Home Assistant: How to start a smart home

How to start a smart home using Home Assistant

How to start a smart home using Home Assistant

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If you’re a tech nerd, then Home Assistant may be the smart home ecosystem for you.

There is a certain flavor of tech nerd that needs direct, unadulterated access to whatever they are working with. Most of these people are Linux users, can own several Raspberry Pis, can’t stand it when something comes in between them and their hardware, and will take whatever complex path they need to interface directly with it. I am one of these people, and I am only getting worse over time, which is why I have converted my smart home to Home Assistant, the home automation solution for true freaks.

Now, many “normal” people out there are satisfied with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and the like, and I understand. These ecosystems are easy to use, require very minimal setup, and (for the most part) they “just work.” Apple Home, in particular, works great if you have multiple Apple devices. But get demanding enough, and you will hit walls, little compatibility issues, annoying limitations, and various other roadblocks that come from being in a walled garden. Home Assistant addresses that by being open source, flexible, and limited only to whatever people want to develop around it. If you can think of a smart home product, a sensor or switch or light, it’s very likely that one or more frustrated nerds figured out how to get it to work using Home Assistant several years ago.

Home Assistant started as a Python application back in 2013 and has quickly evolved over time into the go-to solution for fans of open-source software. Unlike other smart home systems, it can be installed on tons of devices like single-board computers (which includes Raspberry Pi devices and easier-to-get hardware like the Odroid N2 Plus) as well as other network devices. For a while, I had Home Assistant running on a Docker container on NAS, but eventually, I put it on its own Pi. 

You can also buy hardware specifically for Home Assistant, like the Home Assistant Yellow, and they even offer a dongle called the SkyConnect for Zigbee and Thread support. Home Assistant is funded by Nabu Casa, an optional Home Assistant cloud computing service. 

Home Assistant Yellow is designed to be user-upgradable. 

Image: Nabu Casa

I have found that Home Assistant offers the greatest amount of compatibility with the devices in my home. If you can think of a scenario for your smart home gear, you can probably script your way to it. You can make any button or switch (provided you can find a compatible blueprint) trigger any other device in your household in excruciating detail. You can have specific conditions based on any number of very tiny criteria and external factors. If you really wanna get twisted, you can create an elaborate flow chart using something like Node-RED, a development tool originally made by IBM that has been adapted to Home Assistant specifically for just such depraved uses.

For example, not only was I able to program every light in my house, but I was also able to program one of my light switches to play audio through my speakers from the episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin has to explain why he did not care for the movie The Godfather (“it insists upon itself”). Another example: fellow Verge-er Chris Grant took a cue from this Hackaday post and made a secret bookshelf switch that turns on his fireplace. 

Most people will never need that functionality, but for me, the freedom to do something that inane with my gear is absolutely vital. What’s more, I want as few people holding the keys to my home as possible, and so self-hosting my home automation is absolutely crucial. I don’t want Jeff Bezos knowing anything about my home activities aside from the countless reams of consumer spending data he already has on me and everyone reading this.

Ready, set, start

If you want to get started with Home Assistant, you can’t go wrong with a Raspberry Pi 4, provided you can find one. But given the relative unavailability of Raspberry Pis even now, an Odroid N2 Plus is probably your best bet (this is what the developers currently recommend). Basic installation is pretty straightforward as far as these things go and far less intensive than most single-board computer projects. 

For example, with the Odroid, you’re going to need your little computer, your boot medium (usually a flash card but sometimes an EMMC), and a program called Balena Etcher. From there, you can flash your card via an URL, put that flashed medium into your SBC (single board computer) when you are done, connect that bad boy to your router, and let it set up. You should be able to access Home Assistant from any browser or phone, provided you are connected to the network. Connecting externally or via the cloud is an entirely different topic, although Nabu Casa is available if you don’t want to figure out remote access.

Once you have Home Assistant set up and connected to your network, the sky’s the limit for what’s possible. Do you already have Wi-Fi or Zigbee light bulbs? Home Assistant can work with them. In my case, I can group together my Hue lights, my Elgato Key Lights, and some fixtures I soldered together from scratch using WLED into scenes and automations. I used an integration called ZHA (Zigbee Home Automation) and the SkyConnect to negate the need for my original Hue hub.

