Ikea announced last year that its new lineup of smart home gadgets would be entirely Matter-compatible. That's a big deal, as the open source interoperability standard has Amazon, Apple, and Google signed up, meaning these devices will play well with Alexa, Siri, and Google's nameless voice assistant. While some of this gear has been available for a little while, much of the lineup—like the newest light bulbs and smart plugs—is new. These are now some of the most affordable smart home gadgets available, and from my experience, they also some of the best when it comes to ease of setup and price.
Ikea is still using its Dirigera Hub ($110) that launched a few years ago, so if you're already an Ikea smart home user, you won't need a new hub to start using these gadgets. But new users should pick one up if they don't have a Thread-enabled, Matter-compatible smart home hub in their home.
Nena Farrell
I have also been excited to try Ikea’s new line of products, partly because over the past couple of years I’ve had a lot of fun tinkering with smart home gadgets and routines (lots to write about this topic, sadly not enough time and drive to get down to it), partly because they’re so much cheaper than most of the competition. I have also been aiming to prioritize Matter devices whenever I add something new to my setup, for local control, speed, and future proofing, which is another point in Ikea’s favor. They seem to be rather popular as well, as here in Romania one or several of them are regularly out of stock.
I have seen a number of people and articles complaining that they fail to pair with their smart home setup, or that they constantly disconnect, but my experience so far has been very positive. I’ve actually been surprised at how fast the Ikea devices were picked up by my hub on first use — while my first smart home device was a Google Nest Hub, I’ve since switched most of my devices and routines to SmartThings. Currently I have the Bilresa dual button, the Myggspray motion sensor, and the Myggbett door sensor up and running, and I plan to buy the Timmerflotte temperature/humidity sensor as soon as I get a chance.
On the not-so-great side, the devices are rather bulky, verging on ugly-looking — I know some are very enamored with the minimalist Ikea aesthetic, but to me they look almost brutalist — well, except for the door sensor, that one is sleek enough to be mistaken for an Aqara product. But, considering that they’re powered by larger AAA batteries, it’s unlikely the size could have been reduced much further. At least Ikea also sells rechargeable batteries, so you don’t have to replace them every time they run out.
Paradoxically, the biggest downside of these new Ikea Matter devices might be that their cheap price and reliability is incentivizing me to keep expanding my smart home network. I’m seriously tempted to replace all my light switches with smart ones, so that I can further integrate these new Ikea sensors with my home lighting. And unfortunately Ikea hasn’t released any smart light switches, nor do they appear to have something like that in the works, so I will likely have to turn to Aqara again…
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