LG has, somewhat surprisingly, taken the covers off of a new smart home hub: the LG ThinQ ON.
I say surprisingly for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, dedicated smart home hubs seem to be a dying breed; LG’s big rival Samsung has moved away from creating smart home hubs in the past few years, instead packing them into the likes of TVs, soundbars and even fridges.
And secondly, because the hubs that are set to survive in the ever more integrated smart home world are high-end, multi connectivity hubs, such as the Homey Pro.
The Homey Pro, if you didn’t know, is a product from a Dutch company called Athom; a company that LG acquired back in July.
So while I’d have expected an LG branded mega-hub, taking on all of the functionality of the excellent Homey Pro, I didn’t expect an Echo-Dot-from-2020-lookalike with a new voice assistant on board.
But that’s what we’ve got. Unlike the Homey Pro, there’s no mention of Zigbee or Z-Wave; but there is Wi-Fi, Matter and Thread on board.
I’d expect it to be capable of being a Matter controller, but there’s no official word on that at the moment. There is also the chance it could just be a Matter Bridge for LG’s connected ThinkIQ devices.
The device will no doubt be on show over in Berlin at IFA next week and I’ll try and find out more an update this story.
What we do know, for sure, is that – and the name is a clue here – the new hub has a big AI focus (what smart home device launched in 2024 doesn’t, right?)
As well as an “empathetic AI working in unison to deliver customized comfort, care and convenience” that “learns from individual usage patterns and broader usage trends to tailor customers’ daily experiences, accelerating the realization of LG’s Zero Labor Home vision,” the LG ThinQ ON also features a “an AI speaker that facilitates conversations with LG’s AI voice assistant.”
Athom does get a mention in the launch materials, with the promise that LG plans to “maximize the advantages of the ThinQ ON’s open platform by continuously expanding the range of supported brands and devices.”
Again, exactly what that means is unclear at the moment but I’ll do some digging to try and find out more.
I’ll also try and find out a launch date and a price too because neither of these have been declared either.