One of the first things I did when I got Home Assistant set up was to automate my office lights using a human presence sensor I got on Aliexpress for 25 bucks. Unlike a motion sensor, a human presence sensor is sensitive enough to detect not only when you’re in a room but also when you’re in there and not moving. I currently have it set to turn all my lights on in the office with a brightness and color temperature that is time-dependent. It works very well. I don’t even use the light switch in there anymore, although the sensor is so sensitive that it occasionally detects human presence through the wall and in the hallway adjacent to the office itself. I have no idea why it does that, and my girlfriend finds it very funny.

A simple human presence sensor can make your home even smarter.

Photo: Smart Home Scene

I can control everything using the handy Home Assistant app or just via my browser if I want. The UI out of the box is not the slickest around, but it’s functional and allows for tons of customization. Home Assistant is able to talk to my many Airplay 2 devices, it can play media from my home server via DLNA, and if I want to expand it further, there’s an entire ocean of gadgets on Aliexpress that I can get to flesh it out. I actually bought a CO2 and air quality sensor for it that I’ve been meaning to build. There isn’t really much in my house with Wi-Fi or Zigbee that is outside of its reach. If I ever end up in a situation where owning a house with solar panels is possible, Home Assistant could be used to manage them. 

Help from the enthusiasts

I have written about my experience setting up Home Assistant before, but much of it involved taking the smart home ecosystem I had cobbled together over the years and ripping it apart to rebuild from scratch. When it was all said and done, it felt great. But I am not going to say it was a painless ordeal. Much of what makes Home Assistant work is built by enthusiasts, so if a device doesn’t work out of the gate, very often, someone in the Home Assistant Community will create a blueprint to fill the gap. 

While this is not the most complicated thing you will have to set up, it’s an additional layer to deal with and a far cry from the native support of other ecosystems. Little touches, like transitions between lighting scenes, need to be created manually. You need to know exactly what you are doing and why you’re doing it. This is especially true if you sink your teeth into the Home Assistant Community Store, a very powerful integration that adds tons of options if you really want to take the training wheels off.

To give Home Assistant credit, it has gotten much better and more intuitive over the years, but again, it is not frictionless. I wish that it was a little less difficult to make the UI more attractive (although I’ve found that Mushroom looks very elegant), and while I am the kind of person that loves scripting, it can be a little tedious at the end of the day. Better and more intuitive integration into community elements would be nice, but I mostly have it set up now, so I am not really complaining. That said, would I trust a clueless family member with only basic tech knowledge to be able to work with Home Assistant if I set it up for them? Probably not.

While there isn’t a lot that Home Assistant can’t do with enough elbow grease, there are ways it could be more inviting. It’s still a lot of manual work, and it has the highest barrier to entry. But on some level, what do you expect? If anything, it’s less about what I want out of Home Assistant but rather what I want out of hardware makers. While Home Assistant can be made to work with nearly anything, a more robust ecosystem of hardware that works out of the box (like Skyconnect) would make recommending it to people an easier sell. 

I would love a world where an open-source smart home was so simple and intuitive that a not-tech-inclined person could set it up easily. It would make me so happy for Home Assistant to be so ubiquitous that most hardware manufacturers have to support it instead of the other way around (although with Matter, that is less of an issue). I hope that Home Assistant becomes so robust and popular that I can recommend it to someone without having (or getting) to explain, in detail, what a Raspberry Pi is.

That’s a nice future to imagine, but currently, Home Assistant is still strictly for the real freaks, which is convenient — because that’s a fitting description of me.

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The Division Resurgence hits smartphones this fall

The Division Resurgence hits smartphones this fall

The Division Resurgence hits smartphones this fall

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The mobile spinoff is the latest shooter aiming to bring console-style gameplay to your phone.

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Jun 12, 2023, 5:34 PM UTC |

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.See our ethics statement.

The Division is coming to your smartphone later this year. At its Ubisoft Forward event, the company confirmed that The Division Resurgence, a mobile spinoff of the near-future shooter series, will be launching in fall 2023.

