The Best Smart Home Tech at CES 2026

Smart home has recently been moving into a world of interoperability that I never expected a few years ago. And at CES 2026, that was on display — from smart locks supporting the new universal Aliro digital key standard to cameras that work with Matter, and so on (eventually) with every major smart home platform in existence, there’s plenty to look forward to if you’re a fan of not being locked into any one ecosystem.

I also saw companies exploring new technologies (especially in smart locks, where on-device authentication in the form of palm vein scanning and facial recognition is everywhere), new hubs, sensors, and AI ideas that make sense and aren’t the focus of the show. Some categories also experienced considerable maturity, from robotic lawn mowers to pool cleaning bots. Even Thread, a key wireless protocol for the Matter standard that lets smart home devices create a mesh network independent of home Wi-Fi, has performed well.

Best Smart Lock

Lockin V7 Max

No smart lock has all this, but the V7 Max feels like it’s close. Wireless optical charging, palm and finger vein scanning, facial recognition, Matter support, and indoor and outdoor touchscreens and video cameras – all in one sleek-looking, slim mortise door lock – make this one of the most attractive smart locks to hit the market. Will it be expensive? Oh yes, Lockin hasn’t announced pricing, but its predecessor, the V5 Max, started at 39,990 New Taiwan Dollars, or about $1,270 US.

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best thermostat

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200

Smart thermostats have been almost exclusively the domain of Nest and Ecobee for years, but Aqara introduced a thumping alternative at CES 2026: the Thermostat Hub W200. It’s more than just a thermostat; It has a millimeter wave presence sensor (the kind that can tell if someone is in the room, even if they’re sitting still), can work as a video doorbell monitor with the Aqara Video Doorbell, and can act as a smart home hub for both Aqara and third-party Matter devices. Aqara is also the first to announce compatibility with Apple Home’s new adaptive temperature and clean energy guidance features.

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best smart lights

Govi Ceiling Light Ultra

Govi’s new ceiling light occupies the gray area between an ultra-smart light and a display, thanks to the 616-LED lights housed beneath its plastic cover. With these, the 21-inch light can certainly show vibrant colors, but it can also display images with much more detail than its curtain lights. As a result, at CES 2026, I could see a vaguely animated view of a rotating Earth under this blanket of matter-consistent light. There was a lot of lighting at the tech show, but the Ceiling Light Ultra was the most interesting I’ve seen so far.

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Best new smart home feature

Philips Hue Spatial Aware

Signify’s Philips Hue didn’t have anything in the way of new products to show, but it still managed to impress me with its new SpatialAware feature. This feature lets you use your smartphone’s camera and LiDAR sensor to identify where Hue lights are located relative to each other to use that information in scenes. In the company’s CES 2026 suite, that meant a scene spread color over multiple lights to make them look like a sunset. A bright, yellow light served as the sun, while the remaining shades of yellow, orange, pink and red appeared to radiate from it into other lights, their color depending on where they were in the room. The feature is coming in spring 2026, but only to Philips Hue Bridge Pro owners.

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best robot vacuum

Roborock Saros Rover

The Saros rover can climb and clean stairs, something robot vacuum companies have been racing to achieve in recent years. It also potentially beats what I saw just a few months ago with the as-yet-unreleased Eufy Marswalker or Dream Cyber At CES 2026, we saw that the Saros rover can actually climb and clean stairs (very slowly). Of course, whether or not it’s worth paying the thousands of dollars that Roborock will likely ask for the Rover depends on whether it’s actually a good robot vacuum.

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Best Smart Home Sensor

Aqara Spatial Multi-Sensor FP400

Aqara, which already makes the FP2, one of the best millimeter wave presence sensors I’ve used, is stepping up its game with the Spatial Multi-Sensor FP400. For starters, presence sensors are somewhat like occupancy sensors, but are more accurate and are able to tell when someone is in the room, even if they’re not moving, and can trigger automation based on specific areas of the room. According to the company, the FP400 is capable of tracking up to 10 people at once and triggering automations based on whether someone is standing, sitting or lying down. Like previous Aqara presence sensors, it will be Matter-compatible. Aqara did not announce a release date or price.

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Gizmodo will be in Las Vegas all week long bringing you everything you need to know about the technology being unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all of our coverage here.