GoKawiilFor those who want to run even more demanding AI models, Ugreen is launching an even more premium flagship home hub called the MasterAgent MA100. Running on the Nvidia Jetson Thor platform — a Blackwell system-on-module (SoM) with 128GB of unified memory — the top-end box will set you back a stomach-turning $20,000 at retail, though early bird pricing is 50 percent off that MSRP. With up to 2,070 TOPS of AI performance, it's a bit like having a scaled-down AI server in your living room, but you'll empty your wallet instead of your local aquifer for the privilege.
The costliness of even the base model HomeAgent, let alone the MasterAgent, indicate that privacy will come at a steep cost in the AI era. In a panel at the launch event, Ugreen NAS community manager Thomas Brown suggested that the savings accrued by running local AI models as opposed to paying token costs for cloud inference would make these hubs attractive. Marketing materials also point to savings on cloud storage costs. That may be so, but the upfront cost is still prohibitive.
The three hubs work out of the box with ONVIF and Matter-compatible devices. According to product planning manager Markus Xie, Zigbee and Thread are also on deck. That means you'll be able to run devices from competitors like Anker (or its subsidiary, Eufy), which also announced an AI powered smart home hub today. Unfortunately, there's no official Home Assistant support. That's a bitter pill to swallow, given that Anker's hub supports Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit and more.
As with Ugreen's NAS bays, you'll need to bring your own SATA hard drives to install in the included bays for NAS-style storage. There are also M.2 and and SD card slots. Other connectivity includes HDMI, Ethernet and multiple networking ports.
There was only a single working model of the HomeAgent at the launch event, with a couple of party tricks on deck. Attendees were able to control smart curtains and lights, and those devices responded as expected. The more complex features Ugreen promises, like voice-based rule creation, weren't demoed.