Best smart home devices 2024

Best smart light

Philips Hue has been a leader in the smart light space for years and offers excellent products and features to go with them. The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance smart bulb is my favorite because it provides a full range of white and colors, can be controlled via Bluetooth, and connects with the Hue Bridge. This kit comes with a bridge, so it's a bit expensive, but you can keep adding Hue lights to it.

Best standalone smart bulb

GE Cync bulbs are an excellent smart light and definitely worth a look, thanks to the simple setup process, the litany of features offered, and the fact that you won't need a hub to manage the lights. You'll get tunable whites, 16 million colors, and voice controls with your favorite voice assistant, all without a hub. But they do lack a few features found on Philips Hue.

Best floor lamp

Smart lights come in a wide variety of styles, and the Lyra Corner Floor Lamp from Govee is a well-designed light that adds unique illumination to any room. The lamp shines into a corner of a room, painting it with not only any color you can imagine but with the companion app, you'll be able to set active scenes that move and change to make a mesmerizing environment in your home.

Best wall-mounted smart light

Nanoleaf is well-known for its unique lighting products, and the Shapes collection is one of the best Nanoleaf lights you can get. I say collection because you can mix and match hexagons, triangles, and mini-triangles to create the perfect light setup by mounting them directly to your wall. These are touch-sensitive, allowing you to control them with a swipe or tap. You'll have loads of customization options in the companion app, and voice controls with the most popular voice assistants.

Best light strip

Light strips are perhaps only second in popularity to regular smart bulbs, and the best LED light strips offer flexibility in lighting options that those bulbs can't. The Philips Hue Bluetooth Smart Lightstrip Plus brings the same base functionality as their smart bulbs but allows you to add ambient lighting to spaces the bulbs can't go so that you can have the perfect ambiance.

Best for entertainment centers

The best way to make any show you are watching on TV even better is by adding the new Govee Envisual TV Backlight T2, which improves on the original Govee Immersion TV Backlight. This RGBIC light strip, a technology that lets the light strip show multiple colors simultaneously, works with the dual 1080p camera to read what is happening on the screen and translate it into the light to shine onto your wall creating a more immersive viewing experience.

Best smart thermostat

Nest has made a name for itself as one of the absolute best smart thermostats since it launched years ago. The standard Nest Thermostat is a simple and sleek smart thermostat that's easy to set up and control using the Google Home app. Nest Thermostat can help you save money thanks to rebates from power companies, as well as just setting a more sensible schedule. Nest Renew can even help you understand how your power is generated throughout the day.

Best smart lock

When it comes to picking the best smart lock for your home, you want one that is reliable, allows for remote control, and, most importantly, is secure. The August Wi-Fi Smart Lock does all of that and more. Thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi, you'll have control over your deadbolt from anywhere you have the internet. The lock also has auto-lock and unlock for times you forget to lock your door on the way out of your house.

Best wireless video doorbell

These days securing your front door is about more than simply locking it, and thanks to smart devices like the excellent Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, you can have even more peace of mind. Ring consistently makes some of the best video doorbells, with a live video feed anytime you want, motion detection, and pre-roll to see what happened before an event. It even has a wide-angle lens so you can see someone's face, as well as the package on the ground. Its wireless installation means you can use it in any home.

Best wired video doorbell

The second-generation Nest Doorbell brings a lot of helpful features to your front door by acting as more than a simple doorbell. The crystal clear video feed lets you quickly see what is happening at your door to help keep you in the know. It even has familiar face detection to let you know that your friend or a family member has arrived before they even ring the doorbell. While this version is battery-powered, you can pick up the Nest Doorbell (wired, 2nd gen) for additional features.

Best indoor security camera

The Ring Stick Up Cam is one of the best wireless security cameras for several reasons. One of the biggest is because you won't need to plug it in, so you'll be able to install the camera in more places. But if you have an outlet available and want to avoid recharging the device, it can be plugged in. You'll get end-to-end video encryption, and it works wonderfully with Ring's other products like lights.

Best outdoor security camera

While we had stopped recommending Eufy's cameras as of December 1, 2022, because of security issues, the company has since updated its privacy policy and is clearer about what videos are encrypted and what is not. The eufy Floodlight Camera E340 camera skips the cloud entirely and handles storage and processing locally. Though it isn't wireless, it is completely weatherproof, has fantastic video quality, and a super-bright floodlight. This camera has two lenses — a wide-angle camera and a telephoto. When the camera sees activity, it can zoom in and follow the cause to ensure you see it all.

Best smart garage door opener

Garage doors, though necessary, haven't changed much in a long time. By adding the best smart garage door opener, the Chamberlin MyQ, you'll bring a major upgrade to your existing garage door. Connecting it to your compatible garage door opener, you can remotely control the door, automatically open your door when you arrive home, and more. The MyQ works with Amazon Key so that your Amazon deliveries can be placed safely in your Garage and away from porch pirates.

Best Google Assistant smart speaker

While the Nest Hub Max is a bit on the older side of products, it is still the best Google Assistant speaker on the market. This is because it sounds good and has a great-looking display; it's also because of Google's continuous updates to it. From the fantastic video calling features to the gesture controls and so much more, the Nest Hub Max hardware paired with Google Assistant is the perfect combination.

Best Alexa smart speaker

Amazon is always updating the best Alexa speakers with new versions and new features, and the Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) is the culmination of all of that. This smart speaker has fantastic audio, and the swiveling 10-inch display brings some unique use cases. The display can swivel to follow you around the room when on a video call, or It can move to ensure you can always see the recipe you are cooking. No matter where you place this speaker, it will always be ready to help.

Best robot vacuum

The tedium of cleaning the floors, while sometimes therapeutic, takes a lot of time and its easy to miss a spot or two. The Roborock Q Revo is a smart vacuum and mop with a base station that learns your home, avoids obstacles, and can even work on multiple floors. Like the best robot vacuums, you can set a schedule, tell it to avoid certain areas, and dispatch it with your voice using Alexa or Google Home.

Best smart plug

Smart Plugs are a great way to add some smarts to devices that aren't. There are a lot of excellent smart plugs out there, but the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini brings rock-solid connectivity and several helpful features. Aside from connecting to Google Assistant or Alexa for voice controls, you can also manually manage the plug-in companion app. But, to really take it up a notch, you can utilize the times and schedules to automate things like a fan, lamp, and more.