The BEST Smart Home Tech of CES 2026!

What's up guys, we're in Las Vegas for CES 2026, the world's biggest tech show. And I am so excited to hit the show floor and find all of the coolest smart home tech coming this year and beyond. Let's go see what we can find. There is so much tech at CES and it seems like each year there is more and more for your smart home. Pretty much everything can be connected these days from refrigerators to washers and dryers, cameras, robot vacuums and mowers and much more. So my goal here is to find all the cool stuff that I think will actually make a difference in our smart homes over the next year and try to determine where the smart home market is heading. I did partner with some of the brands in this video to share with you their latest innovations. My wife and I also searched the show floor continuously looking for anything that we thought would be interesting, new and useful for your smart home in the next year and beyond. And for the serious smart home nerds like me, you'll definitely wanna stick around to the end. First, I visited the Amazon Smart Home area. Now I'm not an Alexa Plus user myself, but it was pretty impressive to see what they're doing. They're updating the OS on Fire TV, really nice smart home control and the ability to pull up any of your cameras. You can even ask specific questions regarding your cameras like are my dogs in the yard or did the package arrive and which door? You can also use Alexa to set up automations like when I get home, turn on the lights. If you're an Apple TV user like myself, then this new TV interface probably looks very familiar. They've clearly taken a page or two out of Apple's book regarding the user interface and then gone above and beyond anything we can do with Apple TV. Amazon is using AI with lots of integrations including health and wellness services and accessories to do some really cool stuff in your home. As a big Apple home user myself, I'm hoping Apple is taking some notes and planning to step things up this year in the Apple ecosystem. Otherwise, they may get left in the dust because everything I saw from Alexa for your home was really impressive. We're here at the SwitchBot booth and they have a lot of innovative, interesting new things including this AI robot right here. AI humanoid robots in the home are closer than ever. They were showcasing OneArrow H1 that they call the most accessible AI household robot. It's designed to address household chores that remain difficult to automate like doing the laundry. They showed the robot picking up laundry and placing it in the dryer. It doesn't bend over, but the arms can actually slide up and down to do things at different height levels. It does actually open and close the dryer on its own which is pretty impressive, but it was very slow. OneArrow H1 is designed to learn, adapt, and work in coordination with SwitchBot's existing ecosystem of task-specific robots. The OneArrow H1 is available for pre-order on SwitchBot's website this year and I'm told the price will be under $10,000. SwitchBot also showed off the LockVista series smart deadbolt locks with palm vein technology and 3D facial recognition for unlocking your door. This is SwitchBot's first full lock replacement following their line of retrofit smart locks. The SwitchBot AI MindClip is a new portable AI assistant. This device continuously captures meetings, conversations, and everyday moments, transforming them into structured summaries, actionable to-do lists, and a searchable knowledge base. The SwitchBot WeatherStation, a 7.5-inch e-ink display, brings essential household information into a single interface. With built-in sensors, it displays time, sunrise, sunsets, indoor temperature and humidity data, air quality, weather, and a six-day weather outlook, along with multi-platform calendar syncing and auto-scene switching. They also showed the Obato, an AI-powered desk pixel globe light with more than 2,900 RGB LEDs, motion sensing, music visualization, and AI-driven mood animations. SwitchBot, once again, is really thinking outside the box, bringing AI and potentially the first humanoid robot to your home very soon. As usual, there were many robot vacuums at CES this year, vacuums with arms, vacuums climbing the stairs. Roverok even showed a vacuum that can clean the stairs, which may actually be quite useful. Believe it or not, there was even a robot vacuum that connects up to a massive drone to fly in the air to another level of your home. Now, the demos didn't actually work from what I saw, and I think this might be the most ridiculous thing I saw here this year for robot vacuums, but hey, maybe one day you'll have a flying robot vacuum in your home, just probably not today. Meanwhile, I decided to visit the Narwhal booth because they make some of my favorite robot vacuum, and they have some upgrades that will actually be useful in 2026. They were showcasing their new Flow 2, an update to their Narwhal Flow robot vacuum that I've been using in my home for a while now. The Narwhal Flow 2 has the same