As with the previous games in the series, Resurgence is set in a “mid-crisis” version of New York, one thrown into a crisis following an outbreak of a genetically engineered virus known as the “dollar flu.” And like those games, the mobile version is a cross between an open world game, where you can explore the city and take on missions, and a multiplayer experience where you can squad up with friends. Ubisoft describes it as a “true MMO experience.”

I had the chance to check out an early version of the game, and while I couldn’t test much of the social experience, what I played felt very much like, well, The Division on your phone. The graphics were great; I especially loved being able to get up close to my character during the creation process. The parts of Manhattan that I saw were both dense and large, with lots of cover strewn about — which is good since this is a cover-based shooter where you need to get out of the line of fire often.

That said, while it looks the part of a big-budget Ubisoft game, the touchscreen controls took some getting used to. I played on an iPhone and the screen had a lot of information on it, and I often found myself accidentally getting out of cover instead of shooting. Resurgence is also a free-to-play game, and it wasn’t clear from my time yet how pervasive the paid elements of the experience will be, which is an important thing to know about a loot-focused shooter.

Resurgence has been in the works for some time. It was first announced in 2021, and was only given a name last year. It’s also not the only expansion of the franchise in the works: a free console and PC spinoff called Heartland is also in development.

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Sony starts testing cloud streaming PS5 games

Sony starts testing cloud streaming PS5 games

Sony starts testing cloud streaming PS5 games

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PlayStation Plus Premium members will eventually get access to stream PS5 games without having to download them to a console.

By Tom Warren , a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

Jun 14, 2023, 4:08 PM UTC |

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Sony says it has started testing the ability to stream PS5 games from the cloud. The PlayStation maker says it’s testing cloud streaming for PS5 games and is planning to add this as a feature to its PlayStation Plus Premium subscription.

“We’re currently testing cloud streaming for supported PS5 games – this includes PS5 titles from the PlayStation  Plus Game Catalog and Game Trials, as well as supported digital PS5 titles that players own,” says Nick Maguire, VP of global services, global sales, and business operations at Sony Interactive Entertainment. “When this feature launches, cloud game streaming for supported PS5 titles will be available for use directly on your PS5 console.”

A cloud feature for PS5 games would mean you’ll no longer have to download games to your console to stream them to other devices. Sony currently supports streaming PS5 games to PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android devices, but you have to use your PS5 as the host to download and stream titles to your other devices.

It has seemed obvious for months that Sony was working on cloud streaming for PS5 games. Recent job listings hinted at a new cloud gaming push, and then PlayStation chief Jim Ryan teased “quite aggressive plans” for cloud gaming last month. But Sony went on to reveal its PlayStation handheld, codenamed Project Q, by only confirming Wi-Fi streaming of PS5 games directly from a console.

While Sony still hasn’t detailed whether its PlayStation handheld will support PS5 cloud game streaming, this PlayStation Plus Premium cloud push is clearly a move toward that even if there’s no release date yet. Sony’s CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, hinted earlier this month that the company is still in the early stages of cloud gaming, so perhaps Project Q will still launch (in November?) without this key support.

Sony’s PlayStation handheld will surely support PS5 cloud streaming eventually.

Image: Sony

“We think it’s important for Premium members to be able to enjoy as many games as possible via cloud streaming,” says Maguire. “We’re in the early stages right now, and we can’t wait to share more details when we’re ready, including a launch time frame.”

Sony’s confirmation of PS5 cloud streaming comes more than four years after it unveiled a surprising partnership with Microsoft that would see the companies collaborate to develop future cloud solutions for game and content-streaming services. We haven’t heard much about that deal since 2019. In 2021 PlayStation chief Jim Ryan said Sony was still at the “exchanging ideas” stage, despite an original promise of the gaming rivals exploring the use of Microsoft Azure datacenter-based solutions for Sony’s game and content-streaming services. Given Sony’s recent mentions of AWS in its job listings, the Microsoft strategic partnership could well be over.

Update, 12:15PM ET: Article updated with details of Sony’s Microsoft cloud partnership from 2019.

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Google Home launches its new smart home automation script editor

Google Home’s script editor is now live

Google Home’s script editor is now live

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The platform’s promised advanced automation tool adds more conditions and starters to let you do more with your smart home.

By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy , a smart home reviewer who's been testing connected gadgets since 2013. Previously a writer for Wirecutter, Wired, and BBC Science Focus.

