The Best Smart Home Gadgets in 2023

Mar 09, 2024

As we grapple with AI and its ramifications for the modern world, here are some of the best smart home devices you should look to get for your house!

Smart homes are hardly a new phenomenon for most of us thanks to the plethora of smart home devices that we use that are enabled by as little as a Wi-Fi connection. However, smart home devices have evolved considerably since they first showed up nearly 2 decades ago, and they are smarter, more data-hungry, and more resourceful when it comes to delivering a better and more reliable experience to users that turn to them to help with everyday tasks.

This means that a new generation of smart home devices has cropped up that are built around user needs and requirements, while ease of use is a recurring theme. This can include but is not limited to smart TVs, Routers, home security, speakers, and lighting all of which can be configured and customized to get a better user experience for everyday households.

When choosing a smart home gadget, you can consider factors like:

Power To Sustain A Smart Home Ecosystem

The Linksys Atlas Max is a product that does come with its flaws, but at its finest, it is a Wi-Fi 6E router that will encompass most work and play spaces with ease. With a coverage area spanning as much as 9000 square feet while offering to connect as many as 200 devices in a go.

To power the next generation of smart home devices, one will need decent internet coverage that encompasses their entire house with ease. Mesh routers are hardly new news and have been around for years. While most users would find their needs more than met by entry-level Mesh router systems such as the Amazon eero, others might demand significantly more power in terms of range, consistency in speeds, and the number of connections that they can simultaneously make on one Wi-Fi network.

While the Linksys Atlas Max 6E is at the bleeding edge of technology and supports Wi-Fi 6E and nearly 200 devices at the same time over an area of as much as 9000 sqft, it does also command a price that is significantly higher than the average cost of a mesh router. It is not one of the most expensive mesh routers in the market but it does tend to push towards the high side when it comes to pricing what is otherwise an excellent package backed by solid support and a 3-year warranty in tow.

Great Sound Got Smarter

The Sonos One (Gen 2) is an excellent speaker that doubles as one of the best smart speakers in the business, supporting both Alexa-based voice commands and Google Assistant. If you wish for more hands-on control, it directly works with multiple music streaming apps such as Tidal and Spotify while also coming with a dedicated Sonos App to maximize your experience

The best smart speaker for smart homes right now is in many ways a no-brainer given the value that the Sonos One Gen 2 Smart Speaker commands for what is an excellent speaker that doubles as a smart home device. It is backed by both Google Assistant and Alexa natively and comes bundled with the Sonos App which comes with regular updates and the ability to seamlessly add more Sonos devices to the mix.

While it does have serious competition from the Amazon Echo Studio, we feel the Sonos simply is a better speaker and feels more future-proof, both in terms of design and the ability to use Google Assistant in tandem with Alexa tilting the scales in its favor considerably and unless you really need a 3.5 mm audio jack for any reason in particular, the Sonos is our pick for the best smart speaker you can buy in 2023.

Premium Multipurpose Lighting

The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 LED Smart Bulb continues to be the industry's most popular and trusted smart light bulb. Using Bluetooth connectivity, the Hue Smart Bulb no longer requires a Hue Bridge, but the Bridge enables more functionality like whole-home control. The estimated lifetime of the Hue A19 LED Smart Bulb is 22 years or 25,000 hours, so these bulbs are not just for occasional use. Hue bulbs enjoy widespread compatibility with smart home platforms like Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Homekit.

Lighting is an important part of smart homes and possibly one of the most important choices a homeowner has to make for his smart home setup with the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 LED Smart Bulbs, you can't go wrong; With excellent customizability out of the box and support to configure as many as 10 using the HUE app, you can choose how many smart lights you need for your house, but the HUE bulbs will probably be here to stay once you get started.

While price is a concern for these, they do offer excellent service life, touting a 25,000 hours lifespan and an easy installation process; these are standard A19 bulbs that are built to the same specifications. If you move past the maximum 10 bulbs in a setting, you might need to get the dedicated Hue Hub version to control additional lights, however.

Professional Grade Cloud-Backed Security

The Arlo Pro 4 is the latest iteration of home security cameras by Arlo. It delivers steady 2K video streams in a small, rechargeable package bundled with a spotlight to identify people coming in and ward off unwanted intruders from your property. With clear 2-way audio and sharp video quality to boot, the Arlo Pro is designed to help you make informed decisions about your security and get assistance at the tap of a button if needed.

The Arlo Pro 4 is an excellent, but pricey choice when it comes to smart home security, but it does have its perks. Thanks to the lack of a central hub, you can buy it in smaller chunks, and it provides an excellent 2K stream with smart options such as intruder detection, 2-way audio and excellent night vision in tow. It is a truly wireless solution with rechargeable batteries that are rated to last as much as 6 months in a go.

Its Arlo Secure plans are comprehensive for those willing to go that cloud-enabled route but also add to the ultimate cost of a product that is already pricier than most of its competition. All in all, the completely modular design of an Arlo Pro 4 installation, solid uptime, and excellent build quality weigh heavily into our decision to make it our de facto pick for the best smart home security solution currently.

Smart Meets Beautiful

The LG C2 OLED is an excellent TV on its own but some of its features make it a great tv for gaming. With its predecessor, the LG C1 is the de facto best gaming TV for much of the last year, the LG C2 builds on its success with better calibration and better brightness in tow.

Smart TV is a term that has been overused in the past and generally been used to refer to TVs that could play or stream content from various platforms online. LG's OLED lineup pushes this definition considerably with its excellent WebOS package that offers Airplay support in addition to built-in support for Google Assistant and Alexa with support for voice control to navigate applications on the LG C2 OLED.

