HomeKit Weekly: This Matter smart bulb brings lighting control to Apple Home for less than $10

I have been a Philips Hue user for several years. They are durable, but not cheap. Recently, one of the lights in my hallway finally went out. Instead of dropping $45 on a replacement, I decided to take a look at what the “Matter era” brought to the table in terms of Wi-Fi only bulbs. I found a Matter-native option that cost less than $10 per bulb. It connects directly via Wi-Fi, requires no hub other than HomePod/Apple TV, and works with Apple Home out of the box.

HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home gadgets, automation tips and tricks, and everything related to Apple’s smart home framework.

Advantages of Wi-Fi

The beauty of Matter is that it measures how these devices communicate with our networks. This bulb is Wi-Fi enabled. The advantage is that you don’t need a Zigbee hub or a specific bridge connected to your router. You just need your existing Wi-Fi network. It creates a direct connection that is fast and reliable.

The downside is that it only supports 2.4 GHz networks. This is a good standard for smart home gear, but if you have a mesh system that pushes devices aggressively to 5 GHz, you may hit a snag during setup. In my testing, however, the ride was seamless. It has the Matter QR code printed right on the side. I opened the Home app, scanned the code, and it joined immediately. No third party app required, no account creation. Just open it, scan, and you’re done.

Your lighting is automatic

Once you have a bulb in HomeKit, the real fun begins. In the Home app, you can easily set the default “Time of Day”. I like my living room and hallway lights to automatically turn on at sunset. It makes sure I never go into a dark room. It’s great when we’re traveling as the lights are constantly on and off, giving the impression that someone is home.

You can also wire these bulbs to scenes within HomeKit. My most used automation is my “Evening” scene. With a single command to Siri or a single tap in Control Center, every light in the house turns off or dims to our preferred night scene. We have programmed them to turn off automatically at 11:00 PM.

Finally, if you want to get really creative, pair this lamp with a HomeKit motion sensor. You can set it so that if motion is detected in the hallway between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM, the light will dim by 25%. This gives you enough light to see where you’re going without blinding you or waking the whole family. This is especially useful in hallways near children’s bedrooms or stairs.

Finish it

For less than $10, you get 16 million colors and an adjustable white range from 2700K to 6500K. Smart lighting is still the “gateway drug” for Apple Home for a reason. Being able to program your lights or control them with your voice is great, but the real magic happens when you let the house work for you. With Matter ensuring you can use any platform you want, there’s never been a better time to start swapping out your “dumb” lights.

You can buy this $10 Matter/Apple Home bulb from Amazon.