Review: Philips Hue Wireless Light Dimmer Switch

The Philips Hue bulb ecosystem is ever expanding and so are the accessory options to go alongside. You’re no longer limited to a bulb that only fits in one type of light socket and controlling the bulbs has generally been restricted to requiring a smartphone in-hand in order to tweak brightness levels, colours and turning said bulbs on/off without using your main light switch.

The Hue Wireless Dimmer Switch aims to simplify that control, by providing you with fine-tuned brightness control, access to multiple scenes and basic on/off functionality, all from a slim, wireless, wall mounted, magnetic remote control!

Table of Contents

Features

Wall mounted via either adhesive tape or screws
Slim, lightweight design
- Switch (d x w x h): 0.43in x 3.6in x 1.38in | 1.09cm x 9.14cm x 3.51
- Wall plate (d x w x h): 0.55in x 2.76in x 4.5in| 1.4cm x 7.01cm x 11.43cm
Access to 5 customisable lighting scenes
Smooth, flicker free dimming/brightening control
Removable remote control
Battery powered (1 x CR2450 battery) that will last “at least” 3 years
Connect and control up to 10 bulbs
Apple HomeKit compatible

Installation

Installing the Hue Dimmer Switch is an incredibly simple task. Once you’ve taken the Switch out of the box and removed the plastic battery insert, it’s simply a case of opening the Hue app on your smart device of choice, navigating over to “Settings” and then into “Accessory Setup”. From there, follow the short-and-sweet on-screen prompts to pair the unit to your Hue Bridge and in under 3 minutes you’ll have a basic working switch!

Straight way you’ll be able to turn bulbs on, off and control their brightness. At this point, you’ll want to delve into the accessory options to customise the button controls and set the “Scenes” you’d like to display pressing the “On” button. You can hit the “On” button up to 5 times for 5 different preset scenes, or connect third party apps to the Dimmer Switch to extend the functionality even further! 😮

Day-to-day usage

I’ve found myself using the Hue Dimmer Switch a lot more than I could’ve initially imagined. With bulbs setup in my living room, all of which are now connected to the Dimmer Switch, I can control the overall brightness or scene on-the-fly without having to always have my phone with me! I have the wall plate mounted on the wall (using the included adhesive strips) right underneath my main light switch. If I know I’m going to be sat away from the Dimmer Switch, I can simply pull the “remote control” off of the magnetic base and take it with me (#lazy amirite?!)

I’ve setup all 5 of the available scenes within the Hue app, as opposed to using 3rd part controls/apps, simply because the built-in scenes are more than enough for my daily use. I start the bulbs out “Dimmed” and with each press get gradually brighter and cooler.

Philips Hue Dimmer Switch - Scene settings — Philips Hue Dimmer Switch – My scene settings

Summary

When the first generation of the Hue Dimmer Switch was released a couple of years ago, it was a pricey accessory – setting you back around £40/$45. Now though, you can quite easily pick up the latest Dimmer Switch for as little as £20/$20 .

Setting up the product is an absolute breeze and requires no significant technical knowledge/understanding. Bulb control is quick and responsive – every single press on the switch does exactly what it’s supposed to do. The unit is also very well built and has survived being dropped multiple times onto hard flooring, as well as my teething puppy! Straight off the bat, the Dimmer Switch provides you with the basics you need – the only annoying is that if you want to delve in to slightly more complex functionality, you’ll need to link up a third party app (iConnectHue allows a massive amount of extra functionality for your Dimmer Switch).

All of that being said, I’d personally only advise purchasing one of these if you have more than one bulb, or more than a handful of older generation bulbs (gen. 1 or gen 2.) as you can quite easily control your gen. 3 bulbs via Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home or via Siri/Apple HomeKit.