Samsung SmartThings Station evaluate: an awesome good house hub in case you reside in Samsung’s galaxy

I’m a fan of multipurpose good house hubs. Nobody has the area or persistence for yet one more single-function plastic field plugged into their router. Past performing because the brains of your Apple good house, the HomePod is a superb speaker; Google’s Nest Hub Max helps run your Google House and is an outstanding digital picture body. And the brand new Samsung SmartThings Station? It’s a SmartThings hub that additionally costs your telephone.

Sure, Samsung made a SmartThings hub three years after saying it wouldn’t make any extra SmartThings {hardware}. (Effectively, it’s really a modified model of Samsung’s current wi-fi charger, nevertheless it has a SmartThings emblem, so it’s SmartThings {hardware}.) However the $59.99 SmartThings Station can also be a sensible house button, an always-on machine scanner for SmartThings Discover, a Matter controller, and a Thread border router.

If in case you have a sensible house and are all in on Samsung units, particularly in case you use a Galaxy telephone, that is near a must-buy. However in case you use another model of telephone, whereas it will work as each a SmartThings / Matter hub, good button, and wi-fi charger, it’s not fairly as compelling.

Let me again up. SmartThings wants a brand new standalone {hardware} hub due to Matter, the brand new good house customary that Samsung based, together with Apple, Google, Amazon, and plenty of different firms, that’s designed to repair good house interoperability. However it’s not going to show all of the good house platforms into one homogeneous, harmonious place.

What it is going to do is facilitate communications between units: your new Matter good plug will work with the good mild bulb you have already got and together with your SmartThings app and Apple House app. However you continue to want to choose a platform (or two) to run your own home on. And whatever the platform, you’ll get essentially the most out of it with a platform-compatible hub — therefore, SmartThings now has a brand new cheap standalone hub. 

The SmartThings Station works over Wi-Fi and is powered through USB-C, providing you with flexibility with the place you set it (it doesn’t must plug into your router). For $59.99 in case you provide your individual 25W energy adapter, or $79.99 in case you want the facility brick, it’s costly for a wi-fi charger that solely costs one machine, however a discount at both value for a SmartThings hub that helps Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Thread, and Matter. 

The Station is small and sq., with a discreet look and a pleasant really feel to it. It should slot in high-quality in your corridor entryway desk or by your mattress. It is available in black or white and has one bodily button on the highest proper. That is additionally small, shows the SmartThings emblem, and can be utilized to set off good house routines. If in case you have it by your mattress, you might set one press to set off a Good Evening scene and a protracted press to activate a Good Morning scene. Or, in your corridor entryway desk you might have a Welcome House scene and a Goodbye scene. 

There’s an LED indicator on the aspect on the entrance with two mild bars: one which tells you the state of the hub (blue for all good, yellow for issues) and the opposite that tells you the charging progress of any machine on it (pink is charging, blue is prepared). 

As a SmartThings hub, the Station can onboard units regionally to your good house utilizing Samsung’s SmartThings app. If in case you have any Samsung home equipment or TVs, you’ll possible be accustomed to the SmartThings app, or in case you’ve been concerned within the good house for some time, you’ll realize it as one of many unique good house platforms.

SmartThings has gone by means of vital modifications since its buy by Samsung in 2014 (for extra particulars, learn this wonderful explainer from The Digital Media Zone). However despite these modifications, it might run hub-connected units regionally by means of the brand new SmartThings Edge platform, and Samsung tells me it’s engaged on migrating each hub-connected machine to Edge.

SmartThings is an automation platform that may join units from completely different producers and allow you to use them in scenes and automations. You need to use the SmartThings app and not using a hub to regulate many units by means of cloud connections, together with Ring cameras, Philips Hue lights, and Google Nest thermostats and cameras. However these units have to work over Wi-Fi or by means of a bridge that connects to Wi-Fi, which guidelines out a number of good door locks, good sensors, and good lighting options. 

Including a hub permits you to join SmartThings-certified Zigbee units and Thread units on to SmartThings regionally. The Station is each a hub and a Matter controller, so you may as well onboard any Matter machine to your good house community. There, you possibly can management it with the SmartThings app or pair it with another Matter-enabled app — akin to Apple House, Google House, or Amazon Alexa — by means of the SmartThings app. Matter ought to carry extra locally-controlled units to the platform and open it to some producers that didn’t work with it earlier than (together with Eve, Aqara, and Thread units from Nanoleaf).

One protocol the Station doesn’t help that may be a large a part of SmartThings is Z-Wave. For that, you’d want the Aeotec Good House Hub for SmartThings ($135), which is a SmartThings-compatible hub that helps all of the protocols (nevertheless it’s not going to cost your smartphone). The SmartThings Hub Dongle has the identical radio capabilities because the Station and is just $35. It should get an replace to Matter / Thread later this yr, nevertheless it needs to be plugged right into a Samsung TV or fridge. (Sure, you possibly can management your good house with a fridge.)

