Samsung’s Smart-things Station Is An Excellent Smart Home Hub:
Yes, three years after claiming it wouldn’t build any additional Smart-things gear, Samsung released a Smart-things hub. (Actually, it’s an updated version of Samsung’s current wireless charger, but it has the Smart-things branding, so it’s Smart-things hardware.) The $59.99 Smart-things Station, on the other hand, functions as a smart home button, an always-on device scanner for Smart-things Find, a Matter controller, as well as a Thread border router.
If you own a smart home and rely heavily on Samsung devices, particularly the Galaxy phone, this is a must-have. However, if you use another phone brand, although this will function as a Smart-Things / Matter hub, smart button, & wireless charger, it isn’t nearly as attractive.
Samsung’s new Smart-things Station is a multi-function hub for your smart home – it’s a hub, a button, and it includes a 15W Qi charger. It should be noted that this supports the Matter protocol, which is extensively used in the smart home sector. It merged the ecosystems of Samsung and Google, and Apple introduced Matter support to iOS 16.1.
Samsung Smart-things Station Is Good Or Bad:
Good Things:
Smart-things hub and wireless charger in one
Cheapest Matter controller and Thread border router you can buy
Works with iOS and Android
Also a Smart-things smart button
Can tie smart home automation to Galaxy phone charging
Bad Things:
No Z-Wave support
Fewer features for non-Samsung phones
Can’t charge Galaxy smartwatches
Slow charging for anything but Galaxy gadgets
You Can Control All Gadgets While You Are Not At Home:
The Smart-things Station’s primary job is to link all of your home’s smart devices, which may utilize one of many protocols. This allows you to control them even while you are not at home using your phone.
You Can Control Them With Single Press:
You may also control them from the Station by pressing a single, double, or long button. For example, when you leave the house, this may turn off all the lights and power down certain gadgets (and then power them back on when you get home). It may instruct your TV to enter Game mode & your phone to enter Do Not Disturb mode. It may also be used to shut the blinds and reduce the temperature as you prepare to sleep.
Matter Is New Smart Home Standard:
Matter, the new smart home standard co-founded by Samsung, Apple, Google, Amazon, and numerous other firms, necessitates the creation of a new independent hardware hub for Smart-things. However, it will not transform all smart home platforms into a unified, harmonious environment.
The Smart-things Station connects by Wi-Fi and is powered by USB-C, allowing you to place it anywhere you choose (it does not need to be plugged into your network). It’s costly for a wireless charger that only charges one device at $59.99 if you provide your own 25W power converter, or $79.99 if you require the power brick, but it’s a steal at either price for a Smart-things hub that supports Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Thread, and Matter.
The Station is tiny & square, with a subtle appearance and a pleasant vibe. It will look great on your hall entrance table or by your bed. It is available in black or white and includes a single physical button on the top right. This is also a little device that shows the Smart-things logo and may be used to activate smart home routines. If you keep it near your bed, you could program one push to start a Good Night scene as well as a lengthy press to start a Good Morning scenario. Alternatively, you might have a Welcome Home scene and a Goodbye scene on your hall entrance table.
As A Smart Home Hub, SmartThings Station:
The Station, as a Smart-things hub, can connect devices to your smart home via Samsung’s Smart-things app. If you own any Samsung appliances or televisions, you’re probably acquainted with the Smart-things app. If you’ve been interested in the smart home for a long, you’ll recognize it as one of the early smart home platforms.
Smart-things has undergone considerable adjustments following its acquisition by Samsung in 2014. Despite these changes, it can operate hub-connected devices locally through the new Smart-things Edge platform, & Samsung says it is striving to migrate every hub-connected device to Edge.
Smart-things is an automation platform that allows you to connect devices from various manufacturers and utilize them in scenes and automation. Without a hub, you may use the Smart-things app to operate various devices through cloud connections, such as Ring cameras, Philips Hue lighting, and Google Nest thermostats and cameras. However, such gadgets must communicate through Wi-Fi or via a bridge that links to Wi-Fi, ruling out many smart door locks, smart sensors, & smart lighting solutions.
