I can't remember the last time I got excited about a fan. Normally, I just buy whatever Vornado or Dreo model fits my budget, but that was before I started testing the battery-powered Standing Circulator Fan from SwitchBot.
As the name indicates, the SwitchBot fan is a 3D circulator - a fancy way of saying that it can tilt up, down, left, and right to push a decent amount air around a room. It looks okay, despite all the plastic, is relatively quiet, runs for hours on battery, has an integrated nightlight, transforms from a desktop to standing fan in seconds, and works on its own or as part of a smart home. There's a lot to like here.
The new Wired Wall Switch Modules fit behind existing switches. | Image: Signify
Smart lighting company Philips Hue has launched its first wired wall modules. Installed behind existing wall switches, the new devices bring non-smart lights into the Hue ecosystem for the first time. Hue also announced new Play table and floor lamps that are more affordable versions of its Signe series, along with upgrades to its E14 candle bulbs that add a broader white light spectrum and Matter-over-Thread compatibility.
The new lights are now available globally; however, the Wired Wall Switch Modules are Europe-only. Signify CTO George Yianni told The Verge that there are currently no plans to launch them in the US, but the company woul …
The Narwal Flow 2 is down to a new low price. | Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
If you’ve been wanting to buy a robot vacuum but have been put off by how much it can cost to get a good one, now is not a bad time to start looking. We’re now on day two of Prime Day, and Amazon, along with retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, is offering discounts on several models we’ve tested from brands like Roborock, Dreame, and Shark. Whether you’re looking for a basic robot vacuum that can cut down on the amount of vacuuming you have to do or a high-end model that can wash and dry its own mop pads and climb over room thresholds, there are deals available across a wide range of price points.
Roborock’s Saros 10 combines powerful 22,000Pa suction with excellent dual spinning mop pads that do a great job tackling dried-on messes. It can also automatically leave its mop pads at the dock before vacuuming carpets. The newer Saros 20 offers more powerful suction and can tackle taller thresholds, but the Saros 10 is still a great cleaning machine.
The Roborock Q10 S5 Plus is down to $264.99 ($285 off) at Amazon, which matches its lowest price to date. The Q10 S5 Plus is one of our favorite budget-friendly robot vacuum / mop hybrids, combining good AI-powered obstacle avoidance with automatic carpet detection. It also features a vibrating mop that does a solid job scrubbing hard floors while lifting itself over rugs, and the set includes a self-emptying dock for added convenience. It can’t match the suction power or tall threshold-climbing abilities of pricier models like the Saros 20, but this is a good value under $300.
The Tapo RV30 Max Plus is another excellent budget-friendly option that’s on sale. It includes a self-emptying dock and costs $199.99 ($200 off) at Amazon. You don’t get AI-powered obstacle avoidance with this one, and its 5,200Pa suction isn’t the most powerful we’ve seen, but it’s still a capable cleaning machine with a wide mop pad that performs surprisingly well. The RV30 Max also offers excellent lidar-based navigation, support for room-specific cleaning, and Matter compatibility, allowing you to control it through all the major smart home platforms.
Eufy Omni C28
The Eufy Omni C28 combines excellent mopping performance with a small self-cleaning dock that’s well suited for apartments and other smaller spaces. It navigates around furniture and into tight areas with ease, while its roller mop does a great job cleaning hard floors.
Dreame’s X60 Max Ultra is on sale for $1,344.99 ($355 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. We highly recommend the Dreame X60 Ultra for homes with lots of carpet, as it combines powerful 35,000Pa suction with dual rubber brushes that excel at lifting hair and debris. It can also climb over tall thresholds and thick rugs with ease, while its spinning mop pads do a good job on hard floors and automatically detach when vacuuming carpet. Other highlights include quiet mop washing and drying along with a slim design that can fit under low furniture.
Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow
Roborock’s first roller-mop robot vacuum, the Curv 2 Flow, features flagship specs at a mid-range price. Including excellent mopping, a retractable mop cover, 20,000Pa suction, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and a compact design.
