UGREEN HomeAgent HA100 Launches: Local AI, Storage and Smart Home Control in One Hub

UGREEN has launched HomeAgent, a local-first platform that combines household storage, security-camera recording, smart-home control and AI processing.

The category matters more than the model numbers. A NAS (a network-attached storage device that connects to your router and lets every computer, phone and TV in the house reach the same files and backups) and an NVR (a network video recorder, the box that stores footage from security cameras) have traditionally been separate from the smart-home hub.

HomeAgent attempts to put those roles under one software layer and one voice assistant. It is UGREEN's first move into AIoT and follows its expansion from chargers, hubs and cables into the NASync storage market in 2024.

The launch range begins with the HomeAgent HA100 and HA100 Pro, with the much more powerful MasterAgent MA100 above them. The proposition is interesting, but specifications and launch demonstrations cannot establish whether the combined system is reliable, private or useful in a mixed-brand home.

What HomeAgent actually is

HomeAgent is infrastructure for storing data, analysing camera footage and controlling connected devices locally. Think of it as combining the household filing cabinet, security desk and smart-home controller, then giving them one conversational interface.

The ecosystem includes the HA100, HA100 Pro, MasterAgent MA100, three SynCare cameras, a Smart Speaker for Uliya and UGREEN Gallery smart frames. It extends UGREEN's existing NAS range into security and home automation rather than merely adding AI-labelled features to a storage appliance.

That distinction will depend heavily on software. Our assessment of where NASync hardware and software currently stand is relevant precedent: capable hardware does not automatically make a mature platform, particularly when storage, surveillance and automation must all behave predictably together.

The local-first claim, and where it stops

HomeAgent can keep files, photos, surveillance footage and device activity on local storage. UGREEN says core storage, security, file-management and smart-home functions can operate over the local network, with no monthly storage fee.

That does not mean the system works fully offline. UGREEN's documentation says account registration and authentication, remote access, mobile notifications, software updates and optional cloud services may require an internet connection or cloud infrastructure.

The notification behaviour makes this distinction concrete. With internet access, event alerts can appear on a phone's home screen. On a local network only, alerts instead appear in the Information panel inside the Monitoring Center.

Uliya, and the Qwen3 question

Uliya is the voice assistant connecting HomeAgent's storage, surveillance and automation functions. It is deeply integrated with Qwen3 (an open-weight large language model developed by Alibaba), while cloud models such as ChatGPT are also supported.

An LLM (large language model, software that interprets and generates language much like a text-based assistant) gives Uliya a broader job than accepting rigid commands. UGREEN documents requests about lighting as well as event questions such as whether a stranger appeared at a door at a particular time or where a pet is now.

Users can switch between local and cloud modes. UGREEN positions local processing for private files and cloud models for more complex reasoning or generation, although the final supported-model list will not be confirmed until launch. That choice needs to be visible per task, with clear disclosure of what data leaves the network.

Areas used in surveillance questions must be custom-named in the UGREEN NAS app's Surveillance Center. The HomeAgent interface supports ten UI languages, including English, and sits alongside UGOS Pro (UGREEN's operating system), whose existing capabilities are covered in our UGOS Pro software guide.

The key test is not whether a local model responds. It is whether it produces consistently useful results within the HA100's compute and memory limits, a practical issue explored in our local AI home-server guide.

Cameras and what the AI actually recognises

UGREEN's SynCare cameras turn HomeAgent into a local recorder and analysis system. Recordings from the ID500 Pro and OD600 Pro are stored on HomeAgent rather than through a cloud-recording subscription, making storage planning central to the security setup.

Supported alerts include a new face, a crying baby, a detected package and a pet leaving a customised area. The documented recognition list covers new faces, vehicles, pets, baby crying and, more narrowly, "kraft paper packages". Buyers should not read that last category as universal parcel recognition.

AI Event Summary can describe recorded events, while AI Keyword Search is intended to find footage without manually scrubbing a timeline. These could improve a conventional NAS surveillance and NVR setup, but accuracy under varied lighting, accents, camera angles and busy scenes remains untested.

