Matter continues to be the 2023 theme as various smart home manufacturers continue to release supported products. Aqara has long been one of my go-to smart home vendors when you want a low-cost item that supports the latest technology. A prime example of the level of products that Aqara produces is the new U100 door lock that supports Home Key. It’s such a fantastic product at a low cost. Today, they’re delivering the new Aqara T1 Light Strip that has quickly become of my favorite light strip products on the market.
HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
Unboxing and setting up
Aqara’s packaging has really improved in recent years. Once you open the box, the light is under the first piece of cardboard. It’s preloaded on a wheel. Under it is the instruction manual, and then under it is the power cord and the plug. The plug includes support for US and UK plugs. I initially had a little trouble attaching the plug to the wall adaptor, but I finally got it snapped on.
About the only thing I dislike about the light is the need for an Aqara Hub. Many of the custom features of the strip do require the Aqara app, and that’s fine, but I’d love to see more products support Matter onboarding directly on the device. With that being said, if you don’t have an Aqara Hub yet, I highly recommend the M2 hub over the others. While it’s not the cheapest hub Aqara offers, it does offer the most features.
Aqara T1 light strip key features
The Zigbee-based LED Strip T1 is compatible with Matter, HomeKit (including Apple’s Adaptive Lighting), Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT. The T1 includes RGB CCT technology so it can display not only up to 16 million vibrant colors but can also be used as a tunable white accent light. Each of the 10 segments of the 2-meter T1 strip can be configured separately, and can have different colors, dimming, and effects for each segment.
One of my favorite parts of strips like this is they are extendable up to 33 feet, cuttable (into the segments of 20 cm/7.9″), and re-attachable, making them great temporary light projects. They’re also one of the few light strips with a IP44 so you can use it in certain outdoor situations.
One thing to note is that RGBIC effects of the T1 strip can only be configured on the Aqara app. To use these effects with HomeKit, you’ll need to first create a scene on Aqara Home and then expose it to other platforms from the app. This feature doesn’t work if you’re using Matter onboarding, though.
Aqara is planning to introduce a new feature to the Aqara Home app in the coming months that will allow users to sync the Aqara Home scenes to HomeKit and trigger these scenes via HomeKit automations. I cannot wait to try this feature out personally.
Wrap-up
Overall, it’s a great product. It’s a low-cost addition to liven up a room using HomeKit, and I love that it includes a IP44 rating so you can easily use it on a covered porch to add some lighting effects at night.
The Aqara T1 Light can be purchased from Amazon. Use code USCASTRIP to save 10%.
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