3 USB-Powered Smart Home Devices You Need To Know About

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When it comes to building out a smart home, there's a lot of equipment to choose from: devices like smart thermostats, smart video doorbells, and smart home hubs, and there are plenty of resources available to help you choose which is right for you. But what about the lesser-known smart home devices out there? You know, the kind of gadgets that can improve just about any smart home setup, but aren't the typical run-of-the-mill items found at your local Home Depot.

So whether you are new to smart homes or a seasoned veteran, we've hand-selected three smart home devices you need to know about. By combining our experience with verified user reviews, we've put together a selection that spans smart controllers to add some tactility to your automations, a smart screen to better schedule your family's comings and goings, and an adorable smart light that'll ensure your desk lamp stands out. These might not be the first devices you think of when purchasing USB-powered smart home gear, but they're definitely ones you should know about if you're interested in adding some extra flair and polish to your smart home.

A major benefit of a smart home is its ability to conveniently schedule and automate much of your home's functionality. But at the end of the day, this removes a lot of the tactile control from your home. No longer do you have to flick a light switch; instead, you can open an app and easily schedule or manually adjust a smart light's settings. The convenience is great, but what if I told you that there is an easy way to add some tactile remote controls around the house, say, for adjusting light dimming, or turning your media center's volume up and down? This is where the Flic Starter Kit comes into the picture.

If you're unfamiliar with Flic's products, the company basically sells smart home automation equipment, and the Flic Starter Kit offers 1 Flic Hub Mini, 1 Flic Twist, and 3 Flic Buttons, basically setting you up with four devices that can be used to remotely control your smart home. The Flic Twist offers a twisting function alongside push, double-push, and twist-and-push controls. The Flic Buttons work similarly to physical buttons. By connecting these tactile remote controls to the USB-C-powered Flic Hub Mini, you can easily use the dedicated app to pair the Twist and Buttons to control a wide range of smart-home functions across services like Matter, Alexa, SmartThings, and Philips Hue.

If you'd like to add physical buttons to help control your smart home, the Flic Starter Kit at $198 is a solid addition to any setup. Not only do verified user reviews highlight how easy it is to connect the hub to a smart home network, but reviewers also call out the convenience of controlling functions with physical buttons that can be easily placed anywhere in the home.

Much of our lives are lived digitally. Our photos, calendars, contacts, and all manner of personal information are stored in the cloud; getting that info back into the physical world isn't always easy. Sure, you can grab a cheap whiteboard and chart out necessary info, or you could spend a little cash and pick up a dedicated device for relaying all your scheduling. That's right, in the age of smart homes, things like smart screens exist, and now that the market is fairly mature, there are devices dedicated to daily dashboards. The ApoloSign 15.6-inch Digital Calendar is one such gadget, priced at $399.99 (it's typically on sale for less), and it can sync with Google Calendar, iCloud, and Outlook.

With this USB-C-powered interactive display, you can easily sync the entire family's calendars, allowing everyone to view the day's events, such as soccer practice after school or a late meeting after work. And since it functions like a tablet with a touchscreen, everyone can interact with it to add new events. You can choose from a dedicated Calendar Mode, or switch to Android Mode, and then you can easily display images, pin notes, you name it, thanks to Android widget support on the dashboard, which means the sky is the limit.

Oh, and it comes with four frame options, just to class things up, so it won't look out of place on your wall. You can choose from White or Black, and there are two wood options: Teak and Gray Wood. It also ships with Google Gemini AI support, so you can control your Google Home-connected devices, making the ApoloSign Digital Calendar function similarly to a smart hub. Not bad, and users agree, noting how helpful it is for home offices and large families alike.

Now for a bit of fun. While there are tons of ambient smart lights on the market, from Nanoleaf to Govee, many of the designs are similar, from floor lamps to light strips, which can feel a little boring. This is why the Yeelight Smart Lamp Cube Lite stands out from the crowd, thanks to its unique dot-matrix-like LED display. You can customize every dot with any color, allowing you to spell out words or even create pixel art. For what amounts to a simple display powered over USB-C (via the built-in battery), you can have a lot of fun experimenting with what to display on the screen.

Of course, there is an app that lets you customize things, where you can select from dynamic animations and can even set the table lamp to react to your music thanks to the onboard mic. So this is more than just an ambient light, with support for smart home platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, and Alexa. This means you can easily tie control of the light into your smart home setup, and if you just so happen to own a Flic Button, you could even remotely control the light without your phone. For $69.99 (often on sale for less), you get a pretty capable ambient smart light that'll stand out on any desk.

User reviews are positive, mentioning the ease of connecting the device (thanks to its Matter QR code) and its solid build quality. While some users mention that more physical buttons would be appreciated and that an account is inconveniently required for the app, by and large, everyone agrees it's a fun way to add some smart lighting to a room.

The goal with this roundup is to share unique smart home devices powered by USB that aren't as common, yet are still worthy improvements to any setup. By combining our expertise in electronics with plenty of research, along with the opinions of verified users, we've come away with some exciting devices that can add a last bit of polish to your smart home with tactile remotes, a dedicated family calendar/smart hub, and unique lighting adults and kids can enjoy together.