I Investigated IKEA’s Suspiciously Cheap Tech

[00:00] This is a Philips Huegh smart bulb and I

[00:02] had to pay £55 to buy one of these here

[00:05] in the UK last week. That made me pretty

[00:07] angry. Then I found out IKEA literally

[00:10] starting this year has decided to become

[00:13] a tech company. They've just had their

[00:15] biggest ever smarthome push and their

[00:17] light bulb is £7. So I bought every

[00:22] single IKEA tech product I could find.

[00:25] No, literally. I bought their new

[00:27] giraffe lamp. I found smart tea lightss.

[00:29] I even discovered a cabinet that

[00:31] secretly opens up into an entire gaming

[00:33] station. Where are you?

[00:38] So, carrying no fewer than 47 IKEA

[00:40] products, I scured back home, desperate

[00:42] to find out how this stuff can actually

[00:44] be as good value as it seems to be. It

[00:47] was not much of a scurry by the end.

[00:50] So, I've only just started setting up

[00:52] these products, obviously prioritizing

[00:54] my new home, the gaming closet. But

[00:56] right now, at least this feels a little

[00:57] bit too good to be true. Like these mad

[00:59] lads made a MagSafe charger for £9. Yes,

[01:03] it's very light and it can wobble. But

[01:04] if you just stick it down, that's insane

[01:07] value. And the lighting. I thought this

[01:09] £7 smart bulb would have some very

[01:11] obvious caveat when I plugged that in.

[01:13] But there's an app. You turn it on and

[01:16] off from your phone. There's a

[01:17] brightness slider to the side and you

[01:18] can choose any color on the spectrum. I

[01:20] have found that Philips does also sell

[01:22] an affordable bulb, but even their

[01:24] absolute cheapest is three times the

[01:26] price of IKEA's. It's the same

[01:28] brightness as IKEA's. Oh, yeah. And it

[01:29] scores an F in energy efficiency

[01:31] compared to a D. And the thing with all

[01:33] this IKEA stuff is it's still based on

[01:35] matter, which is the latest standard in

[01:37] smart homes designed to be kind of like

[01:38] a shared language that lets all types of

[01:41] devices from all different companies

[01:42] play nice with each other. It means that

[01:44] I could say to this Alexa hub, "Alexa,

[01:46] light blue."

[01:50] Okay.

[01:52] Okay, that works. Or I can use a 4B IKEA

[01:57] matter remote. And it's so sick cuz

[02:00] clicking down turns the light on and

[02:02] off. You can scroll this wheel. 7 out of

[02:05] 10 satisfying. But then also press down

[02:07] at the bottom of the remote to switch

[02:09] which group of matter devices that I

[02:11] want to be controlling. The idea being

[02:13] that those devices could be almost

[02:15] anything, even one of these. So, this is

[02:18] the new IKEA color light strip. £13, by

[02:21] the way, compared to the minimum that I

[02:23] can find fillets for, which is 50. But I

[02:25] guess what they've cut to get there is

[02:27] this doesn't directly connect to

[02:29] anything. It's not matter. The only way

[02:31] you typically control it is this button

[02:33] to turn it on and off and this one to

[02:35] change color. But yeah, so what you can

[02:36] do then is connect it up to one of these

[02:38] matter smart plugs, which will then let

[02:41] my Mattera smart remote talk to it. And

[02:44] it has memory. When I turn it on, it's

[02:46] remembering what color it was set to

[02:48] before I turned it off. Am I nerding out

[02:49] over furniture store LEDs? Yes, but the

[02:53] configurability here for the money is

[02:55] like everything I've been searching for.

[02:58] Or so I thought at this point. Things

[03:00] are about to take a dark turn soon. IKEA

[03:02] has also made a bunch of matter sensors.

[03:05] And yes, I've also managed to catch them

[03:07] all. So, there's a 7 lb door sensor

[03:10] which I've stuck inside the gaming

[03:11] cabinet cuz it means every time this

[03:13] door closes, this part of the sensor,

[03:15] which is just a magnet, changes the

[03:17] magnetic field that's picked up by the

[03:19] hall effect sensor in the main body,

[03:21] which then sends a matter signal out to

[03:23] everything here, including all the

[03:25] non-smart stuff like these light strips

[03:27] because of those matter plugs.

