Although Samsung has been in the smart home game for a few years now with its SmartThings ecosystem, its lineup has mostly relied on being a central home automation hub that integrates with third-party devices like plugs and lights to automate your home. Until today, the majority of the brand's IoT products were sensors that would act as triggers, but the company is now expanding it with a smart camera, plug, and bulb, which give it a complete range of smart home products.
SmartThings Cam
Samsung's new security camera is an interesting contender in its segment, as it has a Full HD sensor with a 145-degree wide-angle lens, night vision, and HDR imaging. Like most of its competitors, it features motion sensing and can recognize humans to avoid triggering unnecessary alerts. It also allows you to set a custom monitoring zone to notify you when something moves in that specific area, which is useful to check if your pet is sleeping on your bed while you're away. Plus, the Cam features two-way audio to let you speak to visitors even when you're away. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a battery and will need to be hard-wired, which might be a dealbreaker for some. It's also not weather-proof and only meant to be installed indoors, so forget about using it to keep an eye on your front door. It can be easily wall-mounted, though, so you'll be able to keep a watch on an entire room without much hassle.
In terms of cloud storage, the Cam comes with a free membership that offers 24 hours of video footage online for up to four cameras. A premium subscription lets you extend these figures to 30 days of cloud storage and a total of eight cameras for $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. As this is a SmartThings product, it can also act as a trigger for home automation tasks, such as turning on your lights when you walk into a room. The Cam is available starting today for $89.99, which makes it quite an affordable product given its features.
SmartThings Wifi Smart Plug
Samsung has also announced a new Wi-Fi plug that connects directly to your router. Like most intelligent sockets, it can be programmed to turn on and off at specific times and works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and of course, Bixby. It also supports up to 15A and will be able to work with slightly larger appliances such as portable heaters and fans. Its main advantage is how easily it connects to other SmartThings products like the Cam, letting you turn a device on when motion is sensed in a predefined zone. Lastly, its compact size leaves the second socket free so you can connect another appliance at the same time. At $17.99, it's reasonably priced against the competition, especially given it's made by a major brand.
SmartThings Smart Bulb
With this bulb, Samsung is releasing a direct Hue competitor. While it's simpler, it's also much cheaper, as it only costs $9.99. In terms of features, we're looking at a modest dimmable and programmable white light that works with most voice assistants. Just like the plug, it integrates with SmartThings routines to turn on and off based on preset triggers, such as when you leave the house.
Because it uses the Zigbee protocol to communicate with its base, it would typically require a SmartThings hub to function, but you may not need one if you have a Samsung TV, SmartThings WiFi router, or an Amazon Echo Plus or Show. Unfortunately, there's only an A19/E26 model available for now, and no color options have been announced. Other variants could be in the making, though, as Samsung seems to be targeting Philips' ecosystem with this bulb.
With these products, Samsung is upping its smart home game and has some solid arguments to convince people. Not only are these devices easy to integrate with other SmartThings-compatible products, they're also affordable and offer respectable features compared to the competition. If you're interested in getting any of them, they're already available at select retailers in the US, including Best Buy. There's also a special discount when buying two Cams simultaneously, for a total of $160.
Buy: Best Buy (Cam, Plug, Bulb)
PRESS RELEASE
A Clear View of Home from Anywhere with SmartThings Cam
SmartThings Expands Home Monitoring with New Smart Camera and Brings Wifi Smart Plug and Smart Bulb to Platform
RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ – June 24, 2019 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its new SmartThings Cam, designed to help families keep an eye on what matters most at home. SmartThings Cam is a smarter way to monitor a home with premium monitoring features at an approachable price. Cam combines crisp, clear detail in Full HD, High Dynamic Range (HDR) wide-angle video with advanced object detection that intelligently senses motion at a moment’s notice.
With SmartThings Cam, families can easily see home from anywhere using the SmartThings app and receive notifications that intuitively distinguish between people and the motion of pets or a passing car. Activity zones can be set to pay closer attention to a specific area, such as notifying parents of movement in a nursery or when a pet jumps on furniture when no one is home.
While many indoor cameras are limited to a 130-degree view, the SmartThings Cam can see more in a home during the day or night using a Full HD (1080p) 145-degree, wide-angle camera with night vision. SmartThings Cam’s wider view also has better picture quality to see and capture more detail in video using HDR technology, and two-way audio built-in allows for easy communication from a smartphone.
“We want to help families keep their connected lives simple and seamless using SmartThings to bring together hundreds of popular smart home products in one platform,” said SK Kim, Senior Director, IoT Product Marketing at Samsung Electronics America. “Our new SmartThings Cam, Wifi Smart Plug and Smart Bulb create new pathways into our smart home platform, where users will discover how everyday tasks can easily be automated.”
SmartThings Cam makes home monitoring simple with automation using the SmartThings app, users can set Works with SmartThings light bulbs to turn on when motion is detected at night, or automatically turn on activity zones when a user leaves home. Cam comes equipped with 24 hours cloud storage at no additional cost, with up the option to connect up to 4 SmartThings Cams. Premium 30-day cloud storage is also available for $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year, with the option to connect up to 8 SmartThings Cams.
In addition to the new SmartThings Cam, Samsung is also expanding their SmartThings portfolio by introducing a SmartThings Wifi Smart Plug and SmartThings Smart Bulb . These products join the full line of completely redesigned SmartThings Hub and sensors, which launched last year. With SmartThings Cam and Wifi Smart Plug, setup is simply and easily through your in-home Wi-Fi, a SmartThings Hub is not required.
The SmartThings Smart Bulb is the smarter and cost saving way to light a home offering personalization with warm, white light that can be dimmed and controlled with a voice assistant. Together with a SmartThings Hub and the SmartThings app, create personal automations such as dimming the lights for movie night or scheduling them to turn on before arriving home after dark.
With the new Wifi Smart Plug, users can make nearly every lamp, small appliance or electronic device in the home smart with a discreet, compact design and voice control support .
Starting today, the SmartThings Cam ($89.99), SmartThings Wifi Smart Plug ($17.99) and SmartThings Smart Bulb ($9.99) are available on Samsung.com and select retailers nationwide, including Best Buy. For more information visit Samsung.com.
About Samsung Electronics America, Inc.
Samsung inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies. The company is redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, digital appliances, network systems, and memory, system LSI, foundry and LED solutions. For the latest news, please visit the Samsung Newsroom at http://news.samsung.com/us/.
SmartThings is the easiest way to turn a home into a smart home, making it simple to connect and control your devices from anywhere. As the industry leader for consumer IoT technology, SmartThings’ open platform brings together devices, developers, and services to offer one of the largest ecosystems of integrated devices, connecting over 10 million products in over 1 million homes for limitless possibilities. Founded in 2012, SmartThings is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and operates independently as a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. For more information, visit Smartthings.com. There’s potential in your everyday things