25 New Smart Home Releases You Might’ve Missed This Year

We’ve long advocated for attaching an AirTag to your luggage as a precaution while traveling. Knog’s Scout Travel Smart Luggage Tag is a new alternative for keeping track of your stuff, and it has a few noteworthy features. Like an AirTag, it works with Apple’s Find My network to make locating the tag right from your phone easy. It also integrates a loud, motion-sensitive 85 dB alarm that can draw attention when your bag goes missing. Last but not least, its battery can last between 2 – 4 months, depending on use, which is shorter than an AirTag, but unlike the latter, the Scout is also rechargeable via USB-C. 

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the next-generation version of the Raspberry Pi 400. Like its predecessor, it’s a keyboard with a Raspberry Pi computer built into it — plug it into a monitor, pair it with a mouse, and you’re ready to go. But the Raspberry Pi 500 features the same computing power as the company’s new flagship Raspberry Pi 5, but adds a keyboard and numerous ports for connecting peripherals and displays. It costs $90, but Raspberry Pi sells a desktop kit (with a mouse, a USB-C power supply and an HDMI cable) for $120.

Nintendo’s surprise product release of 2024 was this alarm clock, but it was only available to Switch Online members. As of early 2025, anybody can buy it. The Sound Clock Alarmo is positioned as an interactive bedside companion that’s equipped with motion sensors and access to Nintendo’s vast library of in-game sound effects (think Mario coin collecting) and music. To wake owners up, selected alarm sounds start playing and increase in loudness based on your movement. The alarm will also notice when a user gets up and plays a celebratory tune in response before turning the alarm off automatically. It can also play sleepy sounds to help owners wind down and track sleeping records and sleep movement.

Amazon’s newest TVs, the Fire TV Omni series, are its first to harness Mini LED backlighting. Unlike its previous LED TVs, they have a backlight featuring thousands of miniature LEDs, resulting in a brighter picture with near OLED levels of contrast. They’re Amazon’s most premium TVs ever and promise to be a more affordable alternative to other Mini LED TVs by the likes of TCL and Hisense.

Lifx’s new outdoor smart lights are, as their name suggests, designed to be a permanent fixture outside your home. The 50-foot strip consists of 30 RGBW lights that can bring any color — including white — to your home, making them a good fit even outside the holiday season. Additionally, the smart lights are compatible with all the major smart home ecosystems and Matter. Available starting November 5.

The Level Lock Plus (Matter) looks nearly identical to the company’s previous smart locks — meaning that it doesn’t look “smart” and blends into your door. The difference, however, is that the Lock Plus now supports Matter, meaning it can be integrated into any smart home ecosystem (such as Apple, Google, Amazon, or Samsung) and doesn’t require you to have a separate Wi-Fi bridge.

Home Depot launched a range of smart glass doors that allow you to change the window glass from clear to opaque whenever you want. You can set a schedule for the glass to change — clear during the day, and opaque at night — to get the right balance of light and privacy in your home. You can also change the glass via voice commands (works with Alexa or Google Assistant) or pressing a button on the door. Home Depot offers these doors with different-sized windows: quarter lite, half lite, three-quarter lite and full lite. The doors start at $798.

The Ring Battery Doorbell is an improved version of its battery-powered video doorbell. Compared to the Ring Video Doorbell 2 (now discontinued), the new model features a longer battery life and a redesigned mounting system for easier charging. Most significantly, it has a much larger FOV with a 1:1 aspect ratio so you can see packages left on your front doorstep. 

Google has overhauled one of the most influential smart home devices ever made for the first time since 2015. Physically, it’s far slimmer, sporting a 2.7-inch screen over double the size of the last-gen model while still keeping its famous rotating dial. Upgraded software takes advantage of that additional screen real-estate via a new Dynamic Farsight feature, which will display more detailed weather and home temp stats as you approach it and rich weather animations. It’s also compatible with Matter over Wi-Fi, which means it’ll also finally work natively with Apple’s HomeKit smart home systems. Black, silver, and gold options are available.

The brand synonymous with robot vacuums has revealed its first Matter-compatible smart vac. While the tangible benefits of that tech standard might not be substantial today, it does mean the vac is more future-proof and should integrate well with smart home systems and gear long into the future. The device itself is also a robust cleaning machine paired with the company’s most advanced dock to date. It’s capable of basically doing everything for you. It’ll vacuum and mop your floor, empty its dust bin, refill its mop water tank, and even clean and dry the mop.

Someone will write a design dissertation about the many hues of black Apple has created over the years. For now, though, the current default, a.k.a midnight, has finally made its way to HomePod mini. Honestly, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference between this shade and the previous space grey edition. But maybe it’s more apparent in person. According to The Verge, the new midnight edition is also made from 100% recycled mesh, compared to 90% in the past.

