Gadgetory

hey I'm Meghan Willard's and first Enid appliances here with the Lutron smart bridge this 150 dollar gizmo gives Lutron brand dimmers and other products smart functionality so where in the past you could buy a Lutron dimmer at the store for 55 bucks get the pico remote that goes with it and control everything manually now the smart bridge lets you do that with an app I really loved this app it's really intuitive it looks nice and it makes it so so simple to use this works with the plug-in module or the in wall unit that you have to install you can set schedules that you can initiate manually or you can do auto schedules say these lights will turn off at 9:00 a.m. when I leave for work and come back on at 6:00 p.m. when I come home something like that the one big problem I have with this is price you can get a Belkin Wemo smart plug for 50 bucks that has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities and be able to turn your lights on and off from an app remotely since these Lutron dimmers are actually dumb they don't have built-in Wi-Fi capabilities you have to spend the extra 150 bucks for this smart bridge to get that capability so that's a bit of a bummer the benefit you're getting is dimming capability it really allows for a whole new range of lighting options that you couldn't have before if you want some of those extra features this is great it works great it's just going to cost you one thing that would make this a better value is if you incorporate some of the other third-party products that are available with the smart bridge for example there are Sirena battery-powered shades that can be installed on your windows and you can use the app the regular Lutron app that you use for these plugs to lift your shades up and down on a schedule that's all it works with currently but Lutron also has plans to incorporate Honeywell Wi-Fi smart thermostats not the new Honeywell lyric thermostat but the older smart thermostats into this mix also ge is working on a dimmable LED bulb with built-in Lutron capabilities so you don't need the switch you could just buy this bulb screw it into your lighting fixture and use the app to control that so this Lutron smart bridge isn't coming out until september first so you have a little time to think about if it makes sense for your home you could always just spend you know the fifty five bucks get one of these and see how you like and then add on the smart bridge later on but overall I love this product I love the app I think it's great even though it's really pricey thanks for watching I'm Megan Willerton for cnet.com