You can pick up the Dreame X60 Max Ultra’s predecessor, the Dreame X50Ultra, for $849.99 ($750 off) at Amazon, which is $50 more than its best price to date. While its 20,000Pa suction isn’t quite as powerful as the X60 Ultra’s and it can’t tackle especially high thresholds as well, it’s still an excellent robot vacuum-mop hybrid. Its edge cleaning also isn’t quite as effective as the X60 Ultra’s, but you’re otherwise getting many of the same features for a lot less.
Dreame’s L40 Ultra Gen 2 is on sale for $384.99 ($265 off) at Amazon and directly from Dreame with code L40UGWS. It delivers powerful 25,000Pa suction, AI-powered obstacle avoidance, and a self-cleaning dock that empties the dustbin, washes the mop, and refills its water tanks. Unlike the X50 Ultra, however, it lacks the ability to climb high thresholds or stairs.
Narwal Flow 2
Our pick for the best robot vacuum-mop if you have all hardwood floors is the Narwal Flow 2. A superb mop with a wide flat roller pad and an excellent vacuum, the Flow 2 also has top-notch navigation and obstacle detection. Its sleek base station is also less of an eyesore than most.
The original Narwal Flow is available for $649.99 ($500 off) at Amazon, which is its best price to date. Like the Flow 2, it offers a self-cleaning roller mop along with a dock that automatically empties the dustbin and washes the mop and a tangle-resistant brush. The tradeoff is that it lacks the Flow 2’s upgraded AI-powered obstacle avoidance, uses lower-temperature water when washing the mop, and delivers slightly less suction power.
You can buy the SwitchBot K11 Plus on sale for around $189.99 ($210 off) at Amazon and directly from SwitchBot with code PDDAY53, which is $10 more than its best price. It’s a tiny bot with an equally small self-emptying dock, making it a great fit for smaller spaces. Its suction power tops out at 6,000Pa, but it’s still an effective cleaning machine with a rubber roller brush and a single side brush that does a solid job picking up dirt, dust, and debris from both hard floors and carpets.
Ecovacs Deebot X12 OmniCyclone
Ecovacs’ latest flagship robot vacuum and mop can pretreat stains, keep carpets dry with a smart mop cover, and deliver powerful 22,000Pa suction. It also comes with an all-in-one dock that automatically empties the dustbin, washes the mop with heated, pressurized water, and refills its water tanks.
The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni features an extendable mop that can clean itself, just like its predecessor. However, it also features Ecovacs’ Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology, which optimizes the airflow path from intake to exhaust, rather than relying solely on suction power.
The Dreame L10s Pro Ultra is down to $349.98 when you buy it at Amazon, matching its best price to date and $950 less than its original launch price in 2024. Despite its age, it still offers a self-cleaning dock that can wash and dry its mop pads, dispense cleaning solution, refill its water tank, and empty its dustbin. It also features AI-powered obstacle avoidance. Its 7,000Pa suction is lower than Dreame’s newer models, and it can’t climb tall thresholds, but it’s still a lot of robot vacuum for the price.
The Shark Navigator Robot Vacuum RV2110 has dropped to $179 ($121 off) at Amazon. While we’ve previously seen it go for as low as $129.99, that’s still a notable 40 percent discount on the basic bot. The Navigator uses lidar-based navigation to create a map of your home and is equipped with a brushroll designed to minimize hair tangles.
Update, June 24th: Adjusted prices and availability and added deals for the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow.
Good things take time, but not all things that take time are good. The jury is still out on the Google Home Speaker, but it certainly took a while to arrive. After announcing its new speaker last August, Google finally has a release date. The company's first new smart home speaker in years will launch on June 25, and you can preorder it today for $100.
The generically named Google Home Speaker is Google's first home audio device in almost six years. The last one was the Nest Audio, which debuted back in September 2020. The new device is small and round—an oblate spheroid, technically. It's covered in a partially recycled fabric available in four colors: hazel, porcelain, jade, and berry (jade and berry are limited to the US). Google says the device produces "360-degree sound" for a uniform listening experience anywhere in a room.
Google is into lighting effects again.