[03:30] That was so well timed. And then because

[03:32] it's configurable, I can also get it to

[03:34] like ping me a notification to let me

[03:36] know that the door has been opened or

[03:38] closed. There's a motion sensor, too,

[03:39] which can do the same thing, but in

[03:41] response to, let's say, you walking into

[03:43] the room. And you can do crazy stuff

[03:46] like this. Right here is IKEA's

[03:48] temperature and humidity sensor. £5, by

[03:52] the way. And you could set this so that

[03:53] the moment it picks up that the lights

[03:55] are making this cabinet hot beyond a

[03:57] certain point, they just get switched

[03:59] off. And by the way, this isn't just

[04:01] running matter, the universal language.

[04:03] It's matter, but based on a layer of

[04:04] technology called Thread, which should

[04:07] be better than the more traditional

[04:09] Wi-Fi smart home tech of Bu. Thread

[04:12] essentially means that instead of each

[04:13] of your products needing to communicate

[04:14] with your Wi-Fi router first, they

[04:16] actually just talk directly to each

[04:18] other. And each one acts as its own

[04:20] signal repeater. So, it extends the

[04:22] range way past most routters. And it's a

[04:24] self-healing system. So if one device

[04:26] goes down, another one can just fill in

[04:28] that gap and keep the network going. You

[04:30] do still need a hub, but the cool thing

[04:32] about Thread is that that hub can be any

[04:35] kind of newish smartome product like an

[04:37] Amazon Echo or an Apple TV 4K, things

[04:40] you might already have. To be clear,

[04:42] plenty of companies are already using

[04:43] this combination of matter over thread,

[04:46] just not at this price. I don't actually

[04:49] understand like how is this even a

[04:50] viable business model? This is a £5

[04:53] product. One pound is just tax here in

[04:55] the UK. So IKEA is making4 pound from

[04:58] selling this. How in4 pound are you

[05:00] managing to cover the temperature and

[05:02] humidity sensor itself, the system on a

[05:04] chip required to run the thing, the

[05:06] materials, the display, the assembly,

[05:08] the packaging, the cost of retail, and

[05:10] then somehow still keeping room to make

[05:13] a bit of profit. Okay, I've just gone

[05:16] into a bit of a rabbit hole online and

[05:18] turns out you can actually find the

[05:20] exact sensor that IKEA is using in one

[05:22] of their products, their air quality

[05:24] meter, which they're selling for £25.

[05:26] But it's this look, the Sension Sen 63C.

[05:31] And if you search that up, this one

[05:33] sensor alone is worth like £28. So yeah,

[05:36] obviously IKEA is getting massive bulk

[05:38] discounts on parts, but still this would

[05:40] be a bit like if someone was selling a

[05:42] complete gaming PC for the price that

[05:45] you could also find just like the

[05:47] graphics card inside of it alone. I

[05:49] think IKEA has a particularly strong

[05:51] incentive right now to establish

[05:53] themselves in this space. So, they've

[05:55] chosen to make next to no money at all

[05:57] on this stuff because they know that

[05:59] they're already the home company and if

[06:02] they get this tech transition right,

[06:04] they will also become the smart home

[06:06] company and that could be worth

[06:08] billions. I've just tried some of their

[06:11] bedroom products and this stuff is not

[06:12] matter. It's actually a bit less smart,

[06:14] but it might be even better value than

[06:16] the smart stuff. Like for £150 a pop,

[06:19] we've got things like the cabinet

[06:20] lights. They've got motion sensors

[06:21] inside to pick up when you open doors or

[06:23] drawers. Nice and bright, too. And then

[06:26] the nightlight. You might remember I was

[06:28] absolutely in awe at Xiaomi's motion

[06:30] sensing nightlights. They're £12. The

[06:33] IKEA nightlight is £2. Still seems to

[06:35] work just as well and lasts 6 months on

[06:38] battery apparently. There's an

[06:40] interesting thing I've started to notice

[06:41] with IKEA products.

[06:43] Oh, still works.