Amazon has revealed an updated take on its Echo Spot device, which we thought the e-commerce giant had abandoned after failing to update the original design since 2017. This Spot looks sharp, though, and borrows much of its industrial design from the Echo Pop budget smart speaker. Like the previous version, it’s tailor-made for nightstands with a small display and speaker capable of showing helpful information like the time, weather, smart home controls, and music info. Thankfully, Amazon has removed the front-facing camera, which raised privacy concerns with the first-generation model. It’s available in black, glacier white and ocean blue.

SwitchBot is an under-the-radar brand that started life on Kickstarter in 2016 and has now released a long list of sometimes unique and always functional smart home tech. The brand’s newly announced Universal Remote looks like an appealing successor to the now-defunct Logitech Harmony line of smart remotes. It’s also selling at a very attractive price point of $60. For that, you get a remote that can control nearly 84,000 devices via a store infrared code library that’ll be updated every six months. It’s also apparently ship with support for Bluetooth control of the AppleTV and FireTV right out of the box. SwitchBot also claims this is the first universal remote to support the universal smart home standard known as Matter. However, this functionality will require purchasing one of SwitchBot’s two matter smart hubs, adding another $50 in costs. Picking up a hub will allow the remote to trigger smart home scenes and control popular smart home devices from brands like Philips Hue, IKEA, and more. Other notable specs include a 2.4-inch integrated screen to view menu items and a rechargeable 2000 mAh lithium-ion battery that is good for up to 5 months of use, according to SwitchBot.

This new addition to the Philips Hue line is long overdue. It’s designed to be a traditional bedside lamp and sleep / wake-up light. The front lamp can swivel left and right, acting as a focused reading lamp. It’s also designed to dim to extremely low levels. The integrated backlight can project gradient lighting onto walls to enhance the atmospheric sunrise and sunset effects of the light and provide other creative ambiance options. Like all Hue products, users can fiddle with many controls and settings via the app, but a button at the top of the lamp will quickly trigger a gradual sleep automation without further hassle. We’re doubtful though that anyone could wake up more refreshed that this product image model.

Have you ever been playing a video game and were forced to take a break to heat up a slice of pizza? OK, so maybe this isn’t a real problem plaguing society, but Pizza Hut has found a solution for it anyway. The Hut’s Canadian branch came up with a 3D-printed pizza warmer that fits perfectly on top of a Sony PlayStation 5 Slim and uses the console’s warm air pipe to directly reheat pizza. The unique console topper opens like a laptop and has enough room for several slices. It’s obviously meant to be more of a silly conversation piece than an actual appliance, but if you have a 3D printer and are interested in serving up some PS5-prepared ‘za, you can download the print for free at the below link.

Amazon updated its 2022-released Echo Show 15 — a 15-inch smart display that doubles as a Fire TV and is designed to be wall-mounted — with a better camera, upgraded speakers and smart home hub functionality. More notably, Amazon has introduced a bigger version, the Echo Show 21, which has a 21-inch display and is the biggest smart display that Amazon has ever made. (The stand in the photo is sold separately.)

Yale and August Smartlock owners can now add fingerprint-based unlocking to their smart home setup. This new wireless keypad allows owners to lock or unlock their doors with the touch of a finger or, of course, a keypad code. It’s also IPX5-rated for all climates and designed to be placed anywhere near your door that’s within Bluetooth range. 

Cooking a smorgasbord of items will never be easy, but constantly repositioning your thermometer to monitor various cooking temps doesn’t make the job any easier. The new Meater Pro XL is a maximal solution to this problem that any home chef can appreciate. It includes four Bluetooth-equipped meat thermometers that each feature five internal temp sensors that are accurate to within half a degree and an ambient sensor for direct heat cooking and searing. And since the system is Wi-fi based, users can check on temps remotely anywhere they have data access and view info, including alerts, tips, timers, and more, via the companion app or the system’s integrated OLED display in standalone mode. The whole system also charges over USB-C.

Most robovacs still require human input; even if they avoid getting stuck, their small and compact canisters should be cleared every two or three days to keep working properly. Shark’s new robot vacuum-and-mop hybrid can go up two months with its 60-day-capacity bin, while a top-of-the-line sensor and self-raising functionality help it to avoid obstacles, furniture and rugs as its cleans. It can also extend its pad up to an inch while mopping, ensuring no corner of the house is left untouched.

Philips Hue has finally brought one of its most compelling kitchen light fixtures to the U.S. years after launching it in the European market. The modern light bar, available in black and white colors, features upward and downward-facing lights that can each be tuned separately to create unique lighting moods and scenes. Like all Philips Hue devices, users can control and tweak the Ensis’s settings via the Philips Hue app and popular smart home platform interfaces, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit.