What is the difference between a high-tech device and a smart device?

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Multiple sources agree that smart devices are distinguished by their intelligent behavior, which enables them to react to real-world situations and predict and adapt to user needs. They often include sensors, microprocessors, data storage and embedded operating systems as well as complex hardware architecture. Some sources add the definition that all smart devices generally have connectivity via wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC that are used to offer functionalities like remote control and data exchange. However, a device is not smart based solely on connectivity features, as this kind of device would simply be called a connected device.

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High-tech device is broader concept, described by Cook et al in Assistive technologies: Principles et practice (2020) as complex, often electrically powered or electronic, having multiple functions, and being typically more expensive and difficult to acquire in contrast to low-tech devices that are comparatively easier to operate, construct and acquire, manually driven, and low cost. While this is unspecific definition, it gives us a general idea of a device that could fall under high-tech category. For example, a manual wheelchair could be classified as a low-tech device, while an electric wheelchair could classify as a high-tech one.

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In other words, all smart devices are high-tech devices, but not all high-tech devices are smart.