Whether you're looking for new smart home gadgets to add to your existing collection, or want help understanding the smart home for beginners, Paul Antill shares a smart home tour that delivers big on inspiration when working with a small space. Setting up a smart home can power your home with automations, convenience, security and entertainment. There's no shortage of amazing smart home technology, from smart gadgets for home on Amazon like Ring doorbells and Echo speakers to robot window cleaners and immersive smart lights.
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00:00like tell me that's not the future I've recently moved into this new space but I had to downsize
00:09quite a bit however I've got a number of really cool smart home gadgets that make the most of a
00:14smaller space so whether you're just starting a smart home or you're looking for some really
00:19cool smart home gadgets that are easy to install maybe renter friendly there's something for
00:23everyone here from setting the mood automated home cleaning and smart home security here's
00:27some of the best picks that you can get today that actually make a difference one of the most
00:31important decisions that went into creating my smart home setup was making sure that everything
00:36works seamlessly together especially in the area that I hang out most my living room so for my
00:41brains I'm using Alexa now as a voice assistant it's not really the best and it doesn't hold a
00:46torch compared to Google home Alexa turn off all the lights wall lights isn't responding but when
00:52it comes to actually controlling my devices my lights my TV my Xbox it gives me the most
00:57flexibility with those custom prompts for example Alexa let's game okay without one custom command it
01:06turned on my govi strip lights my govi lamp my Xbox and my TV and when it all works well together it
01:12really makes you feel like you're part of the future in the living room I've paired the echo
01:15studio along with the echo sub now the really cool thing about this is you can actually pair up to two
01:21of these along with an echo sub and if you have a fire TV or a fire stick you can actually pair all
01:26three together for a really incredible surround sound system you can mix and match their other
01:31speakers and start even with a basic one and slowly expand into more if you just want to get your feet
01:36wet but there are a few other smaller things that you can do to make your older or more retro products
01:42feel like they're part of your smart home for example we've got these really cool bulbs over here that
01:47are controlled via smart switches hidden behind here turn on the bookshelf lights
01:51and then if you're like me and you're starting to get into records even budget options like this
01:57electro home here for a hundred dollars have bluetooth built in which allow you to easily
02:02connect to your other smart devices your smart speakers whether those are Alexa's or via bluetooth to
02:08your bookshelf speakers not too far away across the room I have the echo show 10 and this is probably my
02:16favorite smart home device that I've tried to date it's a display that you can always look at so
02:21whether I'm cooking whether I'm washing dishes or I'm just trying to get ingredients it's a display
02:25that I can always keep my eyes on actually mostly keep this mode set to off but when I'm cooking show
02:31me recipes for steak tacos I'll read the directions one step at a time it's actually been pretty cool to
02:37be able to have a screen that does a semi-decent job at following me around so that I can continue
02:41watching my favorite show or play live news live from ABC news or all along with a recipe without
02:48needing to actually touch the display beyond that these speakers are one of the best ways to get
02:54great sounding multi-room audio with very little effort but actually my favorite part of this entire
02:59setup is the lighting specifically syncing it with the TV and for that we're gonna be installing the
03:05govi backlight 3 this is the newest part of my setup but I saw so many people raving about it online that I
03:10just had to try it out myself with the govi TV backlight 3 anything on my screen can expand into
03:15a lighting canvas thanks to the camera on top coming from more traditional smart lights it's on a whole
03:20other level when it's actually syncing with what's happening on screen in real time it's incredible now
03:26this is the high sense 65 inch u8k even those last year's model this is still one of the best TVs
03:32that you can get for under a thousand dollars that's 4k and 144 Hertz it gets extremely bright with
03:371500 nits peak with impressive blacks and contrast thanks to its mini LED panel making it great for
03:43sunny rooms like this a really nice TV like this brings the smart home together and high sense makes
03:48some of the best value non OLED TVs that you can get today again don't be afraid to shop for a TV
03:53that's a year or two old like this one since it's a great way to get most of those same smart features
03:57and picture quality but at a decent discount this also comes with Google assistant built in either the
04:03mic built into the TV or via the remote so I can say okay Google open max opening max stream HBO and
04:11if you have your smart home accessories connected with your Google home account you can control them
04:15with your TV this could either make it a great starting point for when you're first creating a
04:19smart home or an easy way to expand it out without needing to buy a dedicated smart hub for that room
04:24ring makes smart doorbells that give me notifications to my phone or my Alexas whenever someone's at my
04:33door or rings traveling a lot this is a great way for me to keep tabs on my deliveries or make sure my
