Addendum to my previous review above HERE, now that I have received and installed another two units.
My first review was based on a 1-gang screen-only unit. I purchased another 1-gang screen-only unit to use in my basement, and a 2-gang unit with two sliders to use in my upstairs hallway. Since ST still cannot control a loads attached to these, I am using them as scene controllers to control loads attached to ST. For the basement unit, I installed a new gang box. For the upstairs hallway I had the 3-way remote of a GE Z-Wave dimmer (not the unit with the load), and a Cooper LED nightlight, so it was easy enough to remove both of those, since Brilliant can control the Z-Wave dimmer remotely over ST, and function the same as the GE 3-way remote switch.
Installation of the hardware was a breeze again. On the 2-gang unit, if you are not controlling a load, or only controlling one load, you need to connect the hot wire to common terminal on a particular side of the unit. If I had read the instructions, I would have known that. So one more install and we were set.
Joining the new controllers is as easy as entering your WiFi password and then entering a confirmation PIN that is displayed on your existing Brilliant’s. You still have to login to Amazon again since the Alexa API creates a new Alexa device for each unit, but you do not have to reauthenticate to ST, Ring, ecobee, or Sonos. This was a huge timesaver. All of your Rooms, Scenes, and wallpaper photos are also shared among devices.
My upstairs unit is my first experience with the physical sliders. The sliders are awesome. So much easier to control your lights than swiping on the screen. In the 2-gang unit, you can program it to control different lights with each slider, and an additional one with the screen swipe. The two-finger screen swipe still actuates all of the lights in the same Room you have that control assigned to. In my application I have it controlling the Z-Wave dimmer on ST the 3-way switch was previously controlling, and my living room lights down the stairs with the two sliders. I didn’t bother setting up something to control with the screen. They definitely should have included a slider in the 1-gang unit. It exponentially increases the WAF / GAF (guest).
Most of my other observations from my original review continue to hold true. I have noticed that the firmware version has increased numerous times since my original install. I’m glad they are being agile with their releases, and this makes me hopeful that the software shortcomings are addressed sooner rather than later.
Beyond that, my only additional observations…
Ambient Light and Screen Brightness - My new upstairs unit is by a window. I hope to god this is just a software fix and their is in fact an ambient light sensor. If there isn’t a dedicated sensor, hopefully they can use the camera for this. At a brightness that is reasonable at night, the display can not be seen at all during morning sun.
Alexa - In my other rooms I have dedicated Echo’s, so I never fully tested the microphones / Alexa functionality. These are not far-field microphones. You basically have to talk to the unit like you are using the intercom for Alex to work. At that point the Echo’s in my master bedroom and guest room could still hear me better, so like my other two units, I disabled Alexa.
Intercom - Cool, but gimmicky. I’m still more likely to use the Echo Communications feature.