Smart switch solution is now much more flexible
When we first reviewed the Brilliant Smart Home Control back in 2019 we bemoaned the slightly difficult installation process and the fact you were limited to placing it wherever you currently had dumb light switches setup, with a neutral wire present.
Update: Brilliant Plug-In Panel Home Control review
Those quibbles have been solved by the launch of the new Brilliant Plug-In Panel Home Control that, as you may have guessed from the name, simply plugs in to your existing plug sockets.
The idea is you can then place it anywhere, on any wall, that you like; your only real problem is whether to hide the wire (which looks super thin) through the back of the wall behind it or have it on show.

Apart from the power option, it’s essentially the exact same premise as the existing Brilliant Smart Home Control devices – although it does only come (at the moment, anyway) with a dual touch-capacitive slider setup; the light-switch versions also come in 3 and 4 slider options, or with no slider at all.
These sliders give you physical control over things like light dimming, speaker volume, or adjusting your smart blinds.
Unlike the smart light switch version of Brilliant, you won’t get physical controls over dumb light switches (as it doesn’t touch your light circuit wiring at all) but it can be used to control smart lights from a wide range of brands including the likes of Philips Hue, Lutron, Lifx and WeMo.
It’s not just lights though, the 5-inch LCD touchscreen also gives you physical controls over a wide range of smart home tech including Sonos speakers, SmartThings devices, smart security systems, smart thermostats, video doorbells and whole lot more (see here for everything Brilliant works with).
Alexa is baked in and also on board is a built-in microphone, speaker and a camera lens (with a physical shutter).
The Plug-In model can communicate with the traditional Brilliant switches over a Bluetooth mesh (icluding intercom capabilities) and form part of a Brilliant whole-home smart lighting system.
It also has a motion sensor built in that can be programmed to kick start automations and routines in your house; think music coming on with mood lighting when you enter the kitchen in the evening, for example.
Late last year Brilliant announced plans to join the Connectivity Standards Alliance, so we expect its Home Control panels to also get much smarter in the future as they become Matter smart home compatible.
The Brilliant Smart Home Control Plug-In Panel is available now for $399, direct from Brilliant.
That’s not exactly cheap but it looks to be an excellent way of adding a slick smart home controller to any room, without much fuss.
We’ll be reviewing it soon, so stay tuned for that.