Brilliant smart home controller release date: Right Now

Back in May of 2017 we first got our hands on Brilliant, a smart home control panel system. Now, here in September of 2018, we've finally reached general availability. With this system, users will be able to control all sorts of smart home products, including by not limited to Samsung's SmartThings, IFTTT, Philips Hue, Nest products, and Sonos speakers.

Central to the current edition of this system, the user can speak with Amazon's Alexa to control their entire smart home. Things have been upgraded a bit since we first got hands-on with Brilliant. Now the system's able to do just a bit more.

This newest version of Brilliant has more connections than before – in the mix now are Ecobee, Ring, Google Assistant, Honeywell, and Wemo lights. This system is also now able to work with both smart lights and "dumb" lights. Any wall-controlled light can be plugged in to Brilliant's smart home control system. Each Brilliant controller contains its own microphone and camera (with physically-closable privacy shutter).

"Brilliant is a powerful home control system that builds Alexa into the walls of your house," said Pete Thompson, Vice President of the Alexa Voice Service. That doesn't make the whole situation feel creepy at all, does it?

Brilliant units start at approximately $300 apiece. If you've already got a smart home tricked out with the finest in smart bulbs, cameras, speakers, and the like, that might not seem like too pretty a penny to invest. If you're just starting your smart home here, I personally recommend you start somewhere smaller – like maybe buy ONE Phillips Hue bulb and see what you think.

Shipping pre-orders and general availability starts today, September 6th. Times shipping begins are 5AM Pacific Time, 8AM Eastern Time – so basically immediately. Brilliant can be found at Brilliant dot tech. Have a peek at our hands-on (linked above) to learn more about the system from a first-person perspective, and stay tuned as this company takes off like a rocket.