Apple HomeView Has a $299 Problem… (Video)

Apple's new HomeView does two things I'd use every week: it holds a recipe while I cook, and it takes FaceTime calls so I don't have to prop up my phone. I tried it at Apple's Welcome Home event, and I get the appeal. Then I looked at how Apple priced the wall-mounted version, and the math stopped making sense.

In person, HomeView is smaller than you'd guess: a square 7-inch display on a speaker base, running an A18 chip. The hinge tilts up and down (not side to side), a bit like the old lampshade iMac, and brightness drops from 500 nits to 0.3 nits, so it can sit on a nightstand without lighting up the bedroom.

The camera can tell who's standing in front of it and pull up that person's home screen, widgets, and apps. It isn't Face ID. Your paired iPhone or iPad has to be nearby and recently unlocked, and if HomeView isn't sure who you are, it asks you to confirm on your phone. Recognition runs on the device, and you can turn it off.

Cooking mode was my favorite part of the demo. Open a recipe in Safari on your iPhone, hand it off, and HomeView reformats it into ingredients and steps. It picks the cooking times out of the text, so you tap one to start a timer, and you can run several at once. FaceTime is the clearest use for me personally. A 12-megapixel Center Stage camera keeps you framed as you move, and the screen is already there when the call comes in.

It sounds better than I expected from something this small. I'd call it good rather than amazing, and I heard no distortion. The tabletop model uses two full-range drivers, a down-firing woofer, and two force-canceling passive radiators. Spotify works through the CarPlay framework, so CarPlay audio and video apps run here too.

HomeView supports Matter and HomeKit, and Apple should have said so much more loudly. If your lights and locks already work with Apple Home, they keep working. You don't need the new accessories Apple showed off.

Then there's the price. HomeView costs $299 with the speaker base, and the wall-mounted version costs the same $299 with no mount in the box. A USB-C mount is $60, an in-wall AC mount is $80, and a Power over Ethernet mount is $130 (arriving early 2027). The cheapest wall setup lands near $360 before tax or installation, and you give up the base. It's one of the most confusing pricing decisions I've seen from any company in a long time.

I'm not sure I'd wall-mount one anyway. The USB-C mount leaves a cable hanging down the wall, and a clean install means more work or paying someone. For a screen I'd want in a few rooms, that adds up fast.

The rest of the event followed the same pattern. The HomePod mini 2 goes from $99 to $149, and its Siri AI arrives in a future update with no date. The new Apple TV 4K gets an A19 chip and a Siri Remote that chimes when you lose it, and it costs $299, up from $129.

If you cook from your phone, take a lot of FaceTime calls at home, and already run an Apple Home setup, HomeView on its base is the one I'd look at. The wall version is a harder sell until that $299 includes the thing that holds it on the wall.