Best 10 smart home gadgets of 2017
Looking to make your home just a little smarter? While still in its infancy, the number of smart home products—devices that let you control your lighting, thermostat, or even your crock pot from your smartphone—is rapidly growing. From GE to Belkin to Home Depot, tons of products and whole ecosystems want to help you control your home via a single iOS or Android app. You can pick and choose your favorite gadgets to assemble an affordable intelligent abode on your own terms, or opt for an entire smart home system that does all the work for you. Here are some of our favorite smart home systems and individual gadgets.
There are several main control systems: Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Amazon Echo. Other companies have their own systems, such as Panasonic and Samsung. They are not compatible with each other, so make sure your gadget of choice works with your system. Some work with more than one. The Google-owned Nest, for instance, does not work with Apple.
The Trådfri range starts at just £15 for a bulb dimming kit, but we’d suggest picking up the Gateway hub – that's because from summer or early autumn 2017, the Tradfri team will start working Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit.
This means being able to talk to your lights and set scenes for different rooms, just like Philips Hue. The Trådfri lights might only do ‘white spectrum’ rather than full colour, but in every other way they're a match for Philips Hue, and a bit cheaper if you start adding lots of bulbs.
Plus you can always pretend you're going to Ikea to get that replacement curtain rail.
The device is great for a number of reasons, namely that it supports a huge range of standards – including Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Kidde, and Lutron Clear Connect. It also works with Amazon’s Alexa, and IFTTT. Perhaps the only downsides are that the device does not have any USB ports or backup battery power, both of which appear on some other hubs.
The beauty of the SONOS system, however, is that you can build it up over time – you start with one, as I did, and then add in more speakers. Over time, this means you can fill your home with speakers, create separate networks, say, one for your living room and one for the master bedroom.
4. Neato Robotics Botvac D85 Robot Vacuum
Google Home is now available in the UK, after being out in the US for almost 12 months. Taking the fight direct to Amazon’s Echo, Google Home is a smart speaker that is powered by Google Assistant. You can talk to it, ask it questions and it will learn about your preferences overtime.
“Ask Google Home a question,” says Google, “and it will give you the answer by tapping into the power of Google—Search, Maps, Translate and more. A combination of our natural language processing, machine learning and voice recognition expertise allow users to interact naturally with the Assistant on Google Home.”
It added: “It can also help you with translations and calculations, or deliver a news briefing from publications such as the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sun, The Telegraph, Huffington Post, Sky News, Sky Sports and others.”
If you buy the camera, you’ll also get a free basic 7-day cloud recording service, and you can access that recorded footage through the accompanying app – which is excellently designed. There are a few downsides, however, which include the fact that the device does not store footage offline, and doesn’t have an ethernet port – an annoying caveat if you have a spotty Wi-Fi connection.
The lock is also compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, Nest and IFTTT – so it should easily connect to your other smart home devices.
Using the lock, you can do things like lock and unlock the door from your phone, say to let friends and family into the house when you're not home, and have it automatically detect when you’re nearby, so it’ll unlock without you having to put down all the groceries.
A smart power switch is one of the simplest ways to get into home automation. This HomeKit-enabled device plugs into your wall socket and then you can plug your light or fan or kettle or whatever into the switch. Like the Degree, it’s easy to set up and it means you can turn the attached electrical device on and off remotely and monitors electrical consumption. Then it can calculate the cost of the switch’s usage. Works with HomeKit.
Make your Home Better, Smarter, Cleaner and more Secure
The smart home story of CES is usually about how it's getting ever easier and cheaper to build connected tech into your home. That'll be true this year, too. But there's another story that's starting to pop up: just how many of our gadgets are suddenly able to talk to each other. For 2017, CES' early connected home highlights are about appliances making some truly smart integrations with Amazon's Alexa, Nest's Protect, and, of course, iOS and Android as well.
Looking to make your home just a little smarter? While still in its infancy, the number of smart home products—devices that let you control your lighting, thermostat, or even your crock pot from your smartphone—is rapidly growing. From GE to Belkin to Home Depot, tons of products and whole ecosystems want to help you control your home via a single iOS or Android app. You can pick and choose your favorite gadgets to assemble an affordable intelligent abode on your own terms, or opt for an entire smart home system that does all the work for you. Here are some of our favorite smart home systems and individual gadgets.
1. IKEA TRADFRI
Yes, your blue basket's already filled to overflowing with bargains, but make sure you don't leave Ikea without a couple of these smart lights.
The Trådfri range starts at just £15 for a bulb dimming kit, but we’d suggest picking up the Gateway hub – that's because from summer or early autumn 2017, the Tradfri team will start working Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple HomeKit.
This means being able to talk to your lights and set scenes for different rooms, just like Philips Hue. The Trådfri lights might only do ‘white spectrum’ rather than full colour, but in every other way they're a match for Philips Hue, and a bit cheaper if you start adding lots of bulbs.
