Best Apple HomeKit devices to buy for 2023
Best smart light switch for HomeKit
Lutron Caseta smart built-in dimmer switch
Best white light smart bulbs for HomeKit
Philips Hue White LED starter set
The Apple HomeKit ecosystem has been growing lately, and the addition of Matter support will only help it grow further.
Have you ever wished you could light up a room just by walking in? Well, aside from relying on your bubbly personality, smart home devices are perfect for this, and they’re easy to set up on Apple’s smart home platform: HomeKit.
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HomeKit is built into every iPhone and iPad that the electronics giant sells. In fact, the HomeKit integration is a piece of cake. From connecting smart products to your HomeKit-enabled devices to setting up automations… it’s all at your fingertips.
The range of products compatible with HomeKit is enormous. You have a lot of options, including door locks, lights, plugs, cameras, a thermostat, motion sensors, blinds, you name it – and the Home app can handle it all in one place.
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If you want a hands-off approach to controlling your fledgling smart home, Apple’s voice assistant Siri will happily lock the door, dim the lights, adjust the air conditioning, run a smart home scene or whatever you fancy.
The real question is which of these smart home devices are worth the money – because many of them don’t come cheap. There’s a growing list of options, but we’re here to help you narrow it down to the best HomeKit devices for your smart home. Here are our top picks for Apple HomeKit products, all based on years of testing in CNET Smart Home, which we update regularly.
The long-awaited HomePod Mini bridges a strange gap between smart speakers, costing $99 like the Nest Audio and Amazon Echo, but in a small package like the cheaper Nest Mini and Echo Dot.
This smaller, cheaper Apple smart speaker sounds great. Siri is present for HomeKit control and general voice support. The HomePod Mini can serve as an output for your Apple TV and you can pair two HomePod Minis for stereo. Features such as Intercom and Handoff make life with the Mini a little more fun.
In short, if you like Apple, you’ll love this smart speaker. If you already have an iPhone, Apple TV, or original HomePod, the Mini makes sense as your next small smart speaker.
Apple’s latest streaming device, the third-generation Apple TV 4K, was released in November 2022. While it has many features similar to the previous model, there are some key improvements. The design is largely the same, albeit slightly smaller. The same remote control from Gen 2 is here, but it’s more responsive than before.
The latest Apple TV 4K features the A15 Bionic chip from the app, which improves overall performance when using the device. It also has improved efficiency, generating less heat. So Apple removed the cooling fan, making the device quiet even when showing impressive HDR10+ movies.
This is a powerful streaming device that offers a lot of functionality in addition to watching movies and TV shows. It plays high-quality games from Apple Arcade, lets you sing along to Apple Music songs with Apple Music Sing and much more. It is a dedicated smart home hub for Apple HomeKit devices.
You have a lot of interesting options if you’re in the market for a smart thermostat, including a few thermostats that support Siri control via Apple’s HomeKit. Of these, we think Ecobee thermostats are the best. At $250, the Ecobee4 thermostat is the newest, but it really only adds a built-in Amazon Alexa speaker to the experience. That’s not the biggest appeal if you anchor your smart home to Apple HomeKit and focus it on Siri for voice control.
Read more: The best smart thermostats of 2024
That’s why I think it’s a smarter move to stick with one of Ecobee’s cheaper, previous-generation thermostats. They all work equally well with Apple HomeKit and they also support Ecobee’s handy temperature sensors. The Ecobee3 thermostat is listed as sold out on the Ecobee website, but the Ecobee3 Lite thermostat is still available for between $150 and $170. That’s the right price for HomeKit-compatible climate control.
Yale is an old brand that has been making locks for over 180 years, and it has put that experience to use in the Yale Asure Lock 2. The smart lock with fingerprint sensor looks anything but dated and is an excellent choice for your Apple HomeKit setup.
It’s packed with smart features like auto-unlocking, unlimited passes to share with family and friends, app controls and more. Although not a budget choice, Yale packs all the smart and safe features into three different finishes to suit any decor.
As a trusted locksmith, Yale is a direct partner of Airbnb. This means managing access is smooth and easy to use if you’re an Airbnb host or visiting a property with this smart lock.
Eufy’s Indoor Cam 2K is one of the first products to work with HomeKit Secure Video. Secure Video is Apple’s new suite of security camera features in the Home app. Priced at around $50, the Eufy Indoor Cam 2K is affordable and comes with several useful features such as optional local storage and motion detection zones.
The Eufy Indoor Cam 2K is a solid competitor to other low-priced indoor models like the Wyze Cam Indoor and the Blink Mini. The 2K video recording in particular sets it apart from those competing models. Plus, if you’re a Prime member, you can buy it for just $29.
Smart switches are another good option if you want to automate the lighting in your home, especially in places where a single switch controls multiple lights at once. You have several options that work with HomeKit, but our favorite by far is the Lutron Caseta In-Wall Dimmer Switch.
Why Lutron? For starters, Lutron has been in the dimmer industry for decades, and it’s also a smart home. The switches have a good range of features and work with everything, they support three-way setups and they look suitably distinctive without being flashy. In addition to a wide variety of light switches, the Caseta platform also offers specialty switches for things like ceiling fans and Sonos speakers, as well as luxury Serena smart shades. It all communicates with the Lutron Bridge via Lutron’s proprietary Clear Connect wireless standard, one of the fastest and most reliable standards we’ve tested at CNET Smart Home.
That’s a long-winded way of saying that these are really, really good smart light switches. Right now you can get one on Amazon with the Lutron Bridge and a bonus Pico remote that you can place in the wall as a second switch, or carry with you for a total of $60.
It may be counterintuitive, but Philips Hue is best if you skip the colors and focus on the Hue White bulbs, which emit smart, dimmable light at a yellowish 2,700 K. That’s because the best thing about Hue bulbs isn’t the colors are everything, but rather the power of their best-in-class platform, which works with everything, plays great with Apple HomeKit, and is packed with useful features.
Read more: The complete guide to Philips Hue lights
To take advantage of this, you’ll need a Philips Hue starter kit that comes with the essential Hue Bridge – and the Hue White two-bulb starter kit, currently available on Amazon for $100, is an affordable way to get in. And yes, you can always add color-changing lights to your HomeKit setup later (preferably when they’re on sale).
First there was the triangular Nanoleaf Aurora (2016) and then there were the square, touch-sensitive Nanoleaf Canvas panels. But at the end of 2020, Nanoleaf launched the latest set of new wall panels: “Nanoleaf shapes – hexagons.” These six-sided LED light panels are sold in a seven-panel starter kit for $199, although they often retail for less.
With vibrant colors, easier assembly, a great design and the same impressive list of features and integrations as its predecessors – including the excellent, music-syncing rhythm mode, touch sensitivity and voice control via Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant – the latest Hexagons are the best that Nanoleaf has to offer has.
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If you’re putting together a high-tech playroom, dorm room or decorating a nursery, Nanoleaf’s color-changing wall panels are just what you’re looking for. But beyond that, the flashy lights might be a little too forward-looking for most households.
At $40, Eve Energy’s smart plug isn’t the most affordable, but it offers seamless integration with Apple’s HomeKit with useful insights into the energy consumption of the devices plugged into it.
Although Eve was once a HomeKit-only smart device brand, the company opened its doors to other platforms in 2023, such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa compatibility through Matter. It fits into the frame of most electrical outlets and has a physical button built into the housing. LED indicator light.
The Eve app is clean and easy to navigate. Setting timers and schedules for the smart plug is a breeze. This smart plug’s space-saving design and solid HomeKit compatibility make it easy to recommend to users in Apple’s ecosystem.
