Devices and gadgets for smart home

Smart home kits

Indeed, a dozen years ago, when talking about smart home, there was an immediate image of an unattainable level of comfort and opportunities available only to really rich people. We saw how in fantastic movies heroes went into their homes, and the house itself turned on the lights, music, closed the curtains and on the wall lights up the screen, but a little time has passed, and now all this is available to you and me, and at the same time many of the already available things not so long ago were not even considered as possible for widespread, mass application. 

Smart home today is not some super complicated installation or super expensive solution, it is just a set of gadgets that will make your life much more comfortable, will work in one system, will keep you informed about what is happening, will provide control and security and allow you to manage it all remotely. 

Let's take a look at what we want to get from a smart home and highlight a few key areas:

In each of these categories, we'll highlight the models you should pay attention to, and in the end you'll have 50 top devices that will definitely make your life more comfortable, free up your time for socializing with friends and take care of the cleanliness and order in your home.

The older of the two is "Yandex.Station Max."

"Yandex.Station Max" is not just a smart speaker, but also a hub for controlling connected devices via ZigBee protocol. This model is the most versatile, it has the ability to connect with an HDMI cable to a TV, and it can output 4K video content to it. Support for the ZigBee protocol makes it possible to connect a large number of sensors that work on this protocol. This functionality will allow you not to worry about buying a separate hub and will simplify the creation of a smart home system. The senior speaker will especially appeal to those buyers who want a great sounding device. With five different speakers and a total power output of 65 watts, the speaker supports Dolby Audio surround sound. The LED screen on the "Yandex.Station Max" shows the weather or time when it's in standby mode, and when you ask it something, it shows different animations. This device in combination with the application "Smart Home with Alice" will allow the owner to easily organize full control of all elements of the smart home, will give the opportunity to implement various complex control scenarios, and most importantly, thanks to "Yandex" you will have the opportunity to keep the system up to date, as the voice assistant "Alice" is constantly developing and getting new skills and abilities. Yandex also stated that in the future it will update its system and provide support for the most modern 

"Yandex.Station" of the second generation

"Yandex.Station" second generation also has the ability to control and connect various devices via ZigBee protocol, it has good sound from speakers with a total power of 30 watts, there is LED lighting of the control pad and the ability to use the speaker as a night light. This speaker has almost the same capabilities for controlling smart home devices as the older device, but it does not have the ability to connect a TV and output content to it, but it can easily control the TV if you add "Yandex.Module" to your system.

"Yandex.Station Mini"

This is a device for those who need to get control capabilities using the voice assistant "Alice" and at the same time do not want to incur large expenses. Such a speaker is available in two variants: it can be in a version with and without an LED clock, the difference in the price of such models is one thousand rubles. The small speaker sounds quite well for a tiny device with 10 W power, at the same time it has four sensitive microphones that will hear your command even from the next room, and its ability to control external devices does not differ from the older models.

The most affordable "Yandex.Station" is a solution for those who need a device for one of the rooms where Alice is not yet available, or a toy to entertain children. It can do exactly the same things as the older models in terms of interaction with "Alice", but its power is low, only 5 watts. At the same time, it will control the smart home as well as its older sisters.

SberBoom

SberBoom also has a younger brother, this 5W speaker is affordable and can also perform all control tasks, a pair of such speakers can be assembled in a stereo pair, and if there are several speakers, you can use the multi-room mode, then the sound of all speakers will be simultaneous.

In this group it is worth mentioning smart speakers from VK, models VK Capsule Neo and VK Capsule Mini.

The VK Capsule Mini smart speaker has 5 watts of power, it has four microphones, a USB-C charging port, it can work on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, VK's proprietary voice assistant - "Marusya" - lives in the speaker, it has an LED display that can show the time or a simple animation.

The VK Capsule Neo smart speaker is a more affordable alternative to the previous speaker, it also has 5 watts of power and is controlled by VK's voice assistant "Marusya".