After years of waiting, Apple has finally come out with a smart display, but is it already too late? The Apple HomeView is a sleek device with a nice-looking interface, but scratch deeper than the surface, and you’ll find that it quickly comes up short against the best smart displays. Yes, Amazon’s are the only other game in town, but that company’s much longer history when designing a smart home device — and AI — shows just how far Apple needs to go.
Yes, there are some redeeming qualities of the HomeView — it’s great at music, and integrates well with your iPhone — but when testing it alongside an Amazon smart display, I was left wanting for features time and again.
The HomeView goes on sale November 13, 2026, for $299. It comes in two versions, a freestanding model, and a wall-mounted version. The freestanding HomeView is offered in four colors (silver, starlight, rose pink, space gray) while the wall version comes in just silver or space gray.
If you opt for the wall-mounted version, you’ll have to pay an additional amount for either the USB-C wall connector ($59) or the hardwired mount ($79); if you choose the latter of these two, you’ll probably want to call an electrician to install it.
The base of the HomeView is a small aluminum cylinder that’s rounded at the top, where it connects to the display. The bottom of the base has several rows of perforated holes for the display's speaker.
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