The excellent news is which you could run a number of SmartThings hubs, so in case you began with the Station after which determined you probably did wish to add Z-Wave, you might combine an Aeotec hub into your setup. However Samsung instructed me that for totally native automations, all units concerned have to be on the identical hub. In case your units are on completely different hubs, the automations on them will run within the cloud.

Establishing the Station is simple; you simply want the SmartThings app on both iOS or Android. It’s one of many first Matter controllers that works with each platforms (Samsung up to date its iOS app to help Matter earlier final month; Google and Amazon have but to launch their iOS Matter apps). Open the app, faucet the plus image within the top-right nook, choose “add machine,” choose Samsung below manufacturers, choose Good House Hub, select SmartThings Station, and observe the steps.

As soon as linked, you possibly can onboard units to the hub in an identical means. Faucet “add machine” and both scan the machine’s QR code or select from the opposite choices. SmartThings can even auto-scan for units utilizing its Matter Straightforward Pair characteristic. This solely works with Galaxy telephones, which detect any Matter machine broadcasting a BLE beacon and ship a pop-up notification to your telephone asking if you wish to add it. 

I arrange a Matter-enabled Eve Movement sensor utilizing the Station, and it labored easily. A notification appeared on the Galaxy S22 I used to be testing with, and it prompted me to scan the machine’s Matter QR code. Then, as soon as it had been added, I selected which room it was in and named it. From there, I arrange a routine utilizing the movement sensor to activate some Philips Hue lights linked to SmartThings through the Hue bridge.

The automation ran promptly and reliably, with the bulbs turning on easily a second or so after movement was detected. Nonetheless, after I added some Nanoleaf mild panels and Lutron good switches to the automation (each of that are linked by means of the cloud), there was noticeable lag, and the lights popped on in a random sequence.

SmartThings is well essentially the most highly effective mainstream good house system you possibly can select, wanting organising your individual House Assistant server — and it’s so much simpler to make use of. It really works with IFTTT-style automation and permits for situations and a number of actions. This implies you possibly can create extra intricate and particular automations than these supplied by Apple House and Amazon’s Alexa platform. And it blows Google House’s paltry choices out of the water. 

For instance, I set an automation to activate a sensible plug linked to a fan within the rooster coop when it’s over 80 levels Fahrenheit and sunny — however provided that I’m at house and the rooster coop door is closed. SmartThings is ready to tie automations to a particular time interval, presence, machine state, climate, and mode.

The mode characteristic is especially useful for me. You possibly can select from House, Away, or Evening and tailor automations round them. My husband works 24-hour shifts, so if I add the “Provided that location is in House mode” situation to my automations, I can activate the Evening mode whereas he’s sleeping throughout the day to ensure nothing by chance runs and wakes him up.

The button on the Station is usually a distant management for any scenes or automation you create. For instance, I set the Evening mode scene to activate with a single press. This fashion, when my husband comes house and must sleep, he can simply press it as soon as and know that he gained’t get disturbed. I haven’t discovered an answer to that drawback so simple as this on the opposite platforms I’ve examined.

The button could be configured to run as much as three scenes or automations or simply management a single machine. Along with single press, there’s additionally the choice to double press or lengthy press. Once you first arrange the Station, it prompts you to set the double press motion to ring your Samsung telephone (it solely works with Samsung telephones), so yow will discover it if it’s in your own home. Curiously, in case you flip this on, you possibly can nonetheless use the double press to set off a sensible house machine. I set it to activate a lightweight within the hallway, and it did each concurrently. 

Talking of discovering issues, the Station additionally acts as a SmartThings Discover machine scanner. That is Samsung’s model of Apple’s Discover My characteristic, protecting tabs on any units registered by means of a Samsung Galaxy, akin to watches, earbuds, and even issues like keys and pets if they’ve a Galaxy SmartTag or SmartTag Plus (sure, like AirTags).

The Station can always scan for any linked machine and inform you if it leaves your own home or when it comes again. I examined it with my automobile keys, that are always strolling off on their very own. I hooked up a Galaxy SmartTag Plus, which makes use of UWB along with Bluetooth for extra exact location identification.

It labored reliably to alert me when the keys left my location and after they returned. (I despatched my husband out with the automobile.) However I couldn’t discover a great way to get the notification to pop up as an alert. As an alternative, it simply obtained buried in all my different notifications, making it lower than helpful for protecting tabs on one thing in real-time, akin to a pet or individual.

There’s additionally the choice to activate alerts once you depart the machine behind, and you may see a location historical past in your machine. What I discovered most useful was after I had my keys on me however couldn’t discover my telephone. In these conditions, I may press the button on the tag twice to ring the telephone. This works in reverse, too, and doesn’t require the Station.

