If you have been a reader of G Style for some time now, you know we have a series called “Building a Smart Home”, and it has been some time since we added on to this. In 2025, we’ll have a little more on the series, but one item that will be featured is these smart shades by SmartWings. They approached me to see if I would be interested in checking out their shades, and funny enough, on my end, when I was researching smart shades or blinds, this was one of the companies I came across. So while they have provided me with a pair of shades for my home office, this review and the opinions are my own. Let’s dig it!
Why Would You Get Smart Shades?
In actuality, you don’t “need” smart shades or blinds. But if you want to have a smart home, this is just one of those items that make sense. Not everything in your house needs to be smart, but I’d make the case for why you’d want smart shades. In my case, since SmartWings reached out, I decided to look at them for my home office. When I redid my home office, I purchased some nice non-smart manual shades and they were fine. However, when I rearranged my office and put my desk in front of the window. I no longer felt like getting by to open and close them all the time. Lazy yes, but still a problem as I just decided there would be no light, no natural light in the room. However, with the shades from SmartWings, I gained the ability to open and close my shades in a variety of ways, which we’ll talk about.
Having smart shades instantly turns items in your home that might seem small or trivial, into an almost magic situation when something as simple as your windows opening or closing, letting in light or wrapping the room in darkness takes place on its own. The act of not having to go to each and every window to open or close it, or in the case of blinds, rotating the little stick to change the amount of light the blinds let in, becomes something taken for granted.
From Site to Home
I was able to go through the full experience, the same as if someone were looking to pick up some of these shades. Unlike some smart home items, you can’t simply go to Best Buy and pick it up. Every person’s home is different, windows are different. While there may be some standard sizes, if your windows are a little bigger or smaller, you’ll need a custom fit. The rep for SmartWings had me go on the site, pick out the shades I was interested in reviewing, and then do everything except for pressing purchase. This allowed me to go through the process, from trying to decide which shades or blinds to choose, the style, the color, the type (this in itself is daunting haha), and then go through the process of measuring my windows to see what I would want to put in the office. This wasn’t just pick anything and press go, but I had to think through the look for the space, get some interior decorating on.
As you can see above, this is how my office non-smart shades look before. I wanted to get something similar but couldn’t find anything, so I went with a newer but lighter look. Below is what I decided on. I choose the Roman Shades 100% Blackout Iris in a Light Brown color, with an outside mount. For the Motor type, I chose the Matter Motor over Thread. Some other options I chose were solar panels so I wouldn’t need to worry about charging the shades, and their Black Helix Dial remote, which we’ll talk about as well. Overall I’m happy with the choice, and how they look in the space. What do you think about the shade choice?
Installation and Controls
I’m happy to say the installation once the shades arrived was fairly easy, pretty on par with any shade of blind installation you would have done before. Once I was able to get the shades installed on my windows, the only additional piece was getting this connected to my network. I chose the Matter over Thread motor type, as I wanted to be on the most future-proof side with Matter. As it is ever growing and making having a multitude of different brands work together better. Connecting the shades was just a matter of pressing and holding the button on the side of the shade motor. From there, I used Google Home to add these shades to my smart home. Once I did this, I had a couple of ways to control them. I could have of course, used my phone and the Google Home app, but I also could use my voice to say things like “Okay Google, open or close shade. I could use the include Helix Dial remote, and before I move on to the last way and where the “magic” truly is, let’s talk about the remote just a little bit.
