Over the last few years, the smart home accessories market has exploded. In its infancy, smart home gadgets were the expertise of big brands like Samsung, Google, and Amazon, aimed at making your life easier. Now, smaller names such as Nest and Hive have joined the party, offering a whole host of devices to make your home smart. And they are now more than just devices for convenience. From security cameras and smart smoke alarms, smart home devices are also offering ways to make your home safer and more efficient.
It can be a bit mind-boggling working out what smart home additions you and your family should choose without going overboard on the latest tech. So we’ve done the work for you and put together a list of the best smart home devices on the market at the moment to help whittle down the options.
Amazon Echo
Amazon is quickly becoming the one name synonymous with smart home tech, with Alexa becoming the newest family member in households up and down the country. These voice assistants are aimed to make the chaos of normal life a bit more manageable. And the Amazon Echo is the top dog out of their range of smart home devices. With a simple voice command, this Alexa-activated Bluetooth speaker will tell you the weather, what your first appointment of the day is, or put on your Sunday morning playlist without you having to lift a finger. You can also set up routines, for example at 8am every day your Echo can tell you what your commute journey looks like and start your favourite radio channel or playlist to kickstart your morning.
Although Apple, Google and Samsung have all created viable rivals in the voice assistant department, Amazon Echo still reigns supreme when it comes to value for money. The number of voice commands at your disposal is constantly growing and it’s even compatible with other smart home accessories and apps such as Spotify, Sony’s TVs and Sonos. Make and answer calls hands-free while cooking in your kitchen by connecting the Echo up to your smartphone via Bluetooth. Heck, you can even colour code it with your new kitchen thanks to the range of colour options.
Thanks to the seven built-in microphones, you’ll have complete voice control over your entire home thanks to the full 360-degree audio capture. If that wasn’t enough, Alexa’s machine learning means that your Amazon Echo will learn and adapt to how your family operates. It will predict what apps, TV shows and music you’ll most likely enjoy, and make helpful recommendations based on how you use your Echo. Overall, it’s hard to beat the Amazon Echo when it comes to a voice assistant all-rounder.
Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit
For the smart device novice who doesn’t like doing things by halves, the Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit is your one-stop solution for transforming your abode to a smart home in a matter of minutes. Designed as a collection of sensors and devices, this smart home kit is simple yet versatile enough to be used for a variety of purposes. It comes with two multipurpose sensors, a motion sensor and outlet, as well as a SmartThings Hub to connect all the components together.
The motion sensor allows you to monitor your home through your phone, notifying you if there are unexpected entries into your home. You can also add other gadgets to your collection of smart tech as it gets on swimmingly with third-party devices and smart home accessories such as Philips Hue lights and Amazon Echo. The Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit is your go-to for fully automating your home, opening up endless ways to bring smart home devices into your life.
Ecobee4 Thermostat Smart Home Device
Sick of those cold winter mornings when you are too cold to emerge out from underneath your covers to turn the heating up? No longer will you be in a constant battle with your thermostat for the perfect temperature. The Ecobee4 Thermostat Smart Home Device is a smart thermostat that revolutionises how you heat your home.
Simple to operate and use, the Ecobee comes with Amazon Alexa integration, so you can change the temperature of the room with a simple voice command. It works by accurately assessing the temperature of each room, including taking humidity into consideration, and will then raise or lower the temperature of the air until its at the desired level – all done through the most energy-efficient means possible, so your home won’t just be smart, it’s also more eco-friendly on the energy front, too.
Philips Hue
Who doesn’t want mood lighting in your home? Philips Hue bulbs have been leading the way forward with smart lighting tech for a number of years now, and they are not about to give up their top spot position. The range has only improved over time, the latest update being to the connected app, which has recently been given a revamp with even more features and functions to play with.
Impress your guests by changing the brightness or colour of your smart lighting thanks to seamless Alexa or Google Assistant integration. With four bulbs to a pack, you can kit out a whole room or two in a matter of minutes. All you need is the Hue app and the Hub Bridge to start changing your lights to suit your mood or have your own voice-controlled kitchen disco.
Sonos
You can’t beat Sonos when it comes to a smart home sound system. You just can’t. Ahead of the curve, their wireless, multi-room audio devices have been slowly gaining a solid reputation way before the craze for smart home accessories really hit off. Their smart sound speakers are high-quality and reliable, offering a fantastic, rich audio experience no matter your music taste.
The more recent models work with voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant, and support a number of music services such as Spotify. Sonos really are the brand to go to for music lovers looking for the best smart home accessories on the market.
iRobot’s Roomba
iRobot’s Roomba is, in fact, not a special kind of dance routine, but a smart robot vacuum cleaner that is here to save you from the humdrum of household cleaning. Although they are not the only type of smart vacuum out there, iRobot’s Roomba offers high-quality cleaning accompanied with smart mapping for efficient floor coverage. Its compact design means that it can smoothly slide under cupboards and sofas to reach those hard-to-reach dust collection points. The companion app is also one of the major selling points to the Roomba which puts it one step ahead of its nearest rivals.
Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm
Upgrade your smoke detector with the Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm. This smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector will help to keep you and your family safe from dangerous carbon monoxide and smoke levels, without the deafening screeching of traditional smoke alarms. Not only will this smart home device let you know when carbon monoxide levels appear, it will also talk to you. It’ll notify you when the batteries are low, if it needs maintenance or if there’s an issue, all straight to your smartphone. So if or when something does go wrong when you’re out of the house, you’ll know straight away.
Smarter Coffee
Have ultimate control of your coffee machine with Smarter Coffee. This smart coffee machine lets you wake up to the smell of freshly ground coffee beans and brew up a fresh batch from your bed, office or just about anywhere all from your phone. Adjust the strength, number of cups and type of brew using the Smarter app, perfect for timing your coffee for exactly when you need it.
This nifty smart coffee machine will even work with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTTT for perfect solutions to your every caffeine need. Friend popped round for a brew? Ask Alexa to put on a fresh pot of java. Had a bad night’s sleep? Brew a batch of coffee ready for when you’re out of the shower.
Samsung Family Hub
With the Samsung Family Hub, you’ll be transported into the future from your very own kitchen. This smart refrigerator has an integrated large tablet screen in one of the doors that marks it out from its non-smart predecessors. You can leave notes for your family, add items onto your shopping list, watch YouTube videos of cats falling over, get a weather report – the options are endless. The tech isn’t just on the outside though. Inside this smart home fridge is Samsung’s latest tech, which will tell you what you’ve got in your fridge via your phone. No more wasting food or forgetting to pick up items from the supermarket.
SLYK Family Charging Station
The modern family comes with a whole assortment of smartphones and tablets. It’s not unusual to see every worktop and table in your home decorated by an array of wires and cables, just to keep each and every one of our devices charged up. The SLYK Family Charging Station is designed to work with the modern family and their devices by keeping unsightly cables tucked away. This family charging dock allows up to six iPhones and two other devices to be charged simultaneously, keeping your home free from the tyranny of wires.
Not only this, but our charging station is also Apple-certified, which means that it can communicate with your Apple devices to ensure that they are charged correctly and safely. Have you ever bought a cheap charger for your iPhone and found that it only charges intermittently or stops working altogether? This is because Apple devices know when a charger is not Apple-certified, so they will often not accept the charge supplied. Like Apple’s own chargers, our Apple-certified charging station has a built-in ‘smart’ circuitry, so your devices will know that the charger is compatible with it, ensuring all your family’s devices are charged without damaging the batteries.
Smart home devices are bringing our homes into a new era, and we’re all for it. Here at SLYK, we help modern families integrate smart devices into their homes without cluttering up space. After all, smart gadgets and accessories are supposed to make our lives easier, not messier. Our custom-made stands and charging docks for your phones and tablets are purpose-designed for hands-free use of your devices in every room. Browse our range of phone and tablet stands or get in touch with our team to find out more.