Last week we posted about a clutch of forthcoming new products from Aqara, which included another new smart lock, a bathroom fan heater, a new curtain motor, and a brand new wall switch that’s also an LED display – the Magic Switch S1E. Now Aqara has added all the details for the latter product which seems to be a slight departure for Aqara, but also one that adds more HomeKit ‘goodness’ to its feature set!
At its core, the S1E is a powered switch that requires a neutral wire. The switch is capable of controlling three separate sets of lights, with a total maximum load of 2200W. The switches are controlled via the capacitive touch screen.
As it’s designed as a wall switch, it can fit alongside other 86×86-sized switches, like Aqara’s range of switches (H1, H1M, E1, T1 etc), as well as the two current display switches – the Scene Panel S1, and the MagicPad S1.
One big difference between the S1E and the other aforementioned display switches is that the S1E is customisable, with 5 different styles to choose from (as seen above). Clearly, some of the more colourful designs are going to be better suited to a children’s bedroom, for example…
…but it doesn’t stop there, as the layouts are also customisable, with eleven different setups to choose from, not to mention options to change colours within each theme. As already mentioned, the S1E is a powered switch, so you can control three sets of lights, with each of these switches exposed to HomeKit.
What really takes this switch to the next level is that in addition to the three switches, Aqara has added in a six-button wireless switch that’s also exposed to HomeKit, so not only will you be able to control standard lights and Aqara devices with the S1E, you’ll also be able to control other HomeKit devices, as well as trigger scenes, all controllable within HomeKit.
The one thing that may well surprise you is that unlike many Aqara products that aren’t hubs or cameras (or both…) the S1E doesn’t use Zigbee. It uses standard 2.4GHz WiFi.
The Smart Switch S1E is currently on pre-order and only within Mainland China currently, with no word on whether this will be released internationally, but for those that can use it and also use the China server, it looks like an interesting device.