Credit:
Google
Previous Google speakers included Assistant-style illuminated lights, but the Google Home Speaker features a light ring around the bottom that glows when the device is listening, "thinking," or responding. This is becoming a trend with Google. The company will require a similar glowing lightbar embellishment on the upcoming Googlebook laptops. There are three far-field microphones distributed around the speaker that will pick up your speech, and there's a mute switch when you don't want it listening for the "OK Google" trigger.
Good things take time, but not all things that take time are good. The jury is still out on the Google Home Speaker, but it certainly took a while to arrive. After announcing its new speaker last August, Google finally has a release date. The company's first new smart home speaker in years will launch on June 25, and you can preorder it today for $100.
The generically named Google Home Speaker is Google's first home audio device in almost six years. The last one was the Nest Audio, which debuted back in September 2020. The new device is small and round—an oblate spheroid, technically. It's covered in a partially recycled fabric available in four colors: hazel, porcelain, jade, and berry (jade and berry are limited to the US). Google says the device produces "360-degree sound" for a uniform listening experience anywhere in a room.
Google is into lighting effects again.
Credit:
Google
Previous Google speakers included Assistant-style illuminated lights, but the Google Home Speaker features a light ring around the bottom that glows when the device is listening, "thinking," or responding. This is becoming a trend with Google. The company will require a similar glowing lightbar embellishment on the upcoming Googlebook laptops. There are three far-field microphones distributed around the speaker that will pick up your speech, and there's a mute switch when you don't want it listening for the "OK Google" trigger.
The new Thread Networks Diagnostics Tools app from Thread Group, the standards body behind the wireless IoT protocol, officially launches in beta today. The app, which arrives in beta today on iOS and Android, is the first dedicated tool to provide visibility into your Thread-based smart home network. I've been testing the alpha version of the Android app on my complicated home network and, with a bit of extra legwork, have diagnosed several issues with my Thread setup.
Thread is one of the protocols the smart home standard Matter runs on. But since Matter over Thread devices began arriving in 2023, there have been reports of people struggl …
Designed to fit on top of, behind, or next to a fridge for battery backup during a power outage. | Image: Jackery
Jackery is jumping on the fridge-battery trend with what it says is the "world's slimmest." FridgeGuard also looks nice; a break from power stations that tend to look more at home at a job site than the kitchen or living room.
Measuring just 2.63 inches (67mm) thick, the Jackery FridgeGuard power station is meant to be tucked on top of, beside, or behind your refrigerator and automatically spring to life with a 10ms UPS switchover during a power outage. Its modest 800W of AC output (1600W peak) and 1kWh LFP battery will keep the typical US fridge / freezer combo running for about 10 hours - or double that if you add a 1kWh expansion battery …
The smart home networking protocol Thread is adding a new way to onboard devices without a Thread border router. The feature, called Thread Direct, is designed to let users set up Thread-powered devices - such as smart plugs and smart locks - using only a phone or mobile device equipped with a Thread radio. Current devices with Thread radios include many iPhones, newer Pixel phones, and the latest Samsung flagships.
Thread is one of the networking technologies used with the smart home interoperability standard Matter. A low-powered, low-latency mesh networking protocol, Thread provides a way for devices to talk to each other locally in your …
Matter 1.6 introduces a new way to share smart home devices with different ecosystems. | Image: CSA
Matter, the smart home interoperability standard, might finally get a feature that should have been there from day one: a single shared Matter network managed by multiple ecosystems. With this feature, called Joint Fabric, smart devices added to the network will be controllable by any authorized platform - Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and the rest. No need to "share" your smart light between apps; set it up once, and control it everywhere. It's like your smart home is a joint bank account and your platforms of choice all have signing authority.
I'll admit it. I was wrong. Wildly colorful lighting is delightful for your smart home - well, outdoors, at least.
Smart lighting is one of my favorite features of the smart home - it combines convenience with ambiance, letting you change the entire look of your room with just a press of a button. But, other than the occasional pop of color, mostly in my kids' rooms and outdoors around the holidays, I've never found much use for color-changing lights. I prefer the subtler effects of tunable white light combined with dimming to set the scene indoors, and that preference also extended to outdoor lighting. Until this summer.
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