Welcome to our Smart Home and Automation category page—the hub for all things smart and convenient that can revolutionise your daily living. Here, you’ll find comprehensive guides, reviews, and the latest news on devices and ecosystems that promise to make your home safer, more efficient, and undeniably more enjoyable.
Smart Home and Automation refers to the network of intelligent devices and systems that connect to the internet and to each other, offering remote control, monitoring, and data collection. From voice-activated lighting to intelligent cooking appliances, this category spans a wide array of products designed to bring ease and automation into your home life.
Whether you’re a tech-savvy early adopter or a homeowner seeking practical solutions for everyday tasks, smart home tech offers a wide range of applications that can genuinely improve your living standards.
Whether you’re just starting your smart home journey or looking to expand your existing setup, our Smart Home and Automation category is rich with expert advice, detailed reviews, and the latest updates to help you make informed decisions. Dive in and discover how smart your home can truly be!
The new Argus 3 Pro sits at the top of the range for the wireless cameras from Reolink. Compared to the Argus 3, you now get 2K video, and this is the first wireless camera from the brand to offer person/vehicle detection. Specification Image Sensor: 1/3″ CMOS Sensor Video Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (4.0 Megapixels)…
Energy efficiency is an important aspect of home budgeting. Not only that – keeping your electricity costs low adds to your ecological awareness. In line with the above, installing remote-controlled lights is a clever way of increasing the energy efficiency of your home. They will increase the comfort and convenience of living in your home…
This is a quick short post to highlight the specs of the new Ring Video Doorbell 4 and how it is different to the existing Video Doorbell 3. Key differences This post can be condensed down to 4 lines of differences: Plus model dropped Standard model now includes pre-roll Pre-roll is now colour Video Doorbell…
Ring has been on one with product launches recently; with pressure increasing from competing brands, they will likely want to establish their dominance (in the doorbell market at least). Ring Video Doorbell 4 with colour pre-roll for £179 – No Plus model? I was provided with an embargoed announcement to write this up, which is…
Following on from my Reolink RLC-511WA review, I have been using the RLC-811A, which is the 4K POE model. It follows the same pattern as the previous model; this has a 5X optical zoom lens (not PTZ) with a built-in spotlight which will enable night-time colour video. It also includes the AI object detection we…
I have been a big fan of the Yale Linus Smart Lock, it is the best smart lock I have reviewed to date, and I still use it on my main front door. Yale has now expanded their collaboration with Philips Hue to deliver some smart home convenience when using Hue and Linus together. Once…
The Safely DIY home alarm system by SafelyTeam is the latest smart home alarm system to enter the market. This is a new company hoping to compete with big players like Ring and SimpliSafe. The Safely alarm system is more advanced than many off the shelf solutions from the likes of Ring and Eufy, offering…
This month, Yale expanded its home surveillance product range with some new cameras. One of the big advantages of the Yale cameras is that there is no monthly fee, unlike Ring and Arlo. You have options to record to microSD or the Yale Smart Home CCTV system. However, it is worth noting the Yale CCTV…
The SwitchBot Bot, a smart button presser, has been a hugely successful smart home device that is incredibly innovative. It is one of those things I have always meant to buy but never go round to. SwitchBot has kindly sent me their Curtain Combo pack to try out, including the newest SwitchBot Curtain, a hub,…
Home surveillance tech is getting scarily advanced, Ezviz is one of the companies at the forefront of this technology. I am a huge fan of both colour night vision and AI object detection. Now, these have been combined with a PTZ camera to offer AI automatic tracking of anyone that enters your property. This model…
The original Ring Smart Alarm launched back in 2019 in the UK, at the time, Yale was the best alternative options, but there has been a growing number of alternatives. Netatmo and Somy both have smart solutions, and SimpliSafe also launched in the UK in 2019. Since then, Eufy has got in on the action…
Having reviewed a lot of the Reolink cameras, I have now got to the point where I am reviewing upgraded models from the existing range. I previously reviewed the Reolink RLC-511W in September, it was an impressive camera, and at around £80, it was a bargain. The 4X optical zoom it offered was quite unique;…