The Novostella 20W RGBCW smart LED flood lights are a big hit at my house, as I like being able to program (white) lights to come on at night, and the kids like turning it into a rainbow swirled party simply by speaking to Google. The lights are vibrant and very bright and having the Smart Life app sync their controls is working very well. It has been a very cold and snowy winter so far, and these lights add for an extra touch of fun in the snow as we snow tube into the night.

We are going to look at a pair of Novostella A19 13W RGBCW smart light bulbs, that currently sell at Amazon.com for $25.99 (US) each. Those that have shopped around for smart bulbs before may be thinking that is pricey for a smart bulb, but one thing that immediately distinguishes these from other smart bulbs is that these are not your typical 60W equivalent bulbs, but 120W equivalents, that are rated to put out an impressive 1300 Lumens.

The ZOOZ ZSE29 is an interesting product. As a motion sensor and a SmartThings device it definitely works very well, but determining how appropriate it is to use this outdoors will have to be seen after some time installed exposed to the elements. My gut tells me that the physical design and the stipulations that this outdoor rated device has to avoid heat, sunlight, humidity, and wetness may lead to a fairly short usable life.

D-Link's DIR-2660 and DAP-1820 offer a great way to start your mesh network. As with many mesh networks, this setup can be configured with a wired backhaul which would help some of the bottle neck issues I mentioned, but most people are resistant to running wires. So where this unit shines is in its scalability. You can start with just one extender or add several to cover even more area. Also a big benefit of this mesh system is having a few Ethernet ports on the router.

The D-Link DCH-S161 is roughly a 2.7" square white box that is about 1.2" thick. It uses (2) readily available AA batteries which are included to get you started, and houses a built in 90dB alarm siren. The unit comes with a sensor probe with integral cable that is about 6 feet long. It is wall mountable and is operable through the mydlink app, Google Assistant and IFTTT. Surprisingly Alexa is not included on this device.

The D-Link DSP-W118 Wi-Fi Smart Outlet is significantly smaller than their older model, coming in at about 2.5" x 1.5" x 1 3/8", and is more or less the same size and format as other smart outlets on the market whether they are Wi-Fi, Zigbee, or Z-Wave. This outlet is designed to be controlled primarily by the D-Link mydlink app. It is also compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and IFTTT.