Philips Hue Tap Dial switch review: a smooth way to control your smart lights

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There is a smart lighting controller for the Hue super user. It is the most innovative and powerful accessory so far. The buttons and dial are tied to a zone or room outside of the box, making it seem like an over-the-top smart dimmer switch. Why don't you allow this to control your lights throughout your house?

The Tap Dial is a smart switch that can turn on and off the lights in your house. It can be attached to a wall plate with a magnetic base and used as a remote control.

It works with Apple HomeKit and other smart lighting systems. Signify said that the switch will be upgraded to work with the Matter smart home standard. One day, it may be able to control a lot more.

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An ounce heavier than the Apple TV remote, the Tap Dial is large and heavy. It won't slide around if you turn the dial while it's sitting on the table. The dial has a good feeling as you turn it. It is a bit smaller than a Nest Learning Thermostat. The dimming action was smooth and responsive and it worked quickly and reliably.

You can pair it with the hue app to dim the lights in your room or zone. The light levels are adjusted through buttons one through three. A long press on any button turns off the lights. Depending on the types of bulbs you have, hue scenes are different combinations of brightness, temperature, and color.

If you're only going to control a single room or zone, there's no reason to buy the tap dial. At half the price, the Hue Dimmer switch does a good job. The tap dial is a multizone controller.

• Color: White or black
• Size: 0.79 inches high, 2.36 inches long, and wide 
• Weight: 0.16 lb 
• Wall plate size: 0.24 inches deep, 4.9 inches high, 3.15 inches wide
• Warranty: 2 years
• Protocol: Zigbee, requires a Hue Bridge
• Battery: CR2032
• IP Rating: IP20
• Mounting: freestanding, wall mount, magnet
• Works with: Philips Hue

Each button on the Tap Dial is programmed to control a different part of the house. Button one turned on all the lights in the house, Button two in the entry hall, Button three upstairs, and Button four in the downstairs. I added some colorful scenes for subsequent button presses, but didn't use them often.

The dial was set to control all the lights at the same time. The Tap Dial can only control a single room or zone, so it's one limitation of this method. I want it to dim or lighten the lights when you press one of the buttons. There is a slightly clunky way to dim the lights that aren't controlled by the dial.

I have a central lighting controller that gives me physical access to all the lights in my house without using a phone or voice command. This device is really useful because of that. I would consider this an essential purchase if my house were equipped with the lights. This makes it more of a nice-to-have than a must-have for me, because until this can effectively control every smart light in my home, it isn't really worth it.

It's not easy to remember which button does what, and I'd like the option to label them with a little icon or emojis.

This is a handy controller that you can use to manage all the lights in your house. It is possible to control outdoor lighting with the help of the Hue system. You have to have a Hue Bridge to use it, but there aren't many good options for dimming smart bulbs.

Smart dimmers only work with standard bulbs. Outside of asking a voice assistant to set the lights to 70 percent or hopping into a phone app, you can also retrofit the Lutron Aurora with a button on it. The Tap Dial is the best one to use.

If you only have a few Hue bulbs, the cheaper Hue Smart Dimmer will do everything this device does, just with less individual room control and a clunkier interface.

Time-based lighting, where the lights turn on at a certain brightness based on the time of day, is one of the great features of the Smart Dimmer. The feature is coming soon, according to Kelly Hrank. Hrank says there are no plans to integrate the switch into the Hue app.

The Tap Dial can be used as a HomeKit scene controller, but at the moment you shouldn't bother. HomeKit doesn't work with the dial and you can only use a single press to invoke automations. That makes the $50 dial switch a less useful version of the Wemo Stage I just reviewed, which was designed specifically for HomeKit and was quicker at running HomeKit automations than the Tap Dial.

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.

Signing up for a Hue account is required to use the Tap Dial switch. If you sign up directly, they will know your full name, password, and language.

Data on location, device information, and information about your product use are collected by the products. There is still location data in the device and in the bridge. Data collected by Signify is used for a variety of purposes. Signify protects user data with appropriate technical methods, but only when required by law. Unless legally required to keep it longer, it only keeps data until its purpose has been accomplished.

Soon, more features will be added to the tap dial. The option to "Configure in HomeKit" has been available for a long time, but the Tap Dial is the first accessory to support this. The option doesn't do anything yet, but Hrank said that the Tap Dial can be set up in a number of apps.

If you use it in HomeKit, you will be able to use the tap dial to control any smart device that is compatible with the alexa service. If you could use the buttons on the dial to invoke Routines, this would be a very useful lighting control for the entire Amazon platform. As soon as it is available, I will test it.

It's likely that this openness is part of the preparation for Matter, a unique feature of which is multi- admin control. With Matter-support, the Tap Dial could be used to control every light in my house, even if it was made by someone else.

Don't buy the tap dial now for what it will do later. The Tap Dial is useful if you want to be able to control your lights from a single device. Wait and see what comes.

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. We started counting the number of times you have to agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people can't negotiate.

If you want to use the tap dial, you have to have the app on your phone. Before the tap dial can be used, the app needs to be set up with a bridge.

Access is required to use the app.

• Local network devices (iOS)
• Bluetooth (both Android and iOS)

The terms and conditions and privacy policy are mandatory. Any remote, out-of- home control can only be controlled with an account from thePhilipsHue.

There are two mandatory agreements and two mandatory permission.

The photos were taken by Tuohy.