Samsung's smart home product "Smart Things" has been renewed, and buttons are also available

Samsung announced the second generation "SmartThings" product on August 13th. In addition to the upgraded "Smart Things Hub", there are water leak sensors, motion sensors, multipurpose sensors, smart outlets, etc.

First of all, the new Smart Things Hub is smaller than before. In addition, the upgrade supports the latest wireless communication protocols (ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth 4.1).

Notably, Samsung has finally realized that some people want to put their smart home hubs where there are no routers. The new Smart Things Hub now connects wirelessly to Wi-Fi networks, eliminating the need to connect to a router with an Ethernet cable. This is a great upgrade. However, SmartThings isn't the first time, and Wink Labs' Wink Hub 2 is also wireless.

Samsung's recently announced smart speaker, the Galaxy Home, has a built-in SmartThings Hub. In addition, the new mesh network system "SmartThings Wifi" announced today along with the 2nd generation SmartThings also has the function of SmartThings Hub.

The SmartThings sensor has also been upgraded. The motion sensor has a new design and is now a magnet ball mount type. Therefore, the sensor can be tilted more than before, making it easier to adjust the detection range. The new smart outlets, multipurpose sensors, and leak sensors have also undergone some design changes, but there are no other major changes.

As a new product, there is "Smart Things Button". With this product, you can program a set action and start it with a single switch. For example, you can set "movie mode" and turn on the TV by dimming the lights in the room without launching the SmartThings app.

The SmartThings Button can also measure ambient temperature and work with ecobee and Honeywell smart thermostats.

The price is $ 69.99 (about 7750 yen) for the new SmartThings Hub, $ 19.99 to $ 24.99 (about 2200 to 2760 yen) for various sensors, $ 14.99 (about 1660 yen) for the SmartThings Button, and $ 34.99 (about 3875 yen) for the smart outlet. ). It is currently sold on Samsung's US website and retail stores in the US.

This article was edited by Asahi Interactive for Japan from an article from overseas CBS Interactive.