Linxura Smart Controller review: a unique e-paper smart switch limited by the state of the smart home

Linxura Smart Controller: one-minute review

Smart switches are still a fairly burgeoning smart home technology, meaning it’s a rife space for creativity; enter the Linxura smart controller, a unique smart switch featuring an e-ink display and four-button clickable dial controls.

Slightly reminiscent of Apple’s iPod, the Linxura smart controller has a lot going for it, from its portability to its display and the small fact that it can be programmed with a whopping 52 individual devices across a range of smart home ecosystems and manufacturers. While these qualities do set it apart from many of the best smart switches available today, they aren’t without their drawbacks.

It works over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, meaning there’s no added cost nor hassle from installing proprietary bridge or hub devices, and is compatible with Philips Hue, Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, Sonos, SmartThings and more, though there’s no HomeKit availability. However, not all pairings are made equal with Linxura; I had real difficulty setting up some, and others offer restricted toolsets.

It’s unique, and definitely useful for those who need a device that’s fairly ambivalent and offers a multitude of configurable commands, but ultimately it’s not possible to recommend the device unreservedly when the performance is so mixed depending on the ecosystem it’s paired with and the overall product quality when compared to its price.

Linxura Smart Controller: price and availability

• List price: $99 / £80 (about AU$150)

The Linxura Smart Controller is fairly pricey for a smart switch at $99 / £80 (about AU$150) versus the average $50 / £40 / AU$80 price tag of its competition, though given that you can program so many devices you might be able to get by with just one Linxura device rather than four or five simpler smart switches.

It’s available in three different colorways; Snow Pearl (white), Midnight Onyx (black) and Sterling Moon (greige). There’s one accessory sold for the Linxura smart switch: a magnetic base plate, which costs $14.99 / £16 (about AU$25) and comes in the same colors.

Linxura Smart Controller: design

Linxura’s smart controller is shaped like a rounded disc which can be attached to a wall-mounted magnetic base plate (sold separately) or carried around the home for easy access, making it a great option if you don’t want to use one of the best smart speakers to control your home but still want the semi-hands free smart home benefits.

The palm-sized dial is great for versatility and portability, but ultimately it looks slightly 80s sci-fi-inspired, which may or may not be the vibe you’re going for at home. Clad in all-plastic, the outer ring of the device is a clickable dial used to control the circular e-paper display it surrounds. It charges through a USB-C port placed on its bottom side, and attaches magnetically to the base plate.

The wheel isn’t quite as satisfying as Apple’s iPod despite their passing similarities, though I did delight in the little clicky sound as the wheel spins. To operate the dials, you need to press and hold and then turn the wheel, which led to some confusion when I first tried it. Otherwise, your options are to click and double click the wheel.

Because of the puck’s size, it’s not exactly discrete, and protrudes quite noticeably from the wall. Granted, in my home I affixed it with double-sided renter-friendly tape rather than the included screws, but even without the 2mm added by my tape, Linxura’s smart controller could do with being at least a little slimmer for a more contemporary, less obtrusive look.

The display shows four devices at once, and has thirteen pages you can flick through using the wheel – for all my criticisms of this smart switch, this is a huge boon, with many smart switches relying on stickers or tactile labelling to distinguish between buttons. In dim environments, a backlight will kick in, triggered by the in-built light and capacitive sensors; however, it’s uneven and cheapens the device further.

Linxura Smart Controller: performance

To set up the Linxura smart controller, you’ll need to download the app and follow the instructions to pair; a fairly painless process to begin with. However, once paired, the switch is a bit of a hassle to set up.

It’s worth noting right off the bat that your Linxura experience will at least to some extent be characterized by the ecosystem you set it up in. For instance, on Alexa, it’s a bit of a nightmare, because the way it works is to register each combination of icon and action in the Alexa app as a unique ‘switch’ in your smart home.

That means for each of the 52 devices you can control with the Linxura smart controller, you’ll have to program the single click, double click, anti-clockwise wheel and clockwise wheel controls as separate triggers. If you’ve used Alexa-based automations before, you’ll know the suffering proposed by the necessity to manually configure over 200 triggers.

First-party software like the Philips Hue app work a lot more effectively, because once you’ve paired the two platforms you can configure everything directly in the Linxura app.

Furthermore, you get a very different experience in terms of the level of control between different platforms. When paired with Philips Hue’s platform directly, I could use the clockwise and anticlockwise dial spin to increase and reduce the brightness and color temperature by a set parameter; on Alexa, it just tuned the light to a set level.

Lag proved to be an issue, too, though during my testing seemed to fix itself. Using the Linxura to turn on my fan when I first began testing took anything from five to twenty seconds to trigger the response, though when I retested just before writing up my review it seemed to consistently change its settings within a few seconds.

However, I must say its portability did come in extremely useful, and I was impressed with its battery life. The advertised three months battery isn’t quite the case if it’s in regular use, but I found that with moderate use it lasted almost two months, and with frequent use just over a month. There are thoughtful inclusions like the ‘find my controller’ beeper in the app, and compared to display-less smart switches I’ve used in the past, the Linxura was far easier to use and remember which controls were bound to which action.

Conceptually, it’s a fantastic idea, and had it come out just a few years earlier I’m sure it would have scored more favorably. As it is, however, the Linxura feels too limited and too overpriced to compete with the best smart speakers and mobile apps it’s up against.

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Linxura Smart Controller?

Buy it if

Don’t buy it if

First tested November 2024