Orvibo Adds Matter Smart Dimmer w/ Remote to Lineup
It’s been over a year since we reported on three Matter enabled products due from smart home manufacturer Orvibo. Now it seems the second of these is available to purchase. Last year the company finally issued a firmware update for their MixPad D1, which we also reviewed, so joining the ‘Matter’ club is the company’s smart dimmer switch complete with a separate remote, not dissimilar to Lutron’s Pico remote.
The switch itself is designed for North American homes, using a standard ‘press & hold’ action to dim the lights to your preferred brightness. Thankfully the company has ensured their logo isn’t emblazoned on the switch itself, with only two small bulb icons to give away its functionality. As it’s standard sized, it should work with other faceplates, depending on the type on connection they use to hold it in place, but it’ll blend in well enough anyway.
The main switch connects to your smart home using Matter over WiFi, but whilst included remote pairs to the main switch using RF902MHz, it isn’t exposed to your smart home as such, and would need to be programmed in the company’s own app. The good news is that the remote doesn’t actually require a battery and so can power itself by the kinetic energy generate from simply clicking it.
The main switch does require a neutral wire however, so if your home doesn’t have neutral for your switches, these aren’t for you.
Whilst it’s great to see more Matter devices on the horizon, its worth bearing in mind the market is already starting to get slightly more crowded, with more Matter switches, albeit only one so far with dimming capabilities, which would be the Inovelli Smart dimmer which offers Matter over Thread, and doesn’t require a neutral wire.
The Orvibo Smart Dimmer with Remote is available on Amazon.com now for US$59.99, but with the US$25.00 discount coupon selected, this brings the switch down to a very reasonable US$34.99, making this one of the cheapest Matter enabled dimmers on the market right now.
