I recently acquired a couple of Philips Hue smart buttons to automate some actions at home using Apple HomeKit, but are they better than Aqara’s? Since they cost twice as much? Spoiler: No They’re just a little faster.

Philips Hue accessories

Although I seem to be sponsored by Philips, I assure you that at the time of writing this article is not so (you never have to close xD doors), but I am delighted with the range of Hue products!

Now I have told you once that I am very happy with the Hue lights of Philips They never fail! I also told you that A couple of months ago I bought Hue’s plug to prove it was better than my Koogeek… And indeed, he hasn’t run out of connection once since I bought it… so Why not try the smart button?

Philips has in its catalog a lot of different switches. You can choose with or without intensity regulation, in circular or elongated format, and all of them come with embellisher so that it’s not just to leave the little button out there and lose it within two days.

The models I’ve tried are these three, the Smart Button (€19,98) and Dimmer Switch (€16,95) of Philips Hue vs el Aqara Mini Switch (€8,98).

Note that it is not a ‘remote button of lights’, we can automate any action… from turning on the boiler, ringing the doorbell, turning off all the lights of the house on the way out, opening the garage door, activating the alarm… any device we have on HomeKit’s house app is capable of being automated with the physical button as well as being able to use the corresponding Siri command.

It is also important to note that there are other brands on the market that are also compatible with Apple HomeKit, Logitech and Eve for example also have smart button models.

Appearance and use

Philips’ devices carry a small magnet, so if (as is my case) you have it on some metal surface, it makes you almost the times a fixed button. However, the embellisher also has double-sided tape, so you can also leave it ‘fixed’ on a wall.

The Aqara button does not have so much paraphernalia The little button comes right in, and that’s it, but it’s true it has a nice design. This button also has double-faced tape in case you want to stick it somewhere and use it as a fixed button.

Following the structure I have used in other entries, I will put the need and solution to you:)

NEED: May my eldest son turn on / off the lamp from the bed. It may seem silly, but in my eldest son’s room there is no plug in the area where the bed is located, so he has the lamp a little away and he has to get up to turn it on / off.

SOLUTION: Smart button on the wall next to the bed that controls the Philips Hue bulb you have in the night lamp. In addition, by having a smart bulb in this lamp we can light it up little by little when it comes to waking up, turn it off at 23: 00 that is when you should stop reading and go to sleep and make that, if you have to get up to the bathroom and turn it on at night, it does not turn on to the maximum power and simply turn it on to 30% without having to do anything weird with button combinations.

Philips Hue vs Aqara Switch functionality

Is it possible to do the same with the Aqara button that is cheaper? Yeah, exactly the same. The Aqara button supports up to three different types of click, so we can put a function for the normal click, a function for the double click, and a function for the long click. And then all this with the conditioners we want, so we could tell you that if we double-click during the day do one thing but between 23: 00 and 08: 00 in the morning do another. As we have ever said, the limit is in the imagination.

Peeeeeero There’s one thing I like more than Philips, and it’s his immediacy.. It’s not that Aqara’s late, but when you press the button a few milliseconds pass (you’re not going to believe it’s an eternity) until the bulb is turned on, I imagine by the ‘traffic’ of the Aqara Switch receiving the command, it sends it to HomeKit and it finally sends it to the Hue Switch. Obviously with the Hue button does not pass, you press the button and light is turned on at that very moment.

Installation and configuration

This process hardly deserves a section of its own as in both cases the configuration is super simple as we have seen on other occasions. Both the Philips app and the Aqara app have to look for the device, press the button… and find it automatically, without reading barcodes with the camera or anything complicated. Once recognized, you can set up directly from Apple House and forget about each other’s own application to program buttons or pulsations.

Conclusion

After testing both of Philips’ crazies, for the use I’m going to give you in my eldest son’s room I’ll take the Smart Button, which is curiously a little more expensive than the Dimmer switch but also has a dimming function, so if you keep the button pressed as if it were a long push you can attenuate the light until you reach the luminosity you need, but if you do normal click it will turn on 100% and turn it off in the next click.

List of wishes for Philips Hue

You know one of the things I miss in the Philips catalogue? The wall switches to replace the conventional switch. There are times when someone comes home, whether it’s some friend of my children, a relative or some friend of mine, and I’m not going to explain to them that to light us what light they have to go through the motion sensor of us or ask Siri to turn it on… and of course, every 2×3 I find the problem that someone has tightened the switch of the facility by default of the house and has cut the current that comes to the Hue bulbs, so to the baton that bulb and no longer it’s going on…

At the same time, they test for whether the switch has failed, with what is leaked to God’s, the values of the bulb are reset, they scream from the other end to inform me that it has fused… a show.

For these cases, I have the Aqara switches that are the ones that send the order to the Hue bulbs to turn on or off… but if they turn on with the motion sensor or with Siri or with some automation, they continue to work perfectly. Behind the Aqara switch are simply the wires of the installation bridges two to always reach the light bulbs.

Well, I don’t need Philips to have a switch of this kind, it’s not that Aqara’s are working badly, but you’ve already seen that Aqara has a small delay of a few milliseconds when interacting with Philips Hue bulbs and we’re usually used to light going at the speed of the idem, so until you get used to it (or for visits) it’s a rare behavior.

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