[06:46] This company is not really like most

[06:48] tech companies where they come across

[06:50] like they're designing products with one

[06:52] hive mind and each product has the exact

[06:54] same philosophy. Every IKEA product

[06:56] seemingly has its own assigned designer.

[06:59] Maybe it's like whoever came up with the

[07:01] idea for something becomes the lead

[07:03] producer of it, which is probably pretty

[07:04] normal when it comes to furniture, but

[07:06] kind of weird with tech cuz it means

[07:08] that each product functions a bit

[07:10] differently. But then the upside is some

[07:11] of this stuff is so creative. Like look

[07:14] at this really nice weighty glass bowl.

[07:17] This is where you chuck your stuff like

[07:19] your keys, your chewing gum, your micro

[07:23] Game Boy Color

[07:25] for some reason. But then you can stick

[07:27] your phone onto this magnetic park and

[07:29] that's a charger. And then press down.

[07:31] It's a light too. I don't know about

[07:33] you, but I think that's pretty

[07:34] delightful for £15. These speakers are

[07:37] £5 each. I say each because the idea is

[07:39] you just press one button to pair two of

[07:41] them together. And you can do this with

[07:43] up to a hundred of them. You probably

[07:46] shouldn't. They don't sound very good,

[07:48] but you can, and that's kind of fun. Or

[07:52] tea lights. Up until this point, I've

[07:53] only ever used real tea lights, but

[07:55] then, you know, they die after one use.

[07:57] Or ones powered by those little coin

[07:58] cell batteries that are a massive hassle

[08:00] to keep changing out. But IKEA has made

[08:02] a USBC charging station where each

[08:04] telight docks when you're done with it,

[08:06] blinks to confirm that it is charging.

[08:08] And then when charged, IKEA has claimed

[08:10] that they can last 35 hours each. That

[08:13] number sounded crazy to me, so I tested

[08:14] it myself. And uh yeah, they weren't

[08:16] kidding. Teite battery tests. That's

[08:19] where we're at now. What are they

[08:21] sitting on? An IKEA table that is also

[08:24] an air purifier. And credit to David

[08:26] Wall. The thing's so damn efficient.

[08:28] Pull out these clips that lets you take

[08:30] the top off. Then you can see your

[08:31] filter in case you want to change it. A

[08:33] hidden compartment where the power

[08:35] supply hides. Love that. And then the

[08:37] cable wires through the back of the leg.

[08:41] David, can you organize my life, please?

[08:43] Oh, and then my favorite. It's a giraffe

[08:46] lamp. You push the head to turn it on.

[08:49] Gosh. And then it'll turn itself off

[08:51] after 15 minutes. Just enough time for a

[08:54] quick Pokémon Champions. Then you can

[08:55] even take the light off and use it to

[08:57] make sure you can see your way to the

[08:59] bathroom at night. Now, there are some

[09:01] things I can see which partly explain

[09:03] the low prices, like the fact that IKEA

[09:05] seems to refuse to give you batteries

[09:07] unless they absolutely have to. This

[09:08] giraffe takes doubleas's. All of these

[09:10] sensors take AAA's. And I guess that

[09:12] kind of helps IKEA because then they can

[09:14] sell you theirs. And then the charger

[09:16] for those batteries, too. But I think

[09:17] the biggest thing is IKEA's volumes. I

[09:20] actually just cannot wrap my head around

[09:21] the fact that this company has sold over

[09:24] 140 million of this one bookshelf. So

[09:27] IKEA can place enormous orders for parts

[09:29] and get a very good deal doing so. And

[09:32] it actually feels like they specifically

[09:33] reuse those parts in as many different

[09:35] products as possible to maximize those

[09:37] savings. And even more importantly,

[09:39] unlike most companies who make home

[09:41] accessories, who probably sell a few

[09:43] thousand units and want to make big

[09:45] bucks with each one, IKEA does not care.