By adding a hub, you can connect Smart-things-certified Zigbee and Thread devices to Smart-things locally. Because the Station functions as both a hub and a Matter controller, you may connect any Matter device to your smart home network. Through the Smart-things app, you can operate it or link it with any other Matter-enabled software, such as Apple Home, Google Home, or Amazon Alexa. Matter should add additional locally controlled devices to the platform and make it available to manufacturers that have not previously worked with it (including Eve, Aqara, & Thread devices from Nanoleaf).
The good news is you are able to operate several Smart-things hubs simultaneously, so if you began with the Station and later decided you wanted to add Z-Wave, you could include an Aeotec hub into your configuration. However, Samsung informed me that for completely local automation, all devices involved must be connected to the same hub. If your devices are connected to separate hubs, the automation will operate on the cloud.
How To Set Up And Use The Station:
The Station is simple to set up; all you need is the Smart-things app for iOS or Android. It is one of the earliest Matter controllers that support both platforms (Samsung updated its iOS app to support Matter earlier last month; Google & Amazon have yet to release their iOS Matter apps). Open the app, hit the + sign in the upper-right corner, pick “add device,” Samsung under brands, Smart Home Hub, Smart-things Station, and then proceed as directed.
Setting up your Smart-things Station is simple and can be done directly from the Smart-things app on your Android or iOS smartphone. Before you begin, make sure the Smart-things Station is switched on.
- Navigate to and open the Smart-things app, and then tap Add now on the Smart-things Station pop-up message.
- Follow the prompts to complete the process.
- If you don’t see the pop-up, you can tap the Devices tab, and then tap Add (the plus sign).
- Tap Scan under Scan QR code, and then scan the QR code on the bottom of the Smart-things station. Then, follow the prompts to complete the process.
Once linked, you may attach gadgets to the hub in the same manner. Tap “add device” and then either scan the QR code of the device or choose one of the other choices. Smart-things’ Matter Easy Pair tool may also auto-scan for devices. This only works with Galaxy phones, which identify any Matter device sending a BLE beacon and prompt you to connect it through a pop-up notice.
The automation worked quickly and consistently, with the lamps coming on smoothly around a second after motion was detected. When I connected some Nano-leaf light panels & Lutron smart switches to the automation (both of which are cloud-connected), there was substantial latency, and the lights turned on in a random order.
Short of configuring your own Home Assistant server, Smart-things is likely the most powerful popular smart home system you can select — and it’s a lot simpler to use. It is compatible with IFTTT-style automation & supports conditions & multiple actions. This implies you can construct more complex and customized automation than Apple Home and Amazon’s Alexa platform. And it completely outperforms Google Home’s meagre offerings.
For example, when it’s above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, I set an automation to turn on a smart plug attached to a fan in the chicken coop — but only if I’m at home and the chicken coop door is closed. Automation in Smart-things may be linked to a specified time period, presence, device status, weather, and mode.
For me, the mode option is quite useful. You may customize automation based on whether you are at home, away, or at night. Because my spouse works 24-hour shifts, I may activate the Night mode when he’s asleep during the day by adding the “Only if location is in Home mode” condition to my automatons.
As A Smart Home Button, Smart-things Station:
The Station’s button may be used as a remote control for any scenes or automation you design. For example, I configured the Night mode scenario to activate with a single push. On the other systems I’ve examined, I haven’t discovered an answer to that issue as simply as this.
The button may be set to perform up to three scenarios or automation, or it can merely control one device. In addition to the single press, there are two further options: double press and extended press. When you initially set up the Station, it encourages you to arrange a dual click actions to bell your Samsung phone (it only works with Samsung phones) so you can locate it if it falls elsewhere in your home. Surprisingly, if you enable this, you can continue to use the dual press to activate a smart home gadget. I told it to turn on a light in the hallway, but it did both at the same time.
Smart Things Station Can Function As A Smart Things Find Scanner:
When it comes to discovering objects, the Station doubles as a Smart-things Find device scanner. This is Samsung’s equivalent of Apple’s Find My function, and it keeps track of any devices registered via a Samsung Galaxy, including watches, earphones, and even keys & pets if they have a Galaxy Smart-tag or Smart-tag Plus (like AirTags).
