LIFX Smart Mirror w/ Matter over WiFi or Thread (review)

2nd September 2026 The Editor 0 Comments LiFX, Matter over Thread, Matter over Wifi, Smart Mirror 11 min read

There aren’t many smart home categories I’ve not tested since jumping into Apple Home nearly 10 years ago, but a smart mirror is certainly one of them. That’s mostly because such a device didn’t really exist when it came to Apple Home compatibility.

With the LIFX Smart Mirror now available, I’ve finally been able to try one out for myself. Whilst the term ‘smart’ when applied to a mirror can be a little confusing, it’s nonetheless an interesting device with quite a bit more to offer than you might initially expect.

This isn’t my first LIFX product, as I previously owned three of the company’s Mini 800lm warm white bulbs, which served me well for quite some time. Hopefully, the same will apply to this new product. Read on to find out.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

I often tend to mention packaging in my reviews, and specifically how well it protects the contents. In the case of a mirror – smart or not – that protection is even more important, and I was initially concerned it might end up a shattered mess by the time it arrived in Taiwan from the US.

I needn’t have worried, as not only was the retail packaging very good when it came to protecting the glass that makes up pretty much the entire front of the device, but it also came packed inside a very sturdy outer box.

Wires for connecting directly to electricity

Aside from the mirror itself, you’re provided with not one but two power cables. The main cable is a seemingly standard ‘figure-8’ type, with, in my case, a Type A plug on the other end. However, you can also wire the mirror directly into your wall wiring using a separate cable, which has the same figure-8 connector at one end, and two exposed wires at the other for live and neutral connections.

LIFX also kindly provides connectors for joining the wires from the supplied cable to your mains wiring. To fix the mirror to a wall, two large screws and wall plugs are also provided, along with a couple of cable tidies.

NOTE: At the time of writing, I have the Smart Mirror connected to my smart home using Matter over Wi-Fi. Interestingly, LIFX recently announced a beta programme that allows all LIFX devices originally released with Matter over Wi-Fi (rather than gaining Matter through a firmware update) to be switched over to Matter over Thread.

I haven’t tried this yet, but I’ll be sure to update the review once it leaves beta. I’m generally not a fan of beta software, so I’d rather wait for the stable release.

THE SMART MIRROR

The mirror itself is pill-shaped, but starting with the back, which is where many of the ‘smarts’ reside, you’ll find a variety of details relating to both power and securing the mirror to your wall.

The rear has an aluminium ring that allows the mirror to stand slightly proud of the wall it’s affixed to, and along the outer edge of this ring is a long LED strip. This provides backlighting for the mirror, although there are actually two separate light sources, of which this is only one.

Towards the bottom end of the mirror is the main power supply, which handily also includes fitting instructions! This panel also reveals that the mirror is UL certified, for those who regard this as important.

Lastly, there’s an instance of the Matter code, which is also included in the supplied manual. The aluminium ring I mentioned earlier also has channels on either side and at each end, allowing the power cable to be routed in whichever direction is most convenient.

Whilst much of the promotional material for this mirror shows it in portrait mode, it can also be installed horizontally, or in landscape mode. However, this does mean the buttons will be positioned to one side of the mirror rather than at the bottom. Whilst most of the icons can generally be viewed in either orientation, the on/off button does look a little strange when viewed sideways.

Brackets for horizontal/landscape installation

Brackets for vertical/portrait installation

Here I connected power to the mirror just so you can see the rear LEDs once lit up. Not only are these LEDs capable of warm to cool whites – including compatibility with Apple’s Adaptive Lighting – but they can also do colour, AND multiple colours along the strip, with a very generous 25 individually controllable zones for both the front and rear LED strips.

The front of the mirror is obviously the side you’re going to interact with almost all of the time, with the exception of the rear lighting. At the end of the day, though, this is a mirror, and you can – and should – use it as such.

Surrounding the mirror is the front light, which is diffused so you don’t see the individual LEDs. Surrounding that is a black plastic trim that finishes off the overall look.

Almost as important when it comes to the ‘smarts’ is the cluster of four buttons, each with its own basic function. These are permanently illuminated, so they can be seen and used even in the darkest of rooms. I’d argue that the presence of these buttons already adds a degree of ‘smart’ functionality, but they go far beyond their basic features, as they can be reprogrammed to perform specific functions either in the LIFX app or in your preferred Matter app (Apple Home, obviously…). This takes the ‘smart’ claim a fair bit further, in my opinion. It’s important to note that the fourth button only serves one function, and cannot be reprogrammed.

IN APPLE HOME

Whilst it’s great to see the Smart Mirror in Apple Home, including the option to use Apple’s Adaptive Lighting feature, there is one limitation I’d like to address straight away. The front and rear lights are treated as a single unit, meaning both change colour and brightness in unison. This is the case with all Matter platforms, although I don’t know whether Home Assistant handles things any differently – I suspect it doesn’t.

