It wouldn’t be far-reaching to call the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the nexus of modern smart home technology. While early attempts were made before the turn of the century, the halls of CES have progressively welcomed more and more connected devices into the fold since the early 2000s, and CES 2025 is no different.
This year, I’ve been trawling the show floor to find the best of the best smart home devices, from the weird and wonderful to the more practical inventions that will shape the next few years of connected home technology.
Keen to make your home start working for you? Here’s my pick of CES 2025’s best smart home offerings so far.
Robot vacuums get futuristic
Some of the biggest smart home news at CES so far has surrounded robot vacuums, with fierce competition across the board from some of the biggest names in robot-assisted living.
This year, things are hotting up; finally, some major disruption happening in the space that might actually come to market. This year, it’s in the form of often-bizarre but exciting hardware adaptations like Roborock’s robot vacuum with its sock-collecting arm, but more exciting than that is Dreame’s new robovac that can climb over obstacles up to 4.2cm in a single step, or 6cm tall in two steps, using what Dreame is calling its ‘ProLeap System’. It’s one small step for Dreame, one giant leap for robovac kind.
Elsewhere, software once more takes the fore with robot vacuums like the Eureka J15 Max Ultra, which uses AI to detect even hard-to-spot clear spillages.
Smart beauty devices come to market
Beauty tech is on the rise, and CES 2025 is ready to deliver some of the coolest new frontiers in skincare technology.
Easily my favorite thus far has been Samsung’s AI-powered micro-LED mirror, which scans your face to assess your pores, pigmentation, wrinkles, and any redness and recommends a skincare regimen off the back of it. Samsung claims in the future, SmartThings-enabled beauty gadgets may also be compatible with the mirror, allowing for even greater insights and recommendations.
However, there’s an honorable mention to L’Oreal’s new tabletop skin analyzer too, which the brand claims will tell you everything about the past, present and future of your skin with a simple five-minute scan process. Wild.
Smart lighting and switches get smarter
Smart lighting seems set to get a whole lot smarter, judging by some of the biggest announcements from this year’s CES. In particular, I was drawn to one of Govee’s newest smart lights; a pixel panel (suitably named Govee Pixel Light) that can use generative AI within the Govee app to create illuminated images. That’s not all, though; you can also connect it to Govee’s sync boxes for enhanced immersive gaming. With compatible games, the Pixel Light will display game-related imagery, as demonstrated at CES with Mario Kart 8.
While it wasn’t a CES announcement, Philips Hue’s new generative AI assistant has also made waves in the news cycle this week, though details remain scant; and Nanoleaf unveiled its subscription service, Nanoleaf Premium, which features its new Orchestrator tool and Scenescapes.
Smart security for all
Smart locks haven’t quite had the landmark developments we’ve seen in some years prior, but that’s not to say it’s been a boring year. I particularly enjoy SwitchBot’s newest renter-friendly retrofit smart lock solutions, which improves upon the first-generation smart lock I reviewed a few years ago. The newer model is a lot more slick in design, and its more streamlined design means you don’t sacrifice style for smart security.
Elsewhere, Phillips has announced its first smart lock compatible with Matter and Ultraloq’s new smart lock was revealed to take advantage of iOS 18’s UWB, showing continued focus on creating solutions that work for a wider variety of consumers.
Home robots are ready to land
Odd robots are a mainstay at CES, but this year we’ve actually had a glimpse at some devices that will be commercially available.
Chief among these exciting developments is Samsung’s Ballie, which, after years of wishy-washy details and slight adjustments to hardware and software, is set to come to market in 2025. It’ll be armed with a Full HD triple-laser switchable lens projector, a 2K camera on the rear and a 4K camera on the front, as well as LiDAR and Time of Flight (ToF) sensors.
Another frequent face at CES deserving of an honorable mention is Yukai Engineering, with its bizarre array of robot companions like the Mirumi bag bot and Nekojita FuFu, the latter of which delighted my laryngitis-infected self with its ability to cool down my tea.
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TechRadar will be extensively covering this year’s CES, and will bring you all of the big announcements as they happen. Head over to our CES 2025 news page for the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI.
And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok and WhatsApp for the latest from the CES show floor!
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josephine.watson@futurenet.com (Josephine Watson)
