Home Assistant dashboard tablet and wall mount: best picks

Your smart home deserves a better remote than a phone buried under a cushion. Put a useful dashboard on the wall and the everyday jobs become one tap: lights, room temperatures, a scene for the evening, and the answer to “did that door close?”

Choose the Lenovo Tab M11 for a straightforward Android panel, Dockem’s Koala mount for an easy-to-remove cradle, and an Anker 511 Nano Pro charger beside an existing outlet. The Fire HD 10 is the starter option for someone happy to sideload Fully Kiosk and work around Fire OS. For a new permanent panel, take the Lenovo route.

Research guide: hardware specifications come from the makers; setup comes from Home Assistant and Fully Kiosk documentation.

Choose one tablet from the parts list, then add the mount and power pieces you need. Your Home Assistant server stays on its existing host; this tablet is its screen. New to the project? Start with the Home Assistant starter kit or explore the Home Assistant hub.

Quick picks: the panel, the cradle and the power

• Best Android panel: Lenovo Tab M11. An 11-inch, 1920 × 1200 IPS screen gives your controls room to breathe. Use the Companion app for a simple panel, or Fully Kiosk when you want Home Assistant to control the screen.
• Starter Fire option: Amazon Fire HD 10. Its 10.1-inch display suits a focused dashboard. Fire OS adds installation and kiosk restrictions; choose it because you want a Fire project, rather than treating it as interchangeable with standard Android.
• Best removable mount: Dockem Koala, original adhesive version. Two independent brackets adjust to the tablet’s width, work in portrait or landscape, and let you lift the tablet out for maintenance.
• Best power without rewiring: Anker 511 Nano Pro 20 W. Plug it into an existing outlet and run a visible USB-C cable to the panel. “Without rewiring” means no new in-wall electrical work; the cable is still there.

Part	Maker specification	Why it fits this project
Lenovo Tab M11	11-inch IPS; 1920 × 1200; 7.15 mm body thickness; USB-C	Default Android dashboard with room for large controls
Amazon Fire HD 10	10.1-inch display; Fire OS	Starter panel for a sideloaded Fully Kiosk setup
Dockem Koala original	Tablet plus case up to 11 mm thick; independent adhesive brackets	Adjustable cradle that keeps the tablet removable
Anker 511 Nano Pro	One USB-C port; 20 W maximum; cable separate	External outlet power for a USB-C panel

Sources: Lenovo Tab M11 specifications, Amazon’s Fire HD device specifications, Dockem’s original Koala mount, and Anker 511 specifications. The charger’s rating is available output, not the tablet’s electricity consumption.

First, measure the tablet—with its cable attached

Hold the tablet where you want the panel before attaching anything. Can you read the room temperature without leaning in? Can the shortest regular user reach the main controls? Does a reflection turn your lovely dark dashboard into a mirror?

Then plug in the charging cable. Leave room for its connector and a relaxed bend, and place the brackets where they will not cover a button or the charging port. A chunky right-angle connector can matter more than the tablet’s thin body.

Dockem specifies a maximum 11 mm for the tablet and case together. The M11’s bare body is 7.15 mm, leaving an arithmetic thickness allowance of 3.85 mm. Measure the assembled tablet instead of buying a case from that subtraction alone. You may prefer to remove the bundled folio for a cleaner fit.

The original Koala uses included adhesive strips. Follow Dockem’s surface preparation and installation instructions, and leave the tablet easy to remove. That makes software updates, cleaning and cable replacement much less of a project. A screw-fixed mount is another sensible route when the wall surface does not suit adhesive; choose one made for your tablet’s dimensions and cable position.

Make a dashboard for the wall, not a copy of your phone

A good wall panel answers a few questions quickly. It does not need every entity you have ever paired.

1. As an administrator, open Settings → Dashboards → Add dashboard and choose New dashboard from scratch. Give it a clear name such as “Wall controls” and create it.
2. Use a Sections view. Set Max number of sections wide to suit the tablet’s orientation, add your sections and cards, then select Save.
3. Put the most-used controls first. Start with lights and scenes, room temperatures, and a small status area. Give each control a short name that makes sense away from your configuration screen.
4. Create a dedicated, non-administrator user for the panel, then sign in with that user on the tablet. Choose its default dashboard under User profile → Appearance → Dashboard.
5. Walk away from the tablet and read it again. Enlarge or remove the controls that need squinting. Keep secondary information on another view.

Home Assistant’s dashboard instructions specifically recommend a separate user when your wall tablet needs a different default dashboard. The Sections guide covers the layout editor. Keep privileged controls off a shared screen; hiding a card is a layout choice, not an access-control system.

Companion or Fully Kiosk? Choose the job you want

Companion: a simple Home Assistant screen

On the Lenovo, install the Home Assistant Companion app, connect to your server and sign in as the panel user. For a permanently visible dashboard, Settings → Companion app → Other settings → Keep screen on is the direct option.

You can also make Home Assistant the Android launcher: under Settings → Companion app → Device home screen, enable Use as Home app (launcher), then select Change home app to make the system selection. The Companion launcher guide explains how the Home button and restart behavior work.

