No matter what kind of home you have, there’s a smart gadget that can help make your life easier. Smart tech with sensors, tracking, scheduling, remote control and app management offer innovative advantages, as long as you pick the right device for you. From lighting to thermostats to security cams and heaters, here’s what they can do for you when you’re ready for a high-tech upgrade, starting with all-purpose smart speakers. 

Best smart speaker 

Amazon Echo Studio 

Amazon’s newest smart speakers come with spatial audio and other sound enhancements, which are especially noticeable in the powerful Echo Studio. With the Alexa app, this smart speaker can connect to a wide variety of services, from your favorite music streaming option to Uber, food delivery apps and more. Alexa can also connect with many smart home devices and control them with a voice command, including lights, locks and smart plugs. You can even pair two Studios and connect them to a compatible TV for theater sound. 

Google’s Nest Mini Smart Speaker 

Google’s Nest Mini smart speaker isn’t as powerful as the new Echo, but it’s a great budget-friendly option for Google users. The audio quality in the Nest Mini is respectable, given its price and profile. It also has a wall-mounting notch on the underside, if that’s what you’re into. An interesting presence detection method that uses the speaker and microphone to determine your proximity to the Nest Mini helps it trigger LED indicators that help you make better sense of the otherwise obscured physical volume controls. And with Google’s Gemini for Home upgrades, these Nest speakers are getting even better with a subscription. Think of this speaker as an excellent desk companion, especially if you prefer using Google Home as a control app for your smart home. 

Best smart plug 

You can plug it into a standard wall outlet, and it can make any device smart, allowing you to set on-off schedules (think coffeemakers or Christmas lights) and monitor energy use. These are just two handy ways to use them for appliances around your home. 

TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini 

You can find a lot of smart plugs out there. TP-Link’s Kasa Mini is our favorite. It includes a single outlet that connects to your network via Wi-Fi. The app is well-designed and lets you program the plug to turn on or off on a schedule or even based on your location. It works with Google Home and Alexa, and it doesn’t cover the adjacent outlet on a standard two-outlet wall fixture. 

Emporia Smart Plug 

The Emporia smart plug combines affordability with excellent app operation and energy management, making it one of the best smart plugs I’ve come across with easy, highly customizable control. The rounded design and on/off side switch always proved top-notch. 

From the home screen display, you can see connected devices and their on/off status along with how much energy they are using. Tapping the plug or power icons will take you to the on/off settings, or you can tap on the device name to see a graph of your plug’s (that is, whatever’s plugged into it) energy use over time. In addition to the charts, you can also set the plug for automatic scheduling to save energy or create your own schedules on the fly. It’s intuitive and easy to master. 

Best Smart Display for Google Assistant 

Google Nest Hub Max 

The Nest Hub Max will show you your spoken commands so you know Google heard you correctly, it can deftly walk you through a recipe from popular cooking websites and it works seamlessly with Google-supported smart home cameras and video doorbells to display their camera feeds onscreen. You can use it as a side browsing screen, a home control hub or anything else you need. 

GE Cync Dynamic Effects Smart Bulb BR30 

Smart bulbs come in many sizes, but almost all are made to fit the existing light sockets around your home. One of our favorites is this LED floodlight model from GE Cync, ideal for kitchens, entryways, living rooms and other big spaces with floodlights. Unlike other color smart bulbs, this GE Cync bulb has four quadrants that you can switch between any colors you want for an overlapping or complementary effect, giving your space whatever vibe you desire with just one bulb. It supports scheduling, voice commands and other smart bulb tricks that come in handy when you’re busy. We also found the GE Cync app particularly easy to use and really like that it has both Alexa and Google support.  

Best Outdoor Floodlight Camera 

Eufy S330 Floodlight Camera 

Eufy has been making some really impressive security cameras lately, like the Eufy S350, and the Eufy S330 Floodlight Camera is just as great. It has all of the things we want from an outdoor security camera, such as extremely bright floodlights, crystal clear video, smart tracking and compatibility with all three major voice platforms.  

With its 3,000 lumens of power, you can illuminate your entire backyard. It’s also dimmable, which is useful if you still want your neighbors to like you. What might be a negative for some is the requirement for the Eufy S330 Floodlight Camera to be hardwired. With as many smart features and powerful lights, constant power is a must. If you can make the power needs work, this is a fantastic option for your outdoor space and you won’t need to pay for a subscription to use all the features. 

Best Smart Leak Detector 

Eufy Water Sensor 

Leak detectors occupy a small but important role in the smart home, sending phone alerts and activating sirens when they detect pooling or dripping water. These tiny devices can fit nearly anywhere, like under sinks or behind toilets, and have batteries that can last for years. They’re often part of security systems, but we’ve tested stand-alone versions like this Eufy model that only needs a HomeBase to work, as well as this solo model from SwitchBot. Either way, they are excellent gadgets for your home toolkit. 

Best Video Doorbell 

Arlo Video Doorbell 2nd-gen 

Many of Arlo’s cameras are expensive if not overpriced, but the Arlo 2K Video Doorbell is much more reasonable. Not because of a lack of build quality or features. The Arlo 2K Video Doorbell is priced well, it performs well, and the Arlo Smart cloud service is competitively priced, starting at just $3 per month. With Arlo’s subscription, you get a ton of features, from advanced motion alerts to 30 days of cloud storage and much more.  

The doorbell also offers a 180-degree viewing angle with a head-to-toe design, significantly larger than many old doorbells. A built-in siren helps it function in part as a security camera, and if you have an Arlo security system, you can add a fob to disarm via the doorbell and save time. 

Best Smart Air-quality Monitor 

SwitchBot Meter Pro CO2 

SwitchBot’s air quality monitoring tracks temperature, humidity and CO2 levels right out of the box. You can put it anywhere you like to get fast readings, and connect it to the app to adjust settings, choose the update frequency and see if you’d like to get phone alerts. You can put it in your kitchen to see how your gas stove affects the air quality, mount it in a sun room or greenhouse, put it by the fireplace and much more, depending on your needs. 

Best DIY home security system 

Ring Alarm Kit 

Ring’s latest home security system beats the competition for two simple reasons: It’s surprisingly affordable, with the eight-piece kit for $300 and competitive device-by-device pricing, and it offers a ton of value for that price. Not only do you get a range extender included, but you also get a Z-Wave radio for a variety of smart devices, cellular backup, local processing and storage, backup internet (in case of power or internet outages) and much more than in your standard DIY security array. 

Monthly subscriptions range from $5 to $20 a month, which is on the lower end of the DIY home security spectrum, and it includes more smarts than most such subscriptions. If you’re looking to give yourself a solid base to start building a smart and secure home, you can’t do much better than the Ring Alarm Kit. 

Best Smart Lock 

Yale Assure Lock 2 

Smart locks are one of the simplest, most effective ways to get started with home security. We like this Yale lock for its wealth of access options, including an app, Apple Watch, and keypad. Features like auto-locking and temporary passes for guests make the lock even more useful. 

Note that you will need a separate module to enable Wi-Fi for this lock, which is pretty important for remote control. If you don’t want anything extra, plenty of other smart locks have Wi-Fi built in, including retrofit models that are easier to install on your current deadbolt. 

Final Thoughts 

The smart home revolution has reached a critical tipping point. The convergence of artificial intelligence, 5G networks, Internet of Things (IoT), and edge computing is creating unprecedented opportunities for home automation. This technological synergy enables real-time data processing, instantaneous device communication, and predictive automation capabilities that were impossible just five years ago. Transforming your living space into a smart home is more than a tech upgrade, it’s about making everyday living simpler, safer, and more efficient. 

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