The Best Smart Home Devices

The best smart home devices can make your life just a little bit easier and offer some peace of mind. Use your voice to turn on lights, set timers, and adjust the temperature. Use apps to combine frequent, complex tasks into one simple command. Set lights to come on at dusk and turn off at dawn. These connected smart home gadgets can also make your home more energy efficient, which helps the environment and your budget. Control them with compatible smartphone apps on your iPhone or Android device, or with voice control via a number of smart speakers.

The main smart home systems are Amazon Alexa, Apple’s HomeKit, and Google Nest, (previously called Google Home). Many of the best smart home devices work with several of these platforms. Using them is as simple as saying “Hey Google, turn off the living room lights,” or “Alexa, lock the front door.” Without further audieu, here’s our list of some of the best smart home devices.

The Google Nest Mini is a small, inexpensive smart speaker that can play music, listen for your voice commands, and act as the central point for a Google Nest system. Barely bigger than a hockey puck, it packs a 40mm driver and three mics to pick up your voice from anywhere in the room. The stylish fabric top is made from recycled plastic bottles.

The Apple HomePod Mini provides you with access to the Siri voice assistant and supplies 360-degree audio thanks to a waveguide speaker design. Use voice commands to check the weather, play music, and more. It connects to devices with Apple HomeKit compatibility for even more automation functionality.

The portable Sonos Roam is waterproof up to three feet and lets you stream music via Bluetooth from your phone or tablet, or via your Wi-Fi network. A separate tweeter and woofer, powered by their own Class-H amplifiers, help ensure powerful sound. The Roam can communicate with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple products (via AirPlay 2). Of course, it can also play music through Sonos’s own app.

The Lorex 2K QHD is a 2-way smart doorbell camera that lets you talk to and see whoever’s at your door. The camera has a wide, 164-degree field of view, and features a resolution of 2560 x 1920 px, which is more than twice the number of pixels of full HD. This smart security camera delivers connectivity with the Amazon Alexa ecosystem.

The TP-Link HS105 Kasa smart plug lets you turn most devices into smart devices with no additional wiring. Just plug it into a standard wall outlet, and now you can control it via the Kasa app, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant. This is an easy way to turn any lamp into part of your smart home’s smart lighting, or create a voice-activated light switch.

The Eve Energy Strip is a three-outlet smart power strip that connects to Apple’s HomeKit. You can control each outlet individually, letting you schedule them to turn on in a certain order and turn off at specific times. A child lock helps prevent accidental power-downs of important gear when curious toddlers are in full-on play mode.

The Google Nest smart thermostat is one of the products that kicked off the smart home revolution. It learns your temperature preferences, knows when you’re home or away, and keeps up with your other preferences, all to help you save money on heating and cooling costs. The easy-to-read, full-color display gives you temperature and system information, too. Compatible with nearly all 24v HVAC systems, installation is as easy as removing your old thermostat and connecting the Nest to the same wires (and then to your Wi-Fi).

The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock is a deadbolt that lets you lock and unlock your door with an app. It can also work with the rest of your smart home or smart home security system. It connects to all three virtual assistants, too (Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant). It can even sense your phone or smartwatch and unlock the door as you approach.