Best smart home products of the year

Anyone looking for the best bang for their smart-speaker buck should snap up the revamped Echo Dot with Clock. The fifth-generation version of Amazon’s clock-packing Echo Dot boasts a larger driver for improved audio performance, a roomier display that can now show you the name and artist of a music track, and a more powerful CPU. We’re particularly keen on two new features: an ambient temperature sensor that can trigger Alexa routines, and–best of all–the ability to act as a Wi-Fi extender for Amazon’s Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers.

Sporting exactly the same hardware as the standard Echo Dot, the fifth-gen Echo Dot Kids includes the same features and functionality as its grown-up sibling, including the new temperature sensor and Eero mesh extender capabilities. But for an extra $10, the Echo Dot Kids offers kid-friendly designs on their fabric coverings, a greatly extended warranty, and–best of all–a year’s access to the Amazon Kids+ subscription service, which is a $48 value. And if you decide not to renew Kids+, the Echo Dot Kids will still function like a regular Echo Dot, complete with parental controls.

With the third-generation Echo Show, Amazon changed the game by adding an eye-popping feature: a display that swivels to follow you around the room. That means the Echo Show 10 can track your movements for video calls, or keep its display in view for times when you’re watching TV or following a recipe. The Echo Show 10 delivers impressively good audio performance, too. Wondering why the newer Echo Show 15 isn’t in this spot? We dig that smart display’s large screen and its widgets, and we’re looking forward to Amazon enabling a Fire TV experience on it, but you’ll need to buy an accessory if you don’t plan to mount it to the wall, and it doesn’t have a Zigbee radio that lets it perform as a smart home hub.

With the demise of the Google Home Max, the Nest Audio is now Google’s flagship smart speaker. But while the superb Max was something of a behemoth, the smaller Nest Audio is more homey, and at $100 it’s far more affordable. Equipped with a solid aluminum chassis, a tweeter, and a mid-woofer, the Nest Audio delivers surprisingly rich, deep sonics, while its on-device AI chip helps to speed Google Assistant’s responses. Speaking of the Assistant, the Nest Audio can control your smart devices as well as any Google smart speaker can, and if you pony up for the $6/month Nest Aware service, it will even listen for suspicious sounds like smoke alarms or breaking glass.

The perfect kitchen companion, the Google Nest Hub Max checks many of our favorite boxes. It has a roomy 10-inch display that doubles as an AI-powered photo frame, surprisingly good audio quality, a built-in Nest camera that can keep an eye on your home, Chromecast, and–of course–onboard Google Assistant. Under the hood, a Thread radio will let the Nest Hub Max act as a Thread border router, capable of connecting Matter-enabled devices to each other and to the internet. Finally, you can turn the Nest Hub Max into a full-on TV if you spring for a $65-per-month YouTube TV subscription. 

The HomePod mini is Apple’s only smart speaker, since Cupertino pulled the plug on the original HomePod last year, and it’s a class act. If you’re an iPhone user and you’re looking for a smart home hub with the best privacy features, the HomePod mini is the product you should buy. Apple’s HomeKit ecosystem is both newer and smaller than the competing solutions from Amazon and Google, but the products that earn HomeKit certification are of very high quality. You can use Siri to control any HomeKit-compatible device, tee up Apple Music tunes, send messages to other Apple users in your household, and answer everyday queries (“Hey Siri, what’s the weather today?”).

SmartThings is our long-time favorite DIY smart home platform, and Samsung’s decision to stop building its own smart home hardware hasn’t changed our minds. The Aeotec Smart Home Hub now fills the hub role, and it works with the same extremely wide universe of SmartThings compatible devices, including Lutron, Philips Hue, Z-Wave, and Lutron smart lighting; Sonos and Bose loudspeakers; Kwikset and Yale smart locks; Ring home security devices; and—of course—smart speakers powered by Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. If you’re going the DIY route to build your smart home, the Aeotec Smart Home Hub should be at its foundation.

A long-time leader in the smart lighting space, Signify’s Philips Hue brand continues to innovate with its new gradient lamps and light strips as well as its Hue Play HDMI Sync Box for TVs, but the humble Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 bulb remains our favorite single smart lighting product. The perfect gateway into the Hue ecosystem, the White and Color Ambiance A19 can be controlled via Bluetooth using a simple mobile app, and it delivers millions of colors as well as a wide range of white color temperatures. Once you’re ready, you can add a Zigbee-based Hue Bridge ($50 street price) for more advanced features, such as out-of-home control, automations, geofencing support, and the ability to control up to 50 lights (the Bluetooth app limits you to controlling 10).

The iRobot Roomba j7+ ranks as perhaps the smartest robot vacuum we’ve ever tested. Besides its ability to spot and avoid power cords, toys, socks, and other common household objects, the j7+ can steer clear of pet poop. In fact, iRobot is so confident in its PrecisionVision Navigation technology that if your robot does run over some poop, the company will (within the first year, at least) replace the vac for free. The Roomba j7+ can also map your home’s floorplan, answer to Alexa and Google Assistant, and empty its own bin (the j7+ model comes bundled with a self-emptying dock).

Ecobee upped the ante with its Smart Thermostat Premium, delivering a handsome, zinc-and-glass device with a 50 percent larger touchscreen than its predecessor. A new air quality sensor allows the thermostat to render one-word verdicts (e.g., “clean,” “moderate,” “poor”) about your indoor air quality, while onboard radar can detect whether a room is occupied or vacant. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium works with Alexa, Google Home, and Apple’s HomeKit platform, and it can even be configured as an Alexa- or Siri-powered smart speaker (the latter requires a nearby HomePod or HomePod mini). Finally, the Premium is a cinch to install.

If you want a powerful in-wall smart dimmer that doesn’t look like a smart dimmer, the Lutron Diva is your best bet. At first glance, the Diva is simply another paddle-style switch, with a subtle physical slider on the right being the only tip-off that there’s anything smart going on. Under the hood, the Diva can tap into the extensive Lutron Caséta ecosystem, which ranges from lights and window shades to ceiling fans and smart plugs. Compatible with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, IFTTT, Ring, and SmartThings, the Diva is relatively easy to install (provided you know your way around in-wall wiring) and doesn’t require a neutral wire.

If your backyard is plagued by mosquitos, check out a smart system that will keep the pests at bay. The Thermacell LIV comes with a central hub and a series of repellers (up to five per hub) that vaporize a liquid chemical (metofluthrin) that mosquitos hate, yet is safe for pets, children and food-prep. An app lets you turn the repellers on and off, and you can put the system on a timer or a daily schedule. App notifications will let you know when the repellent level is low or when a scheduled operation begins.

Backed by every company with an important smart home ecosystem–Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung–the Connectivity Standards Alliance has finally ratified the Matter standard for smart home and Internet of Things interoperability. The dream is that one day, it won’t make a difference if you rely on Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, or some digital assistant of the future to control your smart home. All the siloes that plague us today will soon disappear, and everything will work with everything else. We’re not there yet, but the potential is genuine.

Read our news story from the Matter launch event in Amsterdam.