15 Gift Ideas for Smart-Home Owners
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Lenovo Smart DisplayRead more
Everlane ReNew Fleece SweatshirtRead more
Breville Smart Oven PizzaioloRead more
Sense Sense Home Energy MonitorRead more
A trash can you can talk to! A hair brush that counts your strokes! As frivolous and silly as the dream of a fully-automated home might seem, many of these devices solve real problems. No one who has ever gotten stuck outside in the rain will doubt the usefulness of a keyless smart lock, and something as simple as a simulated sunrise can make waking up on a dark winter morning much easier.
If you have a loved one who wants to walk in the door and start conducting his appliances as if they were an orchestra, we have gathered a bunch of our favorite smart-home gifts. If you're looking for other ideas, check out our many holiday guides.
Update December 2019: We added several fresh picks, like the Minut smart home alarm, and removed older ones.
- Photograph: Lenovo01Lenovo Smart Display
The kitchen is one of the best places to put a smart display to use. No one wants to scroll through recipes on their phone with wet or dirty fingers. Lenovo's smart display is compatible with Google Home, and so far, Google Assistant is our favorite kitchen assistant. You can search for recipes and follow step by step. It also comes in two different sizes, has a camera cover and mute button, and is relatively affordable.
These are all our favorite Google Assistant speakers.
- Photograph: Everlane02Everlane ReNew Fleece Sweatshirt
Sustainable tech is smart too! Your beloved homebody will love Everlane's ReNew fleece sweatshirts. Everlane was one of the first companies to attempt to make apparel in a more sustainable fashion.
The ReNew collection is made from 100 percent recycled polyester, and is the company's first step in cutting virgin plastic out of its supply chain entirely. This sweatshirt is warm and cozy when lounging on the couch. But with the cropped cut and cuffed sleeves, it's also spiffy enough to wear out of the house.
- Photograph: Breville03Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo
If your loved one is a good home cook, they may appreciate this staggeringly frivolous and wonderful countertop pizza oven. It has a surprisingly small footprint and mind-boggling insulation. You can sit in comfort in front of it, even when it's heated to 750 degrees. Toggle the settings to different temperatures or pizza styles, from "frozen" to "pan" to "wood-fired." Breville's Element iQ system adjusts the heat in different locations in the oven to ensure that your pie is perfectly done all over within a matter of minutes.
These are all our favorite pizza ovens.
- Photograph: Sense04Sense Sense Home Energy Monitor
The Sense home energy monitor is one of the best ways to keep tabs on your energy efficiency. It's like a Fitbit for your house's breaker box. Clip the sensors around the mains and watch the app as the monitor automatically detects devices and tracks how much energy they use.
You can see trends over time, identify broken appliances, set yourself an energy "budget," or just see exactly how much money you're spending to keep the Christmas tree lights on all night.
- Photograph: Fohm Co.05Fohm Toilet Paper Foam & Dispenser Set
I have been waiting all year to write about this tool. Even flushable wet wipes can eventually wreak havoc on your plumbing. Fohm's dispenser automatically deposits a little dab of bubbly cleaning fluid on folded-up squares of toilet paper to turn them into wet wipes. The fluid is pH balanced and alcohol-, paraben-, and fragrance-free, and won't irritate sensitive skin.
Each bottle of cleaning fluid lasts for several months and the dispenser recharges via USB. My toddler also finds the dispenser's businesslike toot to be inexplicably delightful.
- Photograph: Ecobee06Ecobee4 with Sensor
Yes, we know the Nest Thermostat is beautiful. But we prefer the Ecobee4, which uses remote sensors to keep the far reaches of your house just as warm as the center. You can use either the console or the app to set "home," "away," and vacation schedules—or high temperature alerts if you have pets. If you need an extra smart home assistant in the middle of your hallway, it also has built-in Alexa and is compatible with Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, and IFTTT.