As a wi-fi charger, the SmartThings Station’s principal declare to fame is “super-fast” wi-fi charging. Keep in mind that that is nonetheless slower than charging with a cable and a fast-charging brick, nevertheless it does velocity issues up a bit. It may possibly cost suitable Samsung telephones at 15 watts, about three watts greater than customary wi-fi charging (so long as you utilize a 25-watt brick). The Samsung Galaxy S22 went from zero to hero in round 2.5 hours.

Whereas it is going to additionally cost different manufacturers of smartphones, it does so at slower speeds. Samsung says it might cost Apple units at 7.5 watts and Qi-compatible telephones at a glacial 5 watts. It juiced up an iPhone 14 in slightly over 4 hours, however a Pixel 6 took eternally. It may possibly additionally cost Samsung buds — however not Galaxy watches.

I did discover it actually tough to place the telephone on the charger. I finally discovered the appropriate positioning for the Galaxy 22; you need to put the underside digital camera lens within the top-right nook of the Station. The iPhone most well-liked a jaunty angle. However all of them required particular placement, and it positively made me miss the comforting clunk of an iPhone with a MagSafe charger.

Because it’s a flat charging pad, the Station doesn’t make it straightforward to make use of the telephone whereas it’s charging. It’s additionally considerably chunkier than most wi-fi pads, nevertheless it’s packing all these additional radios and has a fan / cooling system happening. It does have a charging indicator mild that stays pink till the telephone is charged, in order that’s a useful visible cue that it’s working, 

The distinctive factor right here is which you could tie charging into automations. Which means that once you begin charging, cease charging, or when the telephone is absolutely charged, you possibly can have a scene or automation run. I set it to ship me a notification by means of SmartThings and switch one in every of my lights blue when the telephone was absolutely charged. I additionally had it activate an I’m Again! scene to show the lights on and regulate my Ecobee thermostat after I put the telephone on the charger after 4PM. 

As helpful of a multipurpose machine as it’s, the Station’s additional features are geared towards Samsung smartphones, making this solely value contemplating in case you or somebody in your own home makes use of a Galaxy machine. If you have already got a SmartThings hub that helps Zigbee and Matter, then there’s no have to get this for the hub portion. 

If in case you have a Samsung Household Hub fridge or good TV, the SmartThings Hub Dongle will get you an identical options for much less cash. (It should get Thread help quickly.) However the SmartThings button characteristic bumps the Station up a notch if these are your wants. It’s very useful.

Nonetheless, as a sensible house platform, SmartThings doesn’t rely on a Galaxy machine, particularly not in the way in which Apple House depends on an iPhone. (I nonetheless don’t get why rebooting my iPhone typically fixes any good house issues I’m having with HomeKit.) It really works simply as effectively with an Android or iPhone.

SmartThings has wide-ranging compatibility with good units. It’s one of many few mainstream choices that help Z-Wave (although not by means of the Station, sadly). It works with a protracted checklist of firms and integrates with fashionable units from Ring, Nest, Ecobee, Philips Hue, Lutron, and Nanoleaf, in addition to with a number of obscure and geeky devices. It’s additionally suitable with Amazon Alexa and Google House if you wish to add voice management. (You could possibly additionally use Bixby… .)

If you would like your good washer or oven to be a part of your good house, SmartThings seems to be like your best choice. Samsung has mentioned its home equipment won’t be Matter units. When you can management some Samsung units and people from different producers with Amazon Alexa or Google House, the expertise isn’t optimum. And shortly SmartThings may match with many of the main equipment producers.

Samsung is a founding member of the House Connectivity Alliance, an business group working to make the good units of all massive house equipment producers interoperable. If this pans out, SmartThings may change into one of many solely platforms to have the ability to management all of your bigger house home equipment alongside good house units like lights, locks, and thermostats. So, you might have your LG tv, GE fridge, Samsung oven, and Electrolux washer multi function app.

Whereas in principle, different Matter-enabled apps from HCA members (akin to LG’s ThinQ app) may do that, too, Samsung’s platform has a major head begin on its equipment producer brethren, placing it in a strong place. 

This brings me again to Matter. It could be fixing machine interoperability, however the good house platforms will nonetheless be competing to lock you into their ecosystems — no matter $10 good plug you purchase. Apple with the iPhone and its subscription providers; Samsung with its smartphones and home equipment; Amazon with its very low cost good audio system and streaming providers; and Google with its well-curated suite of Nest good house {hardware}. 

Sure, the good house is getting less complicated to make use of and arrange, however even with Matter’s multi-admin characteristic (which helps you to use units throughout ecosystems), you’ll nonetheless wish to choose a main platform. Matter permits for flexibility, however in the end, similar to most individuals don’t need a number of plastic bins dangling off their routers, most individuals don’t wish to use a number of apps to regulate their good properties. And proper now, the SmartThings platform seems to be set to have the broadest compatibility as soon as once more. 

Images by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge