The GE 127xx models are the newer models, and those do require a neutral.
The GE 456xx models are the older ones that did not require a neutral, but they are officially discontinued now and are difficult to find.
Cooper still makes a Z wave switch, model RF9518, that does not require a neutral, but it is only rated to work with incandescents.
It’s not a matter of needing zwave manufacturers to get smart. They all used to make switches that didn’t require a neutral. The problem is the physics involved – – those only are guaranteed to work well with incandescents and these days most people want LEDs. So the manufacturers have mostly switched over to models that will work well with LEDs, and those require a neutral. There just isn’t a market demand anymore for the others, but Cooper does still make one if you want one.
The other alternative now is the Lutron Caseta switches. Lutron holds a number of patents on lighting devices and they can do things that nobody else can. Their switches do not require a neutral and do work with many LEDs, although not all.
The problem is that they don’t interface directly with SmartThings. They do have an IFTTT channel, so you can get indirect integration that way. The problem is that this can introduce additional lag. (At my house IFTTT lag is a pretty consistent eight seconds, but other people have much longer lag.) and you also have to buy the lutron SmartBridge in order to use the IFTTT channel so that adds to the expense.
If you go for the indirect integration, this is what happens:
One) the Lutron Caseta switches work just fine as a manual switch
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most people find any additional lag acceptable for timebased schedules, like “turn on the lights at seven”
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most people find any additional lag acceptable for lights in another zone, for example doing something inside the house that triggers the lights to go on outside.
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most people find any additional lag acceptable for turning off the lights like a good night routine that turns off all the lights in the house
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where you run into trouble is if you want the lights to come on in the same room based on activity detected on a SmartThings – controlled motion sensor. That’s when people may find themselves standing there in the dark waiting for the light come on.
So Lutron Caseta can be a very good choice when you don’t have a neutral wire at the switchbox for some use cases. But not for others.
Or you can get the Cooper switches and experiment with different bulbs and try to find a dimmable CFL or LED that will work with them. The following thread has a video that shows some of the problems you can run into and how using a different type of bulb can make a difference:
But I don’t expect to see other Z wave manufacturers introducing new switches that don’t require a neutral wire in the future. The market just isn’t there.
( and of course the other alternative is not to make the switch smart, but rather to get an in wall micro and put it someplace on the circuit where there is a neutral, typically at the ceiling fixture. This is what most people do in Europe where there is rarely a neutral at the light switch, and it works very well. It’s just a little bit more complicated in terms of the wiring. There are a number of good micros on the official compatibility list