Smart home devices

There’s more to a kitchen than just cooking. Smart lighting lets you adjust and optimize the lights for cooking, entertaining, cleanup, and breakfast the next day.

A smart plug boosts the IQ of un-brainy devices such as lamps, fans, or string lights, letting you easily set them to turn on or off on a schedule or on command.

Here’s a selection of our favorite gear to help turn your backyard into an outdoor oasis, including our go-to string lights, fire pits, patio gear and more.

Water-leak sensors, which keep you in the loop if your plumbing fixtures spring a leak, can prevent a small spill from becoming a big problem.

New homeowners quickly discover that they also have new worries. These smart security devices provide peace of mind whether you’re home or away.

Wi-Fi security cameras can help protect your family and possessions. We’ve reviewed and picked the best models for every area of your home.

For anyone with disabilities or mobility challenges, smart devices can be profoundly empowering and can enable more independent living.

An outdoor security camera can alert you to prowlers, package deliveries, and visitors, as well as animals in your trash and things that go bump in the night.

Smart thermostats like our pick, the Ecobee Premium, can make your home’s HVAC more energy efficient without sacrificing your comfort.

A smart doorbell camera allows you to see who’s on the other side of your front door so you can screen visitors and package deliveries—even if you aren’t home.

Security cameras keep a watchful eye on all your prized possessions—not only your stuff, but family and pets, too—and send an alert when motion is detected.

Smart lighting is easy. Picking out the best smart lighting for your needs isn’t. We show you when it’s best to choose smart bulbs, plugs, or in-wall switches.

You don’t need to own your house to enjoy the magic and convenience of smart-home devices. These affordable devices allow any renter to smarten their place up.

An in-wall smart outlet replaces a traditional electrical outlet and makes automation a permanent part of your home. Our pick is the Geeni Current+Charge.

If your smart speaker is a Google Home, here are the best devices that work with it.

Smart-home devices can make it easier for you to help an older loved one age safely and securely in their own home.

Smart devices are terrific problem solvers, and they’re no longer exotic, expensive, or complex. This low-cost collection makes it easy to make life more convenient.

These smart-home devices don’t need permanent installation, so you can take them with you when you move.

Smart devices make life more convenient, but many also make it easy to conserve energy and water use, too.

Smart strip lights are flexible lengths of controllable LEDs that provide decorative lighting throughout your home. Here are the four sets we recommend.

A smart lock lets you go key-free and control your door remotely. Our pick, the Schlage Encode Smart WiFi Deadbolt, isn’t the smartest lock, but it is sturdy, simple, and reliable.

These smart devices can transform the ambiance and comfort levels of any space in the time it takes to open an app and screw in a light bulb.

Wyze doesn’t seem to understand its responsibility to customer security and privacy. We won’t review Wyze smart devices until it learns to do better.

A smart dimmer works like a regular switch but makes it easy to put lights on a schedule, automate them with other devices, and control them remotely.

A good home security system should make it easy to find peace of mind. It can alert you to an open door or window, frighten away prowlers, and call for help.

A smart garage-door opener controller provides remote control and alerts you whenever your garage opens or closes. Some can open automatically when you get home.

Smart smoke alarms are pricey, but unlike traditional ones, they can alert you to a problem even when you’re not home. The Google Nest Protect is our pick.

Delight the bird voyeur in your life with a smart feeder that captures close-up videos and photos and can even identify what species visit.

HomeKit is a straightforward smart-home system for anyone who uses Apple devices. Here’s how it works and our pick of the best compatible smart devices.

Worry that your smart-home devices may be acting sneaky? So do we. Our reviews dig into privacy and security so you can feel better about our recommendations.

These tiny devices are smart home helpers. They detect and alert you about motion, temperature, or open or closed doors and windows—and they can tell other smart devices to act.

A smart sprinkler timer transforms a regular home irrigation system into an automated one that optimizes water usage and better ensures the health of your greenery.

The Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) and Google Nest Hub Max are the best smart displays. They have big screens for video chat, TV, or recipes, and great speakers, too.

The Google Nest line of smart speakers makes it easy to access music, audio, trivia, and in some cases video, all by voice commands to Google Assistant.

Here are some of the most popular home and lifestyle Wirecutter picks from 2023.

A balky clock radio was killing our morning wake-up mojo. An Echo Dot with a clock was the replacement that solved our woes.