As a coffee drinker, the Ember Smart Mug is one of my favorite new inventions. I love that it keeps my drink at the perfect temperature for hours.
It’s especially helpful when I’m sitting down to work in the morning and don’t want to get up to microwave my cold coffee throughout the day.
The only downside is that it takes a while to heat your drink–though this may be a good thing if you’re trying not to consume as many calories or caffeine!
This review will go over all of these features so you can decide whether or not this mug is right for you!
What I Liked About The Smart Mug
- You can control the temperature with your phone!
- There’s a stable rubber ring on the bottom of either model
- The newer Ember Smart Mug 2 comes in two sizes offering 10oz and 14oz
- This mug works great when it’s left on a plugged-in charger coaster
- It does hold the temperature constant when you walk around for 1 hour or more
- Amazon still sells these, but now you can buy this smart mug at Starbucks for a cheaper cost.
- It senses when you pour hot coffee into it and immediately starts to work.
What I Didn’t Like About The Smart Mug
- Excessive high heat settings will start to crack the special mug coating.
- They solved the charging pin problem, but spilling coffee on the charger coaster can be bad.
- Don’t expect piping hot coffee; this isn’t the best to drink, and you can get burned too easily.
- There is an on/off button on the bottom under the mug you do need to use each time
What Is The Ember Smart Mug?
When the Ember smart coffee mugs rolled out in 2016, people were excited that there could be a fully temperature-controlled coffee mug.
Actually, the original idea first appeared early in 2010 but took 6 years to design and develop. The video below tells the story of how the Ember smart coffee mug was started.
What Are The Features Of The Ember Smart Mugs?
It includes an interactive app, that works on both Apple and Android phones. (See our full list of compatible phones below). The app allows you to set the temperature you want your mug to heat up to, it also lets you add and customize pre-settings, and get mobile notifications. It has one good thing going for it, and it senses if the cup is empty.
It goes right into sleep mode until it senses any hot liquid inside the mug. There is a LED light on the mug that tells you when your coffee is warming and reaches the set temperature.
You also can change the colors that you personalize. While it does need the charging coaster base to recharge after a while, the new Smart Mug 2 offers a 14oz mug. (the 14oz mug was sold out at the writing of this article).
Both of them have the built-in battery to last nearly 90 minutes on a full charge. If you leave it on the charging coaster, it will warm your coffee all day long.
So why is there a 2.0 version so suddenly? Well, evidently, the original version had battery issues within the mug itself. Some worked, and some didn’t, but there was a huge fan base that rallied behind Kickstarter to improve this mug faster.
Apparently, the problem is ironed out, and the design has been improved. They also offer a limited edition copper-colored mug, whoo-hoo!
It doesn’t do anything other than look pretty and is still only the 10oz cup. As for the exact differences between these two designs? Virtually the same, they just changed the battery problem. In case you’re wondering, the battery wasn’t the actual issue.
It had a lot to do with little contact charging pins on the charging coaster. That’s all it was. It does come with a charging cable for the charging coaster. So if you’re wondering how it can keep coffee warm all day long sitting on the coaster, now you know.
It’s a little deceiving since they don’t show this in their advertising video at all. Not a problem since this means you can bring it everywhere for more than an hour. It does come in a black or white color, but the new model now offers the copper color too.
Extra Smart Mug Bonuses
One of the major features that I really like is that this mug is well-insulated. If you have piping hot coffee, you can hold the outside of the mug and not get burned. It has a generous mug handle that easily fits 3 sausage-sized fingers.
It can be washed in the sink with soap and water with no worry at all. There is no fear of corroding the charging ring on the bottom, either. Just don’t try to wash the charging coaster; that’s a bad idea.
There are some issues from the original design that do affect the new design also. If the bottom of the mug gets too hot, the special coating at the bottom of the mug will flake off.
I suspect this is from my temperature setting, pushing the limit of how hot my coffee should be. If you like Luke-warm coffee, this problem will likely not be an issue. That’s why it’s my business to put these devices through hard testing.
I’ll be honest, both of these still work fine for me and I’ve tortured them so badly. Alright, as far as the app control. It does have a very nice notification
That lets me know when the coffee has reached the peak temperature. I never had a deep-seated need to change or fuss with the LED color-changing setting either. You can change a heat setting through the app, but honestly, why? This has to be for people who need to mentally control their coffee, and I’m not one of those types.
The app is easy to use and works on nearly every iPhone and iOS device and Android phone. They don’t leave anyone sitting on the sidelines for any of their smart coffee mugs…
What phone models are the app compatible with?
IOS
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 12 (12 minis, 12 pros, 12 Pro Max)
- iPhone 11 (11 Pro, 11 Pro Max)
- iPhone X (Xs, Xr, Xs Max)
- iPhone SE (2nd Gen)
- Apple Watch (OS 3 and newer)
Android
- Samsung Galaxy S10 / S10+
- Samsung Galaxy S9 / S9+
- Samsung Galaxy S8 / S8+
- Samsung Galaxy Note 20
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10
- Samsung Galaxy Note 9
- Motorola Moto G
- Motorola Moto X
- HTC U11
- Google Pixel 4
- Google Pixel 3 / Pixel 3 XL
- Google Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL
- OnePlus Series (7, 7 Pro, 5T)
- Google Nexus 6P
- Google Nexus 5X
- Google Nexus 6
- Google Nexus 5
Conclusion
I’m not going to be a stickler for perfection, so it does a great job keeping my coffee warm. I’ve tried hot settings and medium settings, but I think there are some limitations.
Honestly, if you’re going to waltz around the office with a hot cup of coffee, it’s a bit dangerous. I do like that the temperature is maintained to my liking. Even if I have to walk away from my desk for 10-20 minutes, my coffee’s still the same temperature.
Besides, it has a nice overall modern look; I can see if it’s warming or at the right temp yet. Would I recommend temperature-controlled smart coffee mugs for someone like you to buy? I have to say, yes- this model from Ember is totally worth it.
