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I had been waiting patiently for years for something along these lines to come along, so had high hopes for the Hue Smart Button. It's not perfect, but it's a reasonable v1. Sadly this seemed to be one of the few Hue products without a Black Friday reduction, but as it is now similarly priced to the Hue Dimmer, which has various reductions throughout the year, hopefully this will follow suit in future.
We have had Hue - and Osram/Lightify and Ikea/Tradfri - lighting, switches and sensors throughout our home for the last year or two. One place where we enjoyed 'mood' lighting via smart bulbs but still relied on a 'dumb' mains switch was the bathroom - thanks to the standard UK bathroom pull cord switch. The Hue Dimmer switch never felt like it would be 'right' on the bathroom wall to me - it looks too 'busy' and I'm not convinced a Dimmer would last long with wet freshly-showered fingers dripping on it.
The Hue Smart Button finally gives a one-button appearance in what looks to be a pretty splash-proof design, whilst still retaining the ability for dimming and for rapid scene toggling as well as the more obvious on/off.
If you're wondering how it achieves this with only one button, this is how the standard Hue app configures the button:
1st short press -> On -> with default scene configurable for each of five different time slots during the day;
Subsequent short presses withing 3 seconds -> cycle through each of the five scenes;
Long press -> dim down/up;
Subsequent long press -> dim up/down;
Short press after 3 seconds -> Off
It sounds more complicated than it reads. My kids and visitors have been able to use it as an on/off switch without needing a tutorial.
The time-slot configuration means that it is possible to set a warmer and dimmer default 'On' state for evening/night times, so we get fewer bugs flying in attracted to the light if we have the window open for a shower after daylight. The screenshot shows how this configuration differs to the standard Hue app Dimmer switch configuration.
One downside to this configuration is that the standard config used up 18 rules on the Hue Bridge - even more than the 15 rules that the Hue app uses for a Hue Dimmer. I only realised this because I had problems configuring the Button - the Hue app was able to discover and pair it first time, but each time I tried to assign it to a room and save it, it kicked me back to the Accessory list saying "Not configured", with no explanation - no warning that my Hue Bridge was full. It turns out from checking in the Hue Labs options, that I had plenty of space for more lights, but I only had space for 16 rules remaining. Using the Hue Essentials android app I was able to remove some unused rules on some of my Hue Dimmers (I really don't need to cycle through 5 scenes in my porch/landing/garage etc) - then went back to the standard Hue app and was able to configure the Hue Button first time after that.
The only other downside I can think of so far, is that the magnet holding the button to the backplate is not as strong as I would like, so it is a little more easy to accidentally knock it off the wall than a Hue Dimmer. And some people might rotate the button and wonder why turning it does not make it behave like a traditional analogue dimmer!
| Item weight | 0.1 Kilograms |
|---|---|
| Volume | 799 Millilitres |
| Assembly required | No |
| Number of Pieces | 1 |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Included Components | 1 x Philips Hue Smart Button |
