Living in a smart home might let you control everything from a phone, but it can be a frustrating experience if your phone is not at hand. Shortcut Labs’ Flic 2 smart buttons can help by automating a wide variety of smart home devices and routines with small buttons that can be stuck on the wall or even worn.

Cute as a button, the white Flic 2 devices are tiny. They measure 0.3-inches thick and 1.2-inches across; they weigh just 5 grams. Looking like a short stack of Necco wafers, the round Flic 2 buttons are half the size of the square Eve Systems’ Eve button.

This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart home systems, where you’ll find reviews of the competition’s offerings, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.

Each Flic 2 button has adhesive on the back so it can be stuck on a wall, under a kitchen counter or on a refrigerator door. The adhesive can be used a couple of times if you change your mind but a magnetic option would have been a good idea. There are even optional metal clips for wearing a Flic 2 button.

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You can apply stickers to Flic 2 buttons to identify their functions.

The Flic 2 buttons come in any color you want as long as it’s white. They have an IPX4 rating, which means the buttons can be safely splashed with water, so they’re OK near a sink or shower. The manufacturer does not publish a ingress protection rating for dust intrusion. You can read all about IP codes in this other story.

The buttons have a three-color LED and are powered by a CR-2032 battery that Shortcut Labs says should last for three years of moderate use. It took about a minute to change a cell and button up the Flic 2 switch.

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Flic 2 buttons are powered by CR2032 coin cell batteries that should last two to three years.

How Flic 2 works

The key to Flic 2’s success is that its Hub LR acts as a clearinghouse for commands and wirelessly communicates with a home filled with buttons. It can handle connections to 63 buttons at once for a home full of smart devices.

Flic 2 covers the smart home bases by working with Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, HomeKit, and Wi-Fi devices. By contrast, Eve only works with HomeKit gear. Flic 2 adds voice control via Alexa and Siri, but lacks compatibility with Google Assistant and can’t link with either the Hubitat or Aeotec smart home hubs.

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The Flic Hub IR can be connected to your router with an ethernete cable or via Wi-Fi. You must have an internet connection at your router for the buttons to work.

At 3.3 x 2.6 x 0.5 inches (LxWxH), the hub is easy to hide but requires electrical power from a USB adapter; it comes with four outlet plugs for use in different countries. In addition to a headphone jack for connecting Flic to speakers, the hub has a port for using an infrared transmitter to integrate a TV, stereo, or other device that uses an IR remote control.

 

While Eve buttons cost $50 each, the Flic 2 products are a bargain at three for $80 or six for $120. The $160 Starter Kit I looked …….

Source: https://www.techhive.com/article/3639601/flic-2-review.html