Samsung has added Plume technology to their new SmartThings Mesh Wi-Fi System, essentially bringing together the best of both worlds; the SmartThings Hub combined with Plume’s AI-based Wi-Fi mesh technology. Samsung has also renamed their Wi-Fi router, and will no longer be calling it the Samsung Connect.
Plume’s Wi-Fi mesh technology has been very successful because it’s reliable and provides fast network speeds. It manages to do this by optimizing your home’s Wi-Fi system using AI. Specifically, it “adapts to internet usage in the home and intelligently allocates bandwidth, mitigates interference, and delivers maximum Wi-Fi capacity across the home, accounting for every connected device and selecting the optimal band and frequency channel so users can get the fastest speed possible.”
And like the Samsung Connect Wi-Fi router that came before it, the new SmartThings Wi-Fi router conveniently comes with a built-in SmartThings Hub, so that you can easily control and monitor your entire smart home ecosystem, all from the same networking device.
With that said, externally the new SmartThings WiFi router looks just like its predecessor. A single router will retail for $119 and it covers up to 1,500 square feet. If you need additional coverage, you can purchase a 3-pack for $279.99 that covers 4,500 square feet. The new router is available starting today.
In addition to the new router, Samsung has also updated their SmartThings Hub, Sensors, and Outlet. The Hub is now more compact in size, and it can wirelessly connect to your Wi-Fi network, so there’s no need to use one of those old-school ethernet cables anymore. The Hub has also been upgraded with the latest Zigbee, Z-wave, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity protocols.
The new SmartThings Hub retails for $69.99, which is just $50 shy of the cost for their new Mesh router, which is why we would recommend just going for their new Wi-Fi router altogether.