LG will be unveiling its new “empathetic” AI home hub – the LG ThinQ ON AI – at IFA Berlin, from 6-10 September 2024.
The LG ThinQ ON AI promises to bring together just about every smart device in your home, with connectivity options including Wi-Fi and Thread, which means there’s no need for a separate border router to integrate new Matter-over-Thread devices. Essentially, it’s a master controller for all your smart home gear.
LG
The AI involvement shouldn’t have anyone falling over in surprise. Every piece of tech worth its salt this year has been AI-led and the ThinQ ON hub is no different, with its voice assistant powered by what LG is weirdly calling “Affectionate Intelligence”.
And just like every other piece of AI tech currently being launched, it’s not perfectly clear what this AI will be able to do for you – and how it’ll differ from earlier generation home assistants.
What we do know is that it’ll have natural language processing, so you’ll be able to talk to it conversationally, and it should understand normal speech and context.
It’ll also learn individual user preferences for settings and devices and will let you control your smart home devices with voice commands.
Until this point, if you had a number of LG smart appliances in your home, you’d have used the ThinQ app to control them. The problem is that, if you’re into smart home automation, you’ll also likely use a bunch of other apps to control other smart home products such as smart lights, door and window sensors.
It’s far from the connected home vision in which your lights switch on when you wake up, your coffee starts brewing, and you can check the contents of your fridge from your phone in bed.
But, earlier this year, LG bought smart home platform Athom. The brand’s flagship smart hub, the Homey Pro , can connect to over 50,000 smart home devices, via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, 433MHz and more. If the ThinQ ON hub has the same capabilities, it really does have the potential to unify your smart home.
Athom
The catch is likely to be cost. LG has not yet announced a price for the ThinQ ON AI hub, but the Athom Homey Pro is priced at £399/$399 and you also need a subscription to unlock its full potential.
We’ll have further thoughts after we’ve seen the LG ThinQ ON at IFA. In the meantime, you can read a review of the Athom Homey Bridge , Athom’s less pricey smart home bridge, on our sister publication, TechHive.
Author: Emma Rowley, Deputy Editor, Tech Advisor
Tech Advisor’s Deputy Editor, Emma has been a journalist and copywriter for over 20 years and has been testing and writing about home tech and appliances for seven years. She tries out every appliance she writes about at home, and aims to recommend time- and energy-saving products that will last.
Recent stories by Emma Rowley:
- The essential Oral-B iO guide: Every iO electric toothbrush’s features and price
- Oral-B iO10 Limited Edition electric toothbrush review: The last word in luxury – and price
- Roku rival Aero gets you Freely without a smart TV
