Aqara Ceiling Light T1M review: A subtle but smart ceiling lamp

At a glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

Aqara’s stylish Ceiling Light T1M looks great and offers plenty of smart functionality, including colorful light animations and a wake-up mode. Using it with a (required) Aqara hub unlocks even more possibilities, including visual alerts.

Price When Reviewed

$149.99

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Retailer Price

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It’s great to see new and exciting alternatives emerging in the smart ceiling light category. Philips Hue and Nanoleaf are two players that already offer connected ceiling lights, but Aqara’s new alternative, the Ceiling Light T1M, is cheaper and–in my opinion–more attractive on the ceiling.

Design and setup

Installation is simple, involving two screws in the ceiling (a mounting bracket and screw kit are included); you’ll also need to connect the power cables (of course, you shouldn’t do this yourself unless you know what you’re doing).

Once in place, the Ceiling Light T1M looks like any discreet slimline LED light, which I think is a good thing. The lamp is quite large in diameter, measuring about 18 inches.

But when you switch the T1M on, you’ll immediately realize that this is no ordinary lamp. The round main lamp shines white, with decent light output, while the ring around it is capable of displaying beautifully animated colors in a very wide spectrum.

Mikael Lindkvist

The Aqara Ceiling Light T1M requires you to have an Aqara hub, such as the Aqara Hub M2 ($60), which we’ve reviewed. After a firmware update, the hub found the light immediately and it appeared in the Aqara app.

I’ve been running an Aqara system now for about six months and find it to be super stable. And in just over two weeks of testing the light, I had no problems with the connection or the app.

While it’s easy to replace your existing ceiling lamp with Aqara’s Ceiling Light T1M and installing a hub is not difficult, keep in mind that the light will go offline if you cut its power with a standard light switch.

You could just leave the light switch in the “on” position and control the T1M with the Aqara app, but that’s not a sustainable solution. A better option would be a smart light switch–and luckily, Aqara’s aptly named Smart Light Switch (which we’ve tested) fits the bill. Or you can buy an Aqara camera and control your ceiling light with gestures.

Features and functionality

The white inner part of the lamp has separate elements to display cool and warm tones of white light, allowing you to adjust the glow to your own preferences.

There’s also an “adaptive” light setting, which lets the lamp adjust its white balance according to the time of day–think warm and cozy light in the morning and evening, with cooler light during the day when you want to be more productive.

Of course, you can also let the lamp wake you in the morning by slowly increasing the brightness.

Mikael Lindkvist

But it’s the LED lighting on the edge of the lamp (the one Aqara calls “Auxiliary” light) that opens up for more creative lighting and effects.

In the app, you can choose between six different dynamic effects for a cool light show in the room. If you want calmer but colorful lighting, choose one of the static effects instead.

Smart home integrations

As the lamp supports Apple HomeKit, it also appeared in the Apple Home app, where I could control it along with my other connected HomeKit devices. You won’t be able to access as many detailed settings as are available in the Aqara app, but you can control the light with Siri voice commands if you want to.

The light also supports Google, Alexa, IFTTT, and Matter, so no matter which smart home platform you use, it will be able to integrate into your setup.

Mikael Lindkvist

Of course, going all-in with the Aqara ecosystem opens up all kinds of other possibilities. For example, you could set the Ceiling Light T1M to glow or flash in different colors when, say, one of your Aqara cameras detects activity, or if an Aqara motion detector senses movement.

Specifications

This review was first published on M3, our sibling publication, and was translated from the original Swedish.