Best smart lighting: 4 smart lamps compared

Do you want to exchange the current lighting in your house for smart lamps? There are many factors to consider, from connection standards to price and compatible smart home platforms. We have compared the E27 lamps of four brands.

4 best smart bulbs

It can be very pleasant to adjust the lights in the house from the couch and choose an attractive color. If you are watching an action film, choose something bright, and a soft background color for a relaxing program. In addition, it is very useful to have your smart lamps switch on and off automatically or to combine colors of lamps in the form of scenes.

Smart lamps are an added value to your home, and once you start using them you will notice that there is no stopping. However, starting is not always obvious, because there is quite a lot to take into account. We compared the colored lamps with an E27 fitting from four well-known brands. It concerns the lamp of the Dutch Hombli, the Dutch Innr, and two brands of Signify: Philips Hue and its smaller brother WiZ. In addition, we also discuss the other range of each brand in terms of lamps, fixtures and accessories. This way you know which lamps you want to get for your smart home.

We compared these lamps

Philips Hue White & Color E27

• coolblue, Media market, bol.com – approx. 46.74 euros

Hombli Smart Bulb RGB

• coolblue, bol.com (1+1 free) – approx. 21.99 euros

Innr Smart Bulb Color E27

• coolblue, Media market, bol.com approx. 29.90 euros

WiZ Bulb A60 E27

• Media market, bol.com – approx. 15.29 euros

Smart bulb comparison

Agreements

The smart LED bulbs in this comparison use a large socket, better known as E27. If you don’t have an E27 fitting at home, that’s no problem, because all brands we compare here also market different types of lamps.

The four lamps also provide the same amount of light, namely a maximum of 806 lumens. In theory, the 800 lumens that the Hombli produces is an exception, but you will hardly notice that small difference in practice. Each of these lamps can display colored light in all possible shades along with white light.

All brands also have a corresponding app from which you can install, operate and use scenes. Scenes are combinations of lamps, each of which emits a certain color and brightness. The fact that every manufacturer releases its own app does not mean that you must by definition continue to use that app after installation, because you can also link all these lights to popular smart home platforms.

We also look at the range of other lamps and accessories. In addition to the color lamps that we compare here, all manufacturers also have lights that only display different shades of white. Each brand also has GU10 spots, just like the smaller E14 lamps and a filament collection. The latter are those trendy retro lamps with filament.

Differ

There are a lot of differences in the technology and features of these four smart bulbs. Let’s start with the dimensions, because they are largely the same, but small differences may be important in combination with the fixtures you want to use with the lamps. More compact lamps are always more convenient. All lamps have the same diameter, but the WiZ A60 E27 is significantly larger than the other lights in this comparison at 16 centimeters.

We continue with the colors. We previously wrote that these lamps support all colors and white light. But the E27 bulb from Philips Hue, Hombli and WiZ also support different shades of white light. Think of various warm and cold shades. So the Innr lamp can only show one shade of white. Innr also has White & Color lamps that support both colors and multiple shades of white light, but these are more limited available in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Wi-Fi, Zigbee and bluetooth

Smart lamps connect roughly in three different ways: via Zigbee, WiFi or Bluetooth. First up is the wireless Zigbee standard supported by Philips Hue and Innr. Connect your lights via that protocol to a bridge, an intermediate device that in turn connects to your smartphone. The advantage of this compared to WiFi lamps is that your WiFi network is not burdened and that the operation of lamps takes place completely locally, without the intervention of cloud servers. Oh, and if the internet goes down, your lights will continue to work.

An interesting thing about Zigbee is that products that have this standard are also compatible with each other. So you can, for example, connect lamps from Innr or smart lamps from IKEA with the Philips Hue Bridge. You can then also pair them with the Hue app, and they also work with most accessories.

WiFi lamps such as those from Hombli and WiZ are usually cheaper, partly because no bridge is required. Bluetooth lamps have the same advantage, but the connection is only less stable compared to Wi-Fi and Zigbee. The only lamp in this comparison that supports Bluetooth is that of Philips Hue, but the most appropriate way to connect those lamps remains via Zigbee and a bridge. If you use them with bluetooth, you also miss out on functionalities.

Range of luminaires, accessories and smart home platforms

Philips Hue has by far the largest range of fixtures, because you can integrate Hue into your home in just about every possible way. Whether outdoor lighting, bathroom lamps or table lamps: there is a solution. Innr has fewer arm fixtures, especially a series of light strips and outdoor lighting. You will also find a light rip and two types of table lamps at WiZ, and Hombli only has a light rip.

Hue is also the brand that has the most accessories, namely: multiple remote controls, switches, a motion sensor, a smart plug and so on. Wiz has all those things too, but no smart switch. At Innr you miss a motion sensor on top of that, and on top of that Hombli has no remote control.

If you already have smart home devices at home, you want to check in advance which platforms your smart lamps can connect to. Hue works with most well-known services, while support remains rather limited, especially with Hombli. Hombli works with the big names such as Google Assistant, HomeKit and Alexa, but not with the handy IFTTT and SmartThings, for example.

Conclusion

The Philips Hue brand of the Dutch Signify is one of the founders when it comes to smart lamps. The first generation appeared in 2012, and over the years an entire ecosystem of lamps and accessories has emerged. That is a great asset, because there is the ideal product for every room and every type of home.

But you do pay a price for that, because a Hue lamp costs almost twice as much as the Innr smart lamp in this comparison. That lamp also works with the excellent Zigbee standard, and is even compatible with most Hue accessories, the Bridge and the Hue app. That makes it a formidable competitor.

The Wi-Fi lamps from Hombli are even more affordable. No bridge is required to connect them and they are a lot cheaper compared to Innr and Philips Hue products. On the other hand, there are no Hombli fixtures available in addition to a light strip, and this Dutch brand also offers the least versatility in terms of accessories and smart home standards.

To provide an answer to the cheaper competitors for Hue, Signify came to the Netherlands with the WiZ brand last year. Just like Hombli, the lamps connect via WiFi, and come with a limited range of accessories. They are also the cheapest lamps in this comparison, and a lamp is three times cheaper than one from Philips Hue. The WiZ app is also surprisingly extensive, which makes it a good solution if you are looking for affordable lamps.

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