Jun 13, 2023, 4:00 PM UTC |

The new Google Home script editor is now available to those in the public preview.

Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Google has finally launched its script editor tool, offering more powerful automations for your Google Home-powered smart home. Available starting Tuesday, June 13th, to those in the Google Home public preview, the script editor is part of Google’s new home.google.com web interface, which also has live feeds for any Nest cams on your account. The script editor will be coming to the new Google Home app preview starting June 14th. There’s no date for general availability.

Automations in the smart home let you string multiple devices together to automate tasks such as turning lights on, playing music, locking doors, and so on. The Google Home script editor includes more advanced options for automations than are currently available in the Google Home app.

Along with allowing for multiple starters and actions, the script editor adds more advanced conditions. For example, you can set an automation to run only if the TV is on and it’s after 6PM but before midnight. The script editor automations are created in the new Google Home web interface, you can apply for the public preview here.

The script editor is a powerful tool that can really level up your smart home automations. Similar to platforms that also allow for advanced conditions — like Home Assistant and features offered in Samsung SmartThings and Apple Home through Apple Shortcuts — the Google Home script editor requires some basic coding knowledge.

The script editor shows all your Google Home automations. You can create new ones here and edit any created by the script editor — indicated by a <> icon (represented in the top right of this screenshot).

Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

The script editor allows you to do everything you can in the Home app when setting up automations, plus “more than 100 new features and capabilities to fit your unique understanding of your home and what you want it to do,” according to a blog post by Anish Kattukaran,director of product management at Google Home.

This includes access to nearly 100 starters and actions, including Matter sensors — something not currently possible in the Home app. For example, an Eve Motion sensor connected via Matter to Google Home can’t currently be used as a starter for automations in the Home app but can be used as one in the script editor.

Script editor automations have to be created in the web interface, but once set up, will show in the Google Home app (iOS and Android), where any household member can edit, run, deactivate, or delete them.

Google has several example automations in the script editor documentation (the link is only accessible if you’re in the preview) to demonstrate the new capabilities. These include:

• Flash the lights red and blue when a smoke alarm is activated.
• Close the shades based on the brightness in a room.
• Dim the lights and close the blinds when the living room TV is on after sunset.
• If it’s warm inside, close the shades, turn on the fans, and adjust the thermostat.
• When the doorbell is pressed, blink the lights in the room where occupancy is detected.

An autocomplete makes the coding process a bit easier, but you will need some basic skills.

Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

I’ve had some time to play with the script editor, and it’s an exciting development for the platform, which has been limited compared to the competition, both in terms of the devices it supports and the types of automations you can use.

However, this is definitely a prosumer offering. While the autocomplete makes it easier to code for your home — by suggesting your devices in the “device” field and only suggesting actions and states that are available to those devices — this is not for the casual smart home user.

That’s a shame because these aren’t super complicated, and I’d like to see a simpler interface in the Home app to create these types of automations. In the meantime, advanced Google Home users will be very happy with this development, which is the latest in a significant upgrade to the whole platform since the launch of Matter last year.

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Facebook and Instagram were having some problems.

Over the last hour or so, the Facebook page failed to load, attempts to upload Instagram Stories failed with an error message, while some reported they couldn’t send or receive messages on WhatsApp and Messenger, and Downdetector showed spikes for all of Meta’s services.

Reached for comment, Meta comms director Andy Stone told The Verge:

We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Things seem to be mostly back to normal, but we’ll keep an eye out. In the meantime, we also have some fresh advice about the supposedly wonderful opportunities available to people who log off.

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Sony’s comfy WF-C700N earbuds are on sale for their best price to date

Sony’s comfortable WF-C700N earbuds have fallen to their best price to date

Sony’s comfortable WF-C700N earbuds have fallen to their best price to date

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Plus, you can save on a four-pack of AirTags, the midrange Samsung Galaxy A54, and one of the best games of the year.

By Brandon Widder , a senior editor overseeing deals, gift guides, and commerce. He spent six years spearheading buying guides and consumer tech coverage at Digital Trends.

Jun 16, 2023, 2:05 PM UTC |

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.See our ethics statement.