04:40packages are safe one of the key things for me since I didn't want to drill through my door for wiring
04:45was a long-lasting built-in battery in this case the ring gives me about 6 to 12 months depending on how
04:51frequently I get notifications and check in on things when I first bought into the system I
04:56thought was the perfect pair especially with my Alexas and for the most part it still is but they're
05:02pushing really hard to get people to buy their monthly ring protect plan which starts at $5 to
05:07get video history and enhanced notifications so just keep that in mind I'm not the biggest fan of
05:12having security cameras in the home but I do like having them to monitor entrances like this one here
05:18to my balcony just because you never know so this is the GE sync smart camera and it's cool for a
05:26couple of reasons one it's pretty affordable it also has a physical shutter so I can pull it up and
05:31I know for sure it's not able to record anything it also has this really nice swivel here so I can get
05:35the perfect angle and you'll also notice that it has a micro SD card on the side here so it can
05:40actually record and save footage locally without the need for cloud storage so that actually saves you a
05:46little bit of money in the long run because you don't need to have a subscription service which
05:49is one of the main things for me I'm tired of having subscription services for everything and
05:53again it's only about $30 so it was perfect for what I needed and because it's compatible with Alexa
05:58I can say Alexa show me the porch camera okay so that all goes back to finding one ecosystem and a
06:05bunch of products that all work perfectly together I've been testing and reviewing robot vacuum cleaners
06:12for over four years now and as weird as it is to get excited by a vacuum it's also really cool to
06:18see how far these have come over the past few years not just in terms of how well they clean but also with
06:25their design this is the Ecovacs X2 Omni and new for this year it has a lot of cool tricks up its sleeve
06:30so carried over from its previous models we see the auto lifting mopping pads which when first introduced
06:36was a huge game changer for me because it allowed you to clean your carpets and your hardwood floors
06:42during the same cleaning cycle but they've taken things even further new for this year the X2 Omni
06:47has managed to move all of its navigation and obstacle avoidance sensors into the main part
06:52of its body instead of the submarine like sale that smart vacuums usually have this allows the
06:57vacuum to clean under lower clearance obstacles that were once out of reach that said you'll still
07:01probably find a few crannies and corners that the vacuum still can't reach and for that you now
07:06have the new handheld stick vac which is attached to the station's right hand side on top of doing a
07:11really great job at replacing a traditional vacuum even better when you're done cleaning
07:15it auto empties and charges using that same station because of all this I think this combo is one of
07:20the best all-in-one smart vacuum systems that you can get today the thing is you don't need to spend a
07:26thousand dollars like on this combo here you can get a model that's a couple years old maybe one
07:30that's used if you're just trying it out for the first time and you're actually going to be really
07:34impressed especially if it's from one of those bigger brands and again the idea with these is that
07:38you're going to be able to trust them to do your automated home cleaning without much of your own
07:43input you're not going to need to bust out that traditional vacuum as often but we've all seen
07:48robot vacuum cleaners what about a robot cleaner for your windows this is the winbot w2 omni within a few
07:55clicks it attaches to your windows it begins suctioning cleaning and in just a few minutes it's done so
08:00it's got actually enough water to do a couple of these place it at one corner turn it on you'll hear
08:07it we're up and hands off it's got little nozzles on its front and back it's actually going to start
08:15spurting in each direction as it moves now one thing that's really great is again this is an all-in-one
08:20unit with a battery built in so even though i do have an outdoor outlet i don't need to worry about
08:24staying tethered because it has enough charge to clean all of my windows exterior and interior on a single
08:29charge is this something that i thought i'd ever need let alone ever get to try no but now that i
08:36have it really has me excited to see what the future of home automation holds so not only is
08:40this easier and quicker than using a bucket and squeegee it's doing a better job there's no streaks
08:45and you know i can sit inside and not have to worry about it to me that is part of the house of the
08:50future and all this is kept safe with my yale smart lock this is one of the cheapest smart locks
08:56that he can buy today from a reputable brand and as someone who hates to take their keys with them
09:01this is a great choice it doesn't have wi-fi so i can't control this remotely when i'm not home but
09:06at the same time maybe this actually makes this less of a security risk as it's not on an actual
09:12network you still have the convenience of bluetooth if you don't want to use the keypad but it's actually
09:17its auto lock feature that i like most even if i forget to lock the door after a few moments
09:23it'll just lock itself but what purchase would you make to start your smart home journey today let
09:29me know in the comments you can also follow us everywhere at tom's guide to see more cool tech
09:33and you can follow me to see what i'm reviewing next until the next one i'll catch you later