great features that I love about the first generation, like that awesome track mop system that just works so well. You can see here how it performs when compared to the dual spinning mop cleaners. It also has been given a new look. The Flow 2 will be available in this new black model, featuring a very elegant matte surface. A white option should also be available at launch. A notable design enhancement is a dynamic light on the base unit that changes colors to indicate its current operational mode, such as mopping, vacuuming, or self-cleaning, so I really love that. The most significant upgrade to the Flow 2 is the NarMind Autonomous System, which represents a major leap in AI-driven obstacle avoidance and environmental interaction. This new system moves beyond the previous generation's ability to recognize around 200 objects to what is described as, quote, limitless object recognition. This is achieved through two front-facing cameras and a powerful internal chip that processes data using two visual language models. When the robot vacuum encounters specific objects on the floor that its onboard sensors cannot accurately identify, it'll automatically capture an image and transfer it to the AI model for assistance. The AI model then performs advanced image recognition to determine what the object is, achieving truly unlimited object recognition. The robot can even identify and tag valuable items like rings or wallets that you may have lost or left on the floor. It'll take a picture and log the location in the app for you to find your lost things. Nar will also showcase their cordless vacuum and mops, including a new B50 series coming soon. It's a cordless vacuum with a sleek-looking auto-emptying station. It has different attachments stored out of sight in the base station. And maybe best of all, it has a secondary backup battery. So if the battery dies before you're done cleaning, simply swap it out to finish the job. I think that's genius and I can't wait to try this out in my home. They also introduced their first mattress cleaner that will continuously pulse on the mattress to help remove all dust and mites. Really nice product from Narwhal coming in 2026. And one brand you might know for robot vacuums, Dreamy is getting into, well, just about every single product category known to man. With multiple massive booths at CES, they were showcasing smart appliances, action cameras, TVs, air conditioners, pool robots, lawnmowers, even smart glasses comparable to the Meta Ray Bans that I was using at CES. They even had a concept car on display this year. But what caught my eye is the new smart home accessories coming this year. They have both indoor and outdoor cameras coming in 2026. One thing I thought was pretty unique is an indoor camera with a screen on the backside. So when you're home and you wanna put the camera in that privacy mode, it'll flip around to hide the lens like we often see with other cameras. But this one has a digital display clock on the other side. Pretty good idea here. These should launch in Q1 this year with Alexa and Google Home support. Unfortunately, doesn't look like they will support Apple Home or Matter at launch. They did showcase some Matter smart locks and lights though, also coming this year. They have a line of smart locks, one that supports Apple Home key, another that supports Matter and fingerprint unlocking. They have a retrofit smart lock and a new flagship lock with a camera and screen built into it to show you who's on the other side of the door. These should all support Matter from what I understand. And they also have a few Matter over Wi-Fi smart lights, including smart bulbs, light strips, floor lamps, ceiling light, and more. And they also have this robot lawnmower that can water your plants. Okay, why not? Now there were actually a ton of robot mowers this year at CES. This category is definitely becoming more mature as we've seen over the years with robot vacuums. I also saw a demo of the next lawn robot. Looks like the exact same mower from Dreamy. I first saw this one at IFA in Berlin, but it was cool to see it here with a better working demo, actually recognizing the ball, picking it up and placing it in the bin. As someone with a ton of dog toys, usually in my yard, this could actually be useful. Now, if I could just get it to scoop up all the dog poop, we'll really be talking. These are just prototypes, but show an interesting evolution in robot mowers that we could end up seeing sooner than later. The trend I noticed from robot mowers this year is more use of LiDAR, camera systems, and onboard RTK systems that eliminate the need for you to install a separate RTK station in your yard. So with robots cleaning the floors inside, cutting the grass outside, it only makes sense to have them also in this swimming pool. There were countless pool cleaning robots from most of these brands as well. And it seems like the trend this year in robot pool cleaners is base stations that can actually retrieve the robot from the pool for charging and storage. This is