[09:48] As long as they're making pennies per

[09:50] product, they're still doing fine

[09:52] overall. That's why for years now IKEA

[09:54] has been able to sell things at silly

[09:56] low prices when they want to things like

[09:57] these simple sensors. And I guess now

[10:00] they're seeing it as their chance to

[10:01] start applying that to the smart home

[10:04] now specifically because matter is kind

[10:07] of like the stars aligning for IKEA. You

[10:09] might know that for the last decade, the

[10:11] smart home was basically owned by

[10:13] premium companies like Philips Huegh,

[10:15] Sonos, Google Nest. Because to actually

[10:17] make a smart home that worked needed a

[10:19] ton of initial R&D to create a system

[10:22] and a set of hardware where each thing

[10:24] can talk to each other, you had to be

[10:26] primarily a tech company. So, up until

[10:29] this point, there's been no such thing

[10:31] as the mass market middle ground, where

[10:34] someone goes in to buy a sofa or a

[10:36] cabinet, but then casually adds a smart

[10:38] bulb to their basket just because it's

[10:40] right there at the till. It's been too

[10:41] complicated and priced way too high. But

[10:44] matter is designed to fix that. In

[10:46] theory, it takes away all of that

[10:48] expensive R&D that used to cost

[10:50] billions. All of that will my bulb

[10:52] actually talk to my speaker engineering,

[10:54] that's now baked into the standard

[10:56] itself. So you don't need to be a tech

[10:58] company anymore. You just need to make

[11:00] yourself matter compatible. And no one

[11:02] wins more from this than the company

[11:05] with hundreds of millions of people

[11:06] specifically walking through their doors

[11:08] while in the process of setting up a

[11:10] home. One area where it definitely does

[11:12] pay to go high-end though is the eight

[11:14] sleep bed I'll sponsor

[11:17] which I've been using for over a year at

[11:19] this point instead of the bed that I

[11:21] spent 10 times more money on because I

[11:23] tested them and to my shock/ despair

[11:26] this made me sleep better and it's not

[11:28] even close anymore cuz you know how

[11:29] every single sleep device measures your

[11:31] sleep score with a number right well

[11:33] eight have just upgraded their app with

[11:35] a sleep agent powered by AI that can

[11:37] also tell you why you slept the way you

[11:39] did and then fix it Like the last two

[11:41] weeks, I've been kneede working on an

[11:43] investigation video, and I've been

[11:44] stressed. But this app is not just

[11:46] noticing that and giving me suggestions

[11:48] for how to fix it by itself, but it's

[11:50] also taking matters into its own hands

[11:52] and making 30 different adjustments

[11:54] while I sleep. And with my code boss,

[11:56] you can get $350 off the latest Pod 5.

[11:59] You have 30 days to try it, but I don't

[12:01] think you'll be sending it back.

[12:04] It's falling apart, guys. I know I did

[12:06] the whole spiel about why all this

[12:08] matter stuff should be incredible, but

[12:10] it's been 4 days of living with our IKEA

[12:12] tech and it is not going well. Like this

[12:16] doughnut lamp, which by the way on its

[12:19] own is already kind of disappointing cuz

[12:21] it's the exact same tech as that £7

[12:23] smart bulb. Same app, same features, but

[12:26] just now because it's in a mouth blown

[12:28] glass container, it's £55. It doesn't

[12:31] even have zone lighting or the ability

[12:32] to do gradients. But more importantly,

[12:35] how is the connection process this

[12:37] terrible? We've been going through loop

[12:39] after loop of discovery trying to find

[12:41] the thing. And after seven failed

[12:42] attempts, it randomly works on the

[12:44] eighth, even though we've changed

[12:46] nothing. Some of the bulbs have the same

[12:47] thing. Like, we put six of them in this

[12:49] column light over here. Bought them all

[12:51] the same day. Five worked perfectly. One

[12:54] just would not connect. It tries to find

[12:56] it for two full minutes and then just

[12:58] says unable to add accessory. I've

[12:59] noticed sometimes the QR code on the box

[13:02] lets you add these products onto your

[13:03] network. Other times it does not. And

[13:05] then the only thing that seems to work

[13:06] when that happens is resetting the hub

[13:09] and then manually entering the unique

[13:11] device numbers that you can find on the

[13:12] products. And while I've been dealing

[13:13] with that, some of the lights that

[13:15] originally set up fine have now started

[13:17] showing that they're offline when

[13:19] they're clearly on. My precious matter

[13:21] remote has gone super laggy sometimes.

[13:28] That should have turned it off. Didn't

[13:34] like here. What's the matter?