With integration for all major streaming platforms and some of the best display tech in the business, the LG C2 OLED pushes boundaries and price points simultaneously for smart TVs. While some people might be miffed with advertisements on the content store for what is essentially a premium smart TV, the LG C2 holds its own in terms of tech, display, and a comprehensively populated content store.

The Govee AI Gaming Sync Box offers the most intelligent way yet to fill gaming rooms with RGBIC lighting. Govee uses its CogniGLow algorithm on select PC titles to generate customized lighting effects based on in-game content and events. The sync box connects to 3 HDMI 2.0 sources to eliminate the delayed reactive lighting of camera-based lighting systems. DreamView 360 syncing coordinates lighting across many existing Govee light strips, panels, and bulbs. The Govee AI Gaming Sync Box includes 2 smart tower lights and LED lights for monitors 27 to 34 inches.

Thinking about sprucing up your gaming setup with some reactive lights that — if your room is dark enough — will alight the whole room with a rave of flashing colors to celebrate every win? Consider grabbing the Govee AI Gaming Sync Box, one of the best Govee smart light sets. This kit "reads" what is going on in select games (think LOL, Apex Legends, Valorant, OW2 and the like) and gives you lights to match the hype. Even when a game isn't directly supported, you'll still get to create a personalized lighting scheme and/or reflect what is onscreen.

Connection is done via HDMI, so you won't have to take over a spot where your webcam could go. As the system reads what is going on directly there is essentially no lag between action and response, creating a more immersive experience. Unfortunately, due to the size of the light bars, the Govee AI Gaming Sync Box is only recommended for monitors in the 24 to 32-inch range, though Govee says more light sizes are coming.

As you've no doubt noticed when looking through the items on the list above; smart home gadgets vary highly in style and function. In fact, it can be easy to forget that they are somewhat related in the first place. A collection of different devices bought together simply because they have "internet juice" flowing through them.

And as far as that is concerned, it makes a lot of sense to judge smart products based on their form first and foremost. In other words, judge smart PC speakers to the same scrutiny you would any of the best PC speakers.

But still, what of smart things, and what makes them special? Or, more importantly, what makes the best smart home gadgets worth buying?

It isn't nearly as philosophical as it sounds to figure out. To demystify it further, let's look at three key things you need to ask yourself before buying a smart home gadget:

The big question here is simple. Is this smart home device going to work with what I've got?

It is a basic and fundamental question, so let's cut to the chase: If you want Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to control your smart home, take a moment and look for them being mentioned somewhere in the product description. It won't be hidden info, manufacturers want you to know they work with these systems. It's a selling point! If you don't see your system listed, assume the worst.

Related: Games That Can Surprisingly Be Played With Amazon Alexa

Similarly, if your home system is based on Bluetooth, Zigbee, or Z-Wave (You know who you are!) spend a moment to look for those, too. Even if you already have another product from the same brand (more on brands in a moment) it doesn't necessarily mean that your new find will carry the same protocol.

The next thing to consider is whether you even need or want the "smart" version of what you're getting anyhow. For example, would you rather have a $150 toaster that you can control from your iPhone or a $20 toaster that toasts well? It's always the second one.

Related: Best Cheap Smart Home Gadgets

To figure out if you want a smart home product, then, you need to have a good idea of its base quality but also have a clear sense of what "smart" brings to the table.

At a very base level, we can define any internet-connected object as "smart". However, this runs into some issues as there is no collective definition of "smart product" from one company to the next. While some smart home gadgets represent a connected product environment (think Apple Home Kit) others are completely independent products.

And it is when this emphasis on connected product environments emerges that you can run into trouble. Research suggests that people limit what smart brands they'll buy from when engaging with smart product environments. It makes sense because they want each product they own to interconnect, meaning buying products from the same brands again and again feels safer. In other words, investing in smart products can psychologically limit our future purchases.

The solution? Ensure that you only buy high-quality smart gadgets by carefully reading reviews and examining actual connectivity options over repeated brand names.

You would be excused for thinking that part of the previous section's message was to go off-brand in your quest for the best smart gadgets. Instead, the message was very explicitly just to avoid limiting yourself to one or two brands. As we'll see, brand trust is very important when choosing a good smart gadget.

When you put something in your home that is connected to the internet — especially when that something with a camera or microphone — you're opening yourself up to security risks. Major brands have a lot to lose if their products have security risks and have an incentive to alert customers about issues as promptly as possible. Take, for instance, Nintendo's warning about a decade-plus-old USB adapter. Would a no-name brand do that? Possibly, but more than likely not.

There's already a creepy webcam out there if you need an eye on you at all times. Do your best due diligence to keep the eyes plastic and not attached to a brain.

We hope you like the items we recommend and discuss! Game Rant has affiliate and sponsored partnerships, so we receive a share of the revenue from some of your purchases. This won’t affect the price you pay and helps us offer the best product recommendations.

John Alexander is a writer, game lover, and Twitch-addicted individual. His writing has appeared in WIRED, PopSci, and DigitalTrends amongst others. He particularly enjoys writing about products, electronic and otherwise. There are not enough hours in the day to complete all of his board game goals. Odds are he is currently sipping tea and peaking at the stream on his second monitor.

Rahim is a Senior Tech/Commerce Writer at Valnet and builds PCs & networking solutions on demand. Whether It's your GPU, CPU, Display, or just an SSD upgrade, expect him to have a well-researched opinion on offer. When he's not helping with tech hardware or writing about it, you can find him playing the latest single-player titles or toying around with Unreal Engine with friends.Interests: PC Hardware, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Game Development, The Witcher (not necessarily in that order)