Clever Control: Smart Systems for All Your Devices

Jul 21, 2023

These handy hubs will help you make the most of the many gadgets you have at home

By John ElliotOriginally Published August 1, 2023

Photo: Brilliant

Photo: Brilliant

Anyone with a fair amount of connected devices in their home can tell you that it's a bit of a hassle keeping tabs on and controlling the growing population of gadgets.

Fortunately, smart-home developers saw this quandary coming and have created centralized hubs to easily organize and activate your home's many high-tech products.

From portable touchscreens and futuristic switches to home-controlling televisions and bespoke ecosystems, the smart-home hubs will help you keep track of your devices and make the most of their many conveniences.

Here are our picks for smart home control systems.

If you want exacting, easy-to-use control over all your home’s smart devices, you might want to consider building your own ecosystem. Vivint offers its own (and third-party compatible) smart lights, locks, cameras (indoor and out), thermostats, speakers, sensors, doorbells and more. It will build you the bespoke smart-home network of your dreams, with the precise devices you select, all easily controlled via the wall-hanging Vivint home hub, a connected touchscreen that will let you easily cycle through your many devices. On the go? The Vivint app will also allow you access and activate your home’s connected products. Vivint also offers 24/7 monitoring so if you have an issue, technical or security-related, someone will be around to help.

Pricing depends on plans and products. Visit vivint.com for a quote.

Vivint

Vivint

Brilliant

Brilliant

If you're looking for a control system that offers some style, then you'll find the Brilliant Control Panel, well, brilliant. Compatible with just about every manufacturer of smart-home devices, Brilliant will work with what you already have in your home, and with whatever you plan to add. But the control panel is where Brilliant really shines. Installed in the place of a light switch, the sleek control panel comes with a phablet-sized touchscreen and two-to-four vertical finger grooves. Users can use the touchscreen to access their smart devices, see who’s at the front door, change their music and more—or they can use the delightfully tactile finger grooves, to adjust lighting, turn up (or down) the volume, lock doors and more. A hands-free experience is also available as Brilliant is compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit.

Brilliant Control Panels are available from $449 to $549, depending upon the number of finger grooves.

Looking for a central hub that can move with you? Try the recently released Pixel Tablet from Google. This gorgeous 10.95-inch touchscreen will not only give you easy, immediate access and control to your home’s smart lights, locks, shades and more, but you can also check your calendar, watch YouTube, take a video call or send an email on it. And while it rests on a stylish Charging Speaker Dock—which, yes, you can speak to, giving you voice command over the device and your home’s connected gadgets, thanks to Google Assistant—the Tablet can also travel with you, by easily detaching it the magnetic dock, making it easy to make smart device adjustments as you move through your home—or see who’s at the front door when you’re in the bathroom.

The Google Pixel Tablet is available in three colors, starting at $499.

Google

Google

Apple

Apple

For users who are all in on the high-end Apple ecosystem, it can be difficult to find a suitable smart-home hub. Fortunately, Apple just went ahead and made it themselves. The Apple TV 4K is an unobtrusive box and accompanying remote that connect to your 4K television and offers high-quality streaming, live TV, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, iCloud Photo library and more, all on your current screen setup—but that’s just the start. The Apple TV 4K also operates as a control hub for all your HomeKit-enabled smart devices, allowing users to adjust the lights, answer the doorbell and turn on the oven, all from the most centrally located hub in their house, the TV.

The Apple TV 4K is available starting at $129.