- Photograph: Honeywell07Honeywell Bluetooth Smart Air Purifier
Your beloved smart home owner spends a lot of time inside, so it's worth making sure that they're breathing clean air. The Honeywell Bluetooth-enabled air purifier isn't the most attractive of the air purifiers we've tested. But it's the most affordable option if you want the freedom to control your air purifier remotely, as well as set allergen and proximity sensors and check when your filter needs replacing. It's also easy enough to open that my almost-5-year-old can replace the filter for me.
- Photograph: Minut08Smart Home Alarm
We encourage all of our readers to take basic safety precautions when installing home security devices, like good password hygiene and enabling two-factor authentication. However, if you really don't want to have a camera with a microphone inside your house, you may want to consider the sleek, attractive Minut. It uses a passive infrared motion sensor under a lens to detect living things moving in your house and send alerts to your phone or to your chosen family and friends.
Although you can cover up parts of the lens to truncate the detection field to let your robot vacuums and small pets walk around, the Minut isn't the best solution if you, like me, have a large, person-sized dog that likes to walk around and trigger alerts. It can also detect higher noise and temperature levels, if your favorite smart home owner frequently leaves the house with the oven on.
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- Photograph: Amazon09August Smart Lock Pro
The very concept of a physical key is frustrating to those already all-in on the smart home. Keys are too easy to copy and far too easy to lose. August’s attractive and easy-to-use deadbolt unlocks automatically when your giftee arrives home, using their phone's proximity to grant access. They can also send friends (you) temporary digital keys so the cat can still get fed when they're out of town.
- Photograph: Belkin10Belkin Wemo Mini Smart Plug
Every single dumb appliance—from a desk lamp to electric blanket to coffee pot—can be automated with this fun smart-home accessory. Whoever you give it to can trigger their appliances to turn on with an Alexa voice request or program them with an app on their phone. They'll never have to come home to a dark house ever again.
- Photograph: Orbit11Orbit B-hyve Smart Sprinkler System
Watering your garden is a tedious, time-consuming chore. But automatic irrigation systems can inadvertently drown your tomatoes. Orbit's Weather Sense technology takes into account your garden's conditions, like its slope, soil type, sun versus shade, and the weather. It then smartly automatically adjusts how much water your plants get. It's Alexa-enabled and also comes in a weather-proof case so you can lock it up outside near the hose.
- Photograph: Amazon12DeWalt Tool Connect Impact Driver
They have all this smart home equipment; now they just have to install it. DeWalt makes some of the most reliable tools available, including this multi-purpose driver. The Tool Connect app-based inventory manager will help your loved one organize their toolbox more efficiently. They can even use the app to disable the driver remotely if it gets stolen.
- Photograph: Apple13Apple TV 4K (5th Gen.)
If you know a homebody, odds are that they spend a significant time planted in front of their TV. The Apple TV 4K is significantly spendier than our top streaming device pick, the Roku Streaming Stick Plus. However, as a longtime Apple user, I appreciated its beautiful interface and I didn't find the remote to be wonky at all. I also appreciated how seamlessly it paired with my iPhone when I wanted to type in search terms. It also includes every major streaming app, including Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
- Photograph: Jaxjox14Jaxjox KettlebellConnect Smart Kettlebell
Multiple members of WIRED's gear team have called in testers of Jaxjox's Kettlebell Connect, which debuted at CES in January 2019. If the smart home owner in your life is looking for an in-home fitness device, it's significantly cheaper and easier to store than a Peloton! The connected kettlebell can adjust from 12 pounds to 49 pounds, with onboard sensors to make sure that they're keeping pace with their reps and squats.
- Photograph: Skybound15The Grimm Forest
My family has a holiday tradition of sitting around the table for a Christmas Eve game of Trivial Pursuit. If you want an evening of similar easy, competitive camaraderie, WIRED reviewer Jess Grey has a few board game ideas to try. The Grimm Forest a surprisingly subversive fairy tale came that is suitable for a wide variety of ages. As one of the members of a family of little pigs, you can build a house in the forest while surrounded by the all the smart comforts of your own. No, it doesn't connect to Alexa, but it's a lot of fun!
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