Best Smart Home Devices of 2024

Google’s Nest Mini smart speaker isn’t as powerful as the new Echo, obviously, but it’s a great budget-friendly option for Google users.

The audio quality in the Nest Mini is respectable, given its price and profile. It also has a wall-mounting notch on the underside, if that’s what you’re into. An interesting presence detection method that uses the speaker and microphone to determine your proximity to the Nest Mini helps it trigger LED indicators that help you make better sense of the otherwise obscured physical volume controls. 

That’s all fine, but the thing that puts the Nest Mini over the top is the machine learning chip embedded inside the tiny speaker. With that chip, Google says, the Nest Mini can learn what commands you give to it most often, and it will then begin to process those commands locally, rather than on Google’s servers. 

Anything that helps to keep control of your smart home inside your home is worthwhile. Letting you continue to issue certain voice commands even if the internet goes out, and improved response times are great, too. While the Nest Mini doesn’t have the audio output jack that allows you to connect Echo Dots to better-quality speakers, it’s still one of our favorite devices — particularly for people who already use Google services such as Gmail and Calendar with any regularity.

Amazon may have introduced the smart display with the Echo Show, but Google refined the concept with the Nest Hub (formerly the Home Hub) both in terms of its design, and in the way it leverages its voice assistant. Now there’s a second-gen model, released in 2021, with a lower price and more features. 

You get the same Google Assistant features in the Nest Hub that you get with the Google Home speaker line, along with a screen interface that gives you just the right amount of visual feedback. It will show you your spoken commands so you know Google heard you correctly, it can deftly walk you through a recipe from popular cooking websites, and it works seamlessly with Google-supported smart home cameras and video doorbells to display their camera feeds onscreen. Google’s Soli is also onboard for Sleep Sensing and Quick Gestures like pausing media with an air tap in front of the display. 

Read more: Best Smart Displays of 2024

Google prudently opted out of including a video camera on the Hub itself, getting ahead of some privacy concerns, and likely prompting Amazon to include a manual video shutter on its new, smaller Echo Show 5 display. If you really want a Google-based smart display that allows for video chatting, a few third-party options can make that happen, as well as the larger and more expensive Nest Hub Max. Even without it, the Nest Hub is the best, most affordable marriage of a voice assistant and a display interface on the market.

You can snag the Wyze Bulb directly from the company’s website at $17 for two, or $34 for four, plus shipping. That’s a pretty great price, and it belies the excellent quality of the device you get. You don’t need an extra hub to use them or to connect them to voice control with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant (or IFTTT). Just screw them in, turn them on, pair them with the Wyze mobile app and bask in the glow of a dirt-cheap smart light.

The bulbs are also just great lights, with scalable white settings that offer a candlelike 2,700K output all the way up to whiter daylight tones that approach 6,000K. That these bulbs offer this flexibility at their price is impressive — and they’re super bright, too.

At $80, Amazon Smart Thermostat is the least expensive smart thermostat we’ve tested. You’ll need a compatible Alexa-enabled smart speaker or display to use voice commands, but you don’t have to enable an Alexa skill since this is an Amazon-branded product.

Even if you don’t want to use voice control, the thermostat is impressive, saving an average of $50 on a yearly energy bill. Its design is simple and modern, and the touchscreen interface is efficient.

The downsides: The Amazon Smart Thermostat isn’t compatible with Google Assistant or Apple HomeKit and there’s no remote temperature sensor accessory. You also either need a C-wire or you have to buy and install the C-wire adapter.

Still, that incredible price tag sets it apart from the rest of the options on the market.

Editors’ note, Sept. 22, 2023: A reported security breach has affected some Wyze camera users. Out of caution and until Wyze resolves its systems for reporting breaches to users, we’ve removed our Editors’ Choice designation from Wyze products. We will update this page as we reevaluate home security cameras and accessories.

Wyze’s $50 indoor camera — which can pan and tilt to let you see a whole room — is one of the best camera values on the market. Not only does it give you top-notch control to see a large space, flexible settings enable the camera to scan spaces periodically, follow motion and more. Beyond that, you can use all the standard features like two-way talk and cloud storage.

Wyze also stands apart with its free cloud storage options — which allow you to store clips for up to 14 days. You can also store footage locally on an SD card, or pay $3 a month to gain better smarts and better cloud storage. If you’re looking for a nanny cam, a pet cam or just a standard indoor security camera, the Wyze Cam Pan v2 is one of the best you’ll find.

Arlo’s $180 Pro 4 outdoor security camera is a solid device with impressive performance, boasting 2K resolution and a 160-degree field of view that outshine most of the competition. On top of its great specs, the camera includes extra goodies like two-way talk, a siren and a spotlight, all of which offer excellent use as deterrents to would-be burglars. Add a $3-a-month subscription and you’ll get smart notifications that distinguish among people, animals and vehicles, plus motion zones and more.

While the Pro 4 is pricier than some of the most affordable outdoor cameras from brands like Blink or Wyze, it’s a good investment for anyone serious about upping their security game.

Ring’s latest home security system beats the competition for two simple reasons: It’s surprisingly cheap, with the eight-piece kit starting at $300 and competitive device-by-device pricing, and it offers a ton of value for that price. Not only do you get a built-in Wi-Fi 6 Eero gateway, but you get a Z-Wave radio for a variety of smart devices, cellular backup, local processing and storage, backup internet (in case of power or internet outages) and much more than in your standard DIY security array.

Monthly subscriptions range from $4 to $20 a month, which is on the lower end of the DIY home security spectrum, and it includes more smarts than most such subscriptions. If you’re looking to give yourself a solid base to start building out a smart and secure home, you can’t do much better than the Ring Alarm Pro.