LG-owned Homey unveils pricey touchscreen hub for unified smart-home control
Homey launched the Homey Portal, a $249/€249 touchscreen controller with a dial that can manage lights, music, climate and more, but it requires a separate Homey hub.
LG’s Homey platform introduced the Homey Portal, a compact 2.8-inch touchscreen paired with a tactile stainless-steel dial, priced at $249/€249 for early orders and shipping in December. The unit can be placed on a surface or mounted on a wall and runs off a USB-C cable, allowing users to tap icons for lights, speakers, thermostats and shades, while the dial fine-tunes brightness, volume or temperature. Homey advertises support for more than 70,000 devices from over 2,000 brands, integrating Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave and Thread, yet the Portal itself does not act as a hub and must link to a Homey Cloud plan or a Homey Pro Mini, Homey Pro, or self-hosted server for local communication.
After the launch discount, the price rises to $299/€299, so equipping several rooms could approach $900 before adding a hub. The controller omits a built-in microphone, instead offering voice integration through Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Siri Shortcuts. CEO Stefan Witkamp said the goal is to make smart-home interaction as simple as flipping a light switch, and the device will be demonstrated at the IFA show in Berlin.
Why it matters
It shows how smart-home makers are tackling fragmented device control with dedicated, but pricey, hardware.
In this story
