Homey Pro Mini review: Half the price, plenty of power

Let me be proper up entrance: the Homey Professional (2023) just isn’t solely one in all my favourite good house units, however one in all my favourite units, basically. In my life, only a few tech merchandise have had as profound an impact on my day-to-day existence. I’m saying this as a result of I would like you to know my perspective in direction of the latest Homey-branded product: the Homey Professional Mini.

The Homey Professional Mini is a pared-down model of the Homey Professional — consider them like a Pixel 9a and a Pixel 9 Pro XL, respectively. The Mini sacrifices many options of the Homey Professional in an effort to repair the largest barrier to entry: pricing.

I wish to let you know all about what you’re sacrificing by getting a Mini over the common Professional. However, most significantly, I wish to let you know why the Homey Professional Mini is now the right system to begin a sensible house — much more so than the usual Professional mannequin.

If that is the primary time you’re studying about Homey and Athom, the corporate behind it, I extremely suggest studying my Homey Pro review from final 12 months or watching my video evaluation above. Very mainly, although, a Homey system acts as a one-size-fits-all hub that lives on the middle of your good house — the one hub to rule all of them.

These of you who’ve dabbled in good house stuff will know the way a lot of a large number it’s. There are a number of protocols (Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Infrared, and so on.) that don’t combine properly with each other, and 1000’s of manufacturers that don’t play good with all of the others. On high of this, some merchandise want a selected hub to operate, inflicting you to have a number of hubs throughout your own home, each taking over area and an outlet. To make issues even worse, every system household has its personal app, making an already complicated expertise much more cumbersome.

Athom needs to arrange this chaos with its Homey merchandise. The Homey Professional, for instance, helps each main good house protocol. It connects with tens of 1000’s of units throughout a whole bunch of producers. Utilizing its extremely well-designed software program, you can also make a sensible house that’s really good, with one system connecting to and controlling all the things by only one app. What’s extra, you’ll be able to even do that all regionally, supplying you with whole management over your privateness and safety.

Essentially the most important downside with the Homey Professional, although, is that it’s pricey, beginning at $399. That is far an excessive amount of cash for somebody simply starting their good house journey. That is made all of the extra problematic while you be taught that an individual who has already created an intensive good house community possible has jumped to Home Assistant, which acts equally to the Homey ecosystem however requires you to create a customized hub utilizing an always-on pc you both construct or retrofit. This leaves the Homey Professional within the unenviable place of being extremely good at what it does, but additionally tough for me to suggest to its supposed viewers.

The Homey Professional Mini, although, is right here to select up the customers left behind by the Homey Professional.

The primary and most evident distinction with the Homey Professional Mini is that it’s smaller than the common Homey Professional. The Mini is a squircle-shaped black puck that’s about 50% extra compact than the round Homey Professional. For space-conscious good house homeowners, this will probably be excellent news. Sadly, with that shrink in dimension, the Homey Professional Mini loses the most effective and most iconic features of the Homey Professional: its RGB lighting. I am keen on the sunshine ring on my Homey Professional, so not seeing it on the Mini was disappointing.

Not all of the bodily variations are a disadvantage, although. Regardless of its smaller dimension, the Homey Professional Mini has a built-in Ethernet port, one thing the common Homey Professional inexplicably lacks. To hardwire a regular Homey Professional to your own home community, you have to purchase an adapter, which Athom sells individually. Nevertheless, that is pointless with the Homey Professional Mini, as you’ll be able to simply join it on to your community with the Ethernet cable included within the field (or another you personal).

The downside right here, although, is that the Homey Professional Mini doesn’t assist Wi-Fi just like the Homey Professional. This could be complicated, so let me make clear. The Homey Professional Mini can’t connect with your own home community by Wi-Fi, however as soon as linked to that community with an Ethernet cable, it could actually management Wi-Fi-connected good house units.

Along with web/cloud good house merchandise, Homey Professional Mini has radios for controlling Zigbee, Thread, and Matter units. Out of the field, it is going to be in a position to management nearly all of your good house objects that use these protocols. Sadly, this implies it doesn’t have radios for Z-Wave, Bluetooth, 433MHz, and Infrared, so you probably have units that depend on these protocols, the Homey Professional Mini won’t be able to manage them. Fortunately, you’ll be able to add assist for these radios by connecting the Mini with a Homey Bridge, which is sold separately for $69.99. Even should you purchase a Homey Professional Mini and a Bridge, you’ll nonetheless be spending loads lower than you’ll on a Homey Professional.

So far as computing energy is anxious, the Homey Professional and its Mini counterpart are related. Each have the identical 1.5GHz ARMv8 quad-core processor and 8GB of onboard, non-expandable storage. Nevertheless, the Mini has 1GB of RAM — half as a lot because the common Homey Professional. This can restrict the variety of apps you’ll be able to run on a Homey Professional Mini.

Inside the Homey ecosystem, you utilize downloaded apps to manage your good house units. These might be official apps (i.e., made in live performance with the producer) or group apps created by different Homey customers. Both method, every app takes up cupboard space in your Homey and requires a specific amount of RAM to operate as an always-on service. With the 1GB of RAM within the Homey Professional Mini, you’ll be able to run about 20 apps comfortably. This can be a far cry from the 60 or so apps you’ll be able to run on a Homey Professional with 2GB of RAM.

