As Matter arrives to revolutionize the smart home, Samsung is releasing the first new hub for SmartThings in years. The Samsung SmartThings Station controls your smart home, and has a couple of tricks up its sleeve for Galaxy smartphone owners, too.
Launching later this year in the US and Korea, SmartThings Station is Samsung’s first hardware entry for Matter. The smart home hub is designed to work with “a range of smart home devices” including those that support Matter, all in a super compact device.
SmartThings Station is a tiny little puck that’s designed to work best with Samsung Galaxy smartphones. On first setup, the Station will activate a pop-up prompt on Galaxy devices for easy setup, but there’s also a QR code-based setup for other devices.
Once it’s ready to go, the Station has a button on it which can be used to trigger routines created in the SmartThings app. This could be used for something as simple as toggling the lights in a room, or as complex as getting the house ready for sleep by adjusting lights, closing blinds, locking doors, adjusting the temperature, and more. Up to three routines can be set from one Station, using press, long-press, and double-press actions. Another option for the double-press action is to find your lost smartphone, which can trigger SmartThings Find to ring your Galaxy smartphone.The Station can also serve to scan for Galaxy SmartTags and other devices that Find can help you locate.
But to give the device even more functionality, it also acts as a wireless charging at up to 15W. You won’t find any Qi2 here, but the wireless charger is definitely a smart and convenient addition.
The Samsung SmartThings Station will be available starting in February, but a firm release date and pricing have yet to be announced.