Smart-home devices sometimes require complicated installation that just doesn’t make sense for renters. Plus, apartments have different needs than single-family homes. That’s why we decided to outfit a whole condo with smart devices that don’t require rewiring or permanent installation. Each week, we’ll tackle a different category and look at various products, then explain how we made our selections. At the end of the series, we’ll examine the smart apartment as an ecosystem, and how all these devices — or do not — work together.
For the second installment in our Smart Apartment series, we’re looking at hubs. Once you go beyond a couple of products — say, both lights and a security camera — you’re going to want something that connects them.
There are a few reasons for that. A good hub will have an app that pulls everything together, for one thing. But better than that, it will allow you to make recipes, scenes, or whatever you want to call them that render that app a last resort. Here’s how we picked the best of the bunch.
While the smart-home market is becoming more crowded, in some ways there are fewer solid options for home automation hubs. Nest bricked the Revolv, and Staples discontinued the Connect. But there are still quite a few white boxes that want to control your home — and a few that come in different colors and shapes. There’s Iris by Lowe’s, for example, although the dealbreaker there is a $10-a-month fee for features others give away for free.
We probably would go with SmartThings. Despite some issues, Samsung’s smart-home hub is one of the best choices around. That is to say, nothing is perfect and you take what you can get. But there’s a few reasons Wink’s Hub 2 pushed us to go with that option instead.
One of my main goals with this smart apartment is to not have to pull out my phone — like, ever — to get stuff done. That means once things are all set up, I don’t want to have to take more effort to turn out the lights than merely flipping a switch. Thus, voice control is definitely a must-have. I set up an Amazon Dot, and luckily, Alexa works just fine with Wink’s new hub. They’re both playing central roles, so I look them as co-hubs (which is probably what I would call my husbands if I were a polygamist).
One of the main things the Wink Hub 2 has over SmartThings is its compatibility list. It supports 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, Z-Wave, ZigBee, Lutron Clear Connect, and Kidde wireless protocols, and it has a Thread radio for whenever that starts gaining more traction. SmartThings has a similar list (Z-Wave, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth), but it’s not as comprehensive. As for actual devices, the table below will show you what works with each hub.
As you can see, neither is all-inclusive. There isn’t a ton of camera support, and while it’s early days for smart appliances, neither supports many brands with connected washer, dryers, and ovens. You can start to see why hubs don’t inspire a lot of excitement.
Setting up the Wink Hub 2 is incredibly easy, and once you have the app downloaded (Android | iOS), it practically does the whole thing for you. Pairing is a different story and can be a bit of a process. To add GoControl sensors, for example, you have to unscrew the device, put in the battery, and wait for the hub to pair with it. Finding devices with Alexa is far easier. You just go to the app, head to the smart home page, and click Discover Devices.
Sometimes, you do have to pair your accounts with the Alexa app, for more control. That means remembering the username and password for your Hue bulbs, for example, something I promptly forget after creating an account in the app the first time.
Another thing to be aware of is naming. When you have two hubs, Alexa can get confused. I set up my office light as, well, “office light” in both the Wink app and the Alexa app, and the voice assistant informed me that she had found several devices with that name when I asked her to turn it off. She asked me to specify which one. I never cracked the code on how to do that, so I just renamed it in the Alexa app.
One thing that’s nice about the Wink is that it lets you set up “robots” — basically If This Then That-style “recipes.” For example, my GoControl door sensor triggers every time I open the door, making my hallway lights turn on — as long as it’s between sunset and sunrise. This is great when I’m coming home, but when I’m leaving, it leaves the bulb burning, so I have a second robot that turns the hallway light off after the door’s been closed for two minutes.
Yes, I could shout at my Dot to turn on from the door, but this is faster and less annoying to my neighbors. IFTTT and Yonomi, which makes similar recipes, doesn’t seem to support GoControl, so Wink is integral to getting my Lutron Caseta dimmer and door sensor talking.
Though they want to replace hubs, I found IFTTT and Yonomi weren’t always 100 percent reliable. I set up a recipe (now called an applet) in IFTTT to have my Lifx light bulb blink red when my Roost smoke alarm went off. Unfortunately, I never got this to work, and IFTTT basically wasn’t talking to my Hue bulbs at all for several weeks.
That said, I do use those two for some recipes. Alexa doesn’t understand “Turn my Hue bulbs green” without a little help from Yonomi, for example.
If hubs leave so much to be desired, it’s not all that surprising that companies want to leave them behind. Although the Wink Hub 2 has robust support and is somewhat future-proofed with its Thread radio, it still lacks some features I really wish it had, like a backup battery.
But we can’t fully ditch hubs yet. If I was making this a HomeKit apartment, I would still need the Apple TV to access my smart-home devices when on the go. That the Apple TV isn’t just a hub probably shows you where the future lies, of course. Consider the Almond 3, a router that also supports Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth.
I’m all for having one fewer plastic box sitting on my crowded credenza, but the all-encompassing, flawless hub is still elusive at the moment.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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With AI progressing so fast, it's only a matter of time before we start getting AI companions like the ones we used to see in movies like R2-D2, Wall-E, or Baymax. Now, Singapore-based OKA Technology has unveiled Mori, a cute little AI companion that looks less like a conventional home robot and more like someone turned the Pokémon Foongus into a table lamp.
Mori isn't meant to clean your house or control your smart home, but to serve as what OKA calls a "Nature Companion." It uses subtle movements, warm lighting, nature-inspired sounds, and small reactions to make its presence around the house feel calming rather than distracting. Mori can sit quietly while you read, sway along to music, welcome you when you enter a room, or encourage you to slow down for a moment without requiring a screen or a conversation.