After months of leaks and anticipation, the Humax Aura EZ Freely Recorder is officially on sale – and it comes with a catch or two worth knowing about before you buy.
The £249 box is the only standalone Freely device that also lets you record TV – but recording only works from traditional aerial-based Freeview channels, not from Freely’s streaming platform.
And unlike its predecessor, there’s no Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, or any third-party app store.
We’ve been covering this one since it first appeared on retailer websites back in September. Now it’s official, so here’s everything you need to know.
What is the Humax Aura EZ?
The Aura EZ is a hybrid set-top box that combines two things: a traditional Freeview recorder and Freely’s streaming platform.
Those are two quite different approaches to television, and understanding what each does – and doesn’t – offer is key to understanding whether this device makes sense for you.
Freeview is the UK’s traditional over-the-air TV platform, delivering channels through an aerial.
You’ve almost certainly used it – it’s what you get when you plug an aerial into your TV or set-top box. It gives you BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, and dozens of other channels broadcast over the airwaves.
Freely is the newer streaming platform from Everyone TV – the same organisation behind Freeview and Freesat – designed to eventually replace both of them.
Rather than using an aerial, Freely delivers live TV and catch-up content through your broadband connection. You get broadly the same channels as Freeview (though not all), but streamed over the internet instead of broadcast over the air.
No aerial needed, and it works anywhere you have a decent broadband connection.
The Aura EZ does both. Connect an aerial, and it works as a full Freeview recorder. Connect to Wi-Fi, and you get Freely’s streaming platform. Use them separately, or together – it’s up to you.
The Freely box market: a quick catch-up
Until November 2025, accessing Freely meant buying a brand new TV from select manufacturers.
That changed when the Netgem Pleio launched as the first standalone Freely box – a small streaming puck that plugs into any TV via HDMI and delivers Freely over your broadband for £99.
Since then, the market has moved quickly. The Pleio has had a turbulent few months of stock shortages and price changes – it’s currently back at its original £99 launch price after briefly hitting £119.88 in January.
Then Manhattan launched the Aero last week at £69.99, which sold out at Currys within 24 hours.
Both the Pleio and the Aero are streaming-only devices with no recording capabilities whatsoever.
The Aura EZ is the only standalone Freely device that also lets you record – which is exactly why it costs significantly more than either of them.
What it does: recording
When connected to an aerial, the Aura EZ works as a fully-featured Freeview recorder:
- Record up to four channels simultaneously whilst watching a fifth live
- 2TB hard drive – storing up to 1,000 hours of SD recordings, or around 500 hours of HD
- Full series recording so you never miss an episode
- Pause, rewind, and restart live TV
- Seven-day TV guide for scheduling recordings
The recording side of things is where the Aura EZ is at its most straightforward. If you want a Freeview recorder that also gives you access to Freely, this is currently the only device that offers that combination.
What it does: Freely streaming
Connect the Aura EZ to Wi-Fi (no aerial required for this part), and you get access to Freely’s full streaming platform:
- 60+ live TV channels
- 75,000+ hours of on-demand content
- BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, 5, U (UKTV Play), Watch Free UK, PBS America
- Seven-day forward and backward TV guide
- 15 minutes pause and restart on live channels
- A dedicated Freely button on the remote for instant access
- No monthly subscription
Freely requires a minimum broadband speed of 10Mbps to stream live channels or watch on-demand content. That’s a fairly modest requirement – most UK broadband connections will handle it without any issues.
Regarding those 15 minutes of Live Pause on Freely – it’s worth noting that when an aerial is connected, Freely devices switch by default to the aerial-based version of the channel – which then means you WON’T be able to live-pause those channels.
Can it record Freely channels?
No. And this was the question everyone had been asking since the device first appeared back in September.
Humax is explicit about this: “Recording is only available for the broadcast channels delivered via aerial. Freely streamed channels cannot be recorded.”
This isn’t a surprise – it’s the fundamental limitation that has prevented any manufacturer from offering streaming recording on Freely.
The broadcasters don’t want it. Manhattan explicitly rejected adding Freely support to their T4-R recorder because recording wasn’t possible. BT/EE TV limited their recording features and pushed viewers toward catch-up services instead.
The entire industry has been moving in this direction for years, and Humax can’t overcome a restriction that’s been baked into the platform by the broadcasters themselves.
So in practice: if you’re watching BBC One through your aerial, you can record it. If you’re watching BBC One through Freely’s streaming interface, you can’t.
Same channel, different delivery method, very different capabilities.
The streaming apps situation
Here’s the detail that will disappoint many people who were expecting a device like the original Aura.
The Aura EZ has no third-party streaming apps beyond the Freely platform itself.
No Netflix. No Disney+. No Prime Video. No YouTube. No Google Play Store. Nothing beyond the broadcaster apps that come as part of Freely – BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, 5, and a handful of others.
This is a major step backwards from the original Humax Aura, which ran Android TV and offered a wide range of streaming apps alongside its Freeview recording capabilities.
