Our pick of the big smart home winners of the past 12 months
The votes have been cast. The results have been counted. The time has come to announce the winners of the 2023 Ambient Smart Home Awards.
It’s been a bumper year for the smart home with Matter making inroads, Amazon making Alexa smarter than ever, SmartThings hubs being built into seemingly every Samsung device with a plug, and Apple and Google totally refreshing their Home apps.
With ever-evolving ecosystems providing the backbone, it’s super simple to get your smart home pimped out with the latest and greatest gear.
Which leads us on nicely to our top smart home picks for 2023…
The Ecovacs Deebot T20 Omni is a an absolute powerhouse that vacuums well on all surfaces.
But it’s the mopping that’s the star of the show here, with dual spinning microfibre pads and hot water. The T20 makes short work of deep stains, keeping hard floors at their best with very little effort.
For those with primarily hard floors and relatively clutter-free houses, the Deebot T20 Omni is a fantastic choice.
Paired with Wi-Fi 7 devices, the Eero Max 7 takes a huge leap forward in performance, offering speeds much faster than Gigabit Ethernet, and offering 10 Gigabit Ethernet speeds for LAN users.
Firmly focussed on the future, this mesh system shows how wireless networking should be done. If you want stunning speeds today and a system that can cope with future demand, the Eero Max 7 is a stunning mesh setup.
A fantastic smart lightstrip with industry leading RGBIC+ tunable tech on board, the Govee LED Strip Light M1 Matter shines bright on numerous fronts.
It’s much cheaper than lightstrips from big name rivals, and it performs much, much better.
The Matter integration is obviously a big selling point but, using the native Govee app and for this 2m lightstrip, you aren’t going to get better colors, effects and features anywhere else.
The Sonos Era 300 is without doubt the most impressive spatial audio experience of any standalone speaker yet.
It’s a bit more expensive than its Apple and Amazon rivals, but that extra outlay gets you a big jump in quality, and you are looking at some serious bang for you buck.
The Era 300 is the very best Sonos speaker that you can buy right now. And it’s a speaker that will only get better as the catalog of spacial audio tracks and streaming platforms offering Dolby Atmos increases.
The EufyCam S330 system is about the most complete off-the-shelf security camera setup that money can buy right now.
The 4K footage is super clear, the AI recognition tech works brilliantly and the solar panels on board should mean that battery charging is something you never have to worry about.
The Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus boasts the highest-ever resolution we’ve seen in a Ring battery model, with a field of view that allows for head-to-toe visuals of anyone who comes calling at your door.
Throw in superb Alexa integrations and decent range of Ring’s latest features such as Advanced Motion Detection, pre-set Quick Replies, Live View and Two-Way Talk – and you’re looking at a new top-dog in the battery video doorbell world.
The Brisant Ultion Nuki Plus improves on what was already a compelling package, adding in direct Wi-Fi and a rechargeable battery option for further ease of use.
Super simple to install, and with the added assurance of a Brisant Secure 3 Star Plus cylinder, combined with a wealth of lock and unlock options, the Nuki Plus really is a smart lock that ticks all of the boxes.
The Homey Pro is aimed at the enthusiast who doesn’t mind getting their hands a bit dirty. If you want to build out you home with Zigbee and Z-Wave devices now, with the potential for Matter and Thread in the future, then there’s no other system that quite offers the power that Homey Pro does.
If the Homey Pro supports the devices you want and you need more powerful automations than its rivals can offer, there’s nothing better.
XGIMI is fast becoming the go-to brand for home projectors that manage to deliver a knockout blow without needing you to remortgage your house.
Pound for pound, the Horizon Ultra has got to be one of the most compelling arguments for getting a 4K home projector into your living room. Dolby Vision is obviously the headline here but it’s the dual-light setup and optical zoom feature that makes the Ultra a more than worthy successor to the Horizon Pro.
A slightly cheaper and less complicated hub is good to see with the Abode Security Kit, making the system slightly less daunting and complex-seeming to those who wouldn’t use these features.
Fortunately, the system’s core elements, including its ease of use and optional monitoring plans, remain the same. This all makes the Abode Security Kit one of the best DIY alarm systems you can buy.
