THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Blind, Motorized Blackout Window Shades with Remote, Cordless Honeycomb Blinds, Automatic Height Setting, AA Batteries Powered, 30″ W x 72″ H Beige/White

Affordable, Easy, Not Perfect But Very Good
I’ve had these blinds for just over a year now and came back to write a review. Here are my thoughts on them.EDITED: I’ve now had these blinds for almost two years, and I have since bought another one for another window in the house. I’ve also switched over from SmartThings to Home Assistant, so I came back to edit this review and add updated info. My rating has not changed.PROS:Affordable (more on that in the CONS section). Blind price varies depending on the width you order. Even at full price, they are cheaper that other smart blinds I’ve looked at. However, I bought them on Amazon Prime Day which saved me $60 per blind. At that point they were the same price as the non-smart regular honeycomb blinds I was considering.Pairs amazingly easily with either SmartThings or Home Assistant. When I bought the blinds, I was using ST. I have since switched over to HA. Pairing was equally easy with both systems.Uses AA batteries that are supposed to last about 6 months. I’ve changed batteries twice over the 13 months I’ve had the blinds, so that’s about right. Because it uses AA batteries, they’re easy and cheap to replace and you don’t have to run a long power cord or charging cord to an outlet.If you do inside mount, there’s a trigger at the bottom of the blind so it automatically stops when the blind touches the window sill (if you do outside mount, you can set the stopping point in the app).Manual up/down/pause controls are on the bottom of the blind if you want to raise/lower them manually.Very effective as blackout shades. Really blocks the light.I prefer the honeycomb design over just a plain roller shade. This is a personal choice, but it makes it a PRO for me.CONS:All the blinds are 72″ in length. Period. The auto-stop trigger on the bottom makes it no big deal since it will stop when it reaches the bottom of your window no matter how tall it is, but if you had a really short window (like 24″ tall or something), it might look odd with so much unused blind bunched up at the bottom when it is closed. My bedroom windows were 71″ so no problem. Other windows in my house are 59″, so again, no problem.For width, the blinds come in full inch increments from 20″ up to 39″ wide. So widths are 29″ or 30″ or 31″ etc. So if your window width was 30 15/16″ wide, you’d have to get a 30″ blind which would leave almost a full 1/2″ gap on either side (for inside mounts). No partial increments available. That’s why they are so much more affordable, since they don’t do custom widths down to the 1/16″ like some blinds do. It worked great for me as my windows were 31 1/8″ wide so a 31″ blind fit perfectly with just a bare amount of clearance on either side.Uses AA batteries. This was a PRO, but also a CON because it means there’s no solar panel attachment option that sits in the window and keeps it charged. But those are usually found in the $300+ versions of smart blinds.Blind only comes in white. No other color options available. Again, that’s why it’s more affordable. And I wanted white anyway, so this wasn’t an issue for me.Each blind comes with a remote control which is pretty blocky and clunky and kludgy looking. One remote per blind and as far as I can tell, you can’t control multiple blinds with the same remote. I didn’t even bother to put the batteries in the remotes since I use Alexa voice commands, the Alexa app, the SmartThings app, or the Home Assistant app on my phone to control it. I also set up an automatic schedule in SmartThings (and then later in Home Assistant when I switched over) for opening and closing the blinds in the mornings and evenings. I suppose if the power goes out to the house and I need to close/open the blinds, the remote control might be handy, but I could also do that from the button controls on the bottom of the blind itself.Open/Closed status is reversed in the SmartThings app. It kinda makes sense when you think about it, but it is contrary to how we normally think about blinds. When the honeycomb accordion blind is pressed all together (like how it comes out of the box) it is considered “closed”. When you expand it out, it is considered “open”. But that’s not how we view blinds when they are hanging up in a window. When the accordion is hanging in a window, expanded out, and blocking the view, we think of that as being closed, not open. So, if you’re using the SmartThings app and the status shows that the blind is “closed” that really means the blind is compressed and the window view is open. It’s not a huge deal, definitely not a deal breaker, but the backward status is awkward and something you have to remember.EDIT: This issue does NOT exist in Home Assistant. HA knows how we think about blinds and as such, when your blinds are expanded all the way and blocking the light in your window, HA knows to call that state “closed”.It’s not overly quiet. The motor isn’t super loud, but it is loud enough. If you are wanting to have the blinds open automatically at sunrise and let the soft, gentle morning light wake you up, forget it. The noise of the blind opening will wake you before any soft, gentle light will. Not a problem for me since I don’t want them opening until after I’m already out of bed. The motor noise could easily act as your alarm if you have them automatically open while you’re still asleep.TL;DRThey’re very affordable compared to many smart blinds with easy to replace AA batteries that last about 6 months. The blinds pair and work great with either SmartThings or Home Assistant. Limitations include limited size/color, motor noise, and no solar-charging option (because it uses AA). But after two years of use, I’m still very happy with them and would buy them again. 4 Stars.

These are amazing for the price
I had some low-cost Allen + Roth (Lowe’s house brand) motorized blinds — about the same price as these. When those broke after just a few months, I took them apart to see if I could fix them. I could, but it was awkward, and everything was so cheap I could see that any repair wouldn’t last. I have only had the ThirdReality blinds for a week, but I could tell right away that everything is just plain better-made. I mean, still not high-end, but clearly a lot more thought put into the design to make them simple and robust.Plus, the Allen + Roth blinds were direct radio control, so I needed a bridge to connect to home automation. The ThirdReality blinds were very easy to connect to Home Assistant via Zigbee — everything just worked. I love that there’s no cloud service or user agreement or ad-filled app required.I was skeptical at first about AA batteries, but that does give the choice of using Eneloops if you want rechargable, or for blinds which are used infrequently, you could use Lithium AAs and not need to change them for years.It is a shame that there aren’t more color and material options. These are not beautiful, and won’t fit with every room. But there’s really nothing to compare at this price point.

Great idea, does the job, needs improvement!I chose to install this on the OUTSIDE of the window frame:- less installation fuss- better light blocking- generic sizing hard to mess up- keep my semi transparent roman blind stays in place at the same timePROS:- does what it’s advertised to do… block out the sunlight- accordion design really makes sense- comes with remote- extremely ez to install- fast shipping- lowest cost of all researched blindsCONS:- still too pricey (Over $180 CAD seems like it should be around $100 tops)- slow and hopefully the weak sounding motor lasts a few 5 years or so- integration with Google Nest/Home not possible out of the box- remote control is bulky/monolith and needs to be perfectly aimed with ‘line of sight’- no real color choices as far as I know

It does not connect with alexa echo also remote range seems to be 3 to 5 feet only