Tomorrow, Apple’s first smart display goes on sale. Early reviews say it’s a very good screen for people already inside Apple’s world, and a hard sell for everyone else.
Apple’s HomeView goes on sale on November 13 at $299, a month after Apple announced it on October 13, and the first round of reviews has now landed. Gear Patrol calls it a wonderful but pricey smart home display for the Apple power user. Tom’s Guide came away more mixed, calling it well made, with an attractive screen and strong audio, but short as a smart home display.
That split tells you most of what you need to know. Amazon has sold Echo Show screens for years and Google has had its Nest Hub line nearly as long, so Apple isn’t winning on novelty. It’s winning, where it wins at all, on the iPhone in your pocket.
According to 9to5Mac’s rundown of Apple’s announcement, HomeView has a 7-inch Liquid Retina display with True Tone and 500 nits of brightness, a Center Stage camera for FaceTime, and an audio system with dual full-range drivers, a down-firing woofer and passive radiators. It comes as a tabletop unit with a speaker base in silver, starlight, rose pink or space gray, or as a wall-mounted version at the same price. A Home Camera face can show up to nine video feeds at once.
The headline feature is how it knows who’s standing in front of it. HomeView recognizes up to six people and shows each their own content, and it doesn’t use Face ID to do it. Gear Patrol describes a two-step check: facial recognition plus a nearby iPhone or Apple Watch, which together unlock your personal content. Walk up with your phone and you get your calendar and messages. A guest gets the shared screen.
Requiring a second device is a sensible answer to the privacy worry that comes with a camera in the kitchen. It also means the display is at its best when your phone is within reach, which is the whole point of Apple’s pitch.
Siri is the other pillar. Gear Patrol says the new Siri AI handles multi-step questions and more conversational back and forth than the Siri of old. Handoff does the rest: bring your iPhone close and music, calls or a Safari page move to the display. One example the reviewer liked was sending a recipe from Safari and getting it back as a step-by-step cooking guide.
The gaps
The complaints are specific. HomeView runs its own software with a limited set of apps, so Gear Patrol had to pick up an iPhone for things like Sonos and Apple Sports. That’s a strange omission from a company whose whole argument is that everything works together.
It’s also unavailable in the European Union. Apple told 9to5Mac that’s because Siri AI isn’t available there either, which means one of the biggest regions for smart speakers gets nothing at launch.
Then there’s the price. At $299, HomeView costs well above what Amazon and Google typically charge for their small screens, and Apple isn’t offering more screen to justify it. Frankly, the reviews suggest you’re paying for polish and for the lock-in, and whether that’s worth it depends on how many Apple devices you already own. If you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch and use Apple Music and FaceTime, the premium looks reasonable. If you run a mixed household, an Echo Show or Nest Hub still does more for less.
The glasses angle
The timing invites a comparison with Google and Samsung. Android Authority reports that pre-orders for Samsung’s Android XR glasses open on November 12, with deliveries expected around mid-December. Those are camera-and-audio glasses with no display in the lens, and Samsung hasn’t announced a price.
The two launches are aimed at different rooms, but both bet on the same idea: an AI assistant that follows you around is worth more than one locked inside a single gadget. Apple is putting its version on a kitchen counter, while Google and Samsung are putting theirs on your face.
Neither company has shown that people will pay a premium for that. HomeView will be the first real test on Apple’s side, and the first sales figures will say whether a late start still counts for anything.
Also read: HubSpot brings back co-founder Brian Halligan as CEO and replaces its CFO • Maga strategists blame AI data centres for Republican midterm rout • Why PistonPath wants to replace 40-minute car tutorials with three-minute illustrated lessons
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