Putting that to one side, you get one main tile on the Home Screen, although this can be expanded to four separate tiles if you wish, as I’ll now explain. In the settings panel, there are four ‘accessories’ listed, each of which can have its own tile on the Home Screen. This is probably unnecessary, however, as only the mirror itself can be directly controlled from its tile (e.g. on/off).

These four accessories consist of the mirror light itself, along with three of the four physical buttons. Each of these three buttons offers single, double, and long press options, allowing you to assign different actions or automations to each. This means you can directly control devices, scenes or trigger automations that include any of the devices you have in your Apple Home setup.

As previously mentioned, the fourth button is absent from this list, as it has a fixed role – turning the defogger on or off. This is particularly useful if the mirror is exposed to a lot of steam from a hot bath or shower, for example.

IN THE LIFX APP

The LIFX app offers many of the same features as Apple Home, and then some. For colour temperature, you have a large circular control for making adjustments, along with a combined power button and brightness slider. You also have the option to select from a preset palette, with the colour temperature in Kelvins listed for each option.

At present, both the front and rear lights are being controlled together, due to the ‘All’ option being selected at the top of the screen.

As you can see, LIFX’s reputation for richly saturated colours is definitely borne out by the warm white, if nothing else.

When it comes to colour, the synchronised backlighting and diffusion of the front lighting really make this mirror ‘pop’ in a room, although it’s something that has to be appreciated in person to get the full effect.

Separate colours for front & back lights

Whilst you can have solid colours for both the front and rear LEDs, as well as select separate colours for each, Gradients offers another option whereby you can choose a pair of colours for either or both light sources. Additionally, how these colours interact or are selected can be changed using the ‘Picker’ option, which offers the following presets – Contrast, Adjacent, Bold, Complementary, Tints, and Custom. What’s nice is that in the Gradient option choices are reflected in the colours at the top of the screen.

The sheer number of choices on offer is a little overwhelming, but also a lot of fun to experiment with – as long as you have the time!

Aside from Whites and Colours, you also have Themes and FX. In many ways, these perform similar functions, offering animated, multicoloured lighting effects for the front and rear light sources. Themes are helpfully labelled to give you an idea of the look they’re trying to achieve, with Mondrian being one obvious example.

The main difference between Themes and FX is that the latter allows you to adjust various parameters, whereas Themes are essentially fixed. Exactly what can be adjusted depends on the particular FX, with options ranging from the selection of colours to transition timing and brightness levels.

You can group devices together, although as I only have the LIFX Smart Mirror, it’s difficult to demonstrate how multiple LIFX products can work in concert. You can, of course, create your own scenes, whilst LIFX also offers its own alternative to Adaptive Lighting, called ‘Circadian Rhythm’.

This page also provides access to adding new devices, routines, scenes, schedules, and groups.

The settings page offers a ton of options, including firmware updates, notifications, and light restore settings, but this is also where you can access the features associated with the on-device buttons. As you can see, the buttons in the LIFX app offer the same single, double, and long press actions, with the defog button being the only one that can’t be configured, due to its fixed function.

It should also be noted that whilst this is a Matter device, the LIFX app doesn’t necessarily operate entirely locally. Some features and scenes require a cloud connection, which also applies to certain functions assigned to the button presses.

DEFOG FEATURE

The defog feature is really intended for use when the Smart Mirror is installed in a bathroom, where steam is more likely to be present. The defogger itself only covers a square area around the middle section of the mirror, rather than the entire surface, which is fine when you consider you’re likely to have an extractor fan running at the same time. As the mirror surface heats up, some of that heat should also transfer beyond the initial heated area.

As I’m using the Smart Mirror in our living room, I have no real need for this function, but it’s a useful real-world feature nonetheless.

IN OUR HOME

Calling this a ‘smart mirror’ might raise expectations of an embedded display showing the weather, calendar, or even video calls, but I don’t think that’s necessarily what makes a mirror smart. After all, we happily call a light bulb ‘smart’ simply because it can be controlled and automated as part of a smart home. In this case, the integrated lighting is only part of the equation. With three programmable buttons capable of triggering other devices, scenes, and automations, the mirror itself effectively becomes a smart-home controller. That, to me, makes the ‘Smart Mirror’ name entirely justified.

Whether people want to take that onboard is up to them, but this is clearly more than a mirror with LED strips built into it. The price is also something you either take or leave, and at US$249.99, it’s certainly an investment you might want to take some time to think about. All I can say is that this is a beautifully crafted mirror, matched by gloriously rich colours, exciting lighting effects, and a multitude of colour options to choose from.

What does let it down slightly is the fact that the two light sources aren’t exposed as separately controllable devices in Matter, which would have made a big difference for me personally. As much as I like the options available in the LIFX app, I’d much prefer to use the power of Apple Home to control these light sources individually. Maybe LIFX can revisit that at some point.

The bottom line for me is that this is a fairly unique device right now, and with Matter already in place – and, better still, Matter over Thread incoming for this and other LIFX devices – I have to say it’s a joy to use.