PoE means Power over Ethernet, where one cable carries both data and power. The OD600 Pro combines an 8MP bullet sensor with dual 5MP PTZ sensors, while the indoor ID500 Pro includes a physical privacy shutter.

Matter and the mixed-brand home

UGREEN's launch press release says HomeAgent supports Matter (a smart-home standard designed to let devices from different brands work together), and that compatible products can join unified local controls, custom scenes and multi-device voice requests. That press release is the only source naming the standard. UGREEN's public pre-order page and its product introduction document both describe support for third-party devices over open protocols without naming any.

Matter on a specification sheet is not proof of useful interoperability across a real mixed-brand home. UGREEN has not published a compatibility list, so existing users should not assume it can replace a mature Home Assistant installation on a NAS until specific devices and automations have been tested.

AI Highlights

AI Highlights is presented as a curation layer for surfacing moments from stored photos and footage. The useful analogy is a contact sheet assembled automatically from a large archive, although the criteria for selecting a "highlight" will determine whether it saves time or creates another feed to manage.

There is also a sequencing question. UGREEN describes highlight videos as playing on its Gallery LCD Smart Frame, and that is the last product in the range to ship, scheduled for late July 2027. The E-Paper Smart Frame arriving in April is a different device with a different panel technology.

Photo indexing and object recognition already exist on NAS platforms, so novelty alone is not enough. Our examination of whether AI NAS is useful or merely marketing sets the appropriate standard: results must improve a defined storage or retrieval task.

Three tiers: HA100, HA100 Pro, MasterAgent MA100

The HA100 is the household model, with 26 TOPS, 16GB of DDR5 working memory and an M.2 NVMe SSD slot dedicated to AI models. TOPS means trillions of operations per second, a rough measure of AI processing capacity rather than a guarantee that an application will run quickly.

Its "2+1" storage arrangement separates personal files from security footage. UGREEN has not yet provided enough detail to judge usable capacity, redundancy choices or how easily owners can expand and replace drives.

The HA100 Pro raises local AI performance to 205 TOPS, with faster networking, more memory and higher-speed SSD expansion. It is aimed at heavier workloads, but UGREEN has not supplied the detailed configurations needed for a value comparison.

The MasterAgent MA100 is the tier homelab and local-AI readers will watch. Its NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000 provides up to 2,070 TFLOPS using Sparse FP4 measurement, and UGREEN says developers can create packages or skills through its developer platform. At its price, it is specialist infrastructure rather than a routine smart-home purchase.

Pricing, deposits and the crowdfunding structure

HomeAgent is initially being offered through crowdfunding, not normal retail. The pre-order page lists every figure in US dollars.

At a USD/AUD rate of 1.39 on 4 September 2026, the HA100 converts to about A$1,250 at Super Early Bird pricing and A$2,500 at MSRP. Equivalent figures are about A$4,170 and A$8,340 for the HA100 Pro, and about A$13,900 and A$27,800 for the MA100.

The add-on offer prices convert to about A$124 for the ID500 Pro, A$221 for the OD600 Pro, A$277 for the OD800 Pro, A$416 for the E-Paper Smart Frame and A$96 for the speaker. These are indicative conversions at one day's exchange rate, exclude any Australian GST treatment, and are not UGREEN's Australian retail prices.

UGREEN is now taking reservation deposits, with the Kickstarter campaign scheduled to begin on 27 October 2026. A US$50 deposit provides a Secret Reward Link giving access to Super Early Bird pricing for the HA100 and HA100 Pro. A US$200 deposit provides a separate Secret Reward Link for Super Early Bird pricing on the MA100, which UGREEN says is a special-edition model available only to customers who make the US$200 deposit. The US$50 deposit cannot be substituted for it.

Deposits placed through UGREEN's official website remain fully refundable after the crowdfunding campaign, regardless of whether the customer completes the redemption process. The deposit and Kickstarter email addresses must match, one pledge is allowed per account, and discounted pricing applies only to the three hubs. Cameras, frames and the speaker are separate Kickstarter add-ons.