quite useful, I think, especially for elderly folks, making it much easier to get the pool cleaner in and out of the pool. If you watched my channel before, you probably know how much I love smart shades. I got to see SmartWings at CES. They were showcasing their specialty window shades. They offer unique products like these that can fit at custom angles with a transparent middle section. They also offer custom arc shades. These specialty shades were a major highlight and were drawing a lot of attention at their booth. Also, their skylight shades are really nice. They can be installed horizontally or vertically. All of their shades come in countless style and fabric options, including light filtering or full blackout and outdoor options. They were also showcasing their smart pergola that includes a light built in. The pergola itself and the light can all be controlled through matter in your smart home ecosystem. All of their products support matter over thread. And a fun note for the smart home nerds out there, SmartWings shades are some of the first on the market to support direct thread pairing technology. This allows their smart shades to pair directly with Apple Home using an iPhone 15 Pro or later, which has a thread radio built in, eliminating the need for a separate thread border router or hub in the house. If you need custom smart shades in just about any size, style or fabric variation, SmartWings most likely has you covered. GE also just launched some new matter over thread smart shades starting at 299.99. They're offering six set widths based on common window sizes. And later this year we'll offer custom window sizing. They currently offer translucent or blackout fabrics in either white or gray with more options coming later this year. All aluminum hardware made in the USA actually right down the road from me in Charleston, South Carolina. Lutron has been making smart window treatments more accessible with their new Caseta line. This year they've added smart wood blinds to the Caseta lineup after launching their Caseta roller shades last year. Pricing starts at 429 for blinds 48 inches wide and go up to 72 inches wide. And they'll be offered in white or walnut colors. The standout feature is their natural light optimization. The blinds automatically tilt throughout the day and then close completely at night for privacy. While the tilting is automated or app controlled, you can still lift and lower the blinds manually anytime. Smaller shades will use AA batteries while larger sizes use D batteries. The battery life is estimated to be between three to five years depending on usage. Hunter, the brand that traditionally makes smart fans that support HomeKit, now will be supporting Matter. And they have some new Matter smart home accessories expected to be released in Q1 of this year. A smart upgrade kit will bring Matter support to your old ceiling fans. That's really cool. And they are releasing a new Matter smart plug, a new smart dimmer switch, and a new touch wall panel. This touch screen will act as a Matter controller, allowing you to control other smart home accessories in your home. And speaking of controlling your smart home accessories, the Mui board is a unique Matter enabled smart home controller. This is a stylish looking board that you can use in various ways. You can write on it to trigger smart home scenes. Using different secret keys on the digital keyboard, you can trigger different accessories in your smart home, like opening or closing the curtains or locking the door. I can turn on the lights and check this out, blow out the candle to turn the lights off. Pretty crazy, really fun, interesting ways you can use something like this to control your smart home accessories. These are really neat. And I think I need to get one of these in my house immediately. Broadlink was showcasing their new RM Max Matter Super Bridge. This is gonna allow you to bring your legacy IR and RF devices into your Matter ecosystems. Now, I always love to stop by the third reality booth to see what they're cooking up for your smart home. They have new presence sensors, including a USB-C powered Zigbee model and a battery powered model. They're also releasing a Matter over thread version of the multi-sensor nightlight that I really love. And they've updated their popular smart soil sensor. The plastic on this new version is stronger than the first generation and the RF function will be better. So you will get better range and performance with these. Their new Matter over Wi-Fi water sensors should also be available soon. The main alarm will connect to your smart home ecosystem and you can then connect up to 10 long range water sensors to that alarm to get notified anytime there is a water leak in or around your property. And something else that really caught my eye was this home assistant box by third reality, a pre-configured Linux box running home assistant designed for more non-technical users. It comes pre-configured to support Matter, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and thread offering