Samsung SmartThings Hub Is Nerve Center For Your IoT-Infused Connected Home

Samsung completely revamped its SmartThings line of smart home products today, from its SmartThings Hub to the sensors. It even gave the app an overhaul to improve navigation. Samsung is positioning it as an easy way to start monitoring important events in your home, like water leaks, intruders, and the arrival of guests. As a Samsung spokesperson put it in a post today: “In fact, we started SmartThings out of a desire to know the answer to a basic but deeply personal question: is everything OK in my home.”

Samsung SmartHub 3

The SmartThings Hub is the key to the network of SmartThings sensors. It connects to your home network to send you data when you’re outside the home, but the new version has some features to help it operate when the Internet connection or power are down. The Hub now lasts 10 hours on its own battery backup and can run certain tasks even after your Internet connection goes down.

One of the more important new features is image capture and video capture and streaming. Connect a camera to the new Hub, and you can get video when certain events trigger a sensor, like a window opening unexpectedly.

Samsung SmartHub 1

The Hub now has two USB ports and Bluetooth support, but some things haven’t changed: the Hub still supports ZigBee and Z-Wave, which are popular Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

Samsung SmartHub 2

The SmartThings sensors are small and have a new aesthetic. Some have a primary purpose, like monitoring for water, but you can also pick up a multipurpose sensor, which handles windows, garage doors, vibrations, and other activity.

All of the new SmartThings products are available today. The same goes for the app, which is available for Android and iOS.