Best Black Friday deals on smart home gear

Black Friday is here, which means it’s the best time of year to stock up on that smart home gear you’ve had your eye on. As usual, there are some deep discounts to be found on smart speakers and smart displays, as well as robot vacuums that you can control with a command to that smart speaker and video doorbells whose live feed you can see through one of those smart displays.

There are also some excellent bargains on smart door locks, smart lights, and smart plugs, including some of the first discounts we’re seeing on Matter-compatible devices. So read on for my pick of the bargains on the best smart home gear out there.

The brand new, very good Echo Show 8 (third-gen) smart display is just $104.99 at Amazon, down from $149.99. Featuring a Thread radio, Zigbee hub, and Matter Controller capabilities, this is a great smart home hub and an excellent smart display. Read my review.

The best Echo smart speaker, Amazon’s fourth-gen Echo is down to $54.99 from $99.99 at Amazon. With great sound, a sassy spherical look, and a Thread radio and Zigbee hub on board, this Alexa speaker packs a lot of power for a low price.

The fifth-gen Echo Dot for just $23 at Amazon is a spectacular deal for this great smart speaker. Pair two for stereo, and be very surprised you only spent $50 for room-filling sound (okay, a small room). The fact that each one also comes with a TP-Link Kasa color smart bulb is just gravy. Read my review.

The diddly little Echo Pop smart speaker is $18 at Amazon and also comes with a smart light bulb from TP-Link Kasa. That’s basically giving it away for free. Stock up and pop (geddit?) a couple of these in places like a laundry room or garage for easy access to the Alexa smart assistant from any room in your home. Read my review.

My pick for best wired smart video doorbell camera, the Google Nest Doorbell Camera (wired, 2nd gen) is $129.99, down from $179.99 at Amazon. Read my full review for more on why this is my top pick if you need eyes on your porch.

The new Ecobee Smart Doorbell Camera is down to $139.99 at Ecobee and Amazon from $159.99. This high-end doorbell is a great get at this price, featuring smart alerts for people and packages and a useful integration with Ecobee’s smart thermostats to show you who is at your door. It also works with Apple Home and Amazon Alexa. Read my review.

The also excellent Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is $100 off at Amazon, down to just $149.99. Great video quality and an impressive field of view make this a great buy, although smart home support is limited outside of Amazon Alexa.

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is my favorite option if you are looking for a battery-powered buzzer. It’s $120, down from $180 at Amazon, Best Buy, and The Home Depot.

Blink’s Wired Floodlight Camera is 50 percent off, down to just $50 at Amazon. That’s a killer price for a wired outdoor camera with two adjustable LED lights on top, 1080p video, on-device processing of people alerts, and a local storage option through the Blink Sync Module 2.

Google Home users can grab a bargain on the Google Nest Cam with Floodlights, which is $90 off at Best Buy and Amazon, down to $189.99. It’s the only floodlight camera that can record 24/7. Read my review.

TP-Link’s new wire-free magnetic mount Tapo security cameras are just $229.99 for a three-pack at Best Buy, down from $299.99. Easy to mount and with the option of local storage, the indoor/outdoor security cameras work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

The Level Touch (the best-looking smart lock — because it doesn’t look like a smart lock) is seeing a very rare discount, down to $180 at Level from $329. This is the touch-to-open version; it doesn’t work with Home Key, but it does support Apple Home.

The best retrofit smart lock, which means you don’t have to remove your existing lock, the August Wifi smart lock is just $149, down from $230 at Amazon. Read our review.

The Eve Light Strip is 50 percent off at Amazon, down to $39.95. This full-color, Wi-Fi LED light strip is one of the few to work with Apple’s Adaptive HomeKit Lighting.

Philips Hue White and Color Ambience Starter Kit with two bulbs and a bridge is $80, down from $130 at Best Buy. If you already have a bridge, snag three full-color bulbs for $80 at Best Buy. The Hue lights are an excellent addition to any smart home and some of the best smart lighting options you can buy. They work with all the major smart home platforms, and the bridge supports Matter.

Another option for holiday lighting fun is Govee’s Christmas string lights, on sale for $63 at Amazon. These offer some supremely flashy effects, although they don’t have quite the same sophistication as the Twinkly’s.

Govee’s Matter-compatible M1 light strip is down to $40 from $60 at Amazon. Featuring addressable LED lighting and wide smart home compatibility thanks to Matter, the Govee light strip is bright, and its app is full of fun effects to jazz up any room. Read my full review.

The Aqara Smart Hub M2 is down to $42 at Amazon from $64. It allows you to connect all of Aqara Zigbee-based sensors, smart switches, and other accessories, many of which are also on sale today at Amazon. The hub supports Matter, so compatible devices also work in any Matter smart home platforms.

The Thread-based Aqara Door and Window Sensor P2 is just $21, down from $30 at Amazon. This contact sensor can be set to trigger smart home routines, such as turning on the light when you open the door. It works directly with Matter, so it doesn’t require a hub, and is compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.

The Eve Energy smart plug is a simple way to smarten up lamps and other electrical fixtures. The Matter-over-Thread plug also supports energy monitoring and is down to $30 from $40 at Amazon.

Brilliant’s new Plug-In Smart Home control panel, which can control your smart lights, locks, speakers, and more, is 10 percent off at $359.10, down from $399. The company’s entire line of hardwired smart switches/control panels is also 10 percent off. Read my review.

The HOOBS Box Starter Kit is down to $200 from $300 today. This starter kit is an easy way to get started with HomeBridge, a platform that lets you add non-compatible devices such as Ring cameras and Nest devices into Apple’s HomeKit.

Feeling a little overwhelmed on what deals to pounce on? Need some tech buying advice? Our Verge Deals team is here for your retail therapy, and we’ll be answering your burning shopping questions for Cyber Monday live on November 27th at 11AM ET. Leave a question here.