Whereas 20 apps may not seem to be loads, it’s most likely lots for most individuals. I’m solely working 15 apps on my Homey Professional, for instance, and my good house is fairly elaborate with round 50 linked units, a dozen digital units, and a handful of always-on companies. In keeping with Athom, the typical Homey person solely has 14 apps put in, so a 20-app restrict ought to be effective for many.

As a result of the Homey Professional Mini lacks all these options, Athom dropped the worth by 50% to $199. That is its best energy.

Crucial factor to recollect when evaluating these two units is the title: Homey Professional Mini. The “Professional” moniker is important as a result of that’s what this product is. It isn’t a cloud-based Homey and can use the identical apps because the 2023 Homey Professional. It’s finest to think about the Homey Professional Mini as a Homey Professional however with a few of its options eliminated — but it surely’s nonetheless a Professional.

Due to this, the expertise utilizing the Mini is remarkably much like utilizing the usual Professional mannequin. The software program is equivalent — in actual fact, the Homey app lists the Homey Professional Mini as a Homey Professional when it will get updates, so it actually is strictly the identical (see picture above). Meaning you get entry to all of the Professional-level software program options and don’t have to pay any month-to-month charges. Additionally, assuming you could have the suitable units for it, you’ll be able to run your total Homey good house regionally for enhanced privateness and safety.

The Homey Professional Mini additionally helps power monitoring, customary Flows (Homey lingo for automation), Superior Flows (utilizing the desktop app solely), and Homey Dashboards (much like Dwelling Assistant Dashboards; useful in turning a pill into a sensible house management system). Basically, something a Homey Professional can do, the Homey Professional Mini also can do.

This creates a brand new paradigm for getting a Homey. The one purpose somebody ought to fork over $400 for the Homey Professional now could be that they’re positive they’ll want greater than 20 apps. The Homey Professional’s assist for Wi-Fi connectivity is a moot level as a result of anybody severe sufficient to spend $400 on a sensible house system will use Ethernet anyway. On the identical observe, the Homey Professional’s wider collection of built-in connectivity protocols (Z-Wave, Bluetooth, 433MHz, and so on.) might be simply replicated on the Mini by connecting a number of Homey Bridges. Connecting as much as two Homey Bridges to a Homey Professional Mini remains to be cheaper than a Homey Professional by a not-insignificant $60. You would even purchase a 3rd Homey Bridge and nonetheless solely be $10 over.

Actually, the merchandise at the moment are so related that I don’t assume I’d suggest the Homey Professional to anybody anymore. The Homey Professional Mini is now one of the best ways to enter the Homey ecosystem.

If somebody had been to inform me they had been beginning a sensible house from scratch, I’d instantly begin singing the praises of my Homey Professional ($399 at Amazon). I’d inform them the way it makes issues a lot extra simple, all the things from preliminary setup to group to automation. I’d inform them how a lot I really like creating Flows and the way my house has by no means been extra helpful and handy. In the long run, although, I’d inform them to not trouble shopping for a Homey Professional — at the very least, not but.

The one purpose I’d advise towards that is the associated fee. For somebody simply beginning out, $400 for a useful however nonetheless inessential good house product is untenable. What number of preliminary good house customers will purchase a number of good lights after which cease there? What number of will attempt to automate their house, get annoyed, and quit? There are such a lot of the reason why somebody would dabble in good house expertise and by no means use or want something {that a} Homey Professional presents.

Ah, however a $200 system that does largely the identical issues? That’s rather more cheap. It’s nonetheless loads for what’s ostensibly a Raspberry Pi in an Apple TV-shaped field, but it surely isn’t almost as tough to swallow as its $400 counterpart. If somebody is new to good properties however in all fairness positive they are going to be very into it, the Homey Professional Mini is a superb begin.

I’d additionally suggest the Homey Professional Mini to good house veterans. As I discussed earlier, most individuals who’ve established a sensible house are already neck-deep within the Dwelling Assistant ecosystem. For them, there’s nothing a Homey Professional presents that they’ll’t already do on their very own for a lot much less money. Nevertheless, somebody nearly to dive into Dwelling Assistant would possibly discover Homey’s software program simpler to make use of (as a result of it very a lot is), and never needing to construct something has a sure enchantment as properly. I’ve used each Dwelling Assistant and Homey, and I’d fortunately go for the latter over the previous any day.

Actually, the one folks I’d counsel the Homey Professional to now are those that have cash to burn. Sooner or later, I’d additionally suggest the Professional to individuals who personal the Mini and are beginning to discover its limitations tough. For everybody else, although, the Homey Professional Mini is greater than enough.

After testing out the Homey Professional Mini, the one purpose I received’t completely add it to my good house is that Athom already despatched me the Homey Professional. There’s no purpose to have each, so I’ll stick to the one that enables for as much as 60 apps and has RGB lighting. If I had been purchasing for a Homey, although, the Homey Professional Mini can be the model I’d purchase.