[13:35] >> Do you want to press it 100 times and

[13:37] see what the success rate is?

[13:39] >> Oh my god. I don't want to. One.

[13:45] This is content.

[13:49] No.

[13:52] No. Yes.

[13:57] How much longer do we have of this?

[14:07] 46 successes.

[14:10] Oh dear. Still, you know, you see that

[14:12] and then you think maybe it's just me.

[14:15] Then I looked online. Reddit is full of

[14:18] I bought IKEA's Matter products. Nothing

[14:21] will connect. There's some positive

[14:22] reviews on the IKEA site, but then

[14:24] nearly as many one stars with pretty

[14:26] much each person talking through

[14:28] everything they've done to try and get

[14:29] this stuff to work and then how it still

[14:32] doesn't. I even found someone who's

[14:33] tried to pair 59 of these matter remotes

[14:36] and they've only managed to successfully

[14:38] pair 29. They've got this 11step

[14:41] troubleshooting technique they followed

[14:42] and according to them, it fixed nothing.

[14:45] So, they're estimating a 50% defect

[14:48] rate, which kind of horrifyingly lines

[14:52] up with the near 50% negative reviews on

[14:55] their site

[14:57] and the 50% success rate of the remote.

[15:01] I mean, regardless of which way you look

[15:03] at it, it's completely unheard of. What

[15:04] if your car only started 50% of the

[15:07] time? The more I look into this, the

[15:09] more it feels like ultimately matter is

[15:11] just not ready. It could be, and it

[15:13] should be the solution. And one day it

[15:15] still might be. But it seems like the

[15:17] main companies who built matter, Apple,

[15:19] Google, Amazon, etc., they invested in

[15:21] it because it would help to promote the

[15:23] idea that anyone could have a smart

[15:24] home. But individually, none of them

[15:27] actually has an incentive for it to

[15:29] succeed. If matter becomes a viable

[15:31] mainstream smart home solution, then

[15:34] who's going to pay three times the price

[15:35] for a Google Nest branded doorbell? How

[15:38] will Amazon make sure that you also

[15:39] subscribe to Prime and do all of your

[15:41] shopping on Amazon.com? Matter will

[15:44] basically open up the gates for

[15:45] companies like IKEA to whip up something

[15:47] for a Fiverr that works just as well and

[15:49] that's not going to lock you into any

[15:51] company's ecosystem. You'll notice as

[15:53] well if you pay close attention that

[15:54] Samsung has actually been really great

[15:57] with all this matter stuff. Their Smart

[15:59] Things is usually among the first

[16:00] platforms to support each new Mattera

[16:02] version, often within a few months of

[16:04] release. But Apple, Google, Amazon,

[16:06] sometimes we're talking a year behind

[16:08] for the same updates. And that's

[16:10] probably not random. Samsung is the most

[16:12] aggressive because Samsung has the least

[16:14] to protect. They don't have the dominant

[16:17] voice assistant or the dominant phone

[16:20] ecosystem. So, an open standard like

[16:22] Matter has a lot of upsides for them.

[16:24] They make tons of stuff like fridges,

[16:26] washers, and ovens. All matter is going

[16:28] to do is help those products work better

[16:30] in other companies systems. It's really

[16:32] those companies, the ones who make those

[16:34] systems like Amazon, who have the most

[16:36] to lose and so are the most reluctantly

[16:38] trudging towards actually making matter

[16:40] good. and instead focusing their efforts

[16:42] on trying to ensure that the best

[16:44] experience with their products comes

[16:45] when you use all of them and you do so

[16:47] via their app. And it feels like all of

[16:49] this politics has left IKEA a little bit

[16:53] stuck. They clearly saw the potential of

[16:55] matter. They dived head first into it,

[16:57] but it's just not ready yet. And while

[16:59] IKEA are not the only ones supporting

[17:01] matter, the difference is that IKEA's

[17:03] products depend on matter because they

[17:05] don't have their own robust ecosystem to

[17:08] fall back on. So, for the sake of making

[17:10] this smartarthome dream accessible to

[17:12] the masses, I really hope IKEA can get

[17:14] over this incredibly bumpy start. But

[17:18] I'm not holding my breath.