Why you'll love it: The
Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi System provides fast wireless speeds throughout every corner of your home, is easy to set up, and doubles as a smart home hub for home automation.
If you’re looking for a mesh Wi-Fi system that will cover every square inch of your home with high-speed wireless internet, and act as a main hub for all your smart home devices, the Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi system is a fantastic solution.
The model I tested has an even stronger Wi-Fi connection than the original Samsung Connect Home, thanks to the partnership with a network specialist called Plume. The system comes with three hubs, and each hub can cover up to 1,500 square feet. If you’re trying to cover an even larger area than the 4,500-square foot coverage this system provides, up to a whopping 32 hubs can be added for additional coverage.
We currently live in a 2,200 square-foot house, which left plenty of “dead-zone” areas in our home where the Wi-Fi was almost non-existent. However, this all changed once we set up the SmartThings Wi-Fi system. Two smart TVs that we had been trying to set up in our upstairs connected to the internet almost instantly, and areas like the kitchen where I often tried to set up my laptop to write now had full-strength Wi-Fi to work with.
In addition, we could move toward automating our home since the system also acts as a hub for smart home devices so you can control everything directly from the SmartThings app, or use the compatible Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa for voice control.
In addition to Samsung SmartThings home devices, this system also supports other Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Zigbee, and Bluetooth devices, so you can wirelessly connect lights, smart thermostats, cameras, smart plugs, and more.
The SmartThings Wi-Fi system was simple to set up, and it took us about 10 minutes total to set up all three hubs in the different areas of our home. One hub got connected directly to our modem, acting as a router and setting up a “home base” for the additional two hubs to connect to.
An LED light on each hub indicates when the hub is ready to connect, flashing red and green, and then turns to solid green once the hub is connected. The SmartThings app is used to easily guide you through the set-up process.
However, to get full access to the internet settings, you’ll have to download the Plume app as well, which allows you to check on the health of your internet, and control specific settings like who has access to your internet connection, though the parental control capabilities are limited.
While it would have been ideal to have everything in one app, both apps are user friendly and easy to navigate. I especially like how the SmartThings app allows you to create “scenes” so you can keep all your smart home devices well-organized. For example, each room in your home could be considered one scene, and each scene contains all the devices in that room that you would want to control.
There is also a helpful Discover Section to help you learn how to get the most out of your system — perfect for first-timers like me that are just starting to set up their smart home.
As with most products designed by Samsung, aesthetic wasn’t forgotten here. The hubs are small enough that they can be easily hidden, and even if left out in plain view, the sleek, puck-like design keeps them subtle.
Amazon reviewers love that the system provides effective Wi-Fi coverage for multi-level homes, and have found it to be the “ultimate companion” for their smart homes, thanks to the ability to keep everything connected and organized in one place. — Kylie Joyner
Pros: Easy to set up, provides great mesh Wi-Fi coverage over a large area, allows you to keep your smart home organized, compatible with hundreds of smart home devices
Cons: Requires the use of two different apps for full capabilities, limited parental controls, on the expensive side
Buy the Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi System on Amazon for $118.97 (1-pack) or $247.14 (3-pack)
Buy the Samsung SmartThings Wi-Fi System 3-pack on Samsung for $279.99