Hands-on with the Mui Board: a wooden smart home controller

One of the fun things about being a tech journalist for more than a decade is that sometimes you get to see a truly unique gadget go from concept to reality — and, eventually, into your living room. This is the case of the Mui Board, a smart home controller integrated into a piece of wood.

The Mui was first shown off at CES in 2019, and I’ve seen it at several shows over the years, in various iterations, always with the promise that it would ship soon. Well, this year it is (in limited quantities!), and I finally got to try one out in my living room.

You could call the Mui Board an anti-smart display. A Raspberry Pi-based smart home controller with Matter support, it’s just a piece of wood on your wall when not in use. But when you touch its capacitive surface, glowing dot-matrix icons appear, allowing you to control your music and lighting, set timers, view messages, and access other information you might use a smart display for.

The idea is that technology should fit into your home – be calm, accessible and integrated, without shocking or distracting. Mui is a Japanese term for being in harmony with nature, and the device is certified by the Calm Tech Institute. As someone surrounded by screens and smart displays in my home, I’ve long been intrigued by Mui’s alternative approach and was excited to try it.

I’ve had the second-generation Mui Board at home for a few days now, and while I haven’t had a chance to fully put it through its paces, I’ve been impressed by its responsiveness, thoughtful design, and ambitious scope.

The second-generation model debuted in 2023 but only became available for purchase earlier this year on Mui and Indiegogo. At $999 (on sale for $799), the Mui Board still seems closer to a beautifully realized concept than a mainstream product. It’s hard to imagine many people spending a thousand dollars on a smart home controller – but for the right person, it’s undeniably delightful.

A Simpler Smart Home Controller

Created by Japan-based Mui Labs, the Mui Board is available in two colors: natural maple or black cherry. I’m testing the maple version and I attached it to the wall in my living room, just above my sofa.

From there, I can tap it to see the time or weather, check what’s happening on my Sonos system, control my Hue lights, set a timer, and see the latest music tracks. The edge via an interesting RSS feed functionality.

It’s a simple interface with minimalistic icons that offer more control than you might expect at first glance. You can dim and turn on lights (no color changing), adjust a thermostat’s temperature, mode and fan speed, open and close curtains and locks, and turn smart plugs on and off. What’s different from other smart home controllers with touch interfaces is that there are no ads, no chatty voice assistant, and no bright, distracting screen vying for my attention.

Out of the box, the Mui Board connects to Wi-Fi and can display the time and weather. You can set timers, alarms and reminders, and send messages to other Mui boards or the Mui app. It has two small built-in speakers and a microphone for recording messages, and is powered by an included AC adapter.

Touching and drawing on the Mui Board is its best feature. It’s responsive and easy to use, and has some great features. A little cat walks around the board and changes direction when you press it. There’s a piano/drum mode that turns the board into a music machine, and you write messages on it by hand, not with a keyboard. This looks like a technology you can play with.

For smart home control, the Mui Board supports Matter and integrates with Sonos, Philips Hue, LIFX, SwitchBot, Ecobee, and Google Calendar APIs, among others, as well as several Japanese services, including Radiko and the Echonet smart home protocol.

Using the fairly simple Mui app, I connected the card to my Sonos system and it displayed the title of the currently playing track, volume and playback controls, and I was able to move forward or backward through my playlist.

As a Matter controller, it can configure and control supported Matter devices directly, without using Amazon, Google, Apple or similar services. It works with lighting, sockets and thermostats, with the following locks on the roadmap.

It currently supports Matter over Wi-Fi, with support for Thread planned. There’s no Thread radio on board, so you’ll need a third-party border router. Lighting is working better so far, while other categories are still in limited testing.

I was able to add a Meross Matter Wi-Fi smart plug directly to the board, but I had trouble pairing some Matter devices, such as my Nest thermostat, using Matter’s multi-admin feature. I plan to do more testing here.

I was able to connect my Hue lighting setup and turn all the lights on and off or control them individually on the board. However, it was quite slow, probably because I had a large Hue setup and it was using the cloud API rather than a local connection. I really liked the Veil of Night feature which lets you draw a line on the board to set a timer that gradually dims the lighting.

Ultimately, the Mui Board is a big button/switch for controlling your smart home, with the benefit of icons to guide you to what you’re doing without a bright screen. As with any icon-based control, it takes a bit of learning to remember which icon does what, but you can customize the layout to place your most-used controls on the first screen and scroll through additional screens for more options.

Although I like the natural feel of a piece of furniture, when the board is removed it slightly resembles a two-by-four attached to the wall – like my husband abandoned a DIY project halfway through. A rounded edge, a more sculptural profile, or a small shelf accessory would go a long way to softening the look. There is also the question of what to do with the cable.

I set up the Mui in our living room, but after using it for a few days, I think the ideal place for it is in a bedroom, above a bedside table or headboard. This is the room where most people would like to keep screens away, while still wanting to control lights, locks, music, etc., without using a phone or using voice.

I don’t see using Mui Board exclusively as a smart home controller; its software doesn’t seem quite there yet for creating scenes and automations. But as an interface to your smart home, it’s a breath of fresh air. And as a fun device for controlling music, setting timers, and playing the piano, it’s a hit, even if it’s very, very expensive.

It’s taken a while to get the Mui Board to where it is today, and I’m intrigued to see where this thoughtful company will take its calm technological concept next. Mui Labs will be at CES again this year, where the company plans to launch a new wellness-focused sleep experience and “motion-based lighting control” for the Mui Board.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge