Ember Temperature Control Smart Mug 2, 14 Oz, App-Controlled Heated Coffee Mug with 80 Min Battery Life and Improved Design, Red

Especially if you’re a slow drinker

The good: it’s really nice to have your coffee stay at exactly the right temperature. It gives me that ‘living in the future’ feeling. The bad: 1. The battery doesn’t last long enough. I use the lid and that helps a lot, but it also takes away from the magic. And even with the lid I wish the battery would last longer. If I am at home all day and want two hot drinks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, I’ll have to recharge between drinks. 2. The app could be better. It will sometimes log me out and having to repeatedly log in to use my mug is quite dystopian. I also immediately disabled notifications because that is such a bizarre feature. But then the downside is that I might not notice when the battery has drained. And it’s jarring to drink from this mug and find that the drink is cold (because you get used to it always having the same temperature). 3. The charging pad is fragile. I accidentally broke it while cleaning it (I thought I was gentle) because the copper contacts are very fragile. My phone and my toothbrush can charge wirelessly and it’s weird that Ember mugs don’t charge that way too. As I mentioned, I do like the mug. However, my charging pad broke and I won’t be replacing it. If they release a new mag with double the battery life and wireless Qi2 charging then I may reconsider. They also need to make the app more robust. For now I’m happy to use a well isolated mug instead. Finally, I should mention that I tried to contact their customer support multiple times to check if the charging pad damage was covered by warranty, but they never even replied. Given how expensive this mug is, I’d certainly expect better service.

Randomly switches off whether it's on or off its saucer. Randomly stops recognizing whether it's filled or empty. Just unreliable all around. I bought it based on a friend's recommendation (perhaps mine is defective, as my friend raved about his). Sadly, I threw away the box, so I didn't try claiming a return. All-in-all, my advice: don't waste your money. Just reheat your coffee when it gets cold, it'll take a few seconds instead of fiddling with this unreliable mess. Also, the decision to use a proprietary charging port instead of USB-C is silly anti-consumer practice. It forces you to carry the charger with you as you move around your house, instead of being able to use the USB-C cables already in different rooms. This is clearly designed to extract more money for extra chargers, especially frustrating when you've already paid a premium for an overpriced mug that doesn't work most of the time and is excruciatingly slow to heat when it does work.

Stopped working after 6 months