Apple just overhauled its smart-home lineup with a $299 HomeView smart display and speaker

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My home runs on Apple’s smart home platform, but it’s cobbled together like an automated Frankenstein’s monster. The brains live in an Apple TV and a HomePod on a shelf. The cameras, locks, and thermostats came from whoever bothered to support HomeKit. Apple HomeView is the company’s own answer: a $299 smart display with a square 7-inch screen, an A18 chip, and a camera that recognizes up to six people in the house by face.

Three other announcements came with it. A fourth-generation Apple TV 4K moves to an A19 chip at $299, HomePod mini 2 gets an S10 chip and a glowing top at $149, and the new Apple Home Collection puts cameras, a smart lock, and thermostats built by LG and Schneider Electric on Apple’s store shelves in December. Apple now sells something for nearly every spot in the house where smart home devices usually go.

Product	Starting price	On sale
Apple HomeView	$299	Nov. 13
Apple HomeView (Wall Mounted)	$299, plus mount from $59.95	Nov. 13
Apple TV 4K (4th generation)	$299	Nov. 13
HomePod mini 2	$149	Oct. 30
Apple Home Collection	$39.95 to $399.95	Starting December

1. Apple HomeView is a speaker with a square screen on a hinge

The tabletop HomeView sits on a domed speaker base, with the display attached by a stainless steel hinge that tilts it toward whoever’s looking. The face looks like a giant Apple Watch or a real-world embodiment of an iOS widget. The 7-inch Liquid Retina panel runs 1,088 by 1,088 pixels at 220 ppi. That square shape suits photo albums, camera feeds, and widgets better than movies. Brightness drops as low as 0.3 nits, so it shouldn’t light up a dark bedroom at night.

Two full-range drivers sit in the display, while the base holds a down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators, and the whole setup supports Spatial Audio. The tabletop model weighs 2.1 pounds and needs wired power from the included 30W adapter. It’s a kitchen-counter fixture like a typical smart screen.

HomeView (Wall Mounted) costs the same $299, drops the base, and weighs 286 grams. It uses two drivers tuned for wall placement and hangs from one of three Schneider Home power mounts, all sold separately: a plug-in USB-C wall connector from $59.95, a hardwired AC version from $79.95, and a hardwired Power over Ethernet version for $129.95 that arrives in early 2027. Unlike the tabletop model, it doesn’t come with a USB-C cable or power adapter, and Apple calls for an adapter of at least 20W, so the real price lands well above $299.

The 12MP Center Stage camera is what separates HomeView from a HomePod with a screen bolted on. It recognizes up to six people by face and gives each a personal Home Screen with their own apps and widgets, while shared photo albums and music stay open to everyone, guests included. When nobody’s using it, the screen shows one of Apple’s faces, including Calendar, Weather, a Home Camera face that streams up to nine live feeds, and a Snoopy face whose animations follow the weather, sports, and holidays.

2. HomeView’s Siri AI shows personal info only when your iPhone is nearby

HomeView ships with Siri AI, the rebuilt Siri that holds a conversation and understands what’s on the screen, as a beta in HomeView software 27.2. Anyone in the house can use it for general questions and music discovery. Personal requests, like checking a calendar or reading a text, require a paired iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence.

The privacy rules warrant a close read if a camera in the kitchen has kept you away from smart displays. HomeView surfaces personal content from apps like Messages and Calendar when it recognizes an enrolled face and that person’s paired iPhone or iPad is on the same Wi-Fi network and was recently unlocked. Apple’s fine print carves out one exception, for a phone that recently dropped off the home Wi-Fi but stays on cellular in the same location. The A18 handles camera and microphone data inside Secure Exclaves, which Apple says isolate that data from the rest of the system.

As a home controller, HomeView runs cameras, thermostats, lights, locks, and blinds by touch or voice, and it listens for smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and sends an alert when one goes off. With a supported iCloud+ plan and compatible cameras, it can identify faces, pets, packages, and vehicles in camera footage. Apple won’t sell HomeView in the European Union because Siri AI isn’t available in iOS there.

3. Apple TV 4K (4th generation) adds an A19 chip and far-field mics at $299

The new Apple TV 4K listens without the remote. Three far-field microphones with echo cancellation handle hands-free “Hey Siri,” which helps when a movie is playing loud and the remote is somewhere in the couch. Apple rates the A19 chip at up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous generation, and it adds an AV1 decoder for the efficient video codec more streaming services are adopting.

Pair two HomePod mini 2 or HomePod (2nd generation) speakers up front and two more in back, with each pair made of matching speakers, and Apple TV 4K runs four-speaker surround sound. There’s just one available configuration for the Apple TV, with 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi 7, Gigabit Ethernet, and a Thread radio. The outgoing lineup’s cheaper model left Ethernet and Thread off, so every new unit can serve as a full home hub.

The new Siri Remote charges over USB-C and works with Find My, including Precision Finding with a supported recent iPhone. It also works with Apple TV HD and earlier Apple TV 4K models, and it’s sold separately. You don’t need new hardware for Siri AI, which arrives as a beta on Apple TV 4K models back to the second generation. Searching for something to watch opens a full-screen Siri interface, and questions asked mid-show get answered in a compact overlay on top of what’s playing.

