WiZ Connected Wi-Fi WiZmote review: An inexpensive, no-frills remote for your WiZ smart lights

A handy accessory for those looking to control their WiZ smart lights without first firing up an app or asking Alexa or Google Assistant, the Wi-Fi WiZmote is an affordable, no-frills remote that lets you control all the WiZ lights in a single room. The lightweight, durable remote has an impressive wireless range and battery life, but there isn’t an easy way to mount it on a wall, nor will it (yet) allow you to control lighting scenes. The $15 Wi-Fi WiZmote is slated to go on sale this April following its debut at CES last month.

Design

The Wi-Fi WiZmote features eight buttons, including on and off, a nightlight button, four favorites buttons that you can customize with light modes using the WiZ mobile app, and a brightness rocker.

Weighing in at just two ounces with its two AAA batteries installed, the remote itself (which essentially shares the same design as WiZ’s infrared remote) feels pleasingly light yet sturdy, with an ergonomically curved back that makes the remote rock back and forth when it’s sitting on a flat surface.

Since it lacks a wall plate or any kind of magnetic or adhesive backing, there’s no easy way to mount the WiZmote on the wall, temporarily or otherwise. And speaking of the WiZmote’s required AAA batteries, they’re not included, so you’ll need to factor that in to the remote’s $15 price tag.

Setup

Getting the Wi-Fi WiZmote up and running is simple. After firing up the WiZ mobile app, you navigate to the main Home tab, tap the “+” button, tap WiZmote, and then press the power button on the remote three times.

The WiZ app found the remote within about a second or so. After assigning the remote to one of your rooms, you’re pretty much good to go.

Operation and performance

Unlike the older IR WiZmote, which only works when you point the remote directly at the light you want to control, the Wi-Fi WiZmote can control all the lights in a single room at once. Because the Wi-Fi-enabled remote connects directly to your WiZ Wi-Fi lights, rather than your router, you will need to be reasonably close to the room (though not necessarily in the room) for the WiZmote to work. In my tests, the remote worked flawlessly from a full 50 feet away. It’s also worth noting that the Wi-Fi WiZmote only lets you control one room of lights at a time; if you want to control the lights in another room, you’ll need to reassign the remote to that room.

Ben Patterson/IDG

The four numbered buttons on the WiZmote are mapped to the four lighting favorites in the room that the remote is assigned to. For example, if lighting mode no. 1 is set to “warm white,” pressing the “1” button on the remote will switch all the (supported) lights in the room to warm-white mode. Unfortunately, you can’t assign custom lighting scenes to any of the four buttons, although a WiZ rep promised that such functionality is coming “in the future.”

Meanwhile, the other buttons on the Wi-Fi WiZmote work exactly as you’d expect, with the on/off buttons powering all the room lights on and off and the nightlight button switching the lights to (natch) nightlight mode, while the dimmer rocker lets you adjust the brightness.

WiZ reps say that the Wi-Fi WiZmote’s two AAA batteries should last for up to two years, thanks in part for its low-power Wi-Fi radio.

Bottom line

We wish the Wi-Fi WiZmote came with a wallplate for easy mounting, and we wish a couple of AAA batteries came included in the box. That said, the Wi-Fi WiZmote does what it says for a bargain price, and it’ll be even better once WiZ rolls out support for controlling lighting scenes.