Samsung Reveal Wireless Charger With Hub
Following on from yesterday’s announcement that Samsung would be including combined Zigbee, Thread, and Matter compatible hardware into many of their forthcoming smart home devices – including TVs – Samsung has now unveiled a more unlikely candidate for your smart home, in the form of a wireless charger and hub!
As reported by Brian Heater at TechCrunch, the new SmartThings Station is both a wireless charging solution for Qi-compatible smartphones and other devices but also doubles up as a Matter Hub, which would allow SmartThings compatible smart home devices to connect to it, and from there be exposed to Matter. This would mean that the hub itself would have both Zigbee and Thread radios in it (it will act as a Thread Border Router), as per the aforementioned Samsung announcement.
The hub, besides being a Qi charger, also has a solitary button designed to be programmed to control your smart devices, and whilst there’s only a single button, it’s capable of single, double, and long presses, as is standard for most smart wireless buttons in the smart home world.
Additionally, the hub has what Samsung generically refer to as ‘Night Mode’ whereupon placing your phone on top of the charger, then triggers a routine you’ve set, which, if used on a bedside table, would automatically turn off your lights, turn on your alarm system, set your AC, and close your blinds or curtains.
There’s no pricing for the hub at this time, but it should be released in the US in late February/early March.