The price has gone up. Apple TV 4K launched at $129 in 2022, and Apple raised that starting price to $199 in June amid a memory chip shortage. The 128GB model with Ethernet, the closer match to the new box, went from $149 to $249 at the same time. At $299, the new model costs about twice as much as the Google TV Streamer, which went to $149.99 on August 31.

4. HomePod mini 2 gets an S10 chip and a top that glows with the music

The original HomePod mini launched at $99 in 2020 and stayed largely the same for six years, aside from new colors and a temperature and humidity sensor Apple switched on with a 2023 software update. HomePod mini 2 moves to Apple’s S10 chip, which runs computational audio that adjusts dynamic range and loudness to the music in real time.

The visible change is Sound Glow. The top of the speaker pulses in time with bass and treble using colors pulled from the album art, and it can play ambient soundscapes like rain. HomePod mini 2 comes in pink, green, blue, white, and midnight, stands 3.3 inches tall, and weighs 335 grams.

Wi-Fi 6E, Thread, and an Ultra Wideband chip make HomePod mini 2 a capable home hub, and it can serve as the default speaker for a Mac with Wi-Fi 6E or later. Four of them make a surround system with the new Apple TV 4K, with automatic calibration based on where each speaker sits. Apple’s comparison chart lists Spatial Audio and room sensing only for the full-size HomePod (2nd generation), so those stay on the bigger speaker.

Siri AI comes to HomePod mini 2 in a future software update rather than at launch, and it will recognize up to six household voices. At $149, HomePod mini 2 costs $50 more than the original did at launch and $20 more than Apple charged for the original after its June price increase.

5. Apple Home Collection brings LG and Schneider cameras, locks, and thermostats to Apple Stores

LG Electronics and Schneider Electric make the Apple Home Collection hardware, designed in collaboration with Apple, and Apple sells it on apple.com, in the Apple Store app, and in its stores. Every device sets up with one tap on an iPhone and runs in the Home app with no separate app or account, which skips the step where a new doorbell asks you to make yet another login.

Apple Home Collection device	Price
LG Video Doorbell Wired	$249.95
LG Floodlight Cam	$399.95
LG Outdoor Cam Plug-In	$299.95
LG Indoor Cam Plug-In	$199.95
LG Smart Deadbolt Lock	$349.95
LG Smart Thermostat	$199.95
LG Temperature Sensor	$39.95
Schneider Home Smart Thermostat	$199.95
Schneider Home Room Sensor	$39.95

The LG Smart Deadbolt Lock unlocks over Ultra Wideband as you walk up with an iPhone, supports Matter and the Aliro door-access standard, and keeps working without an internet connection. A PIN pad and a backup key slot cover a dead phone. The LG Video Doorbell Wired pairs a 2.5K front camera with a second, full HD camera on the bottom of the unit, plus a built-in spotlight and chime.

Every device in the Home Collection runs on Thread, and the cameras keep recording to built-in storage if the Wi-Fi drops. Video history requires iCloud+, which keeps 10 days of events. The 50GB plan covers one camera, 200GB covers up to five, and 2TB covers unlimited cameras. Some features also need a home hub, which can be HomeView, a HomePod, a HomePod mini, or an Apple TV 4K.

Apple Home Collection availability begins in December, and select accessories follow in early 2027, though Apple hasn’t said which ones. Apple Retail also offers professional installation from ADT in the U.S. starting this fall, for an extra charge.

6. Where to preorder Apple HomeView, Apple TV 4K, and HomePod mini 2

Apple HomeView, HomeView (Wall Mounted), and Apple TV 4K (4th generation) are $299 apiece, take preorders now at apple.com and in the Apple Store app, and arrive November 13. HomePod mini 2 is $149 and reaches stores October 30. The Apple Home Collection doesn’t take preorders yet. Availability begins in December, with select accessories following in early 2027.

Apple HomeView $299

Apple HomeView $299

See It

Start with the base, which holds a down-firing woofer and two force-cancelling passive radiators under the screen. The square 7-inch screen, 12MP Center Stage camera, and A18 chip recognize six people by face and give each one a personal Home Screen. It comes in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space gray, and the $299 Wall Mounted version comes in silver and space gray with mounts sold separately.

Apple TV 4K (4th generation) $299

Apple TV 4K (4th generation) $299

See It

Hands-free “Hey Siri” through three far-field microphones is the change you’ll notice first, and the A19 chip is the one you won’t see. Every unit ships with 128GB of storage, Wi-Fi 7, Gigabit Ethernet, and Thread, so there’s no stripped-down model to accidentally buy. The included Siri Remote charges over USB-C and shows up in Find My, which should end the search through the couch cushions.

Apple HomePod mini 2 $149

Apple HomePod mini 2 $149

See It

Watch the top of this one. Sound Glow pulses with the music in colors pulled from the album art, while the S10 chip tunes dynamic range and loudness in real time. It doubles as a Thread and Wi-Fi 6E home hub with a temperature and humidity sensor, and four of them build a surround system around the new Apple TV 4K. Siri AI arrives in a later software update.