Xiaomi Aqara Magic Cube Smart Home operation for $9.99

You don’t always want to get up or take out your smartphone just to change the light color of the lamps? You want your fan to set the right wind force without manual work? Xiaomi tries again to make life a little easier for us – this time in the form of a small cube. Do you only have to roll the Xiaomi Aqara Magic Cube instead of moving in the future?

• Xiaomi Aqara Magic Cube
  • at GearBest for $9.99 | AliExpress for $12
• Xiaomi Gateway
  • at AliExpress for $24.30
• Xiaomi Mija Home Kit
  • at AliExpress for $47.15 

6 Functions for control of the Smart Home

Before someone buys hastily because of the low price for the small cube: To use the Smart Cube from Aqara, one of the many companies financed by Xiaomi, you need Xiaomi’s base station. With the help of the gateway, additional devices such as motion detectors, plant sensors or even lamps can be integrated. The gateway is set up via the Mi Home App (Android, iOS). After that is done, the cube can be used. At the moment the gateway only seems to run over the Mainland China server and is therefore only in Chinese.

The best way to sketch the functions of the Magic Cube is to use the smart Yeelight lamps. You have these possibilities and functions to control the lamps:

1. Double Tap: Turning the cube on and off
2. Flip 90°: Switch on lights.
3. Flip 180°: Switch off all lights
4. Slide the cube: change brightness of (all) lights
5. Shake: Change light color, pair the cube (with Mi Home App)
6. Rotating the cube: Change light color

A built-in gyroscope detects the movements and reacts accordingly. You can imagine that as with a smartphone, which notices whether it is tilted or shaken. Currently, it is not yet possible to set the movements and corresponding reactions of the cube independently.

With a size of only 5 cm and a weight of 73 g, the cube can be transported very well, for example from the living room into the bedroom.

Enrichment for the SmartHome?

Without Mi products, the cube cannot be used, except perhaps for optical reasons. But if you own the fan and the air purifier from Xiaomi in addition to the lamps mentioned above, this small cube offers an attractive operating option. SmartHome is becoming more and more important and comparable products (for example from Philips) cost many times more. But without a gateway the Xiaomi Aqara Magic Cube won’t work.

Of course you can always use the Mi Home App instead of the cube, but using the Magic Cube should be much more fun and stylish than using a smartphone. Our opinion: Not necessarily meaningful, but a cool gimmick.