The entry-level WF-C700N come in four colors, including two colorful pastel hues.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

The old “times have changed” applies to a lot of things — the way we consume media, the general office environment, Taco Bell. It also applies to wireless earbuds, which have come down drastically in price since the first pair of Apple’s now-iconic AirPods landed in 2016. Sony’s WF-C700N earbuds are a prime example of how you can now get a lot of functionality for very little, particularly since they’re available from Amazon, Best Buy, and Sony for as little as $98 ($21 off).

So what does a sub-$100 pair of earbuds look like in 2023? Well, in the case of the entry-level WF-C700N, you get a terrific fit and balanced sound for the price. Sony’s latest pair of noise-canceling earbuds also offer a slew of software features, including location-based sound settings, Fast Pair support on Android, and — thanks to a firmware update that will supposedly arrive this summer — the ability to connect to two devices simultaneously. Where they falter is active noise cancellation, but there aren’t a lot of earbuds at this price point that fare much better when it comes to drowning out city life.

The WF-C700N are a budget-minded pair of noise-canceling earbuds from Sony — offering a fine value proposition for a comfy fit, good quality sound, and fast pairing on Android phones.

At this point, it’s probably safe to presume that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomis a game that needs little introduction. However, if you have yet to grab Nintendo’s latest blockbuster, you can currently pick up the physical version at Amazon for about $62 ($8 off), at Walmart for about $66, or at Costco for $59.99 ($10 off) if you’re a member. Note that Walmart is selling it via a third-party seller, though the retailer itself is fulfilling the order.

Nintendo’s recently released Nintendo Switch title has been making tsunami-level waves since it arrived last month, partly due to it being a direct successor to the wildly successful Breath of the Wild and partly due to what feels like a never-ending feed of TikTok videos showcasing the game’s highly inventive building mechanics (which are impressive). Whether it truly lives up to its predecessor, it’s a game-of-the-year contender deeply rooted in exploration and mystery, with visuals that somehow leverage an aging console from 2017 in ways that, frankly, I just never thought possible.

Tears of the Kingdom is the latest installment in the Zelda franchise. The storyline and gameplay are similar to Breath of The Wild’s, but enough has changed to make Link’s return to Hyrule plenty special.

Microsoft is no longer making Xbox One games, Starfield is on the way, and the recently announced black version of the Xbox Series S is up for preorder at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Microsoft Store for $349.99. The forthcoming gaming console — which is slated to arrive on September 1st — isn’t all that different from the original model aside from the slick paint job, but it does feature an expanded 1TB of built-in storage.

The Series S still can’t compete with the more powerful Xbox Series X in terms of raw specs, but the storage bump is a welcome upgrade for Microsoft’s compact console, which remains a great Xbox Game Pass machine that can also tackle the same games as the larger Series X (albeit, often at a lower 1080p resolution). It’s also likely to be one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, ways to experience Bethesda’s ambitious space title when it arrives in the fall. Now, fingers crossed the latter is as bug-free as Microsoft thinks it is.

$350

Whereas the original Xbox Series S launched in white with just 512GB of built-in storage, the forthcoming model will offer 1TB and a sleek all-black design when it arrives later this year.

A few additional discounts worth sharing

• You can pick up a four-pack or AirTags at Verizon for $79.99, which is an additional $9 off their usual sale price and matches the lowest price we’ve seen on a four-pack to date. We’ve seen a tonofdeals on Apple’s handy item trackers as of late, but given a forthcoming feature in iOS 17 will allow you to share them with up to five other people, it’s not a bad idea to stock up if you or a family member is the forgetful type. Read our review.
• Samsung’s A54 5G is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for $399.99 ($50 off), which is the second-best price we’ve seen on the unlocked Android phone to date. Although it can’t compete on the camera front with midrange devices like the Google Pixel 7A, the 6.4-inch phone still offers solid day-to-day performance, an IP67 rating, and five years of security updates, meaning it should be plenty suitable for years to come. Read our review.
• The latest Echo Dot is down to just $27.99 ($45 off) at Amazon with a Kasa Smart Plug Mini — a sale price that’s typically reserved for the Echo Dot on its own. It’s a handy pairing given you can use the Alexa-based smart speaker to control the plug, which lets you control lamps, fans, and other devices that don’t natively support Amazon’s voice assistant. If you prefer a more old-school method for checking the time, you can also pick up the LED-equipped model with the same plug for $34.99 ($48 off). Read our Echo Dot (fifth-gen) review.