The original Aura had its issues – Netflix famously never arrived despite early promises, and software updates were minimal – but it at least gave you Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube, and access to the Google Play Store.
The Aura EZ doesn’t run Android TV in the same open way. It’s a Freely-certified device with Freely’s apps, and that’s it. If you want Netflix, you’ll need a separate device or a smart TV that supports it.
To be fair, the Freely platform does include the major UK broadcaster services, which between them cover an enormous amount of content.
For viewers who primarily watch UK broadcast television, the app selection might be perfectly adequate. But for anyone expecting a comprehensive all-in-one streaming device, the Aura EZ isn’t that.
Full specifications
- Processor: BCM72160 chipset
- Memory: 3GB LPDDR4 RAM
- Storage: 2TB 3.5″ Seagate hard drive (8GB eMMC internal)
- Tuners: Triple DVB-T2
- HDMI: 1x HDMI 2.1
- Audio: Optical S/PDIF output, Dolby Digital Plus
- Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax), dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz
- Ethernet: Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)
- USB: 1x USB port (side)
- 4K HDR: Yes, backwards compatible with 1080p, 1080i, and 720p
- Dimensions: 280mm x 199mm x 53mm
- In the box: Remote control, user manual, quick guide, batteries, power adapter, HDMI cable, Ethernet cable
The mobile app
A companion app is coming that will let you schedule recordings remotely, manage your recording list, and play back compatible recordings on supported devices – useful if you want to set a recording whilst you’re out and about.
The app isn’t available yet – Humax says it’s “currently under testing” with no confirmed release date. We’ll update you when it arrives.
Pricing and availability
The Aura EZ is available to order now from Richer Sounds and selected Euronics stores at £249.
Humax says it will be available from “authorised Humax retailers” from February 2026 – which doesn’t tell us a great deal beyond what we already knew.
We’d expect it to eventually appear at retailers like Currys and Amazon, but nothing has been confirmed for those retailers yet.
Who is this for?
The Aura EZ makes sense for a specific audience – and it’s worth being honest about how specific that audience is.
You may want this if:
- You still value recording and aren’t ready to rely entirely on catch-up services
- You want to skip adverts on recorded content rather than sitting through them on ITVX or Channel 4
- You have good Freeview aerial reception and want to keep using it
- The major UK broadcaster apps are all you need from a streaming perspective
- You’re willing to pay £249 for the flexibility of having Freeview recording and Freely in one box
You probably don’t want this if:
- You want Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, or other streaming services on the same device
- You rarely or never record programmes and just want an affordable Freely box
- You don’t have an aerial, or your Freeview reception is unreliable
- £249 feels steep when the Aero offers Freely for £69.99 and the Pleio offers Freely plus Netflix and Disney+ for £99
Our take – for now
The Aura EZ is a strange device to assess. On one side, you have a capable Freeview recorder with solid specs, generous storage, and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.
On the other, you have Freely’s streaming platform with the UK broadcaster apps. And in the middle – a fairly significant gap where Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and the rest used to be on the original Aura.
It’s not quite the jack-of-all-trades device many people were hoping for. The original Aura tried to be everything – Freeview Play recorder, Android TV streaming device, app platform – and struggled with the ambition.
The Aura EZ has narrowed its focus considerably: Freeview recording plus Freely streaming, and nothing else.
Whether that’s a sensible simplification or a frustrating limitation depends entirely on your viewing habits. For viewers who primarily watch UK broadcast television and value the ability to record, it might be exactly what they need.
For anyone who expects a modern set-top box to also handle their Netflix and Disney+ subscriptions, it falls short.
Whether the Aura EZ has learned from the original’s troubled history – particularly on reliability and software support – is something we’ll only know once we’ve spent proper time with the device.
A full in-depth review is coming soon.
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I had to check my calendar to see if it was 1 April. It’s unbelievable that the new device doesn’t have apps. I thought this would be an updated Aura with Freely added, but it’s been stripped back to a simple Freeview recorder with Freely added.
They shouldn’t have used the Aura name as this will confuse people who were familiar with the previous device.
I have a Humax Freesat box which we have had for years and we are very satisfied with it as it covers our needs but does it have a future?? or are we going to have to change to Freely or something else.
We are pensioners and rely on Freesat recording quite a lot.
Thank you
Freesat will continue for a few years yet.
But, eventually, it will be closed. Freely is the planned replacement.
You can’t actually ‘watch’ Freeview with this device, you can only record and then watch what you have recorded. There isn’t a way to select Freeview other than to record with it. That’s how mine is working. I bought it from Richer Sounds yesterday.
The Humax website says you can pause and rewind live TV via an aerial so I wonder if it defaults to Freely for live TV when Freely is enabled (allowing Freeview to record when needed)? Annoying if that’s the case as there are some channels that are not on Freely.
There’s one Big catch that they haven’t even mentioned, is that you WILl need a Tv licence for watching Freely and recording it.
I can actually see a situation where people will buy this thinking they can record Freely because the wording is a bit confusing and get it home and be disappointed. Then end up returning it because it isn’t the upgrade they thought it would be.