The best smart home products at CES 2020 -

Panasonic

The smart home category of products is one of the fastest-growing industries in the tech world. As one would expect, CES 2020 was bursting at the seams with smart home gear, so we thought we’d round up the best smart home tech we saw at the show.

As the smart home industry matures, we’re starting to see lots of products from different companies that all do pretty much the same thing. We saw tons of smart lights, smart locks, smart speakers, and other staples of the modern smart home.

However, the best smart home tech products we saw were things that were a bit more innovative, whether because they were doing something completely new or simply approaching problems from a new angle. We tried to focus mostly on those kinds of products for our roundup below.

Looking for the best smart home products you can buy right now? Check out our always-updated roundup here.

Kwikset Halo Touch: A smart lock with a fingerprint reader

Kwikset

Using a fingerprint to unlock your front door isn’t something you can’t do today. However, the systems available are pretty expensive and would likely require you to hire someone to install it all.

The Kwikset Halo Touch smart lock solves both of those problems. Coming in at a very reasonable price of $249, the Halo Touch isn’t much more expensive than your average smart lock. And, in the usual Kwikset fashion, the lock is DIY-friendly, so much so that pretty much anyone can install it themselves.

This smart lock has a fingerprint sensor, a reasonable price, and it’s easy enough to install on your own.

The lock can hold up to 100 fingerprints, or 50 users max (two fingerprints for each user). To appease any privacy concerns you might have, all the fingerprints are encrypted and saved to the lock itself, never to the cloud. You also have access to the usual smart lock functions you would expect, such as remote unlocking, monitoring lock/unlocked status, and seeing who opened the door and when.

Finally, the Kwikset Halo Touch integrates with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, making it one of the most fully featured smart locks we’ve yet seen, and certainly one of the best smart home gadgets at CES. You’ll be able to buy the Halo Touch at places like Home Depot, Lowes, and Amazon in 2020.

Ring smart LED bulbs: More than just another smart bulb

Ring

Is there a more basic smart home accessory than a smart bulb? Probably not, so on the surface, Ring introducing its very first smart bulb seems like pretty uninteresting news, and certainly not good enough to make our list of the best smart home tech of CES 2020.

However, there is one feature that sets Ring’s smart bulbs apart from others, which is seamless integration with the various Ring security products. For example, you can connect your bulbs to your Ring system and then program the lights to come on when one of your Ring cameras detects motion.

This is a pretty cool feature as a would-be thief might run off if the lights suddenly turn on in your home, regardless if you are actually there or not.

Granted, this can be done already with other security systems, but most of the time the integration occurs across different brands, such as Nest and Hue. Since Ring makes the bulbs and the security system, that makes things much easier and likely more effective.

You’ll be able to buy Ring’s smart LED bulbs on April 1, 2020, from Amazon, Ring.com, and places like Home Depot.

Panasonic Home Hawk Floor: A security camera in a lamp

Panasonic

Many smart home users find that having security cameras in their homes is essential for their peace-of-mind. However, security cameras can sometimes be an eyesore, especially when you’re running wires around.

That’s where the Panasonic Home Hawk Floor comes in. If you look at the Home Hawk Floor models above you might think it’s a standard lamp, not too different from what you’d find at Ikea. Inside, though, is a 1080p connected camera with color night vision, motion-activated video recording, and more. The base of the lamp even contains a battery pack which will allow the camera to continue working for an hour after a power outage.

The Home Hawk Floor is also compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa so you can control both the camera and the light using just your voice. If you’re concerned about privacy, there’s an easily accessible privacy mode that disables video and audio recording until you turn it back on.

Unfortunately, Panasonic wouldn’t divulge how much the Home Hawk Floor models will cost, nor when you’d be able to buy one. This is disappointing because this is one of the best smart home products we saw at CES. Stay tuned!

Yale Smart Cabinet Lock: Simple and useful

Yale

The Yale Smart Cabinet Lock is such a simple thing that you wonder why it isn’t already everywhere. This small and easy-to-install product turns any existing cabinet, drawer, or other household storage system into smart storage.

All you need to do is install the Smart Cabinet Lock into the storage item you own and then sync it with a Wi-Fi bridge (sold separately or as part of a bundle). Then, just like a smart lock for a front door, you can remotely lock or unlock the cabinet, see who opened the cabinet and when, etc.

Protect your valuables in cabinets you already own with this small and easy-to-install smart device.

This is a great tool for people who rent out their homes as Airbnb properties or those who have small children. Pretty much anything in your house that you don’t want people snooping through would benefit greatly from the Yale Smart Cabinet Lock.