UGREEN estimates late January 2027 shipping for the HA100, OD600 Pro and ID500 Pro. The HA100 Pro, OD800 Pro, E-Paper Smart Frame and speaker are scheduled from late April, while the MA100 and distinct Gallery LCD Smart Frame are scheduled from late July.

The earliest units are therefore more than four months away, and the wider ecosystem is close to a year out. Anyone who needs working storage before then is choosing from UGREEN's current NAS range rather than this campaign.

Australian Buyers: What You Need to Know

Australia is an explicitly supported shipping region, subject to carrier confirmation in the post-campaign survey. UGREEN excludes Christmas Island, Norfolk Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The HomeAgent crowdfunding channel prices in USD and is separate from UGREEN's Australian NAS store. UGREEN says it will cover standard shipping plus duties and customs fees for Kickstarter backers, but its wording does not address GST. Confirm the total charged before pledging.

UGREEN provides a two-year limited warranty and says longer periods may apply where local law requires them. The ACCC explains that overseas businesses selling directly to consumers in Australia must comply with Australian Consumer Law, although obtaining a remedy from an overseas business can be harder in practice. Consumer guarantees are additional to a written warranty.

A local-first recorder is relevant where sending continuous footage to the cloud would consume limited upload capacity. Current nbn wholesale speed plans commonly allocate less capacity to uploads than downloads, although actual retail speeds and available tiers vary by connection and provider.

Some Australian providers also use carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT, an ISP method that lets many customers share one public IPv4 address). It is like several homes sharing one street address, and it can complicate direct inbound access to servers, cameras and automation systems, as Aussie Broadband documents. This does not prove HomeAgent remote access will have a problem because UGREEN has not documented its connection method, but it belongs in testing.

What we will be testing

Our review will examine HomeAgent as infrastructure, not as an isolated gadget. UGREEN is supplying an HA100 unit, and we will publish an unboxing and a full video review alongside our written coverage. The central questions are:

• How much functionality survives when the internet connection is removed?
• Is local AI more useful than conventional motion and object detection?
• How accurate are video keyword search, event summaries and AI Highlights?
• Does Matter work reliably across real devices from different brands?
• What storage configurations, protection choices and expansion paths are available?
• Can advanced users meaningfully extend the hardware and software?
• Exactly what data still leaves the local network?
• Does HomeAgent make sense for someone who already operates a NAS, NVR or Home Assistant system?

Related reading: our NAS buyer's guide, our NAS vs cloud storage comparison, and our NAS explainer.

Use our free AI Hardware Requirements Calculator to size the hardware you need to run AI locally.

For the full breakdown of what the HomeAgent range is and where Australian buyers actually stand, see our UGREEN HomeAgent ecosystem guide, part of NTKIT's smart home coverage.

Is UGREEN HomeAgent a NAS?

Partly. It provides shared local storage and file-management functions, but it also acts as a camera recorder, smart-home hub and local AI computer. Its value depends on whether those roles work better together than separate systems.

Does HomeAgent work without internet access?

Supported storage, security, file-management and smart-home functions can operate over the local network. Registration, authentication, remote access, phone notifications, software updates and optional cloud services may still require internet or cloud access.

Does HomeAgent require a storage subscription?

UGREEN says locally stored files and surveillance recordings do not carry a monthly storage fee. Optional cloud-enabled services may have different requirements, which need confirmation when the final service list is published.

Does it work with non-UGREEN smart-home devices?

HomeAgent supports Matter and UGREEN says compatible third-party products can be controlled. No compatibility list has been published, so support for a particular device should not be assumed.

When will HomeAgent arrive?

Estimated fulfilment begins in late January 2027 for the HA100 and selected cameras, followed by other products in late April and late July. These are crowdfunding estimates and may change.

Has Need to Know IT reviewed HomeAgent?

Not yet. This article analyses launch information and documented specifications, and no hands-on testing had been done when it was published. UGREEN is supplying an HA100 review unit, and a full written review plus an unboxing and video review will follow once we have tested it properly.