The Homey Bridge is the latest smart hub in the Homey family. It features Zigbee, Z-Wave Plus, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 433MHz and infrared and uses the popular Homey app for control and automation.

Sounds like the familiar Homey Pro, but there are some key differences. Starting with the design, which is completely different. It is now glossy black and combined with aluminium. Of course, the characteristic RGD LED ring is still there, but it is more discreetly designed.

Main differences between Homey Bridge and Homey Pro
– The Homey App Store for the Homey Bridge is more tightly controlled. This means that the Homey apps for the Homey Bridge are of a higher quality. However, this does not apply to professional and niche devices and their use cases. But don’t worry, tens of thousands of products are still supported.
– The logic and intelligence of Homey Bridge runs via the cloud. The main reason why the Homey Bridge is so much cheaper is that Homey’s computing power has been moved to the cloud. This means that the Homey Bridge relies on a working internet connection to operate, just like smart thermostats, voice assistants and Chromecasts. NOTE: This does NOT mean that there is any compromise on data protection. Users’ personal data is still off limits and Homey does not use personal data for resale, profiling or other questionable purposes.
– Homey Bridge includes three months of Homey Premium. An active Homey Premium subscription for 2.99 EUR/month is required to connect more than five devices to Homey. Users can always use up to five devices for free, without a subscription and including an unlimited number of Homey Flows.

The user experience of Homey Bridge and Homey Pro is largely identical. Most devices are supported by both products. Use the Homey app for control and automation.

Further data
– Item dimensions (WxHxL): 127 x 35 x 127 mm
– Packaging dimensions (WxHxL): 150 x 82 x 154 mm
– Item weight (net): 0.258 kg
– Item weight (gross): 0.530 Kg
– Plug type: Type C | CEE 7/16 – Euro plug
– Z-Wave Plus: Yes
– Z-Wave S2: Yes
– WEEE: Yes
– CE: Yes
– IP class: IP20

Introducing Z-Wave Plus™
Z-Wave Plus™ is a new level within Z-Wave certification and is designed to help consumers identify those products that utilise the “GEN5” Z-Wave hardware platform (also known as 500 series or 5th generation Z-Wave chips). Generation Z-Wave chips). Z-Wave Plus certified products have several advantages that increase ease of use and make Z-Wave solutions even faster and easier to install and set up.

Since the first Z-Wave product was certified in 2004, Z-Wave has become the market leader for interoperable smart devices in home networking. With the introduction of the new Z-Wave 500 series, the Z-Wave ecosystem has been expanded with new features – such as increased range, longer battery life, Over The Air Upgrades (OTA), and additional RF channels.

products with Z-Wave Plus™ are fully backwards compatible with existing Z-Wave products!

For consumers, homeowners, integrators and service providers, the Z-Wave Plus™ enhancements offer tremendous benefits in terms of shorter and easier installations, more extensive device profiles, improved self-healing and longer battery life. With the new Z-Wave Plus certification programme, the Z-Wave Alliance is also introducing a series of logos that can be found on the packaging of Z-Wave Plus™ certified products, informing consumers of the benefits of the Z-Wave 500 series.

Benefits
– 50% improvement in battery life
– 67% improvement in range
– 250% increase in bandwidth
– Three RF channels for improved noise immunity and higher bandwidth
– New network-wide plug-and-play inclusion feature
– Improved self-healing and fault tolerance Improved self-healing and fault tolerance with explorer frame function
– Standardised procedure for over-the-air firmware updates (OTA)
– Improved product information collection for the product certification database

Z-WaveS2
The foundation of S2 is all everything needed for a smart home: The latest version of Z-Wave, reduction in power consumption compared to older Z-Wave devices and wireless communication. S2 takes all this and expands the Z-Wave world with:

– Advanced encryption (AES 128-bit)
– More security against hacker attacks
– Improved battery life
– Faster communication between devices