Apple has a new smart display, and it's called HomeView. It costs $299 in the US, was announced on October 13, and you can order one today if you're in India, the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the UK.
Singapore opens Thursday at 9 a.m. SGT. South Africa goes through Apple Authorized Resellers.
The screen is a 7-inch Liquid Retina panel mounted on a domed speaker base with a stainless steel hinge, so you can tilt it to suit whatever surface it's sitting on. Four colors: silver, starlight, rose pink and space gray. Each ships with a matching USB-C cable. Apple's pitch is kitchen counter, nightstand, side table.
There's also a wall-mounted version, only in silver and space gray. Same display, same features, speakers tuned for life on a wall. Same $299 price too, and the mount is extra. Schneider Home makes three: a USB-C wall connector from $59.95, an AC wired one from $79.95, and a PoE wired model at $129.95 that won't arrive until early 2027.
Brightness swings from 500 nits down to 0.3. That low end is for bedrooms. The interface also changes with how far you are from the screen, showing big simple information from across the room and more detail as you walk up.
HomeView recognizes up to six people by face. Each person gets their own Home Screen with apps and widgets, along with Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, Reminders and Find My. Shared photo albums and music are open to everyone in the house, guests included.
The private stuff comes with conditions. The device has to see your face, and your paired iPhone or iPad needs to be around and recently unlocked. Setup itself requires a compatible iPhone or iPad.
Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, said the idea is a shared device that feels "completely personal to each user."
Apple leans hardest on this part.
Siri AI is a rebuilt version of the assistant. Apple calls it far more conversational, with wide general knowledge and awareness of what's on the screen. Pair HomeView with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad and it can reach into your Calendar, Messages and Apple Music playlists. A chat that starts on HomeView can carry on in the Siri app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch or Vision Pro.
No compatible phone? You still get the general knowledge, the conversation and better music discovery. You just don't get the personal context.
Now the small print. Siri AI is a beta on HomeView software version 27.2, and it's English only. Some features that rely on server-side models have daily usage limits, and Apple says expanded access will cost money later. The announcement gave no figure.
Two full-range drivers sit in the display. The base adds a down-firing woofer and two passive radiators. Apple says computational audio adjusts loudness and bass as you change the volume.
Apple Music gets animated album art and lyrics. Podcasts, News, Apple TV and some third-party audio and video apps work too, though a few need a subscription or a nearby iPhone. Hold your iPhone up to the screen and a song can move over from the phone. Multiroom audio works with other HomeView units, HomePod, HomePod mini and AirPlay speakers.
The display faces are a mixed bag. A Photos face adds depth effects to portraits, a Flow face reacts to movement in the room, and there's an animated Snoopy that changes with the weather, time of day and holidays.
FaceTime uses Center Stage to keep people in frame as they move around. Intercom sends a voice message to one room or the whole house, and it reaches HomePod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch as well as other HomeView units. In the kitchen it turns web recipes into step-by-step instructions, with timers you control by voice.
You can check cameras, change the thermostat and lights, lock doors and close blinds, by touch or by asking Siri. The Home Camera face shows up to nine live feeds at once.
With a supported iCloud+ plan, compatible cameras can pick out people, familiar faces, pets, packages and vehicles, using end-to-end encrypted processing. HomeView also listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and sends an alert to your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
It works with Matter accessories and with Apple Home Collection, a new range of cameras, thermostats and a lock built with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric. Home Collection starts shipping in December. Some pieces wait until early 2027.
HomeView and its A18 chip use Secure Exclaves, which are isolated runtimes for camera and microphone data. Apple says nothing outside them can read that data, and that includes the HomeView software, apps, the user and Apple itself. Siri requests run either on the device or in Private Cloud Compute, where Apple says data isn't stored or made available to anyone.
No EU sale. Apple blames Siri AI not being available in iOS there and says it's talking with EU officials about a way forward.
Canadian French support will come later in a free software update.
