At IFA 2026, Anker is showcasing a new smart home hub it’s grandiosely dubbed the MindBase. It’s a tower-shaped device that reminds me more than a little of many Wi-Fi routers like it and, thanks to drastic expansion of the AnkaAI voice assistant that’s so far only been available on Anker’s Soundcore devices, it represents Anker’s first attempt to put itself into direct competition with the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon in the smart home space.
The MindBase is also more than a smart home controller; it has local, expandable NAS-style storage and on-device AI for processing video security footage. As the company rolls out this new device, it has another announcement to make: Anker’s sub-brands Eufy and Soundcore will be no more—soon, all will be Anker.
The MindBase Is a Matter 1.5 controller, meaning it can fully function as the head of your Matter-compatible smart home devices all on its own—so you could add to it stuff like smart bulbs, garage door openers, robot vacuums, or sensors, and then be able to control those things by talking to AnkaAI. At the same time, you can also integrate the MindBase with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Home Assistant, where, I was told by Brett White, senior public relations manager at Anker’s IFA booth, it will behave like a Hue Bridge or one of SwitchBot’s hubs, bringing over to your chosen platform any Matter-compatible devices you might already have connected to it.
Yet it’s the MindBase’s smart home assistant capability I was most interested in. The representative told me the company had initially planned the MindBase as a security-focused device, like the company’s HomeBase hubs. That includes security-focused behaviors like the MindBase suggesting that you turn off camera notifications when you get home once it recognizes that you come home around the same time every day. But at some point, Anker broadened scope of the device and AnkaAI to include full-on smart home administration, so now, you can integrate any Matter device and you’ll be able to control it via the MindBase, using either the Anker app or by talking to the MindBase itself.
Besides its smart home controller capabilities, the MindBase is like a very beefed-up version of the HomeBase security camera hubs that Anker has made for years under its Eufy sub-brand. It supports up to 16 wireless security cameras and four more via power over Ethernet if you connect an external PoE network switch to the MindBase. Anker says those who already have a HomeBase S380 can transfer their footage to the MindBase.
The on-device security AI uses an in-house LLM powered by a 26 TOPS (a measure of its AI compute power; for context, Microsoft Copilot PCs have 40 TOPS at least) chip for processing video from connected cameras. Anker says its AI agent “evaluates events in real-time to assess risk and respond through observation, lighting, verbal warnings or active deterrence.” The company plans to launch other AI agents for the MindBase, including one for managing home energy and another for things like smart cleaning devices and appliances. You’ll even be able to swap out the device’s AI processing chip, which is easily removable from the top of the device, near the hard drive slots.
Lastly, there’s the NAS aspect. White told me this is a fully-fledged NAS, meant to let you store files or even run apps on it. The MindBase comes with 64GB of internal flash storage, but also supports up to 48TB of additional storage—either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drives, or SSDs. The company says you’ll be able to search documents you store on it—photos, recordings, files, and so on—using natural language, and that no personal data will be offloaded to the cloud. There’s also no subscription required for the MindBase or its capabilities.
Anker will be selling a MindBase Security Kit that includes the newly announced Eufy TrackLight Cam S1 and Video Doorbell S4, along with entry and motion sensors, and a Smart Security Shield, which is a sensor the company says can “detect strangers from up to 15 meters away, while its DSKey digital credential allows MindBase to recognize family members from up to 30 meters away.” That’s referring to household members who have the Anker app on their phones and have been added to your Anker home, White told me.
Anker hasn’t yet said how much the MindBase will cost, nor when it will be available.
