I’m just going to come right out and say it. I love the approach Apple has taken with the HomeView. I think it’s the shared, always-available household interface that my family might finally use. Is Apple’s first smart display my dream smart home dashboard? No. But is it the right product for Apple Home at this moment? Absolutely.
A lot of initial reactions to the $299 HomeView (which looks like a giant Apple Watch on a flatter metallic HomePod Mini) are asking why anyone would want it when you can do everything it offers on your iPhone or iPad. And yes, it does replicate many of the things you already do on the devices you use all the time .
But that’s kind of the point. HomeView gives you another interface for those things, but crucially one that is always powered, always unlocked, and always in the same spot in your home, making it easy to walk up to and interact with.
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I’ve tried using an iPad to control my smart home, run my family’s calendar, and be a shared device for controlling music. It wasn’t great. I’ll have to test HomeView, of course, but my initial impression is that this could be a much better solution for those use cases.
Most iPads are more expensive, have worse speakers, and do not like to be plugged in all the time (I present my sad, warped iPad Mini as tribute).