As expected, Matter is the talk of the town at CES 2023 this year. For those jumping on the bandwagon, Matter is a new universal smart home protocol that promises to consolidate compatibility with Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, and countless others into a single standard. All the major smart home brands are therefore striving to be as user-friendly as possible with Matter. Samsung took the opportunity to unveil a new Matter hub for its SmartThings lineup, with built-in fast wireless charging capabilities: SmartThings Station.
Samsung SmartThings Station: Wireless Charger and Home Automation Hub
Named SmartThings Station, this modestly sized, square-shaped hub will be available in the United States and South Korea in February for $60 ($80 with the USB-C charger). Available in white or black, it'll be ready to control your Matter-enabled connected devices almost immediately after you unbox and plug it in. No European release date has been announced, however.
Having a smarter home shouldn't be complicated or expensive. So, we wanted to create SmartThings Station as a simple, reliable, and expandable smart home hub. The number of devices in a connected home is constantly growing, especially in light of the recent launch of the Matter standard. We're proud to play a role in facilitating the adoption of this exciting technology.
Jaeyeon Jung, Samsung Executive Vice President and Head of SmartThings
Most people will connect the SmartThings Station to their home network with a quick QR scan, but setup is even easier for Samsung Galaxy owners, as the device will send a pop-up alert with quick setup instructions to phones in that range as soon as it's plugged in. From there, the device will act as a home base for all Matter-enabled devices in your home, helping them stay connected to your home network and to each other.
You'll be able to manage and automate all these devices in the SmartThings app, but if you prefer to keep your phone in your pocket, the SmartThings Station also features a single button that lets you trigger your favorite smart home routines with a single, double, or long press. A single press can, for example, turn off the lights, close the blinds, and lower the thermostat simultaneously. The SmartThings Station includes Samsung's SmartThings Find item tracking feature, so you can also program this smart button to ring your phone when you misplace it.
The device will also sync with Samsung Galaxy phones to track devices like tablets, watches, earbuds, and items like wallets and keys that are paired with a Galaxy SmartTag or SmartTag Plus, with optional alerts if those devices leave the area.
As for fast charging, the SmartThings Station doubles as a 15-watt wireless charging pad, which is more than enough to charge an Android or iOS device as quickly as possible. If you like, you can have it send you an alert when a device is fully charged, which is a nice touch!
A very complete infographic summarizes all the possibilities of this very complete Hub:
As we see, 2023 will undoubtedly be the year of Matter, after a long wait. We will have the opportunity to talk about it again later this year as soon as we have a few compatible peripherals on hand.
Source: Cnet
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