If you’re looking to get some smart home products, you'll find there are plenty of options. Decide between purchasing the more expensive high end products or cheaper alternatives.
Every high end brand has a less costly counterpart. Often, the cheaper product proves to be a worthy competitor, or turns out to be even better than the more expensive product. It’s all about finding that sweet spot between cost and quality.
We’ve seen nearly every smart home gadget out there. Sometimes because we wanted to integrate them with Homey, and sometimes because we too are obsessed with all the cool products manufacturers bring out. To help you decide what your next purchase could be, we rounded up some of our favourite products that are worth every penny. If you ask us, these are the must-haves for any smart home fanatic. Aside from Homey, of course!
The IKEA Trådfri product line
Two years ago, when Homey was launched in 2016, we would’ve never thought IKEA would dabble in the smart home market. And yet, here we are. There’s no denying in the great quality for money IKEA has to offer in terms of Zigbee-controlled lighting. The Trådfri range consists of a range of surprisingly affordable basics.
This makes us wonder in what way IKEA is going to expand their smart home offering in the future. We’ve all heard the rumours of their smart sockets. If it’s going to be anything like their lighting range, we’re going to be very happy.
Nanoleaf Light Panels
On the topic of smart lighting, let’s talk decorative lighting. Between our colleagues at Athom it’s difficult to find a consensus about colour changing lights. Some of us think they’re too expensive for what they have to offer, while others love them.
However, there’s one manufacturer that united us all: Nanoleaf. Ever since these colourful LED panels made their way into our office, they’ve made their mark. High quality, triangular shaped LED panels that can change colour. You can mount them on practically any surface, in any way, shape or form you like.
And, with the latest Rhythm upgrade, the lights even detect music and change colours accordingly. It's as if they’re dancing along to your music.
Innr Smart plugs
While we’ve yet to find a smart plug that does absolutely everything we want it to, the €29,95 Innr Smart Plug comes pretty close. It lets you easily control your gadgets and appliances, you can create some powerful Flows with them and make any ordinary device a tad smarter. It offers very good quality for money, as it offers energy monitoring, switches up to 2300W and is as compact as the more expensive type of smart plugs. The only downside is that it cannot function as a dimmer. But, we have our €9,99 IKEA Trådfri lights we can dim, don't we?
Because it can switch up to 2300W the Innr smart plug is suitable for most devices. We’ve used the plug to remotely turn on frying pans, keep track of energy usage and create automated schedules to turn off devices, such as an iron. Reducing our energy bill and increasing our safety.
Learn more about the benefits of smart plugs.
Neo Coolcam Sensors
A lot of people will hear ‘motion sensor’ and think ‘boring!’. However, we’ve really come to love motion sensors. Specifically the Neo Coolcam Motion Sensor. It’s got it all. It’s compact, meaning it's easy to place. It detects everything from movement, to changes in light and temperature. Besides that, it’s one of the cheapest motion sensors that works on Z-Wave, meaning it can cover quite some range.
Motion sensors, like smart plugs, often don’t get the credit they deserve. They’re small devices that can be used for loads of things. Most commonly to automatically turn other devices on or off based on your presence. Plus, nothing beats walking into a room while it starts coming to life. Create a Flow that upon entering your living room your favourite music starts playing, the lights are dimmed to a pleasant temperature and the curtains close. The perfect way to start your weekend on a Friday evening.
Find out more about cool things you can do with motion sensors.
Sonos
There’s no denying the beauty of the Sonos product range. They make great wireless speakers, and have been doing so for years. And, with the latest addition to the Sonos Family, the Beam, they’ve reinforced their position as the go-to company if you want high-quality sound in your smart home.
The company is known for producing high-quality speakers that are beloved by both audiophiles and casual listeners. And, because of their beautiful design, they fit right into everybody’s living room.
Their current offering consists out of a decent amount of variety. Speakers come in the form of the Sonos One, Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5. To accompany your TV you’ll find a perfect solution in the Playbase, Playbar, Sub and newly added Beam. You can even add “regular’ Hi-Fi systems into your setup by using the Sonos Connect and Amp. Our favourite? The Sonos One, because it comes with Amazon Alexa. Giving you a voice assistant wherever you place your speaker. Let’s just hope Alexa learns how to speak Dutch soon.