Plus you can always pretend you're going to Ikea to get that replacement curtain rail.
2. Wink Hub 2
While most smart speakers these days can act as a smart home hub, you might not want to go the smart speaker route – and if not, then a smart home hub can be a seriously helpful way to tie together all your smart home devices. That said, perhaps the best choice of smart home hub is the Wink Hub 2.
The device is great for a number of reasons, namely that it supports a huge range of standards – including Z-Wave, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Kidde, and Lutron Clear Connect. It also works with Amazon’s Alexa, and IFTTT. Perhaps the only downsides are that the device does not have any USB ports or backup battery power, both of which appear on some other hubs.
3. SONOS PLAY 1 Smart Wireless Speaker
The SONOS Play: 1 is just about the best purchase I made in 2015. I use it every day, love the way it looks and am always impressed by the sound quality it produces. The SONOS app is cross-platform as well, meaning you can run it on most phones as well as your PC.
Seen Breaking Bad? Well, if you have you’ll remember Jess Pinkman’s robot vacuum cleaner and all the terrible sights it witnessed. The robot in Breaking Bad was used for comedic effect, but the actual robotic vacuum cleaners you can buy now are actually quite impressive. They’re also really useful – especially if you hate vacuum cleaning.
The Neato Robotics Botvac D85 Robot Vacuum is perhaps one of the best options on the market right now. It’s small in size, but has a decent sized bag and it will demolish all kinds of mess from pet hair to dust and anything in between. This is the ideal gadget for some one that works long hours and likes to run a tidy ship and, while it is quite pricy, north of £300, it is still definitely cheaper than a cleaner in the long run.
5. Nest Learning Thermostat: £279
The handsome Nest comes in several anodised aluminium finishes and can be wall-mounted or placed on a portable stand (£29 extra). It talks wirelessly to your boiler and can control radiators and water heating. If the sensor realises you have left the house it switches to Away mode, to save energy, though you can also turn heating and water on or off remotely via your smartphone. The system gently encourages you to turn the heating down and emails you an energy summary each month. You can set a schedule, though for the first few days it notes when you turn the heating on and off and creates a suitable timetable automatically. Works with Google, Amazon. Installation by a Nest-approved agent is quick, simple and only adds £50 to the price. It doesn’t work with every kind of heating but the website is pretty comprehensive and guides you through crucial details.
6. Philips Hue Ambiance Starter Kit: £139.99
The Philips Hue range is tremendous. There are three bulbs in the starter kit which are controlled from a wireless bridge unit. The bulbs can be set to and of 16 million colours – just pick the shade you like best and you can set up automated timers. Or turn the lights on and off remotely. You can add other Hue lights such as candle bulbs and standalone lights. Choose from screw fit or bayonet fitting bulbs. It works with HomeKit, Google Home and Amazon and does equally well with each.
7. Google Home
Google Home is now available in the UK, after being out in the US for almost 12 months. Taking the fight direct to Amazon’s Echo, Google Home is a smart speaker that is powered by Google Assistant. You can talk to it, ask it questions and it will learn about your preferences overtime.
“Ask Google Home a question,” says Google, “and it will give you the answer by tapping into the power of Google—Search, Maps, Translate and more. A combination of our natural language processing, machine learning and voice recognition expertise allow users to interact naturally with the Assistant on Google Home.”
It added: “It can also help you with translations and calculations, or deliver a news briefing from publications such as the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sun, The Telegraph, Huffington Post, Sky News, Sky Sports and others.”
8. NetGear Arlo Q
If you buy the camera, you’ll also get a free basic 7-day cloud recording service, and you can access that recorded footage through the accompanying app – which is excellently designed. There are a few downsides, however, which include the fact that the device does not store footage offline, and doesn’t have an ethernet port – an annoying caveat if you have a spotty Wi-Fi connection.
9. August Smart Lock
We mentioned security before, but a security camera is only helpful if someone has already broken in to your house. You also might want to prevent that from happening in the first place, which is where smart locks come into play. The best smart lock is the August Smart Lock, which can attach to your existing deadbolt.
The lock is also compatible with Apple’s HomeKit, Nest and IFTTT – so it should easily connect to your other smart home devices.
Using the lock, you can do things like lock and unlock the door from your phone, say to let friends and family into the house when you're not home, and have it automatically detect when you’re nearby, so it’ll unlock without you having to put down all the groceries.
10. Elgato Eve Energy
A smart power switch is one of the simplest ways to get into home automation. This HomeKit-enabled device plugs into your wall socket and then you can plug your light or fan or kettle or whatever into the switch. Like the Degree, it’s easy to set up and it means you can turn the attached electrical device on and off remotely and monitors electrical consumption. Then it can calculate the cost of the switch’s usage. Works with HomeKit.
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