The Homey Portal is a $299 tap-and-twist smart home controller

Key Points:

• Homey, owned by LG, has launched the Homey Portal, a 2.8-inch touchscreen smart home controller with a stainless steel dial, designed to simplify smart home device control by combining physical and touchscreen inputs.
• The device supports over 70,000 devices from more than 2,000 brands and multiple protocols including Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Thread, aiming to address interoperability issues common in smart homes.
• The Homey Portal is priced at $249/€249 for preorders, shipping in December, but requires connection to a Homey hub or cloud service, which adds to the overall cost for full home coverage.
• Unlike competitors, the Portal offers local device communication without internet dependency and integrates with popular voice assistants like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri Shortcuts, though it lacks built-in voice control.
• Homey emphasizes ease of installation and broad device support compared to other smart switches with displays, positioning the Portal as a more intuitive and uncluttered alternative for smart home management.