Helix Dial Remote
Now, while using a physical remote might sound a little old school, and analog compared to all of the digital ways I could use these shades, while it costs a little more, I think the Helix Dial remote is the way to go for both function and look. When I saw this remote, I knew this had to be a part of my setup. The black dial with some simple buttons on the top, allows you to control both the shades at once (coming already paired with the shades out of the box), or control each one separately on different channels. This is useful currently when I have the shades open, but need to bring one down some to keep the direct sun out of my face.. I enjoy rotating the dial to control the various percentages of the shades being opened and closed. I also appreciate the fact that it can be charged up via USB-C, and not some special type. Battery life on the remote has been excellent so far with me charging it at the end of December, and so far still all good on battery life. For all of the other methods to control the shades, I do find that I do use the Helix dial remote daily. Not on the inexpensive side though, as the regular handheld remote would run you about $15.99, and this one comes in at $99.99. But if you are picking up some of these shades, with the overall cost (which we’ll get into as well), you might as well!
Automation: The True Magic
Now I’ve discussed the various ways you can control these smart shades. With the option to use a physical remote, your phone or tablet, with your voice (which is cool in itself), but the real magic is automation! Imagine waking up at sunrise (or a time you have designated) to the shades just opening and letting the light in. Or imagine as the sunset, and your home transitions into the evening/night mode, and your shades begin to close. This is the beauty of automation. Once you have connected these shades to your smart home, depending on what you use, you can set up automated schedules. This is what I’ve done in the office so far.
For days where I know I work remotely and the weekend, I’ve had it set to open the shades at 8 am as I begin my work shift to let in that morning light. Then as the evening comes and sunset approaches, my shades close as well. This has been magical (when it works, we’ll talk about it hah). Having your home operate based on your needs, without interaction from you, is the essence of the magic of wanting a smart home. When it comes to the SmartWings shades or blinds, this handles at least that part involving the windows!
So What Has The Experience Been?
I’ve actively used the SmartWings Roman Shades for just a little over two months now, and one core positive is I get natural light into my home office now. Yes, I could have had it before, but with automation, voice command, and a stylish remote instead of having to shimmy behind my desk to open my shades manually, I find myself getting light more than before. So that is just one net positive there.
Has the SmartWings shades been perfect? Not at all, and time has been quite frustrating in that kind of only first world problems sense hah. At times the shades do not follow the automation schedule. Some days, it goes off without a hitch and is flawless, other days, nothing happens at the designated times at all. This happens both for the set time of 8 am, and when it is supposed to close at sunset. There are times when I use voice commands and maybe one of the shades responds, while the other does nothing. Even using the already paired Helix dial remote, at times renders delayed responses. When this happens it can be quite frustrating, if only because it “ruins the magic” of it all. But it hasn’t been a deal breaker. Some of these come with the quirks of having a smart home, so there is some degree of expectation of these occasional fails.
Beyond the occasional non-response or delayed one, the shades have done their job, and it has made my office that much more enjoyable to work in. With the solar panels, which is an additional cost option, you can set it and forget it. Provided your window location gets good sunlight. You don’t have to add these in, as if you also charge them shades up via USB-C, and that can last you for about 6 months of typical use. However, when that charging time comes, you’ll need to charge for 5-6 hours. The solar panels cost $49.99 each, so something to think about. For the grand scheme of the cost of these, that might be worth it. But now let’s talk about cost.
Wrap Up: Is It Worth the Cost?
I was fortunate in SmartWings reaching out to us to review their shades. I was allowed to look through the site, pick what I wanted, and then send it over to them to fulfill. This in itself was a wonderful exercise in the “if money were no option” situation and some of the choices I made reflect that. These shades were not inexpensive. But then again, when you look at getting any nice quality shades or blinds in general, you are also paying a fairly decent price, so for an almost comparable cost, you get motorized smart shades or blinds instead. The shades I have and review as configured came out to $1071.46 before tax and shipping. And this included two shades, the helix dial remote, and two solar panels for them.
Quite expensive indeed, would I recommend you converting all of your windows to smart shades by SmartWings? No, unless of course money isn’t a concern, then by all means I would fully recommend them. But for those of us with some budget constraints, you might want to be a little more strategic on which windows should be “smart” and what you can afford to be regular. But what do you think? Something you are interested in? Cost too much? Worth it over regular shades? Let us know what you think.
