No Home Automation system is perfect… but some are better than others. In this review, we focus on touch-screens and ignore other important criteria (see next week’s review for more on that), such as integration compatibility, pricing, ease of installation, and after-sales service. For consistency, we focus on the most popular size: the 7" range.
Here are our top 5 pics (with 2x honourable mentions):
1 | Vantage EQ73
This award-winning screen by Legrand Vantage™ boasts the best perceived quality in its class with its slick design and expensive-looking materials. It features a titanium TrimLine II frame and black glass-to edge surface aesthetic. It is also in its version 2.0 updated format, with higher resolution, as well as an upgraded processor. It offers a simple, smart tablet type navigation experience with complete consistency across others Vantage touch-panels. Ambient light sensors for auto day/night backlighting automatically adjusts brightness, and a front motion sensor can initiate tasks automatically. Its difficult to fault this device, were it not for the fact that it does not support intercom control yet. But all EQ73s ship with 3x speakers and a microphone, and Legrand Integrated Systems have reportedly claimed to add this feature with future firmware updates.
2 | Crestron TSW-760
Crestron’s TSW-760 7” Touch Screen is a space-saving wall- or tabletop touchscreen equipped with five backlit, soft-touch capacitive buttons that can be programmed for any task or function. It also features onboard voice recognition, Rava SIP intercom, H.264 streaming video, and web browsing. As home automation systems go, Creston is considered the standard, and their new TSW range of touchscreens prove it.
3 | RTI KX7
This touchscreen by RTI (Remote Technologies Inc.) not only offers a good-looking user interface, but packs some pretty powerful processing power as well. This is ideal for small stand-alone rooms such as conference or boardrooms, or home theatres and negates the necessity of an extra automation processor or hub. Another nifty feature is 3x video inputs for Composite, S-Video or Component video that allow viewing analogue video at 480i/576i/480p/576p resolution. An RS232 port provides one-way control without a separate control processor.
4 | Legrand MyHOME Screen 10
We know we said 7" screens, but this touchpanel by Legrand is just too good to ignore, and is offered in the same price bracket as the other brand’s 7" screens. Legrand is shaking up the home automation world with the latest iteration of their MyHOME automation system by offering a product that is very competitively priced
5 | ELAN gTP7-W
The gTP7 is a 7” touchscreen interface for your ELAN controllers. WiFi-enabled and with a high-resolution touch screen, it includes a camera and microphone. Powered over Ethernet (PoE) for easy installation.
Honourable mention:
Control4 T3–7
Compares well with rest, but pricing and lack of any customised configuration count against it.