Start here if all you want is a useful touchscreen. Get the layout right before adding screen automations.

Fully Kiosk: remote screen control and battery monitoring

Choose Fully Kiosk Browser when you want Home Assistant to turn the panel’s screen on and off, adjust brightness, or read its battery level. The Home Assistant integration requires Fully Remote Admin, which needs the paid Fully PLUS license; the trial displays a watermark.

Install Fully, set its start URL to your dashboard, and sign in with the panel user. Enable Remote Admin with a password. In Home Assistant, open Settings → Devices & services → Add Integration → Fully Kiosk Browser, then enter the tablet’s address and the Remote Admin password. Those are your own setup details; keep them out of shared dashboard screenshots.

On Fire HD 10, sideload the regular APK from Fully’s website. Fully’s current Fire OS instructions say there is no separate Fire-specific APK and warn that Fire OS changes can break kiosk behavior. Allow installation from the downloading app when prompted, install from the official downloads page, then remove that installer permission. This extra upkeep is why Lenovo gets the default recommendation.

Wake the dashboard when you walk up

Pair your presence sensor first using the mmWave guide, then test Fully’s Screen control manually in Home Assistant. Make sure the screen wakes to the actual dashboard, ready to use.

Build two small automations under Settings → Automations & scenes:

• Walk-up wake: add a State changed trigger for your presence entity becoming occupied/on. In Then do, turn on the tablet’s Fully Kiosk Screen entity. Save.
• Nobody here: add a State changed trigger for that entity becoming clear/off, with For at least set to five minutes as a starting example. Turn off the same Screen entity. Save.

Let Home Assistant own that sleep decision: disable a competing fixed screen-off timer in Fully, or it can darken the panel while someone is still there. The Fully integration supplies screen controls; Fully also has its own camera-based motion wake if you prefer that route instead of a separate sensor.

Test arrival, sitting still and leaving. Tune the sensor’s coverage so a passing curtain does not keep your dashboard awake. Pending For waits are discarded on automation reload or Home Assistant restart, and need another qualifying state change to retrigger, as the State changed documentation explains.

Keep it powered without pinning the battery at full

Use the tablet’s built-in charge-protection setting when its installed software offers one. A charger with a lower wattage label does not set a battery percentage limit.

For a panel without a suitable native limit, use a locally controlled plug from our energy-monitoring smart-plug guide and Fully’s battery sensor. Here is a simple example you can adjust:

• Trigger with Time pattern, setting Minutes to /5.
• Add a Choose action. If a Numeric state condition says the battery is below 60%, turn on the charger’s smart plug.
• Add another option: above 80%, turn it off. Between the thresholds, leave the plug unchanged. An unavailable battery reading should leave it unchanged too. Save the automation.

These are chosen example thresholds, not a measured battery-life result. Rechecking the level every five minutes catches a battery that was already high or low when you enabled the automation. Home Assistant documents the Time pattern trigger, Choose building block and Numeric state conditions.

Keep the plug easy to turn on manually, and test that charging resumes. Route the USB cable on the wall surface, keep the charger accessible, and give the tablet ventilation. If you want hidden mains power, have an electrician provide a suitable outlet; a normal USB cable is not an in-wall wiring system.

Three dashboards worth putting on the wall

1. The everyday remote

Big lighting controls, your favourite scenes and one obvious “all off” button. Start with the scenes in our local lighting guide, then add the buttons you reach for repeatedly. Put “movie mode” where your hand expects it rather than beside a page of diagnostic sensors.

Add a music control beside those scenes: our WiiM Mini vs Pro vs Pro Plus guide shows how to put an existing stereo’s playback and volume in Home Assistant.

2. The room-comfort board

Show room temperatures and humidity, plus a compact graph for the room you are trying to understand. Give each room its own short label. A large current reading helps you decide what to do now; a history graph explains whether the chilly room is always chilly or just slow to warm up. Our temperature-sensor guide provides the devices and starter automations.

3. The useful status board

Show a few meaningful states: a door left open, a leak sensor, lights still on, or the equipment you want to remember to switch off. Add an energy view when you have the relevant meters. Keep the main page readable and put detailed histories on a second view. The starter kit is a good way to give those empty dashboard tiles something useful to do.

Before the panel earns its place on the wall

Test the whole chain while the tablet is still easy to move: dashboard login, touch targets, charging, sleep, wake and a tablet restart. Restart Home Assistant too, then make sure the panel reconnects and its controls still work. Check the cable at its final angle before attaching the mount.

Buy the Lenovo M11 for the straightforward Android route, the Koala mount for easy removal, and outlet power for the simplest installation. Choose Fire when you are happy to manage its kiosk quirks. Start with a handful of excellent controls; you can always add another view after the first one becomes indispensable.

One cable to the wall

Want the charger off the wall? Our PoE-to-USB-C tablet power guide compares adapter power profiles, wired-data options and a small PoE+ switch. Choose the power path before you close up the mount.