I saw Samsung’s vision of for the smart home at CES and it’s impressively helpful

Samsung has been in the smart home game for a long time. SmartThings was the first platform I used about a decade ago. Since then, many changes have happened to connected devices and the platforms we use to connect them. Samsung continues to stay relevant in the space and leverage the other areas of technology it plays in, such as smartphones, wearables, cleaning devices, and more, to be a leader in connected homes.

At CES this past January, Samsung showcased more smart devices and ways to link them together, giving a vision of the future of connected homes. I got a showcase tour of the brand’s current and future plans for smart homes. I saw laundry sets that sync load times to end simultaneously, an oven that recognizes the food inside so that it cooks it perfectly, and more.

It starts with hardware

Samsung has a lot of it

A company the size of Samsung and its long history in smart homes has quite a portfolio of products to connect. With years of making everything from air conditioners to vacuums, refrigerators, ovens, and more, Samsung is perfectly suited to merge connectivity and appliances for a fully connected smart home.

While Samsung stopped making its SmartThings hub and branded devices in 2020 when it partnered with Aeotec to make them, the company continued to improve the platform. Instead of making standalone SmartThings hubs, Samsung built the hub functionality into many of its products, including TVs, fridges, and more. You may have a smart home hub ready to control your devices. With Matter integration, SmartThings can manage more device brands.

By offering many products that can be interconnected, the potential for a home with devices that actively communicate allows for unique experiences. Samsung showed off several devices. Starting with refrigerators, while the models with the massive 21-inch or 32-inch display on the door have been around for a few years, Samsung now offers a smaller 9-inch option as part of its new Screens Everywhere idea.

Samsung is upgrading its fridge cooling technology. It is implementing a Peltier module to augment the traditional compressor, which is still there, for more efficient cooling. This saves money on energy costs and food by keeping consistent refrigerator temperatures.

Improvements to the software and hardware in these fridges mean better food recognition and tracking expiration dates. In a demo, Samsung representatives used Bixby directly to the fridge to ask what food was nearing its expiration date and what recipes could be made with those ingredients. Using the cameras inside to recognize food, it knows how long it has been in there and the typical freshness time for the food, and it cranks out suggested recipes on the fridge’s display.

Samsung also offers cooking appliances. From ovens to microwaves, these connected devices do more than warm up food for dinner. Like refrigerators, some models have cameras to monitor your cooking from anywhere. The cameras also detect food placed inside and provide suggested cooking times. I watched a representative place a pizza inside the oven and shut the door. Within seconds, a pizza and several cooking options appeared on the screen. While it won’t have every food and recipe, if you cook a dish multiple times that it doesn’t recognize, the oven saves the recipe for automated cooking later.

The new microwaves offer similar features to the oven, such as “seeing” the food placed inside and offering preset cooking options. These are helpful features, but the more SmartThigns connected devices you have, the better your connected home experience will be.

In addition to food-focused cooking appliances, heating and cooling products, washers and dryers, vacuums, dishwashers, and smart sensors were on display. An interesting product in home comfort is a new Air to Water heat pump paired with a new ECH ClimateHub.

The EHS Mono R23 HT Quiet is a large unit that resides outside your home and functions as a heat pump/AC typically would. However, instead of only taking external thermal energy to pump into your home for heating, it concentrates it and separates the moisture in the air to be used as hot water for your shower or sink. The water is stored in the slim ClimateHub, which works as an all-in-one manager for the hot water and your home’s climate.

Connecting the dots

By dots, I mean devices

It doesn’t matter how many smart devices you have and what they do if the means of controlling and connecting the products is bad. Samsung spent years connecting devices with SmartThings, and it is one of the best. While the benefit of an interconnected ecosystem of products within a single brand is high, I’m not a fan of being locked to only one brand for my home appliances, regardless of how good they may be.

What Samsung has created with SmartThings and all its products is impressive. In a demo with two Samsung representatives in the “smart home of the future,” the pair showed off what a day could look like within a connected home. The demo went like this: after waking up, each person asked Bixby in the refrigerator to show them their docket for the day. Recognizing each person’s voice, the display on the fridge showed each person’s schedule for the day without issue. With that done, it was time for lunch.

The representative asked about foods in the fridge nearing expiration and for recipes that use those foods. After choosing a recipe, the fridge was asked to begin prepping to cook it. This triggered the oven to turn on to the recipe’s predetermined settings. After lunch, dishes went into the dishwasher for cleaning later, and the pair went for a walk.

The security system was automatically armed when leaving the home, the robot vacuum was set to clean the floors, and the lights were turned off. While out, a notification with a photo from the vacuum’s camera showed a pet getting into something it wasn’t supposed to. Upon returning home, the vacuum went to its dock to charge and empty, the lights turned on, and the security system disarmed. These were triggered by preset automation created in SmartThings, which used their smartphones for proximity sensors when they left and returned home.

A smart home that works for you

Is the smart home I want

A concern around privacy and security with smart homes is worth considering when buying devices from unknown brands. Samsung takes this concept seriously by securing data using its security platform, Knox. This feature is often overlooked and a reason to consider SmartThings when building a smart home. I’m not saying other platforms aren’t secure. However, when you link many parts of your home to the internet, adding a trusted layer of security like Knox is a feature to look at strongly.

Smart home devices have evolved beyond the simple smart bulb or smart plug to include major home appliances. Automating lights and small appliances, like fans or coffee makers, make homes convenient. Still, when your refrigerator tracks food, suggests recipes based on what’s inside, and sends it to your oven to cook it, the idea of a smart home becomes more interesting. I love the washers and dryers that “talk” to each other to ensure the dryer finishes at the same time as the washer.