The Complete List Of All Smart Home Devices (From 2008 Onwards)

Smart home tech has exploded in popularity over the past decade, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of every new product which is available – especially when ‘Google Home’ rebranded to ‘Nest’, or when Amazon Echo are up to their 4th generation of certain devices!

So that’s where we come in! We have spent ages compiling a list of all smart home devices across a range of categories (from voice assistants to smart doorbells) which you can check out below.

Voice Assistants/Virtual Assistants

All Amazon Echo Devices – from 2014 to present

The Amazon Echo range of smart devices seemed to really help the popularity of voice/virtual assistants, with Amazon being one of the first to release these devices in 2014:

VariantRelease DateNotes
Amazon Echo (1st Gen)6th November 2014 (Prime members only)Released to the general public in June 2015.
Amazon Echo (2nd Gen)31st October 2017
Amazon Echo Dot (1st Gen)March 2016
Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen)20th October 2016
Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Gen)September 2018
Amazon Echo Dot ‘With Clock’ (4th Gen)October 2019Contains a HUD display showing a clock.
Amazon TapMay 2017A more portable version of the Echo
Amazon Echo LookApril 2017Contains a camera for selfie and ‘AI-driven’ fashion advice.
Amazon Echo Show (1st Gen) June 2017Contains a screen so that instructions, weather and video can be displayed.
Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen)20th September 2018
Amazon Echo Show 8 (3rd Gen)21st November 2019
Amazon Echo Spot27th September 2017
Amazon Echo Plus (1st Gen)27th September 2017Acts as a smart home hub.
Amazon Echo Plus (2nd Gen)September 2018
Amazon Echo Flex21st November 2019A plug-in device which offers Alexa support from the plug device itself.

All Google Home devices – from 2016 onwards

A Google Home Mini device placed on a wooden shelving unit

Google released their first smart assistant – the Google Home – at the end of 2016, by which time Amazon had already released 3 different variations. Nonetheless, it was better late than never and Google’s access to a huge amount of information (the internet, via Google search) meant that the Google Home speaker was a pretty useful device for asking questions to.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Google Home Smart Speaker4th November 2016Released to America only. The rest of the World had this in 2017 onwards.
Google Home Mini19th October 2017
Google Home Max11th December 2017
Google Home Hub9th October 2018Contains a touchscreen, making it similar to the Echo Show from Amazon.
Nest Mini (2nd Gen)22nd October 2019Replaces the Google Home Mini (Google have rebranded this product range to ‘Nest’).
Nest Hub7th May 2019Still 1st Gen (Google have rebranded this product range to ‘Nest’).
Nest Hub Max (2nd Gen)September 2019Replaces the Google Home Max (Google have rebranded this product range to ‘Nest’).

Apple HomePod devices from 2018

Apple are a late entrant into the smart speaker market, with their one and only product launched in early 2018. Rumors of a HomePod 2 continue to swirl, with current thinking pegging it at a 2020 release.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Apple HomePod9th February 2018Released to other countries throughout 2018 and 2019.
Apple HomePod 2Rumored 2020No release date known as yet.

Lenovo Smart tech from 2017 to present

Lenovo’s smart tech range uses Google Assistant under the hood to provide the smart functionality. Lenovo then manufacture the item and speakers.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Lenovo Smart AssistantMay 2017A smart speaker which is similar to the Amazon Echo in looks.
Lenovo Smart Display24th October 2018Has a touchscreen.

Sonos: 2017 onwards

A black Sonos One (Gen 2) sitting on a desk, with a picture above it and a plant to its right.
A Black Sonos One (Gen 2)

Sonos has been a staple for music purists, with a market leading set of speakers. So it was welcome when they released the Sonos One, which has a great speaker along with Amazon Alexa, Apple AirPlay2 and Google Assistant integration!

Sonos then released a Sonos One SL in 2019 which doesn’t have microphones and hence no Amazon Alexa nor Google Assistant integration. This means that it’s not a smart speaker… even though it’s still marketed under the ‘Sonos One’ smart branding. It’s instead controllable via their app.

VariantRelease TypeNotes
Sonos One24th October 2017
Sonos One (Gen 2)4th June 2019Has better memory, CPU and power saving features.
Sonos Move24th September 2019Is portable (and pricey) but has various smart assistant itnegrations.

Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats hit the scene in 2011 and captured people’s imagination: with the simple dream of being able to ensure your home is toasty warm (when travelling home) via your smartphone.