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Anker’s new Prime 240W charger and 250W battery bank are coming in July

Anker’s 240W Prime USB-C charger can fast-charge two MacBook Pros simultaneously

Anker’s 240W Prime USB-C charger can fast-charge two MacBook Pros simultaneously

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Anker’s new desktop multi-port USB-C charger and its dockable portable battery bank can both fast-charge two laptops at the same time.

By Umar Shakir , a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

Jun 14, 2023, 10:37 PM UTC |

Anker Prime 240W GaN Desktop Charger.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Anker presented its updated lineup of USB-C power adapters as a solution to e-waste during a product reveal event on Tuesday in New York City, betting these versatile chargers can swoop in as smartphone manufacturers stop shipping adapters in the box. After releasing a slew of new gallium nitride (GaN) chargers dubbed GaNPrime over the last year with the third generation of its fast charging tech, many of them will be rereleased as part of its new line, Anker Prime.

Anker’s new Prime desktop 240W charger is due for release in July and supports a max of 140W per device, which we have seen from manufacturers like Hyper and Ugreen.

Image: Anker

However, if you have two of the larger MacBook Pro laptops for some reason, you could fast-charge them simultaneously on this new desktop charger, assuming you’re using Apple’s MagSafe to USB-C cable and that at least one of them is a smaller 14-inch model. This should be able to deliver 140W of charging to a 16-inch MacBook Pro on one port and 96W on the other. For chargers capable of outputting 240W over a single USB port, we’ll have to keep waiting for Power Delivery 3.1 chargers or even the 180W one coming from laptop maker Framework.

There’s also a third USB-C port on the desktop charger, along with one USB-A port, available for whatever else needs power. And like Satechi’s desktop charger, it has a stand to hold it vertically on your desk. Anker’s 240W desktop charger is coming in July, and the price is to be determined.

Anker’s senior PR manager Mary Woodbury introduced the charger by saying, “Today, with USB-C 2.1 standard, we can now safely build a charger capable of 240 watts of power,” and suggested it as a pack-in to power tech like new gaming laptops. But with current laptops typically maxing out at 100W charging over USB, most gamers will want to keep standard chargers around to eke out the most performance possible without draining their batteries.

Anker’s Prime 250W Battery Bank

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge

Anker’s first product to support 140W charging for a single device was actually last year’s PowerCore 24K battery bank. And now the company is beefing it up a bit by adding a 27,650mAh battery in place of the previous 24,000mAh, with the new 250W Power Bank (so named because it can output up to a total of 250 watts from all of its ports and pull off the same two-laptop fast-charging as the previously mentioned desktop charger). The upgraded bank also has pins on the bottom that lets you drop it on an optional 100W charging dock, which gives the battery a home so you can habitually keep it charged.

The dock for the new Power Bank was marked as $69.99 and has its own 100W charger with two USB-C ports and one USB-A port for other devices you’d like to keep topped up on your desk.

This dock has a 100W charger built in and lets you situate the Battery Bank on top for easy daily charging.

Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge

Anker Prime Reserve has a pop-out lantern light.

Image: Anker

There’s also a new emergency / camping battery called Prime Reserve. It’s got a handle so you can carry it like a lantern, and it even is a lantern since a light can pop out from the top. It’s powered by 60,000mAh LFP batteries, which Anker says have enough power to recharge an iPhone 10 times. Along with its dual USB-C and USB-A (each) ports, the Reserve has an XT60 connector to support add-on solar panels. It’s available now for $169.99.

Anker’s also got an updated power station — the one that has the two pop-out AC ports. This time, the thin power strip that’s married to a DC charger has a power status screen embedded in the area that used to have just a weird circle light (and totally looked like a wireless charging pad but wasn’t). It has two USB-C ports and two USB-A ones as well, all outputting a total of 140 watts of power (up from 100W). You can expect this, and most of the new Anker Prime products, to be available in July.

Anker already sold these as GaN Prime chargers, but they’re now part of Anker Prime.

Image: Chris Welch / The Verge

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