactly why I would not buy HomeView for Siri AI alone.
Where Amazon and Google are stronger right now
I like a lot of what Apple announced, but three things stood out after a few years with the other two.
Video. My Echo Show 8 plays Prime Video and Netflix on the counter while I cook. The Nest Hub does YouTube. HomeView has no App Store and a square screen, so it is not that device. Apple's TV app comes across from the iPhone, but this is a photo frame and control panel first.
Ecosystem lock. An Echo Show works with an Android phone or an iPhone. A Nest Hub works with either. HomeView needs an iPhone or iPad on iOS 27.2 for anything beyond guest mode. If one person in the house is on Android, they are a permanent guest.
Price and maturity. The Nest Hub is a third of the price and has had eight years of software. Alexa+ has been live since 2025 and already handles things like summarising Ring camera events. Siri AI on HomeView is a beta on day one, English only, with usage caps.
Where HomeView wins: privacy architecture (Secure Exclaves, Private Cloud Compute, no ads), the face-recognition profiles for six people, the Thread radio and climate sensors built in, and the simple fact that it is the first screen that shows your Apple Home cameras, locks, and scenes without picking up a phone.
Who should pre-order, who should wait
Pre-order now if: everyone in your home uses an iPhone, at least one of you has an Apple Intelligence iPhone (iPhone 15 Pro or newer), you already own HomeKit or Matter accessories or plan to buy into the Apple Home Collection, and you want a kitchen or bedside screen rather than a mini TV. The tabletop model in whatever colour you like, $299, done.
Wait for reviews if: you are an iPhone household but on an older phone, or you have no smart home gear yet. HomeView will work, but you will be paying $299 for the world-knowledge half of Siri and a photo frame. Let the first wave of reviews land in mid-November and see whether Siri AI's beta is good enough.
Buy something else if: anyone in your home uses Android, you want video on the counter, or you are on a budget. Prime members should get the Echo Show 8 at $179.99. Google AI Pro subscribers should get the Nest Hub at $99.99 and switch Gemini for Home on. Everyone else should also probably get the Nest Hub, because a $100 screen that runs Gemini for Home is hard to argue with.
Cannot buy at all if: you live in the European Union. Apple is not selling HomeView in the EU because Siri AI is not available on iOS there, and it has given no date. If you are in Ireland or Germany and want this, you are waiting on a regulatory negotiation, not a shipping date.
My recommendation
HomeView is the smart display Apple users have wanted for a decade, and the hardware looks like the best of the three: better screen, better camera, better privacy, Thread and sensors built in. But it is $299 for a device whose main new trick is a beta, English-only assistant with a paid tier coming at an unknown price, and it only makes sense if you are already deep into Apple's ecosystem.
If you are, pre-order the tabletop model and skip the wall version until the AC mount is in stock and someone has reviewed the thinner speakers. If you are not, the Echo Show 8 with Prime or a $99.99 Nest Hub gives you most of the same daily usefulness today, with video on top, for a lot less money.
If you want to see how far the other side of this fight has come, read how I let Claude control my Google Home through MCP, and if you are putting any screen with a camera in your kitchen, my guide to what smart TVs collect and how to turn it off applies just as much here. For the AI side of the decision, my Claude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini comparison covers what Gemini actually does well, and the Gemini free tier changes explain why a Google AI Pro subscription now does double duty for your smart home.
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