Every Nest Thermostat listed: from 2011

VariantRelease DateNotes
Nest Learning Thermostat (Gen 1)25th October 2011
Nest Learning Thermostat (Gen 2)2nd October 2012
Nest Learning Thermostat (Gen 3)1st September 2015
Nest Thermostat E31st August 2017The Nest E doesn’t have Nest Farsight, meaning it can’t turn on the heating when it detects you have walked into the house.

ecobee Smart Thermostats

ecobee are a Canadian smart device manufacturer who are selling a range of successful smart thermostats across Canada and North America:

A marketing image of the 2019 ecobee SmartThermostat black model with the temperature being displayed on screen.
The black 2019 ecobee SmartThermostat model.
VariantRelease DateNotes
ecobee Smart (EB-STAT-02)10th October 2008Is a smart thermostat but is not wireless.
ecobee Smart Si (EB-SMARTSi-01)23th January 2012
ecobee3 (1st Gen)16th September 2014The first wireless ecobee model.
ecobee3 (2nd Gen)2nd June 2015
ecobee3 Lite17th October 2016
ecobee43rd May 2017Their flagship smart thermostat model.
Ecobee SmartThermostat3rd June 2019

All Hive Smart Thermostats

Hive, a British company, produce smart thermostats which are most popular in the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Hive Active Heating 14th October 2013
Hive Active Heating 2July 2015

Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Thermostats

VariantRelease DateNotes
Emerson Sensi Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat4th October 2016
Emerson Sensi Touch Wi-Fi Smart ThermostatNovember 2018Has a touchscreen.

Honeywell Smart Thermostats

VariantRelease DateNotes
Honeywell Home Wi-Fi Thermostat16th November 2012 Works with Alexa.
Honeywell Round Smart Thermostat – First Generation2014
Honeywell Round Smart Thermostat – Second GenerationFebruary 2016
Honeywell T5 Smart Thermostat2nd September 2017
Honeywell T6 Pro Smart Thermostat15th June 2018

Smart Lighting

Philips Hue – Smart Bulbs list from 2012 onwards

Philips Hue White Ambiance starter kit with the Home Hub on the left, two White Bulbs in the middle and a Smart Switch on the right.
Philips Hue White Ambiance starter kit.

Philips Hue were the first range of smart bulbs to hit the market, and they are produced by Signify N.V. It integrates with all the major smart home devices and technologies including Amazon Echo, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings and more. Hue have a substantial number of individual bulb types out, so I list the main differences via their ‘Gen’ iterations below:

VariantRelease DateNotes
Philips Hue (Gen 1)29th October 2012Only 600 lumens brightness and not-the-best RGB color.
Philips Hue (Gen 2)4th October 2015800 lumens brightness and improved color.
Philips Hue (Gen 3)2nd October 2016800 lumens brightness and further improvements to the color.
Philips Hue (Gen 4)2019Includes a Bluetooth chip meaning that a Hue Bridge is no longer required.
Philips Hue Colour Waterproof LightstripJuly 2018Designed for outdoor and garden use.
Philips Hue Play Light BarOctober 2018A light bar which can sync up with media (such as your TV), changing light to match the movie being shown.
Philips Hue Vintage-Style Filament5th September 2019Vintage style filament bulbs based on Thomas Edison’s original creation.

LIFX Smart Bulbs

Whilst Philips got a lot of early attention, LIFX – an Australian company founded in 2012 – slowly but surely rolled out a large smart bulb product range which integrates with SmartThing, Logitech Harmony, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana and Mycroft.ai.

VariantRelease DateNotes
LIFX Smart Light Original 1000 (A21)8th April 2015One of LIFX’s first bulbs, this bulky smart bulb only supported Alexa integration.
LIFX Smart Light White 800 (A19)1st October 2016
LIFX Smart Light BR301st October 2016
LIFX GU101st October 2016Is a track light.
LIFX Downlight1st October 2016Is a downlight.
LIFX+1st October 2016Rated for outdoor use, and can emit infrared light (useful to use alongside outdoor security cameras).
LIFX Z Light Strip1st October 2016An LED light strip, to like the Philips Hue Lightstrip.
LIFX Mini BulbsNovember 2017One of the smallest smart bulbs on the market (at the time of launch).
LIFX Beam Color BarNovember 2017

Smart Doorbells

All Ring Doorbell Models from 2012

We’ve all seen the adverts: someone comes near the front door, and the home owner’s smartphone rings up a video of that person (and allows you to speak to the visitor). Awesome! Ring are owned by Amazon and thus have great integration with the Echo range.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Ring Video Doorbell (originally called Bot Home)December 2012
Ring Video Doorbell 225th August 2018
Ring Doorbell Pro23rd October 2019Has excellent motion detection features. Can only be hardwired.
Ring Doorbell Elite23rd October 2019A genuinely professional solution (compared to the ‘Pro’ which is a consumer item). Powered via Ethernet.
Ring Peephole Cam4th October 2019A tiny smart camera which replaces your door’s traditional peephole.
Ring Video Doorbell 31st May 2020Now supports both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz WiFi, along with minor design tweaks.
Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus1st May 2020Has ‘pre-roll’ video feature with extra 5 seconds of black and white footage.
A marketing image of a black Google Nest Hello Video Doorbell (on a white background).

Nest Hello Doorbells

Nest, a Ring rival, were bought out by Google in 2014 but only fully integrated into their hardware ecosystem in 2018.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Nest Hello Video DoorbellMarch 2018This requires wiring in (unlike some Ring models which have battery support).

