Mui Board hands-on: a wooden smart home controller

One of the fun parts about being a tech journalist for over a decade is that you can sometimes watch a truly unique gadget go from concept to reality — and, eventually, into your living room. Such is the case with the Mui Board, a smart home controller built into a piece of wood.

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

You can call the Mui Pad an anti-intelligence 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 dotted icons appear, letting you control music and lighting, set timers, view messages, and access other information you might use a smart display for.

The idea is that technology should integrate into your home, be quiet, accessible and integrated, not annoying or distracting. Mui is a Japanese term that means 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 fascinated by Moi’s alternative approach and was excited to try it out.

I’ve had the second-generation Mui Board in my home for a few days, and while I haven’t had a chance to fully try it out, 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 feels more like a beautifully realized concept than a mass-market product. It’s hard to imagine many people spending a thousand dollars on a smart home console — but for the right person, it’s undeniably exhilarating.

A simpler smart home controller

Created by Japan-based Mui Labs, the Mui Board comes in two colors: natural maple or dark cherry. I’m testing the maple version and mounted it on the wall in my living room, right above the sofa.

From there, I can reach up and tap to see the time or weather, check what’s playing on my Sonos system, control my Hue lights, set a timer, and see the latest headlines from Edge Via the nifty RSS feed feature.

It’s a simple interface with simple icons that offer more control than you might expect at first glance. You can dim the lights, turn them on and off (without changing the color), adjust the thermostat temperature, mode and fan speed, open and close the blinds 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 competing for my attention.

Out of the box, the Mui Pad connects to Wi-Fi and can display the time and weather. You can set timers, alarms, 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 Pad is its best feature. It’s responsive, easy to use, and has some great features. A kitten walks around the board and changes direction when you click on it. There is a piano/drum mode that turns the pad into a musical instrument, and you write messages on it by hand, rather than using the keyboard. It feels like a technology you can play with.

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

Using the fairly simple Mui app, I connected the pad to my Sonos system, displayed the title of the currently playing track, volume level and playback controls, and I could skip forward or backward in my playlist.

As a Matter controller, it can set up and control supported Matter devices directly, without using Amazon, Google, Apple or similar services. It works with lights, plugs, and thermostats, with locks next to 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 the other categories are still in limited testing.

I’ve had success adding a Meross Matter Wi-Fi smart plug directly to the panel but have found it difficult to pair some Matter devices, like my Nest thermostat, using the Matter’s multi-management feature. I plan to do more testing here.

I was able to connect my Hue lighting setup and I can turn all the lights on and off or control each one individually on the panel. It was a bit slow, probably because I had a large Hue setup, and it was using the cloud API instead of a local connection. I really liked the Veil of Night feature that lets you draw a line on the panel to set a timer that gradually dims the light.

Ultimately, the Mui Pad is a big button/switch to control your smart home, with an icon feature to guide you on what to do 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 put your most frequently used controls on the first screen and scroll through additional screens for more options.

Although I love the natural, furniture-like look, when the board is off, it looks a bit like a two-by-four mounted on the wall — as if my husband abandoned the DIY project midway. A rounded edge, a more sculpted profile, or a small shelf accessory would go a long way toward softening the look. There is also the problem of what to do with the cable.

I installed the Mui in our living room, but after using it for a few days, I think the perfect place for it is in the bedroom, on a bedside table or headboard. This is the room where most people want to keep screens out of it, but still want to control lights, locks, music, etc., without reaching for a phone or using voice.

I don’t see the Mui Board being used exclusively as a smart home controller; Its software doesn’t seem to exist yet for creating scenes and automation. But as an interface to your smart home, it’s a breath of fresh air. As a fun device for controlling music, setting timers and playing the piano, it works, if very expensive.

It’s been a slow process getting the Mui Pad to where it is today, and I’m fascinated to see where this thoughtful company takes its laid-back technology concept next. Mui Labs will be at CES again this year, where the company plans to launch a new luxury-focused sleep experience and “motion-based light control” for the Mui Pad.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Toohey/The Verge