Best smart light switch for HomeKit
Lutron Caseta In-Wall Smart Dimmer Switch
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Best white-light smart bulbs for HomeKit
Philips Hue White LED Starter Kit
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The Apple HomeKit ecosystem has grown recently and the addition of Matter support will only make it grow more.
Have you ever wished you could light up a room just by walking in? Well, aside from relying on your sparkling personality, smart home devices are perfect for this, and they are simple to set up on Apple’s smart home platform – HomeKit.
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HomeKit comes baked into every iPhone and iPad the electronics giant sells. Even better, HomeKit integration is a breeze. From pairing smart products to your HomeKit-compatible devices to setting up automations… it’s all at your fingertips.
The range of products compatible with HomeKit is vast. You have a lot of options, including door locks, lights, plugs, cameras, a thermostat, motion sensors, window shades, you name it — and the Home app can handle all of it in one place.
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If you want a hands-off approach to controlling your budding smart home, Apple’s voice assistant Siri, will be happy to lock the door, dim the lights, adjust the air conditioning, run a smart home scene or whatever else you desire.
The real question is which of these smart home devices are worth the cash — because a lot of them don’t come cheap. There’s a growing list of options, but we’re here to help you narrow it down to the best HomeKit devices for your smart home. Here are our top picks for Apple HomeKit products, all based on years of tests in the CNET Smart Home, which we update periodically.
The long-awaited HomePod Mini bridges a strange gap between smart speakers, costing $99 like the Nest Audio and Amazon Echo, but in a small package like the cheaper Nest Mini and Echo Dot.
This smaller, more affordable Apple smart speaker sounds great. Siri is on board for HomeKit control and general voice assistance. The HomePod Mini can serve as the output for your Apple TV, and you can pair two HomePod Minis for stereo. Features like Intercom and Handoff make living with the Mini a little bit more fun.
In short, if you like Apple, you’re going to love this smart speaker. If you’re already living with an iPhone, Apple TV or original HomePod, the Mini makes sense as your next small smart speaker.
Apple’s latest streaming device, the third-generation Apple TV 4K, was released in November 2022. While it has many features that are similar to the previous model, there are some key improvements. The design is largely the same, albeit slightly smaller. The same remote from Gen 2 is here, but it’s more responsive than before.
The latest Apple TV 4K has the A15 Bionic chip from the app, which improves overall performance when using the device. It also has improved efficiencies, generating less heat. So, Apple removed the cooling fan, making the device silent, even when showing impressive HDR10+ movies.
This is a powerful streaming device, that offers a lot of functionality aside from watching movies and TV shows. It plays high-quality games from Apple Arcade, lets you sing along with Apple Music songs with Apple Music Sing, and much more. It is a dedicated smart home hub for Apple HomeKit devices.
You’ve got lots of interesting options if you’re in the market for a smart thermostat, including a couple of thermostats that support Siri control via Apple’s HomeKit. Of these, we like Ecobee’s thermostats the best. At $250, the Ecobee4 thermostat is the newest, but it really only adds in a built-in Amazon Alexa speaker to the experience. That’s not the biggest draw if you’re anchoring your smart home to Apple HomeKit and centering it on Siri for voice control.
Read more: The best smart thermostats of 2024
That’s why I think it’s a smarter move to stick with one of Ecobee’s previous-generation, less expensive thermostats. They all work just as well with Apple HomeKit and they support Ecobee’s nifty temperature sensors, too. The Ecobee3 thermostat is listed as sold out on the Ecobee website, but the Ecobee3 Lite thermostat is still available for between $150 and $170. That’s the right price for HomeKit-compatible climate control.
Yale is a legacy brand that has been making locks for over 180 years, and it has used that experience in the Yale Asure Lock 2. Looking anything but dated this touchscreen, fingerprint sensor-packed smart lock is an excellent choice for your Apple HomeKit setup.
It comes loaded with smart features like Auto-unlock, unlimited passes to share with family and friends, app control and more. While it isn’t a budget pick, Yale wraps all the smart and secure features in three different finishes to match any decor.