Smart Plugs

All TP-Link Kasa Models

VariantRelease DateNotes
TP‑Link Kasa Smart Plug Wi-Fi Mini13th April 2018
TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug 24th April 2018
TP-Link Kasa Smart Outdoor Wi-Fi Plug10th April 2019As the name suggests, this is usable outdoors – but more in a porch than in the yard.

SmartThings Wi-Fi Smart Plug

Samsung are a late entrant into the smart plug market, with their only smart plug released in 2019:

VariantRelease DateNotes
Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi Smart Plug24th June 2019

Smart Door Locks

A list of all Yale Smart Locks

British lock company moved into smart locks in 2016, before launching them in America in 2017:

VariantRelease DateNotes
Yale Smart Living Door Lock22nd April 2016Released in America in 2017 (the UK was first).
Yale Smart Door Handle22nd November 2016

All August Home Locks

August are a San Francisco based home automation company whose most successful products are their smart home locks.

VariantRelease DateNotes
August Smart Lock (1st Gen)May 2013Controlled via bluetooth connected to a smartphone app.
August Smart Lock (2nd Gen)October 2015
August Smart Lock (3rd Gen)19th September 2017A cheaper-to-buy August Smart Lock but with some upgrades.

Indoor Cameras

Wyze Cam Device Directory

VariantRelease DateNotes
Wyze Cam Indoor Smart Home Camera16th October 2017
Wyze Cam Pan Smart Home Camera30th May 2018Supports full pan/tilt/zoom functionality.

All Blink XT Models Released

The second generation of this popular smart camera was suspended by Amazon US’ store due to some reliability concerns, but this can still be purchased in Amazon UK’s store.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Blink XT5th June 2018Battery powered for easy installation (this can be installed outside too).
Blink XT21st September 2019

Ring Smart Camera Models

Ring, owned by Amazon, started releasing Ring cameras in 2015 – but it was only in 2018 where they really started to gain traction for indoor smart cams, due to the Alexa integration.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Ring Stick-up Cam (1st Gen)2015
Ring Stick-up Cam (2nd Gen)2018
Ring Stick-up Cam (3rd Gen)2019
Ring Stick Up Cam Elite23rd October 2019Powered over ethernet.
Ring Indoor Cam23rd October 2019As the name suggests, this cannot be used outdoors.

Eufy Cameras

VariantRelease DateNotes
eufy Indoor Cam 2kMay 20202k resolution, indoor, $39.99/each
eufyCam2October 2019Full HD, outdoor, $140/cam
eufyCam2CAugust 2019Full HD, outdoor, $99/cam
eufyCam EOctober 2018Full HD, outdoor, $140/cam
eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Battery)May 20202k resolution, outdoor, $199.99/each
eufy Video Doorbell 2K (Wired)June 20192k resolution, outdoor, $159.99/each
eufy Smart Floodlight with cameraSeptember 2019Full HD, outdoor, $199.99/each
Eufy device line-up with their resolution and price per camera/device.

Arlo cameras

VariantRelease DateNotes
Arlo Security Camera2014Battery
Arlo Essential Spotlight13th June 2020Battery
Arlo Pro11th October 2016Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Pro 210th October 2017Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Pro 323rd September 2019Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Pro 3 Flootlight23rd September 2019Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Ultra25th March 2019Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Go4th January 2016Battery (but supports plug-in)
Arlo Q20th January 2016Plug-in
Arlo Q Plus6th April 2016Plug-in
Arlo Baby7th March 2017Battery (but supports plug-in)
The full Arlo smart camera range, including release dates.

Smoke/CO Detectors

Nest Protect

Nest started releasing their Protect device (a two-in-one smoke and CO detector) back in 2013, making it one of the earlier smart home devices.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Nest Protect 1st GenOctober 2013
Nest Protect 2nd GenJuly 201511% smaller than the 1st gen, and has anti-bug/dust design.

First Alert/One Link

First Alert produce a range of smoke, CO and two-in-one detectors under their own brand and the ‘One Link’ brand.

VariantRelease DateNotes
Onelink Smoke Detector and Carbon Monoxide Detector2nd October 2018Has Alexa support.
First Alert ZCOMBO Z-WaveMarch 2019Requires a Z-Wave supporting home hub, such as SmartThings.
About Tristan Perry

Tristan Perry is a software developer who is passionate about tech gadgets, DIY and housing. He has therefore loved seeing smart homes hit the mainstream. Tristan also has an academic background (in Math & Computer Science), and so he enjoys digging into the technical ways that smart home devices work.

Tristan owns close to a dozen Amazon Echo devices, way too many Philips Hue bulbs and lightstrips, a boat-load of Ring Cameras and Doorbells... and a bunch of other smart home devices too (from Reolink, Google Nest, GLEDOPTO and others).

If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions about this article, please leave a comment below. Please note that all comments go into a moderation queue (to prevent blog spam). Your comment will be manually reviewed and approved by Tristan in less than a week. Thanks!

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