a smart home at an affordable price

IKEA has invested heavily in smart appliances in recent years, but how well does IKEA Smart Home work? iPhoned tested it for you.

IKEA home smart system

In recent years, IKEA has focused on creating a smart home. The company now sells a huge number of products with which you can make your home smarter. Think of smart sockets, smart lamps and even smart curtains. Moreover, Ikea entered into a partnership with Sonos a few years ago. How well do these devices actually work?

The products in this article are courtesy of IKEA. All products can be found on the IKEA website.

Collaboration between IKEA and Sonos

A few years ago, IKEA and Sonos announced that they were going to work together. That was striking: IKEA is known as a cheap furniture maker, while Sonos speakers are quite expensive. Sonos has very good speakers, but they are not immediately affordable for everyone. This is in contrast to IKEA: the furniture there has such fair prices that everyone now has an IKEA product at home.

The collaboration worked out very well and the speakers are now included in the IKEA Smart Home range. Good speakers are very popular, but you have to find a good place for them in your home. With the Symfonisk speakers, IKEA and Sonos want to make it easier to put good sound in your home. For example, the companies want to eliminate speakers in more and more furniture, such as desks and cupboards.

Smart speaker

The bookshelf speaker has exactly this function. The speaker, called ‘IKEA Symfonisk’, is a rectangular device that fits perfectly in most bookcases. This way you can hide the speaker less conspicuously between your books, so that the speaker is not so present. With a weight of two kilos and a height of 30 centimetres, you can’t just hide it, but it is certainly less present.

The IKEA Smart Home speaker has very good sound, especially compared to other speakers in this price range. If you turn the speaker very loud, the audio starts to crack a bit, but you never actually put the speaker at this volume.

The speaker is easy to operate with your iPhone and is connected to WiFi. This means you can go to another room without losing the connection with the speaker.

The Symfonisk is a very good speaker that is easy to use. You can attach the speaker to the wall with the included stand, or you can hide the speaker between the books in your bookcase.

The only drawback of the speaker: the stand does not feel very sturdy due to the heavy weight of the speaker when it is not attached to the wall. The Symfonisk is for sale for 99 eurosthat is more than worth the speaker.

Lots of choice with the smart lamps

In addition to its own speakers, IKEA has enough smart lamps to choose from. The lamps are easy to install using the IKEA app. Instruction videos can be followed in the app, so that you can be sure that your lights are set correctly.

Before you install the lamps, you need to set up IKEA’s Dirigera hub. All IKEA smart devices are controlled via this hub. The hub must also be connected to the internet with a network cable. Setup is quick and easy with the in-app instructions. Within a few minutes the hub is ready and other IKEA Smart Home devices can be connected.

IKEA lamps have different functions, depending on the lamp you choose. Do you want to adjust the atmosphere in a room per situation? Then a lamp that you can change to all colors is the best option. Do you only want to change the heat and strength of the lamp? Then you better go for another Trådfri lamp. The Trådfri series from IKEA Smart Home consists of a wide range of smart lamps.

Most IKEA smart bulbs cost between 5 and the 20 euros. This is quite cheap, especially if you compare it with Philips Hue lamps. This makes the smart lamps from IKEA Smart Home an easy and cheap way to make your home smarter. And to give your room more atmosphere, which is of course also important.

IKEA Smart Home with Apple HomeKit

Making your home smarter is one thing, but controlling it is often the most important. Fortunately, this is not a problem with IKEA smart devices, because you can link the hub directly to Apple’s Home app. You connect the hub to the Home app with the QR code on the back of the device. For example, it is possible to operate all smart devices on your iPhone or iPad from your home screen.

Do you still want to be able to turn the lights on and off with a physical button when you walk into a room? No problem: IKEA Smart Home also has remote controls that you can easily connect to your smart lamps. This way you don’t always have to have your phone with you to turn the lights on or off. With the remote controls you can choose from a normal switch, or a remote control with which you can control the heat and strength of the lamp.

Conclusion: IKEA Smart Home makes your home smarter affordably

Are you still looking for your first smart devices? The smart products from IKEA are then a perfect start to make your home smarter. The devices are cheap and easy to operate. IKEA Smart Home is therefore perfectly suited to try out whether making your home smarter is something for you.

If you like the IKEA Smart Home products, it is always possible to invest later in more expensive products such as Philips Hue. IKEA Smart Home does what it should and is an affordable first step towards a smarter home. So are you looking for cheap, smart devices? Check out all the products on the IKEA website.

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