Smart Home Starter Kit: What to Buy First (Australia, 2026)
Smart plugs, bulbs, a speaker to command it all and a camera to watch over it — a realistic first smart-home setup for under a few hundred dollars, built from parts that play nicely together.
The best first smart home is small and useful: a couple of plugs, a couple of bulbs, one voice speaker and one camera. Everything below works with both Alexa and Google Home, so you're not locked in on day one.
Smart plugs — TP-Link Tapo P110
The Tapo P110 is the no-brainer first purchase: it makes any dumb appliance schedulable and remote-controllable, and its energy monitoring shows exactly what each appliance costs to run — genuinely eye-opening for heaters and dryers. Regularly under $15 on Amazon AU; buy two.
Smart bulbs — start with the rooms you dim
Colour-capable bulbs from Tapo and Philips Hue cover the two ends of the market: Tapo bulbs are cheap and work directly over Wi-Fi; Hue costs more but its hub, scenes and accessories are still the smoothest ecosystem. Start with the lounge and bedroom lamps.
A voice speaker — Echo Dot or Nest Mini
Pick your assistant: Echo Dot if you shop Amazon and like Alexa routines, Nest Mini if you're deep in Google services. Either becomes the remote control for every plug and bulb above — "turn off the heater" beats finding an app.
A camera — start where the action is
For inside the house, a pan-tilt indoor camera covers a whole room and doubles as a pet/baby monitor. We stock the Reolink E-series — subscription-free with local microSD recording — which keeps ongoing costs at zero:
Indoor cameras we stock
Reolink E1 Pro 4MP Super HD Smart Home WiFi IP Camera; Pan & Tilt, Real-Time Talk with Families
Reolink E Series E330 4MP Super HD Smart Home WiFi IP Camera; Pan & Tilt, Real-Time Talk with Families
Reolink E1 4MP Super HD, Pan & Tilt & 2-Way Talk; Versatile Smart Home WiFi IP Camera
Reolink E Series E340 5MP Super HD, PTZ & 2-Way Talk; High-Performance Smart Home WiFi Security Camera
What to add next
- Door sensors + a video doorbell — see our Ring vs Reolink doorbell comparison.
- More plugs — Christmas lights, towel rails, the coffee machine.
- A smart lock — once the rest feels routine.
Watch over the whole setup with a subscription-free camera.
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