{"id":1215377,"date":"2025-02-15T08:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T13:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215377"},"modified":"2025-02-15T08:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T13:01:26","slug":"the-best-smart-home-gadgets-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215377","title":{"rendered":"The best smart home gadgets for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>If it feels like every piece of home tech is now \u201csmart,\u201d you\u2019re not far off. The smart home space has grown exponentially in the past few years to include speakers, cameras, locks, lights and even kitchen appliances. There are also different voice assistants and IoT standards to consider, all of which can make it confusing (to say the least) to build your smart home ecosystem from the ground up.<\/p>\n<p>Allow us at Engadget to help with that. We\u2019ve tested dozens of smart home gadgets over the years and continue to test the latest offerings to see which work well and are worth your money. We recommend, before you even dive in, to resist the urge to outfit your whole home in one go. Not only can this be quite expensive, but also we think it\u2019s generally best to buy just one or two items first to see if you like them. You should also pick a preferred voice assistant and stick with it. If you\u2019re at the point where you\u2019re ready to invest in a few new IoT gadgets, below are the best smart home gadgets you can get right now, plus some advice on how to choose the right voice assistant for your needs.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-best-smart-home-gadgets-smart-speakers\">Best smart home gadgets: Smart speakers<\/h2>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"baa0cc8edc8945da8fbdcf8374e108dd\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"3c706840322642818fc81418444f5c4a\" data-type=\"product-list\" data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07XKF5RM3\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-best-smart-home-gadgets-smart-displays\">Best smart home gadgets: Smart displays<\/h2>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"08eadfda4b5342bfb10627ce4b352c7f\" data-type=\"product-list\" data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B0CDR2MP7Q?\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"401983412573455bb7db7a2a0a75f590\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-best-smart-home-gadgets-smart-lights\">Best smart home gadgets: Smart lights<\/h2>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"56096536d8b147218c66073f9bf6c6a2\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"58439acaf02845b4adfa3f7a7d5e4d2a\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-best-smart-home-gadgets-security-cameras\">Best smart home gadgets: Security cameras<\/h2>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"714775938f4648a880d2a76cdecee783\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"bd338cd33098402684b5d0fa6ce78967\" data-type=\"product-list\" data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Arlo-Video-Doorbell-2nd-Generation\/dp\/B0C683F516?ref_=ast_sto_dp&amp;th=1\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-best-smart-home-gadgets-iot-gear\">Best smart home gadgets: IoT gear<\/h2>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"4e60689d9a404c66ae70575a3003be27\" data-type=\"product-list\" data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/iRobot-Roomba-Robot-Vacuum-Q0120\/dp\/B0CVM8TXHP\/\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"7dfd64a2ab1f4b5f897d71bd03a65312\" data-type=\"product-list\" data-original-url=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/iRobot-Roomba-Self-Emptying-Auto-Fill-Vacuum\/dp\/B0C415HQPX\/?th=1\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"041b50a903f74bf8bab2d31c1bddb9a6\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<p>\n <core-commerce id=\"2728bfa18b044aeb82523e6412c42a8f\" data-type=\"product-list\"><\/core-commerce><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"jump-link-how-to-pick-the-right-voice-assistant-before-you-buy\">How to pick the right voice assistant before you buy<\/h2>\n<p>While plenty of the best smart home devices are platform agnostic, there are some \u2014 smart speakers and smart displays in particular \u2014 that require you to choose your voice assistant. Currently, that means deciding if you\u2019ll use the <a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/google-is-looking-to-supercharge-assistant-with-ai-113516175.html\">Google Assistant<\/a> or Amazon\u2019s Alexa on a regular basis (I\u2019ll address Siri in a moment.)<\/p>\n<p> <span id=\"end-legacy-contents\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re both compatible with various smart home products from light bulbs to robot vacuums, but there are certain devices that work best with either Google or Amazon. Nest products, for example, are more compatible and have more functionality with Google-powered speakers and displays. They can still work with <a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/everything-amazon-announced-at-its-2023-devices-and-services-event-194621706.html\">Amazon devices<\/a>, but certain features might be disabled. The same holds true with Amazon products: They work better if they\u2019re in the same ecosystem.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"jump-link-amazon-alexa\">Amazon Alexa<\/h3>\n<p>So how do you choose between Alexa and Google Assistant? It really depends on your personal preferences. Do you listen to Audible, watch <a data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/amazon-is-reportedly-planning-an-ad-supported-tier-for-prime-video-201032287.html\">Prime Video<\/a> and tend to do a lot of shopping on Amazon? Then you might lean toward an Alexa-powered smart home device.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"jump-link-google-assistant\">Google Assistant<\/h3>\n<p>If you want a voice assistant that\u2019s great at answering questions, Google Assistant tends to be better than Alexa. Amazon\u2019s helper, on the other hand, currently supports more smart home products. The company\u2019s smart speakers and displays also support the Zigbee smart home protocol, and some devices even have built-in smart home hubs. Both Google and Amazon devices can sync with your calendar, though Google\u2019s tend to work better with Google services. Plus, if you already have an Android phone, you might be more comfortable with Google Assistant anyway.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"jump-link-siri\">Siri<\/h3>\n<p>But <a data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/apple-reportedly-working-to-make-it-easier-to-activate-siri-164014522.html\">what about Siri<\/a>? Apple\u2019s assistant supports voice commands as well, but it doesn&#8217;t have as many compatible devices as Google or Amazon. The <a data-i13n=\"cpos:5;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/after-two-years-of-updates-the-homepod-mini-is-actually-pretty-good-133056756.html\">HomePod mini<\/a> and the <a data-i13n=\"cpos:6;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/apple-homepod-review-2nd-generation-140040630.html\">full-sized HomePod<\/a> are the only Siri-compatible speakers on the market at the moment, too. That said, it\u2019s not too hard to find Apple HomeKit-compatible gear as more third-party companies add support for it, but you currently have a smaller pool of devices to choose from.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/home\/smart-home\/best-smart-home-devices-154557162.html?src=rss<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If it feels like every piece of home tech is now \u201csmart,\u201d you\u2019re not far off. The smart home space has grown exponentially in the past few years to include speakers, cameras, locks, lights and even kitchen appliances. There are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215377\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1215377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1215377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1215377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1215377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}