Nine smart home devices, nine specs that decide whether each one works in your house. The last one decides whether any of it still works in three years.
Most US smart plugs stop at 15 amps, roughly 1,800 watts. A space heater or window AC will overwhelm a lower-rated one, so match the plug to the load.
Watts measure power draw, not brightness. Lumens do. A bulb replacing an old 60W incandescent needs about 800 lumens, whatever the wattage on the box says.
Check for a microSD slot or NVR support. Cloud-only cameras keep no recorded footage without a plan, and Ring's cheapest starts at $4.99 a month.
Battery models mount anywhere but need recharging every few months. Wired ones run off an existing 16-24V transformer and can ring your indoor chime.
Look for a physical keyway or external contacts that take a 9V battery. Without one, flat batteries lock you out of your own front door.
LiDAR models build a real floor plan and clean in tidy rows. Bump-and-turn models wander at random, skip corners and take far longer on the same room.
A common wire gives a thermostat constant power. No C-wire? Google sells a Nest Power Connector, and ecobee includes a Power Extender Kit in the box.
Prefer a hardware microphone-off button over an app toggle. It is the only mute you can confirm by looking at the speaker instead of trusting a screen.
Budget Wi-Fi 7 boxes drop the 6 GHz band entirely. The real thing is tri-band with 6 GHz, MLO, and a 2.5 Gbps port so the router never caps your plan.
One badge keeps a device working across Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home and SmartThings. The standard reached version 1.6 in June 2026 and keeps growing.