The Tap Dial Is My Favorite Accessory for Philips Hue Lights and I Use It Every Day

Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement

I have smart lights at home, and I have several ways to control them. The simplest way is probably my smartphone or a smart speaker or display. And for the most part, that should be enough. But I was looking for another way to control my lights in their home that was easy and also gave me more control, and I have found what I was looking for. 

While I can find other brands of smart lights now -- and at much cheaper prices -- Philips Hue is perhaps the most well known and provides a solid lineup of indoor and outdoor smart lighting solutions. Whether I want my lighting to be tucked away or I'm looking for unique lights that are designed to be shown off, Philips Hue's got 'em. 

It's not just about the bulbs, though. Hue also has a rather large assortment of accessories, too. One accessory that, to me, is one of the best, is the Philips Hue Hue Tap Dial. Available in black and white with a $50 price tag, the Tap Dial is a small puck shaped light controller that you can press and twist on, giving it a "smart analog" vibe. 

Read more: The full guide to Philips Hue 

On the surface, it's a simple and pricey way to control your lights

While spending $50 on a glorified light switch may seem like a bit much, especially when I consider that it's nearly the same price as a single Philips Hue 75W White and Color Ambiance bulb. That said, if you're like me and firmly steeped in the Hue ecosystem, you've likely already come to terms with the fact that it's an expensive ecosystem to be in. But that's not all -- the customization options for this little guy will have tinkerers excited, and I believe it's definitely worth its price point. 

The Dial itself looks like a hockey puck with four buttons on the face, with a rotating outer wheel to brighten or dim your lights. The four buttons each have little dots numbered 1 to 4, so you can feel which button you're pressing, even in the dark. It's fairly small and not a chore to bring it room to room if you so desire. You can place it on a wall inside of the included wall mount to use like a typical light switch. And it's magnetic, so you can stick it on your fridge or some other metal surface. 

Under the hood, the customization options are insane

You'd think that set up for this little device would be simple, with only a few options involved, but you'd be wrong. The settings for the Tap Dial can be a bit complex and can require some tinkering to get just right, especially if you have multiple scenes you want to go through. 

In fact, either I completely missed the function in the app or within the near-two years I've had the dial Philips resolved my main gripe. I'm not sure which is true, but my biggest annoyance was that I believed you could only use the Tap Dial for one room or "zone" in your home. And again, while this may have always been how the device functioned, this has now been resolved (in my mind) and you can assign each button to a different room or zone in your home. However, the twist to dim function can only be assigned to one room at a time, which makes sense. 

To set up, you'll head to the Hue app, then go to Settings > Accessories > and select your Tap Dial. From there, you can assign functions to each of the buttons. First, you'll need to choose whether the button is going to control your lights or an automation. If you choose the former, you'll need to choose the button behavior when you press it:

• Time-based light: Lighting based on the time of day or based on a customized timetable of your choosing.
• Scene cycle: Choose a primary scene that will always start upon button press. Continue pressing to cycle through additional light scenes.
• Single scene: Always only the same scene on button press.
• Lights off: Selected lights turn off when the button is pressed. 

By default, pressing and holding any of the buttons will turn off the lights assigned to it, but you can opt for turning all the lights off in your entire home or for it to do nothing. There's also an advanced "smart on/off" option, which I haven't dabbled with yet. 

After you've customized the buttons to your liking, your last stop is to choose what the twist dial does -- or what else it does, other than brightening or dimming your lights. There are only two options here, and both are easy to tweak. The first is choosing if you want to be able to turn your lights off completely with the dial or have them go down to the minimum brightness only as you twist to dim them. The second gives you the option to set a specific scene that will turn on if you twist the dial when the lights are off. 

You can make your setup as simple or complex as you'd like, making the Tap Dial approachable for anyone. 

While the Tap Dial is rarely on sale, it will sometimes get a minor discount here and there. And for all it can do, I'd highly recommend it for anyone who has their home done up in Hue lights.

Hungry for more? Don't miss this video roundup of the best Philips Hue Lights, where the Tap Dial makes an appearance so you can see it in action.