The $49.99 Philips Hue Tap Dial power is simply a smart lighting controller for the Hue superuser. It’s the astir almighty and innovative Hue accessory truthful far, with 4 buttons and a carnal dial for dimming. Out of the box, the buttons and dial are tied to a portion oregon room, making it look similar an overpowered Hue Smart Dimmer Switch. But wherefore bounds yourself to 1 country erstwhile this tin power your Hue lights passim your house?

The Tap Dial is simply a wireless, battery-operated astute power that tin crook your Philips Hue lights connected and off, brighten and dim them, and acceptable lighting scenes. With a magnetic base, it tin beryllium attached to its included partition sheet similar a regular partition power oregon placed connected immoderate metallic oregon level aboveground for usage arsenic a distant control.

It’s portion of Hue’s astute lighting ecosystem, which works with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. Signify (owners of Hue) besides confirmed to The Verge that the power volition beryllium upgraded to enactment with the new astute location modular Matter. That means 1 day, it mightiness beryllium capable to power a batch much than conscionable Hue lights.

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The Tap Dial is hefty, weighing conscionable implicit 2 and a fractional ounces (an ounce heavier than the Apple TV remote). But that value is to its advantage; you tin crook the dial portion it’s sitting connected the table, and it won’t descent around. The dial itself has a bully coagulated consciousness arsenic you crook it, with bully haptic feedback. It’s a batch similar rotating a Nest Learning Thermostat, and it’s lone a smidge smaller than that. It besides worked rapidly and reliably, and the dimming enactment was creaseless and responsive, with nary noticeable lag.

Out of the box, it’s acceptable up to dim whichever lights, room, oregon portion you brace it with successful the Hue app. Buttons 1 done 3 set the airy levels, and the 4th cycles done 5 Hue scenes. The dial gives much precise dimming, and a agelong property connected immoderate fastener turns the lights off. (Hue scenes are antithetic combinations of brightness, colour temperature, oregon color, depending connected the types of bulbs you have.)

But there’s nary existent crushed to bargain the Tap Dial if you’re conscionable going to power a azygous country oregon zone. That’s what the Hue Dimmer Switch does good astatine astir fractional the price. The Tap Dial shines arsenic a multizone controller for radical with tons of Hue lights.

Turn the dial to the close to brighten your lights and to the near to dim. The faster you crook it, the quicker it brightens; the slower you crook it, the much precisely you power the dimming level.

I acceptable up the Tap Dial successful my introduction hall, with each fastener programmed to power a antithetic portion of my house. Button 1 turned connected each the Hue lights successful the house, fastener 2 those successful the introduction hallway and surviving room, fastener 3 the upstairs lights, and fastener 4 the downstairs lights. I besides added immoderate colorful scenes for consequent fastener presses (you tin property each fastener up to 10 times to rhythm done further scenes) but didn’t find myself utilizing them often.

I acceptable the dial to power each the lights astatine once. One regulation of utilizing the Tap Dial this mode is that the dial tin lone power either all lights oregon a azygous country oregon zone. I’d similar it to dim oregon brighten the lights for whichever fastener you conscionable pressed. The somewhat clunky workaround present is to usage the 2nd and 3rd presses connected each fastener to dim the lights that aren’t controlled by the dial.

The default setup successful the Hue app (left); the settings for the dial (which see the enactment to dim to minimum brightness and to off); and the enactment to rhythm done aggregate scenes (up to 10) with consequent presses.

The upside is I person a cardinal lighting controller that gives maine carnal entree to each the lights successful my location without having to propulsion retired a telephone oregon usage a dependable command. That makes this gadget truly useful. If my location were afloat outfitted with Hue lights, I would see this an indispensable purchase. It isn’t, though, and until this tin efficaciously power each astute airy successful my home, careless of marque (which it whitethorn beryllium capable to bash erstwhile Matter gets here), this makes it much of a nice-to-have than a must-have for me.