The Smart Cabinet Lock will launch in the Spring and cost $79 on its own or $129 bundled with the Wi-Fi bridge.

Knectek Townew: A trash can that tends to itself

Knectek

Technically, the Knectek Townew isn’t a smart home product as it doesn’t actually connect to the internet or talk with any of your other smart home devices. However, we couldn’t resist putting it on our list of the best smart home devices at CES because it’s just so darn cool.

The Townew is a small trash can that actually seals and replaces its liner when it needs to. When the liner reaches a certain capacity, it will automatically seal up the bag and pop up the lid, letting you know you need to take it out. Once you do, it will place a new liner down and close the lid back up. You’ll never need to worry about the trash again!

Hate dealing with the trash? This little guy will do all the dirty work for you.

Of course, the catch is that you can’t just use any old trash bags. You’ll need to buy special liner cartridges from Knectek, which may or may not be a deal-breaker for you.

The Townew is already available from Amazon for $120. Check it out by hitting the button below.

Buy Knectek Townew

Onsen: An AI-powered hot water manager

Delta Dore

Let’s be real: losing hot water in the middle of a shower is quite possibly the worst way to start your morning. But how would you have known that all the hot water was taken up by your little brother who takes 45-minute showers for some reason?

Well, Onsen from Delta Dore is here to solve that problem. Onsen is the world’s first AI-powered hot water manager. Using a sensor connected to your hot water heater and a companion monitor device, you can know exactly how much hot water is left for your shower.

Additionally, you can even use a smartphone app to control how much hot water is used to help save on energy bills. The whole system is really neat and would be incredibly useful for a large family who all tend to take showers during the same general time of day.

Onsen by Delta Dore is a brand new product so it isn’t for sale yet and the company hasn’t announced any pricing or availability details.

Lockly Vision: The smart lock with everything

Lockly

Smart locks were a big trend this year on the show floor. We’ve already got one that has a fingerprint scanner on this list of the best smart home products at CES, but this one has some inventive twists of its own: a fingerprint scanner and a built-in doorbell camera.

This product eliminates the need for you to buy a smart lock and a smart doorbell — just buy this one device and you’re all set.

The Lockly Vision is the all-in-one doorway solution you want, but it will cost you.

You can open your front door fitted with a Lockly Vision device in multiple ways. You can scan your fingerprint, talk to Google Assistant or Alexa, or enter a numerical code. Whatever you choose, whenever someone approaches the door they will be recorded in HD and you’ll be notified via the Lockly smartphone app. You can then save those videos to the cloud.

While the Kwikset Halo Touch at the top of this article is a nice compact and DIY-friendly smart lock, the Lockly Vision is the high-end, all-in-one device for those who want the best of the best. The Vision will start at $400 and launch sometime this year.

Kohler Moxie Voice: A smart speaker shower head

Kohler

Singing in the shower is a time-honored tradition. Listening to music in the shower, though, is a bit tricky since there’s, you know, a lot of water. There are plenty of waterproof Bluetooth speakers out there, sure, but they might not be the most aesthetically pleasing or might take up too much room in a tight space. Plus, you need to actually use your hands to operate them.

Enter the Kohler Moxie Voice series, which is a high-end shower head that incorporates an Alexa-powered smart speaker created by Harman Kardon. It’s easy to put the speaker into the shower head or take it out, allowing you to use the speaker for multiple purposes.

A full charge of the speaker is good for five hours of music playback, which is as easy as saying, “Hey Alexa, play my shower playlist.” The speaker/shower head combo will set you back $229, but availability hasn’t been announced yet.

C by GE’s smart switches: Switches for everyone

Smart switches are a great option for people who want the convenience of smart lights but don’t want to go through the hassle of buying individual smart bulbs. They’re also helpful if you have a light that doesn’t use a traditional light bulb, such as a fluorescent bar-style bulb.

Unfortunately, not every home can use smart switches because most switches will require a neutral wire. Older homes sometimes don’t have this wire, which makes smart switches useless. Thankfully, GE has a new line of smart switches that only need three wires — line, load, and ground. That means that pretty much every home can use a GE smart switch now.

The new set of smart switches from GE will bring the technology to everyone, even those with older homes.

According to GE’s estimates, as many as 40% of homes in the United States only have three-wire switches, which means nearly half the households in the country will now have a smart switch option for the first time ever.

GE’s switches will start at $40 and go up from there and will be available sometime in the first quarter of this year.

Those are the best smart home products we found at CES 2020. Which one are you most excited about? Sound off in the comments below.