I’ve all the time been an Ikea fan. I lived in 9 totally different residences over 15 years earlier than shifting into my residence, and each single a type of locations had an abundance of Ikea furnishings. However the newest factor from Ikea that is been catching my eye is not the brand new daring blue shade for the Billy bookcase, however the model’s expanded and upgraded sensible residence gear.
Ikea introduced final 12 months that its new lineup of smart home gadgets could be totally Matter-compatible. That is a giant deal, because the open source interoperability standard has Amazon, Apple, and Google signed up, which means these gadgets will play properly with Alexa, Siri, and Google’s anonymous voice assistant. Whereas a few of this gear has been obtainable for a short while, a lot of the lineup—like the most recent mild bulbs and sensible plugs—is new. These are actually a few of the most inexpensive sensible residence devices obtainable, and from my expertise, additionally they a few of the finest in relation to ease of setup and worth.
Ikea remains to be utilizing its Dirigera Hub ($110) that launched just a few years in the past, so for those who’re already an Ikea sensible residence person, you will not want a brand new hub to begin utilizing these devices. However new customers ought to choose one up if they do not have a Thread-enabled, Matter-compatible sensible residence hub of their residence.
This is what gear I’ve tried from Ikea’s new sensible residence assortment, and the way it went.
The Kajplats Bulb
One among Ikea’s key new merchandise, simply launched this April, is a brand new mild bulb. Sensible mild bulbs are one of many most-used objects in my residence, and this is among the most accessible and helpful sensible residence merchandise on the market.
The Kajplats smart bulb has 11 variations, ranging out of your traditional E26 normal bulb to Edison-style dimmable bulbs. The bulbs are well-priced, starting from simply $6 for a 450 lumen white-only bulb for accent lights as much as $13 for the 1,100 lumen color bulb. That places it a little bit cheaper than my favored Cync smart bulb, however you will miss out on extras like music sync that dearer bulbs provide however which I do not discover myself utilizing fairly often.
The Kajplats bulb was simple to arrange round my home, and since I am an iPhone person, it additionally used Matter to sync to my Apple Residence app in addition to my Ikea app. I want these got here in additional packs of bulbs fairly than having to all the time purchase them a la carte, however it’s a stable bulb for worth. Simply examine the lumens earlier than you try to be sure to’re not by accident shopping for a budget, dim one while you want one thing vibrant sufficient to fill a room.