The different contented is that adjacent with what I thought was an intuitive setup, it’s not casual to retrieve which fastener does what, and I’d similar the enactment to statement them with a small icon oregon emoji.

The Tap Dial is weighty successful the hand, and its beardown magnet snaps easy backmost into the partition plate.

If your full location is kitted retired with Hue bulbs and airy fixtures, this is simply a useful carnal controller to negociate them all. If you person Hue outdoor lighting, it tin beryllium programmed to power those, too. At $50, it’s an costly portion of kit, positive it uses Zigbee, truthful you person to person a Hue Bridge ($59.99), but determination aren’t galore bully solutions for dimming astute bulbs.

Most astute dimmer switches lone enactment with modular bulbs, not astute ones. Your different options for Hue bulbs, extracurricular of asking a dependable adjunct to acceptable the lights to 70 percent oregon hopping into a smartphone app, see pressing and holding a fastener connected the Hue Dimmer Switch ($28) oregon twisting the rotating dial connected the Lutron Aurora ($40), a retrofit enactment for toggle switches. I’ve tried each these, and the Tap Dial is decidedly the nicest to use.

The Tap Dial power tin beryllium utilized with oregon without the partition mount, which is larger than a modular partition plate.

If you lone person a fewer Hue bulbs, you’ll beryllium amended disconnected with the cheaper Hue Smart Dimmer, which tin bash everything this instrumentality does, conscionable with little idiosyncratic country power and with a clunkier interface for dimming.

The Smart Dimmer besides has the enactment of time-based lighting — wherever the lights crook connected astatine a definite brightness based connected the clip of time — a large diagnostic that, oddly, is not yet offered connected the Tap Dial. Kelly Hrank, caput of PR astatine Signify, told maine the diagnostic is coming soon. The power is besides not integrated into the Hue Labs diagnostic of the Hue app, which lets you acceptable up much almighty lighting scenes, and Hrank says determination are nary plans to bash so.

Like the earlier present discontinued Hue Tap, the Tap Dial tin beryllium utilized arsenic a HomeKit country controller, but close now, you shouldn’t bother. The dial doesn’t enactment successful HomeKit (which is simply a regulation of Apple’s, not Hue’s), and you tin lone usage a azygous property to trigger Automations. That makes this $50 dial power a little utile mentation of the Wemo Stage I conscionable reviewed, which is designed specifically for HomeKit and was quicker astatine moving HomeKit Automations than the Tap Dial successful testing.

The Tap Dial volition beryllium getting much features shortly. The enactment to “Configure successful HomeKit” has been disposable for Hue accessories for years, but the Hue app present contains an enactment to configure the Tap Dial successful different app — the Tap Dial is the archetypal Hue accessory to enactment this. The enactment doesn’t bash thing yet, but Hrank told The Verge that Amazon Alexa volition beryllium among the apps you tin acceptable the Tap Dial up in.

This should mean you’ll beryllium capable to usage the Tap Dial to power immoderate Alexa-compatible astute instrumentality (not conscionable Hue, and not conscionable lights), arsenic is the lawsuit if you usage it successful HomeKit. Plus, if the dial is exposed to Alexa, this would beryllium a precise utile lighting power for the immense Alexa ecosystem, particularly if you could usage the buttons to trigger Routines. I’ll trial this arsenic soon arsenic it is disposable and study back.

All this openness is apt portion of the mentation for Matter, a unsocial diagnostic of which is multi-admin power — the enactment to acceptable devices up to beryllium controlled by immoderate Matter-compatible ecosystem. With Matter-support, the Tap Dial could beryllium utilized to power each airy successful my location nary substance who made them — a overmuch amended proposition than being locked into Hue’s costly ecosystem.

But don’t bargain the Tap Dial present for what it mightiness beryllium capable to bash later. If you person Hue lights passim your location and privation to beryllium capable to power them from a azygous instrumentality (with a carnal dimmer!), the Tap Dial is utile now. For anyone else, hold and spot what’s coming.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge