Eve Motion Sensor review: speedier and Threadier

If you buy something from a link, they may make a commission. Our ethics statement can be found here.

A smart home is a remote-controlled one. flicking on a light switch is easier than using your voice to turn on lights. When the lights turn on, it's smart. It's worse when they don't turn on. The Eve Motion Sensor with its shiny new Thread protocol promises to fix this common smart home frustration.

The thread is a mesh networking protocol. It claims to be faster, more reliable, and more energy efficient than other smart home protocols. Don't buy wi-fi motion sensor. They are not great. Thread does not have a single point of failure in the form of a single hub or bridge device.

We rate products.

I have a lot of motion sensors in my house that work to turn my lights on and off. One is used to start my morning routine. A sensor in my bedroom tells my kettle to start boiling, I can listen to my favorite radio station from a smart speaker, and the thermostat is adjusted. All I have to do is wake up.

Sometimes the sensors aren't as fast as flipping a switch, and other times they don't work at all. It's often down to how they talk. I didn't have this problem in the two weeks I used the Eve Motion. As long as it was on my home's Thread network, it worked well. It was slower and less reliable when it was forced to use the new technology.

The Eve Motion is a second- generation motion sensor. Size, price, and a new sensor are some of the changes beyond Thread. The battery life is still one year, even though it uses twoAAA batteries instead of twoAAs. This is a good option for use in a bathroom or covered porch because it keeps the water resistant IPX3 rating.

If you want Eve's products to work on Apple's HomeKit platform, you need an iPad or iPhone. You need an Apple Home hub to create scenes with the Eve Motion. If you want to take advantage of the new Thread protocol, you'll need an Apple TV 4K or a smaller device. The sensor will work if there are two of those.

The response time for the Eve Motion to turn on and off based on motion and light levels in my house was amazing. When I walked in, it turned them on instantly, even in the farthest corners of my house, where Eve had difficulty keeping up.

• Price: $39.95
• Field of view: 120 degrees
• Distance: 30 feet
• Operating temperature: zero to 130 degrees Fahrenheit
• Power: 2 AAA replaceable batteries
• Wireless connection: Bluetooth LE, Thread
• Dimensions: 2.56 x 2.56 x 1.34 inches

The Eve Motion doesn't seem to be as fast as the other motion sensors I use. It always worked. There is a single point of failure for both of those sensors. The Eve Motion has backup options because it is in a Thread mesh network.

A thread network can have multiple border and smart plugs that communicate with each other. The motion sensor can communicate if one goes down. All my automations stop working if the Aqara hub gets disconnected.

Thread was tested by disabling the Eve smart plug and the HomePod Mini that the Eve Motion was using. Eve has a thread network app. When a device went offline, I didn't have to do anything other than wait a few seconds.

When I disabled all my Thread devices, I had no issues with the Eve Motion. It took over five seconds in some places to respond to motion after the sensor kicked over to the wireless network.

When the smart home standard is released later this year, Eve will support Matter. When it arrives, there will be many more Thread border routers and devices that the Eve Motion can use. When Matter launches, you will be able to use Eve's motion sensor with those smart home platforms. It is only Apple HomeKit.

The easiest way to set up the Eve Motion was to open the Apple Home app or Eve app. The sensor can be used to set up automations. The Home app will suggest some based on where you put it. You can use either "no motion detected" or "motion detected" to make your own.

You can create automations based on how bright the LUX sensor is in a room. If the room is bright enough, you can set it not to light up. The shades can be adjusted based on the light level in the room.

I would have liked to see a temperature sensor included in this model. In the South, where it gets very hot, I like to create automations that close the shades in a room if the light level is high and the temperature is high. If you want to do this with Eve, you can either add an Eve Room or Eve Weather sensor, both of which detect temperature, or you can add the Hue Motion Sensor, which costs less.

The Home app is limited when it comes to setting multiple conditions and the more advanced automations work best in the Eve app. The Eve app gives more options, such as only triggering motion in darkness, adjusting the motion sensitivity, and changing the motion re-trigger time. If your lighting automations keep turning off sooner than you want, this last one is useful.

I was impressed with the Eve Motion and can see how it can make the smart home better. There are more Thread border routers and compatible devices available today than there were a year ago. The thread border from different manufacturers can't talk to each other

Don't buy this if you don't have a Thread network in your house. Without Thread, the Eve Motion goes back to its previous form, which is not as reliable or fast as Thread. If you only want to turn the lights on and off, you'll be better off with the good Philips Hue Motion Sensor. The app can be used with Apple's HomeKit and other smart home devices.

When the standard arrives later this year, this little device will be an excellent block on which to build a smart home.

The photos were taken by Tuohy.

Connected devices bring with them concerns about how the data they collect is protected. We review smart home products to make sure they have safeguards in place for your data.

The primary data the Eve Motion Sensor collects is motion in your home. All communication is fully encrypted and only transferred directly between the sensor and your iPhone, iPad, or Apple home hub. Eve says no data is analyzed by the company or used for advertising purposes because it has no access to that data. Eve also has no manufacturer cloud and does not require an email address or personal data to use Eve’s app.

Every smart device has a set of terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you can use it. It is not possible for us to read and analyze all of them. Since these are agreements most people don't read and can't negotiate, we're going to start counting how many times you have to agree to use the device.

You don't need to agree to any other terms of service or privacy policies if you use the Eve Motion Sensor with HomeKit and the Apple Home app.