Using the right tech can significantly enhance your quality of life by making your house smarter, safer, and more comfortable to live in. In a lot of cases, you can even save money in the long run. So, I’ve created a list of the top five of the best smart home gadgets I’m using in 2024.
- Nest Cam
- Philips Hue Starter Kit
- August WiFi Smart Lock
- Roborock Q5
- Wemo WiFi Smart Plug
1- Nest Cam
| Pros | Cons |
| Person, Vehicle, and Animal Detection | Fewer Accessories |
| 3 Hour Free Storage | |
| Smart Design |
The battery version of the Nest Cam is one of the simplest home security cameras to set up, mostly due to its smart design choices. The camera has a magnetic base, which allows you to easily connect or disconnect the camera.
Nest Cam has 1080p quality and night vision that can capture a crystal clear image during the day and night. It also has a speaker and a microphone which make conversations effortless.
The smart camera has three hours of free video storage as well as person, and vehicle detection. As an add-on feature, you can sign up for Nest Aware, which also gets you up to a month’s video storage as well as familiar face detection.
2- Philips Hue Starter Kit
| Pros | Cons |
| Dimmable | Requires a Hub |
| Smart Home Integration | |
| Well-Designed App |
I’ve added the Philips Hue Starter Kit to this list since it provides the most value, especially for beginners who haven’t used Philips Hue before. The kit includes a hub and two bulbs. While these bulbs don’t allow you to change their colors, you can change their brightness.
The kit is also scalable as you can add up to 50 bulbs to a single bulb. The best part about using this system is the amount of compatibility it offers. You can link the smart hub to Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, IFTTT, and Nest.
The smart functionality doesn’t just end here. You can use the Philips Hue Sync app which allows you to sync your smartbulb with content on a PC or Mac. For example, you can have the bulbs flash with music.
3- August WiFi Smart Lock
| Pros | Cons |
| Built-In WiFi | Keypad Is an Add-on |
| Great Smart Home Integration | |
| Compact Design |
This new iteration of the smart lock by August brings a lot of refinement to the already great original product. This time, the size is almost half of the original smart lock and has built-in WiFi which allows seamless integration with your other smart home devices.
The August Smart Lock WiFi is extremely easy to install. It takes less than 30 minutes to DIY the installation process. It also comes with unlock sensor features like DoorSense, which notifies you about unlocked doors.
Like other smart home devices, it offers integration with Google Assistant, Alexa, and even the smart home system by Xfinity.
4- Roborock Q5
| Pros | Cons |
| Great for Light and Medium Mess | No Built-in Map |
| Doesn’t Need a Lot of Human Intervention | |
| Optional Auto-Empty Dock |
The Roborock Q5 isn’t a new product at all. The affordable robot vacuum was released more than two years ago but is still our top pick for the best smart home vacuum. If you can spend some extra cash, we recommend going for the Q5+ since it has an additional auto-emptying dock.
The robo-vacuum doesn’t have a lot of shiny features but it doesn’t need them to shine. The suction isn’t the most powerful we’ve seen but it’s more than enough for your daily home cleaning needs.
It uses LiDAR tech to map out your house and has a collision-detecting bumper that makes navigation pain-free. The setup process was smooth and painless and it has the option to store multiple maps, which makes it great for use in houses with multiple stories.
5- Wemo WiFi Smart Plug
| Pros | Cons |
| Has a Physical Control Button | Incompatible With 5GHZ WiFi |
| Integrates With Alexa, HomeKit, and Google Home | |
| Compact Design |
The Wemo Smart plug is one of the best smart home devices you can get for a cheap price. It’s extremely compact and this latest version is even smaller than the Wemo Mini, which was surprising to see.
The smart plug doesn’t have energy monitoring like other smart plugs, but it can easily be integrated with all the major smart assistants. Wemo Smart Plug also has a physical switch so you aren’t stuck with using an app or voice to toggle the switch.
It also has a built-in mode which allows it to turn on and off when you’re not home to make it seem like you’re in the house, even when you’re not.
Wrapping Up
When creating this list, I have only mentioned the devices I have used within each category. However, within the automation industry, you can find a lot of gadgets in each category. If you have your recommendations for products, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
