When I decided to put smart switches in my apartment -- yes, I got landlord permission first -- I wanted something that looked professional, worked reliably, and didn't require yet another proprietary hub. The Leviton Decora Smart Zigbee Dimmer checked every box. After four months of daily use controlling my living room overhead lights, these have become my favorite smart home devices, full stop.
There's a fundamental philosophical debate in smart lighting: smart bulbs versus smart switches. After years of experimenting with both approaches, I've come down firmly on the switch side for permanent installations. Smart switches control the entire circuit, work for anyone who walks into the room regardless of whether they have an app, and never suffer from the "someone turned off the wall switch" problem. The Leviton Decora is one of the best arguments for the smart switch approach.
Design & Build
Leviton has been manufacturing electrical devices since 1906, and that century-plus of experience shows in the Decora Smart dimmer. This switch looks like a high-end conventional Decora switch because it essentially is one. The familiar paddle design -- tap the top for on, bottom for off -- is immediately recognizable to anyone who's ever used a light switch. Nobody walking into my apartment has ever looked at the wall and thought "smart home gadget." They just see a nice switch.
The build quality is genuinely excellent. The paddle action is crisp and satisfying, with no wobble or cheap-feeling play. The switch sits firmly in the electrical box with no creaking. Compare this to some of the cheaper smart switches I've tried -- plastic-y Tuya devices that flex when pressed and feel like they'll fall apart in two years -- and the Leviton feels like it belongs in a different category entirely.
A small LED indicator bar on the side shows the current dimming level and doubles as a locator light in the dark. The brightness and behavior of this LED can be configured through your hub -- I have mine set to a dim glow at night and off during the day, which is perfect for finding the switch in a dark room without creating an annoying point of light while watching TV. The switch uses standard Decora faceplates, so it matches the outlets and other switches already in my apartment. That seamless integration is one of the underappreciated advantages of going with a mainstream manufacturer like Leviton over a smart-home-only brand.
Features
Zigbee 3.0 connectivity means this switch works with essentially any smart home hub that supports the protocol. I run mine through Home Assistant with a SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB coordinator, but they're equally compatible with SmartThings, Hubitat, Amazon Echo devices with built-in Zigbee, and any standard Zigbee 3.0 coordinator. The switch also acts as a Zigbee router, extending your mesh network's range -- a genuine advantage over battery-powered devices that can only act as end nodes.
The dimming capabilities are impressively refined. You can set minimum and maximum brightness levels, which is crucial for preventing the buzz or flicker that certain LED bulbs exhibit at very low or very high dim levels. I spent about 10 minutes dialing in the minimum brightness for my specific Cree LED bulbs -- setting it just above the point where they'd flicker -- and they've been completely smooth since. Fade-on and fade-off rates are also configurable, so you can have instant switching or a dramatic slow fade depending on the room's purpose.
The switch remembers its state after power outages and can be configured to return to on, off, or its previous state when power is restored. I have mine set to "previous state," which means the lights come back to whatever they were at before the outage. Scene support through your hub enables multi-tap actions -- double-tap for full brightness, triple-tap to activate a scene -- though this requires configuration on the hub side.
One important requirement: this switch needs a neutral wire. Most homes built after the 1980s have neutral wires in their switch boxes, but older construction may not. If you're unsure, check your existing switch box before ordering. If you don't have a neutral, you'll need to look at alternatives like the Lutron Caseta, which works without one.
Performance
Rock-solid reliability. That's the short version. In four months of daily use, I have not experienced a single missed command, a single dropped connection, or a single moment where the switch didn't respond as expected. The Zigbee mesh with my other devices (Aqara sensors, SmartThings Multipurpose Sensors, a couple of smart plugs) is healthy and strong, and the Leviton switches actively contribute to mesh reliability as Zigbee routers.
Response time is essentially instantaneous. When I tap the paddle or send a command through Home Assistant, the lights respond with the same speed as a dumb switch. There's no perceptible lag because the entire signal chain is local -- my phone talks to Home Assistant, which talks to the Zigbee coordinator, which talks to the switch. No cloud servers involved, no internet dependency, no latency from round-tripping through some company's data center. This is how smart home devices should work.
The dimming curves are well-tuned for modern LED loads. My Cree 60W-equivalent bulbs dim smoothly from 100% down to my configured minimum of about 8%, with no visible stepping, flickering, or buzzing at any level. The transition between brightness levels is gradual and natural-looking. The switch handles the 600W LED/CFL maximum load with ease -- my four-bulb fixture pulls maybe 40W total, so there's enormous headroom.
I've also tested behavior during brief power flickers, which happen occasionally in my building. The switch recovers cleanly every time, returning to its configured state within a couple of seconds of power restoration. No manual intervention needed, no re-pairing required. It just picks up where it left off.
Ease of Use
Let's be honest: installation requires real electrical work, and that's the biggest barrier to smart switches for most people. You need to turn off the breaker, pull the old switch out of the box, connect the Leviton (line, load, neutral, and ground wires), stuff everything back into the box, and mount the switch. If you're comfortable with basic residential electrical work, it's a 15-20 minute job. If you've never worked with household wiring, hire an electrician -- this is not the project to learn on.
Once physically installed, pairing with Home Assistant was trivial. Put the switch in pairing mode (hold the top paddle for 7 seconds until the LED blinks), and my Zigbee coordinator discovered it within seconds. All the expected entities appeared automatically: on/off, brightness level, and various configuration options. No firmware updates, no account creation, no cloud registration. Just pair and use.
The real magic of smart switches is what happens after installation: nothing. My wife uses these switches exactly like she used the old dumb switches. Tap the top, lights on. Tap the bottom, lights off. Press and hold to dim. She doesn't need an app, doesn't need to think about Zigbee, and doesn't need to worry about whether the "smart" part is working. The switch is smart AND normal, simultaneously. When she wants to use voice control or set a scene, those features are available through our Home Assistant dashboard or Siri via HomeKit bridge. But the baseline experience -- physical switch control -- works for anyone, including guests, without explanation.
Value
At around $50, the Leviton Decora Smart Zigbee Dimmer sits at the higher end of the smart switch market. Budget Zigbee switches from brands like Sonoff or third-party Tuya devices can be found for $15-25. But the Leviton premium buys you three things: build quality that will last a decade or more, a design that matches standard Decora faceplates throughout your home, and the backing of a 120-year-old electrical manufacturer with real product support.
The switch-based approach to smart lighting is more expensive upfront than smart bulbs but often cheaper in the long run. A single smart switch controls every bulb in the circuit -- in my case, four recessed lights. At $50 for the switch versus $20 each for four smart bulbs ($80 total), the switch is actually the more economical option. And when a bulb burns out, you replace it with a $3 dumb LED instead of a $20 smart bulb. Over the lifetime of the fixture, the savings compound significantly.
There's also the durability factor. Smart bulbs have electronics that can fail, WiFi radios that can drop, and firmware that may stop being updated. A smart switch is a much simpler device with fewer failure points, and Leviton's track record suggests it'll outlast multiple generations of smart bulbs. I expect these switches to still be working perfectly five or ten years from now, and that kind of longevity makes the $50 price feel like a genuine bargain.
Pros
- Professional appearance - looks like a premium regular switch
- Zigbee 3.0 reliability with local control
- Excellent dimming performance with LED tuning
- Works as a normal switch for non-technical users
- Leviton build quality and reputation
Cons
- Requires neutral wire (check your wiring)
- Higher price than some alternatives
- Installation requires electrical work
- Need a Zigbee hub/coordinator
Final Grade
The Leviton Decora Smart Zigbee Dimmer is what smart switches should be: reliable, professional-looking, and completely invisible to everyday users. After four months of daily use, I'm entirely satisfied. The switches respond instantly, look indistinguishable from premium conventional switches, and integrate flawlessly with Home Assistant via Zigbee. My wife doesn't know or care that the living room switches are "smart" -- she just knows they work exactly like she expects, with the bonus of voice control when she wants it.
If you're willing to do the installation yourself (or hire an electrician), smart switches are a better long-term solution than smart bulbs for permanent fixtures. And if you're going the switch route, Leviton is a safe, quality choice backed by a company with a century of experience in electrical hardware. The $50 price is justified by build quality and longevity that cheaper alternatives simply can't match.