The Station can continually scan for any device connected and notify you if it leaves or returns to your house. I put it to the test with my vehicle keys, which are continually wandering off on their own. For more exact position identification, I added a Galaxy Smart-tag Plus, which employs UWB in addition to Bluetooth.
It reliably notified me when the keys left and returned to my position. (I sent my spouse with the automobile.) But I couldn’t figure out how to make the notice appear as an alert. Instead, it was buried in the midst of all my other alerts, making it less than helpful for keeping track of anything in real time, such as a pet or human.
You may also enable notifications when you leave the device behind, so you can view a location history for your device. When I had my keys but couldn’t locate my phone, this app came in handy. In certain cases, I could dial the phone by pressing the tag’s button twice. This also works in reverse and does not need the Station.
The Smart-things Station’s major claim to fame as a wireless charger is “super-fast” wireless charging. Remember that this is still slower than charging using a cable or a fast-charging brick, but it does help. It can charge compatible Samsung phones at a rate of 15 watts, which is around three watts faster than regular wireless charging (as long as you use a 25-watt brick). In under 2.5 hours, the Samsung Galaxy S22 went from nothing to hero.
While it will charge other brands of cellphones, it will do so at a slower rate. Samsung claims to be able to charge Apple phones at 7.5 watts and Qi-compatible phones at a paltry five watts. It charged an iPhone 14 in little more than four hours, while a Pixel 6 took forever. It is also capable of charging Samsung buds but just not Galaxy watches.
Because it is a flat charging pad, the Station makes it difficult to use the phone while it is charging. It’s also substantially larger than typical wireless pads, but that’s because it includes all those additional radios and a fan Or cooling system. It does include a charging indicator light that remains red until the phone is fully charged, which is a useful visual clue that it is functioning.
The fact that charging can be linked to automation is unique. This implies that you may have a scene or automation run when you start charging, stop charging, or when the phone is completely charged. When the phone was completely charged, I programmed it to give me a notice through Smart-things and change one of my lights blue. When I put my phone on the charger after 4 p.m., it also activates an I’m Back! scenario that turns on the lights and adjusts my Ecobee thermostat.
As handy as the Station is as a multi-functional device, its additional functionalities are tailored towards Samsung smartphones, making it only worth considering if you or someone in your household has a Galaxy handset. If you already own a Smart-things hub that combines Zigbee & Matter, you don’t need to purchase this for the hub aspect.
If you already own a Samsung Family Hub fridge or smart TV, the Smart-things Hub Dongle provides the same functionality for less money. (Thread support will be added shortly.) However, if those are your requirements, the Smart-things button functionality elevates the Station. It’s quite useful.
Smart-things, on the other hand, does not rely on a Galaxy device in the same way that Apple Home depends on an iPhone. (I’m still perplexed as to why restarting my iPhone often resolves any smart home issues I’m experiencing with Home-Kit.) It works as well on an Android or an iPhone.
Smart-things is compatible with a broad range of smart devices. It is one of the few popular alternatives that supports Z-Wave (though not through the Station, sadly). It collaborates with a variety of businesses and integrates with major devices such as Ring, Nest, Ecobee, Philips Hue, Lutron, & Nanoleaf, as well as a variety of odd and geeky gadgets. If you wish to add voice control, it’s also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Smart-things seems to be your best choice if you want your smart washer or oven to be a part of your smart home. Samsung has said that its products would not be Matter devices. While you can use Amazon Alexa or Google Home to operate certain Samsung devices or those from other manufacturers, the experience is seldom great. Smart-things may soon be compatible with the majority of major appliance manufacturers.
Yes, the smart home is becoming easier to operate and established, but even with Matter’s multi-admin function (which allows you to integrate devices from other ecosystems), you’ll want to choose a major platform. Matter offers for versatility, but just as most people don’t want many plastic boxes hanging from their routers, many people don’t want to operate their smart homes with various applications. And, for the time being, the Smart-things platform seems to have the most interoperability.