On May 21, 2026, Xiaomi held a “Full Ecology for People, Cars and Homes” conference in Wuhan.
This conference not only updated the car and mobile phone product lines, but also focused on showing the latest progress in the smart home track.
As the number one player in the smart home field, Xiaomi has released a series of new products centered on ThePaper Connected 2.0 ecosystem, further strengthening the linkage capabilities of the “mobile phone-home-car” trinity.
Let’s take a quick look at the core highlights of Xiaomi smart home:
- Control center upgrade: The new generation smart hub supports local end-side AI reasoning, and can run automation even if the network is disconnected.
- Comprehensive adaptation to the Matter protocol: New devices fully support the Matter 1.3 standard, and cross-brand interconnection is no longer a problem.
- AI-based lighting system: The new generation of smart light bulbs supports automatic color temperature adjustment based on ambient light and human body status.
- Security linkage: The new smart door lock + camera combination supports face + fingerprint + AI behavior recognition triple verification.
It should be noted that getting started with a smart home does not require reinstalling the whole house.
It is recommended to “center first, scene driven”: first buy a control center + smart lights + 1-2 sensors, run through the automation process, and then gradually add them according to the budget.
In 2026, the smart home industry will usher in a real qualitative change – evolving from “remote control” to “active intelligence”, which is the inevitable result of technological iteration.
The interaction method has undergone five generations of evolution. The first generation is fixed instructions, such as “turn on the air conditioner”, replacing physical switches; the second generation is natural language understanding, such as “I am a little cold”, for intention recognition; the third generation is multi-round dialogue, such as “help me arrange my schedule for tomorrow morning”, to achieve complex task planning; the fourth generation is emotional perception, such as “I am in a bad mood today”, for emotion recognition + environmental adjustment; the fifth generation (mainstream in 2026) is non-sense interaction, proactive execution of predicted needs, and zero interaction cost.
Currently, the three major ecological patterns have been determined, namely Huawei Hongmeng Whole House Smart 3.0, Xiaomi Pascal 2.0 and Apple HomeKit + Apple
Intelligence.
The core advantage of Huawei’s Hongmeng Whole House Intelligence 3.0 is that it has the most complete whole-house solution. It adopts Pangu’s large model for end-to-side deployment and has 1,000+ certified devices. The voice assistant is Xiaoyi (large model version). The price is mid-to-high-end, with an entry budget of 10,000+. Xiaomi’s Pascal Zhilian 2.0 has the most abundant device categories and is cost-effective. It uses Xiaomi’s large model + cloud collaboration and has 3,000+
It is a certified device. The voice assistant is Xiaoai (large model version), with full price coverage. The entry budget starts from 3,000. Apple HomeKit + Apple Intelligence has the best privacy protection and the smoothest experience. It uses Apple Intelligence end-side processing. There are 800+ certified devices. The voice assistant is Siri (Apple Intelligence enhanced). The price is high-end, and the entry budget is 15,000+.
The budget reference for whole-house intelligence is as follows: entry-level budget is 3,000-8,000 yuan, covering the living room + bedroom, and the number of devices is 10-20; advanced budget is 8,000-20,000 yuan, which realizes basic intelligence of the whole house, and the number of devices is 30-50; advanced budget is 20,000-50,000 yuan, which realizes deep intelligence of the whole house, and the number of devices is 50-50
80; the flagship budget is 50,000 yuan +, which enables whole-house AI butler + customization, and the number of devices is 80 +.
The core logic of smart home selection in 2026 is not to cross ecology.
Users who already have a mobile phone ecosystem should give priority to the AI full-stack solution of the same brand to get the best experience with the lowest migration cost.
Apple mobile phone users are suitable for HomeKit + Apple Intelligence, which has the strongest privacy, but the equipment is expensive; Xiaomi/Redmi users are suitable for ThePaper 2.0, which is the king of cost performance and has the most equipment; Huawei/Honor users are suitable for Hongmeng Whole House Intelligence 3.0, which has the most complete solution; other Android users are suitable for Xiaomi ThePaper 2.0, which has good compatibility and low entry barriers.
For families who have just bought or renovated a house, it is suitable for the whole house to be smart in one step, because the later renovation costs are higher; for newbies to smart home, Xiaomi is suitable for the Pengpai Zhilian, which starts at 3,000 yuan, and has many devices that are easy to use; for technology enthusiasts, all three ecosystems are worth paying attention to. Xiaomi has the most devices and Apple has the best experience.
Those who have a budget of less than 3,000 yuan and want to build a whole house can only start testing the water with a single scene (such as smart lighting); those who are extremely sensitive to privacy and do not trust cloud services should give priority to Huawei’s client-side solution or Apple HomeKit; those who are deeply bound to a single ecosystem, do not waste money on migrating just to “want it all.”
The smart home market will exceed 800 billion in 2026, and the penetration rate of AI whole-house intelligence will reach 35%.
You can talk about the ecology you use, the scene automation you have implemented, and the most practical smart home functions in the comment area.
