It wouldn’t be a normal week without a bit of Aqara product news, and so the latest tidbit is that China’s leading Smart Home company has announced an update to their original tunable white bulb, but with the T1 suffix. The new bulb boasts not only more accurate whites in both the warm and cool spectrum, with a Ra90 accuracy rating.
Sadly for US consumers, like the previous iteration of the bulb, it still only works with 220-240v, which is the standard for Mainland China, which is ostensibly whom it is marketed at.
The new bulb uses Zigbee 3.0, as expected with ‘T1’ tacked onto the end, but interestingly, the bulb also has a Bluetooth chip. An Aqara representative has stated that the Bluetooth chip is not Thread capable, so it could just be a means for users without a compatible Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub to still use the bulb.
Whether the bulb connects to the M2, which does have as yet untapped Bluetooth connectivity, we’re not sure, although if you do have an M2, it would make sense to use Zigbee of course, so it could be that Bluetooth in this case, is used in much the same way that Philips Hue approach Bluetooth, as an entry point device for those without a hub. The question also remains as to whether the bulb will work with HomeKit via Bluetooth, however, which would seem less likely, once again much like the Hue bulbs when utilising Bluetooth only.