To upgrade hub or not?

I have had my generation 1 hub for a while, using it for only a couple of minor automations. Now I’m starting to get more into this stuff and I’m wondering if I should first purchase a gen 2 hub before adding more devices around my home.
The official release of the new hub stated it “can run certain functions locally”, or without an internet connection… does anyone know specifically what functions? Can it run all my smartapps locally? That would be a big reason to upgrade for me. Thanks.

No, only the smart lighting app runs locally for most zwave/zigbee devices that are not using a custom devicetype.

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Bear in mind that you’ll need to start from scratch if you upgrade. That means excluding/including all of your devices. A migration tool was announced for release by “the end of the year” (we assume they meant 2015), but it hasn’t shown up yet.

If you’re planning to significantly grow your installation, migrating sooner rather than later can make sense. Currently, the only local functionality is the Smart Lighting smartapp and Smart Home Monitor, and it only runs locally if all of the devices it’s using can also run locally.

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agree on all of the above.
I’ll just add that if you’re planning on any motion controlled lighting automations, running these locally makes a noticeable positive improvement in response times. Additionally and maybe more importantly, the response times are consistent.

I had similar worries and this is why I’m on the V1 hub still – and I personally don’t think that I’m missing anything.

I even moved and had to deal with some of the network rebuild and device exclusion issues, but I figured since my device list is relatively small I would just wait it out. So far there is no migration tool to be seen, but there’s also no issues with my setup, nor any real “must have” feature of the new hub that has prompted me to update.

Perhaps if there’s a Hub V3 or other funkiness in a few months I will consider it. For the time being, I don’t think there’s any sort of compelling reason to update the hub.

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Agreed with @viguera. The risks/work far outweigh the benefits unless you want the video monitoring (which from what I understand doesn’t work great and is limited to certain camera systems).

I would go with hub 2. Since you are starting with few devices it makes sense to get hub 2. Expand slowly and be able to deal with issues on the way. Migration from V1 to 2 with many devices could be a nightmare with multiple problems at the same time.

FWIW, many people on v2 have had all sorts of reliability issues. I have been on v1 and it’s been pretty stable for me.

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If you are planning to buy a TV or a fridge for your home this year, then you can choose to buy any of the 2016 the Samsung TVs or the Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator, - Both come with built in SmartThings Hub. (The TV needs a ST Dongle that comes free with the TV).
If not, then I think you should just stay on Hub V1…

And don’t forget that you lose Dashboard visibility (except for SHM) with v2. Mine still shows Home & Family and Lights & Switches status, which I consider as a plus for v1.

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No question in my mine, “Do Not Upgrade” or you will be on this forum daily if not hourly seeking answers to random new problems. Help will only come from a few others that migrated early with the misguided belief that local V2 processing would eliminate the erratic stability issues with the ST Cloud.

IMHO, the benefits are not worth the agony at this point. Keep the V1 toaster!