an easy entry point into home assistant. I was told there is a limited run of these possibly available now and should have more coming in the next few months. They also showed a home assistant voice and music system providing native voice control for home assistant. It enables voice control of smart devices and local file music playback running directly on the user's home assistant instance. Third reality has really been pushing the envelope with unique, reliable and affordable smart home products supporting various protocols like thread and Zigbee with Matter support. So I'm definitely looking forward to using some of these new products from third reality in 2026. A smart lighting is nothing new and we saw lots of great things in this category at CES. Govee once again had a massive booth showcasing lots of smart lighting both for indoors and outdoors and almost everything they make now supports Matter which is great. They showcase some new outdoor pathway lights, new chromatic string lights and filament string lights that look really nice. Linkind also had a really nice booth this year showcasing a lot of smart lights including their really cool new solar powered pathway lights. Cool thing about these is that these can actually be app controlled which you don't usually see from solar powered lights. You can connect up to 96 of these lights together and you can change the patterns, colors and lighting effects. They say they'll have a bridge soon that will allow you to connect all of these solar powered lights to Matter which is gonna make it super easy to get smart outdoor lights connected to your smart home without having to run any wires to a power source. They also showcase solar pool lights that can be used also on fences or walls. They have outdoor wall lights and various smart bulbs and even a Matter supported ceiling fan. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Linkind. They said all of their new products coming out will support Matter. LIFX was showing a new smart mirror. Of course you can control the light around it through Matter. It also has programmable buttons on it allowing you to control other LIFX or Matter accessories. This can be hardwired or plugged into a standard outlet. They also showed a new Matter enabled dimmer switch that can be programmed to control your smart home scenes. Nanoleaf had a private suite where they were showing some of their existing products as well as some new display boxes. These are like the existing ones that they've offered for a while but a little bit smaller and significantly more affordable. You'll be able to get a pack of four for $99. These are a really cool way to display your collectibles and things like that in the house. Lockly has new Matter enabled smart locks called the Affirm series that we should see released later this year. These have a doorbell integrated into them. They have a deadbolt version and a latch style version expected to be released later in the year for under $200. TCL, which you probably know for TVs or other appliances is doing big things in the smart home space to include some new battery powered cameras with optional solar panels and some new Matter over thread smart locks. I was told the design on these was actually inspired by the Cybertruck. This one supports palm vein technology and they offer both a deadbolt and latch style options. Hisense was showing their portable air conditioner and window AC unit, both of which are available now with Matter support. And they also had on display a smart dehumidifier also with Matter support that'll be coming later this year. If you crate your dog, you have to see this. It's a new smart dog crate currently in development. For safety, it has a sensor cluster that listens for your home's smoke alarm. If it goes off, the crate door automatically opens giving your dog a fighting chance to get out. It also has a built-in heating and cooling system to keep the temperature comfortable. And to help with anxiety, there's an integrated tablet and camera. You can video call your dog or even play them a relaxing video when it's time to rest. A sleep mode activates privacy glass creating a cozy Zen-like environment. Pricing is expected to be around $600 for smaller sizes up to around 2000 for larger sizes with various options and configurations. They project shipping to start around fall of this year. I could totally see my wife wanting to get this for our very spoiled dogs. As expected, there were a lot of security cameras. Ugreen, more known for their power solutions and NAS systems is entering the smart home market with a lineup of new cameras coming this year. Reolink was also at CES showcasing their impressive lineup of cameras to include the new OMVI X16. It features a total of three 4K cameras, two up top with a pan tilt camera underneath giving you tracking capabilities with a 16X zoom. They also have a solar panel accessory that you can use now with your doorbell camera allowing you to place it anywhere without requiring any wiring. Tons of camera options from Reolink but