Kellen
After announcing the Galaxy Note 9 last week, Samsung is back with another new product, this time in the smart home space. Starting today, you can buy a bunch of new SmartThings-related products, including a new SmartThings Mesh WiFi System, a new SmartThings Hub, and a bunch of sensors to go with it.
If you haven’t been paying attention to Samsung’s SmartThings brand, then let me just tell you that this is pretty great news. The old SmartThings Hub is a handful of years old at this point and the previous Samsung Connect mesh WiFi systems weren’t exactly loved out of the gate (probably why we got this flash sale). Two new products in each of those categories is a major move in smart home.
For the new SmartThings Hub, Samsung is upgrading performance for both it and its SmartThings Water Leak Sensor, Motion Sensor, and Smart Outlets. They’ve also upgraded to the latest Zigbee, Z-wave, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity protocols, and will allow the Hub to connect over WiFi to get on your network, rather than through a hard-wired connection.
The new SmartThings Hub is available right now and costs $69.99. You can buy the new sensors too.
When it comes to mesh WiFi, the new Samsung SmartThings WiFi is looking like a really nice choice, assuming you haven’t already adopted another mesh system. It starts at $279.99 for a 3-pack or $119.99 for a single unit. That’s right there with Google WiFi, though it’s packed with more goodies.
Like other mesh WiFi systems, SmartThings WiFi wants to blanket your entire household with fast WiFi. Where this differs is in the Plume integration, since Samsung is using Plume’s technology to better manage your home’s space and push that signal. That means better optimization as it learns how you use your internet, allocation of bandwidth to the devices that need it, interference mitigation, and optimal band selection. Thankfully, there is no subscription here, like there would be if you signed up for Plume on its own.
Where it also differs is in smart home connectivity. SmartThings WiFi includes a SmartThings Hub. So not only do you get a smart mesh WiFi system, you get a smart home control setup too.
The new SmartThings WiFi system is powered by a Qualcomm quad-core chip, 512MB RAM, 8GB storage, 2×2 MIMO and 802.11ac WiFi, and AC1300 speeds (max 866Mbps on 5GHz, 400Mbps on 2.4GHz).
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