After months of speculation, Apple has unveiled its smart home hub: HomeView.
Powered by Apple Intelligence and with Siri AI at its core, how does HomeView look set to compare to Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo Show series?
Although we haven’t reviewed the Apple HomeView yet, we’ve compared its specs to the Amazon Echo Show and highlighted all the key differences between the two below. Keep in mind that the Echo Show series is made up of five iterations (Echo Show 5, 8, 11, 15 and 21) and we’ll be sure to differentiate between each model throughout this guide.
Want to see how the HomeView compares to Amazon’s current Alexa line-up? Check out the best Amazon Echo devices round-up.
Price and Availability
The Apple HomeView is currently available for Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, UK and US customers to pre-order ahead of its global launch on November 13th. The HomeView has a starting price of £299/$299, regardless of whether you opt for the wall-mounted or countertop version.
As mentioned earlier, the Echo Show is available as five iterations: Echo Show 5, 8, 11, 15 and 21, with the latter two coming equipped with a remote and run on Fire TV. The Echo Show 5 is the cheapest of the series, with an RRP of £99.99, as is followed by the Echo Show 8 which starts at £199.99.
The Echo Show 11 is the closest in price to the HomeView, with a price tag of £249.99, while the Echo Show 15 and 21 are the most expensive at £349.99/£499.99 respectively.
Echo Show comes in five sizes but HomeView is only a seven-inch model
The Amazon Echo Show series offers more flexibility with its iterations, as it comes as either a 5.5-, 8.7-, 11-, 15.6- or 21-inch iteration. Although all five can be wall-mounted, the smallest three can be placed on a counter instead. Plus, though the entire Echo Show series is designed to be used as a smart home display, the Echo Show 15 and 21 come with Amazon’s Fire TV OS installed so they double up as a TV screen too.
The Apple HomeView is much less complicated in comparison. Instead, the home hub comes as a seven-inch panel that’s connected to a dome speaker base as it means you can easily reposition the screen for more comfortable viewing too
Alternatively, you can choose the wall-mounted HomeView model instead which offers the same seven-inch display but only comes in space grey or silver. Otherwise, the countertop HomeView comes in a choice between four colours that are reminiscent of the MacBook Air series: silver, starlight, rose pink and space grey.
Siri AI vs Alexa
One of the biggest differences between the HomeView and Echo Show line-up is with their respective voice assistants. HomeView is fitted with Siri AI, the new and improved version of the original Siri, which Apple hails as being a “profoundly more capable and conversational” voice assistant that offers both personal context understanding and onscreen awareness.
When paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad, Siri AI can take action across apps and provide relevant information for users. However, even if you don’t have an Apple Intelligence-enabled device, you will still be able to use Siri AI and benefit from more natural conversations and answered questions too.
Our Home Technology Editor, Dave Ludlow, has praised Siri AI for showing signs of promise and being a much-needed upgrade from its predecessor. With this in mind, we have high hopes that Siri AI will work well with HomeView – but we’ll have to wait and see.
So how does Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa+, compare? As a refresher, Alexa+ is the latest version of Alexa that promises to be smarter and offer more natural conversations than its predecessor. At the time of writing, Alexa+ is free for Prime members but will cost an additional £19.99 a month for those without a subscription.
Even before Alexa+ made its debut in the UK, we praised Alexa for being a genuinely useful voice assistant that could understand and provide relevant answers or actions to most questions. However, we recently concluded that Alexa+ is an incredible update that’s better at general responses and capable of building smart home routines quickly. In fact, Dave hailed the assistant as being “light years ahead of the competition”.
With this in mind, Siri AI and HomeView has a lot to live up to. Fortunately we’ve been impressed with Siri AI since the update launched in September, so hopefully we’ll see its prowess continue with the HomeView.
Both act as smart home hubs
You might wonder what the HomeView or Echo Show is actually used for. Both are essentially smart displays that should offer at-a-glance information about your home, allow you to control smart home products with ease and even stream videos and music too.
With Siri AI, HomeView allows you to control your smart home devices with just your voice, whether you want to check who’s ringing your video doorbell, turn on the lights or adjust the thermostat. The display works with the new Apple Home Collection, plus products that are Works with Apple Home and Matter certified too.
It’s a similar story with the Echo Show, which also allows you to control paired smart home devices from the display. The Echo Show series can be paired with Zigbee, Matter and Thread-compatible devices too.
Apple’s HomeView is designed to suit the whole family, and allows for up to six profiles on one device. The device will recognise each usercreen. Apple also promises that each profile’s personal content will stay private from others on the device, though photo albums and music can be shared
Both can play audio
Whether you’re listening to a curated playlist, podcast or streaming a series or video, both the HomeView and Echo Show series can play audio without necessarily needing any additional speakers. However, just keep in mind that the cheaper Echo Show 5 won’t provide as rich an audio experience as the considerably more expensive Echo Show 21, for example.
Apple explains its HomeView has a custom-engineered acoustic system with two full-range drivers that deliver Spatial Audio and a woofer and two passive radiators for “incredible bass extension”. In addition, the HomeView is fitted with real-time system sensors that optimises loudness and bass response too, regardless of the volume level.
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Early Verdict
As we’re yet to review the Apple HomeView, we’ll refrain from giving a conclusive verdict for now. While we have genuinely been impressed with Siri AI so far, we’ll need to see whether it lives up to Alexa’s capabilities.
Even so, with seamless Apple integration, option to have up to six profiles and an impressive sounding speaker set-up, the HomeView seems like a great addition to any Apple purist’s household. However, the cheaper Echo Shows remain easy recommendations for those who just want an easy-to-use smart display.
We’ll update this versus once we review the Apple HomeView.
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