Apple HomeView hands on: So many questions, but I like it

At Apple's NYC experience, I got an early look at HomeView, its new smart home display. I still have unanswered questions but my early take is that I like it. A lot.

Most of you have seen the general rundown on the hardware. It's a 7-inch Liquid Retina display, perched atop a speaker base or mounted to a wall that you can control with your voice or touch.

It has Siri AI built-in to operate your smart home, answer questions, find your lost Apple TV 4K Siri Remote, or otherwise control it. There's a built-in camera that can recognize up to six distinct users to load personal information, such as message history or calendars.

The device ships with a series of Apple apps such as Calendar, Safari, Music, and more. Additional apps are supported via your iPhone, like Apple TV.

It looks really nice

My first impression was how much I loved the look of it. It's small. Cute even.

The display feels just the right size to easily fit onto a night stand, desk, or kitchen counter without being too big. It's a bright display, too, looking crisp and sharp from anywhere, even in the well-lit demo areas.

I love the wealth of faces, as Apple calls them, that it designed for the HomeView. Some of these are entirely new, while others are borrowed from the Apple TV and Apple Watch.

The Flow face on Apple Watch reacts to your wrist movements, while on the HomeView, it reacts to your movements in the room. One face looks like a sundial, fading the numerals in and out of view over time.

I've always been a fan of the Snoopy face, and even if I want to put the data-heavy modular face in the kitchen, I fret my children are going to be insistent here. The Snoopy one still animates and takes cues from the calendar and weather, pulling out an umbrella when it's raining.

Not to dwell too much on the idle faces here, but I think the Photos face is also another winner. You can use a shared photo album for this, so if another family member outside the house has a HomeView, it's effortless to contribute new photos to their device.

I know multiple people who use digital photo frames for this exact reason and Apple easily created a more seamless version that also has a bunch of other features.

These faces all looked very polished and useful. It's going to be hard to decide whether to go with usable controls or gorgeous clock faces.

As I went through the demo home, there were a lot of those little "oh, I love that!" moments the more I used HomeView.

Using HandOff to transfer a recipe into a helpful cooking view is genuinely useful and you can use Siri to move step to step hands-free. It also doesn't require any app or special Apple News link — just a recipe in Safari that can be pinned for future use.

The mirror was also quite clever. When you get ready for the day, you can open the mirror app to see yourself. HomeView has a closeup view where you can clearly see your face, or you can zoom out for a full-body look.

If it's dark, you can turn on the edge ring light. A similar lighting feature is also available on the Mac.

Smart home smarts

Beyond the basic uses of the HomeView, what I was here for was the smart home aspect. I desperately want an always-on smart display to control my Apple Home devices and thus far, that functionality has been limited to almost every other ecosystem.

You can do this with an iPad, but it's not the same. There's no multi-user support, ideal dashboard view, perfect mounting option, and I'd also miss intercom and hub functionality.

I specifically wanted a streamlined device that was designed from the beginning to be a smart display, and not a tablet. That's what we got with HomeView.

The camera feed face is perfect to see real-time live camera streams from your home and the modular face lets you choose exactly what accessories you want to prioritize as always available.

Apple has all-new animations and styles for each of the interactions, like controlling the thermostat or lights. They were designed for this screen size and will be easy for anyone to understand and use.

I think one of the most popular uses for HomeView will be replacing your in-wall light switches. This is possible with the AC hardwire mount and something a lot of savvy users will be able to do themselves.

You tie off your lights to be always-on and swap the "dumb" bulb for a smart bulb and you're good to go. I think that's exactly what I'd like to do.

This is just the beginning

For as bullish as I am on HomeView, I do think there is a lot to come. This, in many ways, feels like Apple's early version of the Apple Watch.

I think having some system-wide gesture would prove useful, instead of tucked away as an accessibility setting. I'd love a gesture that, similar to the double-tap on Apple Watch, could pause a track, move to the next step in a recipe, or end a FaceTime call.

It's also not unjustified to ask for more app integrations. I understand Apple's preferred method of interaction is largely voice with simple tasks, but that shouldn't entirely limit HomeView to this awkward CarPlay scenario that only will allow audio and video apps.

We'll have to wait closer to launch, but I'm curious about how widgets will work. The demo units only had Apple's stock apps installed so there wasn't an opportunity to try any CarPlay streaming apps or widgets.

It would be great to have the Matic robovac app on there, which works with Apple Home, but has further cleaning customization within its own app. In the Matic app, I can change the room cleaning order or direct it to a spill.

Recipe apps like Crouton, NYT Cooking, or Paprika seem to be natural fits too. Apple's recipe implementation looks great, but the only recipes you can load are via Safari.

I do think that much of this will come down the line, but it does highlight some of the holes in the initial implementation. The good news is the hardware is there and looks gorgeous.

Hopefully we see next steps at WWDC in June. Fingers crossed for a proper pipeline for more third-party integrations.

Worth more than one in my home

Right now, I plan on buying at least three HomeViews for my home. Originally, I thought I'd only end up with one in the kitchen.

I want one bedside, which is possible, in part, because of the special low-light mode that lets the display get super dim. This would be a great dashboard to control all the individual smart lights in our room, while also being able to see any security cameras.

We already were planning on putting a HomePod mini in the room. For $150 more, we can get a HomeView with far more utility.

Of course there will be a kitchen one for family use. I'm sure it will be used constantly for cooking, watching YouTube, checking the shared family calendar, or FaceTime calls.

My studio absolutely needs one. I could tie this into all my different scenes for working, filming, or podcasting, plus it would be physical controls for my smart shades.

As HomeView evolves, and we even see more third-party customizations and accessories, this could go further. I'm particularly interested if anyone makes an articulating arm that would allow one to be mounted on my desk.

It's a new device category and admittedly somewhat limited out of the box, but I think the potential is there and I'm very excited to finally start using it. After more than five years of rumors, HomeView is finally here.