<p>Well-being and quality of life are increasingly invoked as central promises of smart development, yet both concepts are used unevenly and without a shared analytical foundation. Policy narratives often assume that technological optimization naturally improves quality of life, while academic work offers a more diverse and sometimes contradictory set of interpretations. The main goal of this review is to clarify how well-being is conceptualised within smart development and to advance a socio-technical reframing that integrates infrastructural, institutional and experiential dimensions. To achieve this, the review examines 936 publications and identifies three recurrent orientations in the field: technocratic, socio-technical and human-centred. Technocratic approaches portray well-being as a secondary effect of optimisation. Socio-technical contributions emphasise the role of governance, institutional capacity and spatial conditions in shaping the social relevance of smart initiatives. Human-centred and affective perspectives place lived experience, inclusion and autonomy at the core of smart development. The review proposes a conceptual continuum that organises these orientations and supports a reconceptualisation of well-being as a socio-technical condition of flourishing sustained through the alignment of system performance, civic capability, institutional trust and everyday experience. This interpretation encourages a shift from technology-driven expectations towards a more integrated account of the socio-technical arrangements through which smart initiatives generate meaningful outcomes. The paper concludes with implications for quality-of-life research and for policymakers seeking to align smart development with socially grounded and context-sensitive forms of well-being.</p>