Tried out: Ugreen HomeAgent combines NAS with smart home hub and local AI

Following smartphone charging accessories and network storage, Ugreen will also offer smart home technology in the future. More precisely, the manufacturer will combine many of these into one device. However, the unusual mix of functions also comes with exorbitant list prices. Continue after ad The consoles, named Ugreen HomeAgent HA100, HomeAgent HA100 Pro, and Ugreen MasterAgent MA100, are, on the one hand, network drives for private file servers and video recorders for security cameras. On the other hand, they contain a smart home control center that controls devices from various brands in the home network via the Matter standard. The latter works not only with the Ugreen app but also with a local voice AI based on the Qwen LLM, which understands German. The Master Agent uses the Nvidia Jetson Thor processor platform, originally intended for robotics. Such a powerful, all-in-one solution has never existed before – and certainly not one so expensive: Ugreen charges between $1800 and almost $20,000, depending on the configuration. But does the hybrid product concept stand a chance of being practical or even attractive given such prices? We were able to get a first impression at IFA. With Ugreen's voice assistant Uliya, we can chat in German at the trade fair booth. It opens and closes a blind on request. The feedback comes via voice and in text form. (Image: heise medien /Berti Kolbow-Lehradt) Chicly processed hardware The consoles are cube-shaped devices that could easily accommodate two Mac Studios stacked on top of each other. Both variants of the simpler Home Agent are clad in white, glossy plastic, while the more powerful Master Agent is in blue-lacquered, matte metal. As is usual with a NAS, only processor hardware and RAM are included out of the box. The HA100 has a Rockchip RK3588 and 16 GByte, the HA100 Pro a CIX CP8180 and 32 GByte, and the Master Agent's Nvidia chip is supported by 128 GByte. Hard drives must be purchased separately. Under a cover plate, the Home Agent offers two, and the Master Agent three, bays. The access is nicely done: the hood is barely visible from the outside, and the panel gaps are so narrow that they are practically invisible, at least in the glaring exhibition hall light of IFA 2026. The drives can be easily removed and reinserted and appear so solid that they won't wear out even with frequent access. Continue after ad The cubes with their rounded edges are designed minimally and stylishly enough to reside in the living room. Only on the back is visible technology – a large fan grille and several connections, including a LAN array. The front is simple. At the bottom, there are ports for one USB-C and one SD card each. In the middle sits an NFC field for smartphone pairing. At the top, there is a black front bar in the form of an LED display. It only shows characters when activated. Then it displays operating statuses or transcribes voice feedback. Chatting via built-in smart speaker The housings contain microphones and speakers for chatting with the voice output of the local LLM Qwen. Wirelessly, you can pair a Ugreen smart speaker (costs around $100) to chat with the technology from other rooms. The speaker has the size of an Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest Mini, but is designed in a pill shape instead of a puck or sphere. Under a cover plate, the Home Agents have two, and the Master Agent has three, bays for hard drives. (Image: heise medien /Berti Kolbow-Lehradt) Ugreen's own voice service responds to the wake phrase 'Hey, Uliya'. During the demonstration, it understood German and English. As a test, we opened and closed a blind via voice command. Controlling lights is also possible. For demonstration purposes, recessed spotlights from Nanoleaf and LED strips from Govee were also placed. According to Ugreen, various WLAN lights, sockets, and sensors can also be paired and controlled with the system via the Matter standard. The manufacturer was rather vague in response to further inquiries. Matter app included Setup and, if desired, operation of smart home devices are done via Ugreen's NAS app, which has been expanded with corresponding program windows. The app interface appears simple and clear thanks to plenty of white space. We can well imagine using Ugreen's infrastructure instead of the much more well-known Matter platforms from Amazon, Apple, and Google, given the user-friendly interface. Preview windows and controls for Ugreen's security cameras, which are to be released in the fall for $150 to $350, take up a conspicuously large amount of space in the app. This will be the first smart home device category of its own that the manufacturer is introducing. The models offer modern standards: 4K resolution, PTZ panning, in some cases multiple lenses, and solar charging. For a Matter app that also controls third-party devices from Nanoleaf, like here, Ugreen's is pleasantly attractive and tidy. (Image: heise medien /Berti Kolbow-Lehradt) Ugreen also plans to offer bundles of cameras and the Agent consoles. One hard drive slot in the latter is exclusively reserved for video recordings. The others can be used for self-hosted file servers. Qwen as local AI Everything is held together by UGOS Pro, a Linux-based operating system that the manufacturer has refined with its own additions. In line with current trends, the local AI based on Qwen is intended to search through files more intelligently. The Chinese language model is a newcomer and is currently used – including by Western software developers – because it serves as a good coding assistant. For smart home control alone, the AI equipment seems somewhat oversized. Depending on the console configuration, there is even a slot for a graphics card to boost the AI with additional computing power. This is intended to enable voice commands to be executed locally and, for the sake of privacy, to avoid a detour through the cloud, unlike what is common with popular voice services. The product and operating concept leaves a thoroughly coherent impression. Unifying smart home devices from various manufacturers under one user interface and not becoming transparent when calling the AI corresponds to the desires of many smart home enthusiasts. The low-threshold access via the attractive app is also appealing. After all, many geeks also want to use technology simply, rather than getting lost in configuration with the help of scripts. Prohibitive prices However, it is difficult to imagine that Ugreen can lure casual users away from the tech giants and enthusiasts from Home Assistant, despite the good first impression. The targeted sales prices seem downright prohibitive. Ugreen intends to price the smallest Home Agent at $1800, and the Master Agent in its highest configuration at up to nearly $20,000. Any hard drives are charged extra. That's a lot of money for a product for which there are no track record yet regarding the manufacturer's willingness to maintain its software in the long term. The pre-order phase in the Ugreen webshop is already underway. For the planned Kickstarter campaign starting October 27th, Ugreen is enticing pre-order customers with discounts of up to 50 percent, but even then the technology will not be an impulse buy. More information about the Kickstarter campaign. To justify these prices, Ugreen would have to revolutionize the smart home user experience in a much more groundbreaking way than the manufacturer suggests at the trade fair booth. How irresistible the technology really proves to be will have to be shown by a practical test. (nij)