As a trusted lock maker, Yale is a direct partner of Airbnb. This means that managing access is smooth and simple to use if you are an Airbnb host or are visiting a property with this smart lock.
Eufy’s Indoor Cam 2K is one of the first products to work with HomeKit Secure Video. Secure Video is Apple’s new suite of security camera features in the Home app. At around $50, the Eufy Indoor Cam 2K is affordable and comes with several useful features like optional local storage and motion detection zones.
The Eufy Indoor Cam 2K is a solid competitor to other low-priced indoor models like the Wyze Cam Indoor and the Blink Mini. Its 2K video recording in particular separates it from those competing models. Additionally, if you’re a Prime member, you can grab it for as low as $29.
Smart switches are another good option if you’re looking to automate the lights in your home — particularly for spots where a single switch controls several bulbs at once. You’ve got several options that work with HomeKit, but our favorite by far is the Lutron Caseta In-Wall Dimmer Switch.
Why Lutron? For starters, Lutron’s been in the business of dimmer switches for decades, and it’s a smart home stalwart, too. Its switches have a good set of features and work with everything, they support three-way setups and they look appropriately distinctive without being gaudy. Along with a wide variety of light switches, the Caseta platform also offers specialty switches for things like ceiling fans and Sonos speakers, as well as luxurious Serena smart shades. All of it communicates with the Lutron Bridge using Lutron’s proprietary Clear Connect wireless standard, which is one of the speediest and most reliable standards we’ve tested at the CNET Smart Home.
That’s a long-winded way of saying these are really, really good smart light switches. Right now, you can get one on Amazon with the Lutron Bridge and a bonus Pico remote that you can dock in the wall as a second switch, or carry around with you for a total cost of $60.
It’s counterintuitive, maybe, but Philips Hue is best when you skip the colors and focus on the Hue White bulbs, which put out smart, dimmable light at a yellowy 2,700 K. That’s because the best thing about Hue bulbs isn’t the colors at all, but rather, the strength of their best-in-class platform, which works with everything, pairs extremely well with Apple HomeKit and comes packed with useful features.
Read more: The complete guide to Philips Hue lights
To take advantage, you’ll need to get a Philips Hue starter kit that comes with the essential Hue Bridge — and the two-bulb Hue White starter kit, currently available on Amazon for $100, is an affordable way in. And yes, you can always add color-changing bulbs to your HomeKit setup later (preferably when they go on sale).
First, there was the triangular Nanoleaf Aurora (2016) and then there was the square-shaped, touch-enabled Nanoleaf Canvas panels. But in late 2020, Nanoleaf launched the latest set of novelty wall panels: “Nanoleaf Shapes – Hexagons.” These six-sided LED light panels are sold in a seven-panel starter kit for $199, though they are often on sale for less.
With vivid colors, easier mounting, a great design, and the same impressive list of features and integrations as its predecessors — including the excellent, music-syncing rhythm mode, touch sensitivity, and voice control via Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant — the latest Hexagons are the best Nanoleaf has to offer.
Read more: The best smart lights for covering your walls in color
If you’re putting together a high-tech game room, dorm room or decorating a kids room, then Nanoleaf’s color-changing wall panels will be right for you. But outside of that, the flashy lights are perhaps a bit too futuresque for most households.
At $40, the Eve Energy smart plug isn’t the most affordable, but it offers seamless integration with Apple’s HomeKit with useful insights into the energy usage of devices plugged into it.
While Eve was once a HomeKit-only smart device brand, the company opened the doors to other platforms like Google Home and Amazon Alexa compatibility via Matter, in 2023. It fits inside the frame of most wall outlets and has a physical button built into the LED indicator light.
The Eve app is clean and simple to navigate. Setting up timers and schedules for the smart plug is a cinch. This smart plug’s space-saving design and solid HomeKit compatibility make it easy to recommend to users in Apple’s ecosystem.
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