Eaton's new Wi-Fi smart dimmer comes without one common component that is virtually ubiquitous across today's smart home landscape: A mobile app. Aiming for a "frustration-free setup," Eaton decided to rely on the Amazon Alexa app exclusively for setup and control. In smart home reality, of course, there's no such thing as "frustration free," and while not needing to download, register, and configure yet another smart home app on my phone (I have more than 100 of them currently installed) was freeing, performance problems and a lack of flexibility ultimately hampered my enthusiasm for this device. Let's start with the hardware. The in-wall dimmer requires a neutral wire in the electrical box where it's being installed, and it works with both single-pole and three-way installations (using either Eaton's WACD accessory dimmer or a regular three-way switch).

Headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Sinopé Technologies might be less familiar than some other smart-home brands, but we've reviewed several of the company's products and found a lot to like. Today, we'll take a look at its new Zigbee smart dimmer switch (model DM2500ZB), and its new smart home hub, the GT130 gateway. These two products are part of a new family of Zigbee 3.0-based products that Sinopé launched this spring, a collection that also includes a smart in-wall outlet, a smart switch, and updated smart thermostats. With its embrace of the Zigbee smart home protocol, Sinopé is relegating its proprietary smart home family--the Mi-Wi series, which included the GT125 gateway--to "legacy" status. Now when you buy a DIY Sinopé smart home product, you can control it with the company's own GT130 gateway or with any other Zigbee-based smart home hub, including Samsung SmartThings or any of the Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays that are equipped with Zigbee radios.

When it comes to standards wars, Jasco isn't taking any chances. The manufacturer builds in-wall dimmers and plug-in lamp controllers based on both the Z-Wave and ZigBee platforms, marketing them with GE branding under a licensing agreement. Both classes can be controlled with voice commands via Alexa or Google Assistant, but the Z-Wave products require a third-party hub. The ZigBee products require a third-party hub, too, unless you're connecting them to an Amazon Echo Plus (that smart speaker has a ZigBee controller built in). You'll need to look elsewhere if you're interested in Apple HomeKit compatibility.

If you're interested in smart lighting and you want to do it right, you've got to go with a smart dimmer switch. Unlike smart bulbs, which become dumb with the flick of a switch, these dimmers always stay powered since they have a direct power line. After all of our testing, it was clear that Lutron's Caséta Wireless system was the best dimmer around. While dimmers, and even smart dimmers, have been around for decades, these new models are taking off thanks to the promise of anywhere smartphone control, as well as voice control via Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Home. Even though pretty much all dimmers work the same, there can be big differences in the quality of their app-connected smarts. That's why we found the most popular dimmer switches on the market and put them to the test to find the very best for you and your smart home ecosystem of choice.