So these two units arrived today via DHL and bizarrely no customs duties were charged or anything.
It was literally 3 days since they shipped out on Friday and 10 days total from date of purchase so I am well impressed with Banggood.com and the R250 shipping charge seems bloody cheap now.
All in I paid R1,618.32 for both including shipping, so really R810 each but I did order two which drops the shipping.
Now I wish I had just ordered four because I like them so much I want them in my own bedroom.
Packaging is great and really they are the Apple of China following very similar design aesthetics with a white power adapter and everything. Banggood threw in a free converter to SA 2-prong plug so could use them right out of the box.
I was worried it would all be Chinese everywhere but turns out the chinese on top of the units is more of a "how to" sticker that then peels off and leaves it very plain and stylish with nothing more than a Power on/off logo on the main button.
Getting the App was quite easy using a QR code and it was also in English by default. Had some headaches setting up my Xiaomi account which you need to get going with the App but eventually managed to verify it.
Once inside it simply detects the devices over Bluetooth and then you provide your Wifi SSID and Key and it configures them and from there it's all Wifi. Immediately both updates with a firmware over the air and rebooted and off you go.
Then you can fiddle with colours and a strobing rotation rainbox thing which will be nice for the kids but it seems you can't start it up in that mode.
However even ignoring the App stuff completely, just using the buttons you can have it in Cool White mode or flip to Warm White mode and then holding it for a second or two it switches to low brightness nightlight mode which was the main functionality I wanted because it seems in South Africa finding a decent night light is impossible..
Using the App you can then set timer functions to auto-on and auto-off and you can also setup an Auto-night light mode which I think will be quite useful for someone like myself that goes to bed at 1am when everyone else is sleeping and faffing in the dark.
Where I expected to really get stuck with it is the hackable side of things and adding it to Homebridge so I can use it with Homekit...but even that was a simple plugin installation away and no configuration and it immediately popped up and I can do the basic functions with it like on/off, brightness and changing colours. Even Home Assistant auto-discovered the thing and could easily control it remotely with that.
I haven't fiddled too much yet but didn't see an option to switch to Night Light mode in either Homekit or Home Assistant, but then starting it up normally it starts up in Night Light mode anyway which is perfect so you never get a shock in the middle of the night when it goes back to whatever it was in last.
Would be awesome for me to just flip the light on remotely when heading to bed and make my way there without the usual iPhone flashlight story and it really wouldn't be any more effort as it sits right on Control Centre as well.
All in all I'm very happy with the purchase and as much as it seems expensive it's exceptional value and should really last a lifetime.
I've been telling Dolby the we should be brining in Xiaomi lighting - including the Yeelights.