they were really highlighting their Rio Neuro which is basically AI intelligence. It comes built into many of their cameras but you can also check out their new AI box that you can connect to any existing NVR to give your older cameras this smart AI intelligence. Lots of cameras from lots of brands. I asked most of them about Matter 1.5 support. Most of the companies gave me a general answer like, yeah, we're working on that or it should be coming soon in the future if they even knew what I was talking about but there were two brands that I found that have a camera releasing very soon with support for Matter 1.5. First is Xthings, the Ulticam IQ version two is a 4K power over ethernet camera that merges Gemini AI intelligence, Matter 1.5 support, OMVI support and free seven day cloud storage plus SD card local storage. These should start shipping very soon for $199. Xthings is also the company behind the Ultralock line of smart locks. They showcase these to include a new Matter over thread deadbolt with palm vein detection and a new latch style lock. They also plan to ship one of the first Aliro Matter smart locks this year and they are also offering other smart home accessories like smart bulbs and smart plugs with Matter support. And then there is Aqara, maybe one of the most impressive brands in the smart home space. They were showcasing their new U400 smart lock which is the first lock on the market to support Apple's ultra wide band unlocking. This product actually released during the week of CES and I already made a full video on that if you wanna check it out as I have been using it at my house for a while. It's a really cool lock that has quickly become my favorite smart lock so far but they also showed us many other products that we can expect to see released in 2026. Many confirmed for the first half of the year, the G400 doorbell camera and the G510 solar camera are both expected to be released in the first half with some products possibly arriving as early as Q1, specifically the new H2 switches which feature integrated presence sensors are targeted for a Q1 release. These will embed a present sensor directly into the switch enabling presence based lighting control without requiring a separate sensor. And we should also see the S100 touchscreen switch released very soon. All of these support dual protocols, thread and Zigbee plus matter support. They introduced the FP400 an upgraded version of the FP2. This sensor introduces posture detection capable of identifying if a person is standing, sitting or laying down. This enables more sophisticated automation such as activating a movie mode when someone sits on the couch or a night mode when you lie down in bed. Maybe best of all, it's a dual protocol sensor now supporting both thread and Zigbee. They also showed off a new P100 motion and vibration sensor. The G350 camera is a car's first matter certified camera. It features a new dual lens pan tilt camera with a 4K wide angle lens for overall picture and a 2.5K telephoto lens for detailed zoom and also functions as a matter border router. It is scheduled for a Q1 launch with matter 1.5 support out of the box, potentially one of the first cameras to support matter on the market this year. They're also planning to release the M400 home station which gives older cameras like the G3 and G4 matter support. The M400 home station will act as a matter bridge for those older cameras. One of the first thermostats to support Apple's adaptive temperature feature, the W200 thermostat can use ecosystem data from your iPhone, Apple Watch, calendars, et cetera to automatically adjust between home, away and sleep modes. It also supports clean energy guidance, optimizing heat and cooling for times when energy is cheaper or cleaner. Beyond climate control, the W200 serves as a centralized panel hub for security by syncing with an Aqara doorbell or door lock, allowing family members to verify visitors and unlocking the door on its four inch full color touchscreen. I like how they've done this. They prioritize speed by sending three snapshots once the doorbell is rung rather than a full video stream. This allows for just a quick visual confirmation of who is at the door. It includes an on-screen button to unlock a connected Aqara lock directly from the notification there on the thermostat. They also showed me a prototype of a new dual protocol smart plug with thread and Zigbee support, power monitoring and a USB-C port. Aqara is really forward thinking in terms of the smart home. We talked about device to device thread binding, the future of radar and gesture control and spatial intelligence to deliver a truly smart home experience. CES was so much fun this year. We got to see a lot of really cool tech. I can't wait to get my hands on a lot of this stuff and test it in the home in 2026. Let me know what your favorite thing was and what you're most excited about for smart home tech in 2026. Be sure to subscribe for new videos and live streams every week right here. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.