The 6 best smart lamps

Smart LED lamps are no longer a rare phenomenon and this market is rapidly maturing. The modern LED lamp is more compact, brighter and can display colors better. The apps that control these lights can be used more than ever and are easy to configure. Moreover, the lamps have also become cheaper. If you look a bit well, you can even find generic lamps for ten, but beware: you get what you pay for.

Not necessarily all the colors of the rainbow

Tech media usually throws themselves into the color lamps full of effects and party tricks. It’s fun toys, but the reality is that most of us rarely let all the lights in the house shine a specific eye-catching color like red or blue. Except if you maybe give a party or if your favorite soccer team wins. When the party is over, they usually switch back to white.

White light is also very important of its own, there have been enough scientific studies today to show how different shades of white, with variations in color temperature, affect our psychological state. Cool light that is closer to blue has a stimulating effect and is best in the morning. Warm light is relaxing, and is best after sunset. If you, like a growing number of us, work where you live, there is a good chance that you will not have to spend twice a day turning off lights to optimize your lighting environment.

That is no longer necessary. Look at smart “white” smart LED lights. Like their colored brothers, white lights are designed to integrate with the smart house, allowing you to control your lights via a smartphone, tablet or even your web browser on the desktop, set timers when you are away from home, and (in many cases) tweak the color temperature of the lamp on the fly.

Usually these features are trivialized in comparison with the color lamps and many are slightly less clear than, But white smart lamps are invariably cheaper than color lamps, making it cheaper to roll them out in several rooms.

We have tested just about every color and white LED Smart Bulb on the market and have listed the best for you:

The best color LED smart bulb

Philips was one of the first players in this market, and the experience of the company shows that. The Hue color ambiance lamps have not changed much since their introduction at the end of 2012, but the new lamps last a lot longer and the company continues to add new shapes, sizes and accessories to the line-up.

The Hue app has also been significantly improved, and Hue lamps are available in a wide range of form factors, including BR30, PAR, GU10, and A19 in addition to stand-alone devices such as the Philips Hue Phoenix.

Philips recently expanded the Hue lamps even further and now it is also possible to control them via Bluetooth. In addition, outdoor lamps are now also available so that you can even color your garden.

Dear Runner-up

The LIFX 19 Perhaps scored slightly better than the Philips Hue, the Philips lamps have more options and a wider range. Technically, the LIFX lamps have just a few other useful features on board. The new Wifi-color LED lamps also have infrared LEDs on board that can be switched on via the app and ensure that (smart) security cameras can see much better what is happening at night.

In terms of versatility, Philips lamps are, however, still gaining ground.

Best white smart LED smart bulb

It may not surprise you that the white Hue lamps from Philips are also the best in our test. The latest Hue lamps provide high quality light, last tens of thousands of hours and are supported by a strong guarantee.

And while Philips can easily sit back and expect industry to conform, it has instead worked hard to ensure that its products are compatible with other technologies, including Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Google Home . In addition, Philips Hue lamps are available in more form factors than any other manufacturer, including the ubiquitous A19 (the most common), BR (curved reflector), PAR (parabolic reflector), GU (glass reflector with a U-shaped, dual pin basis) and a large number of special shapes and sizes.

Best runner up White smart bulb

And here too LIFX manages to take a very good second place. If you want a white smart lamp that doesn’t need a Smart Home hub, the LIFX Mini White an excellent choice. The lamp is slightly weaker than the full-size LIFX lamp, but produces a 60-watt equivalent of 800 lumens.

Best semi-smart LED bulb

We have long discussed whether the Intellibulbs from Feit Electric can be placed in this category because they technically do not meet our definition of a smart lamp. They don’t have Wi-Fi, ZigBee or even Bluetooth support, so they can’t be controlled via an app, and they can’t be meaningfully incorporated into a wider smart home system.

In addition, the lamps themselves were not very impressed, but for people who want to change the color temperature in a simple way, the Intellibulb ColorChoice is a wonderfully simple solution.

Best smart bulb in combination with a security camera

Many (smart) security cameras are equipped with smart LEDs to be able to capture something at night. We also mentioned it earlier in this article, the LIFX + has its own infrared LEDs on board that can help security cameras. Since infrared light is not visible to the naked eye, it can do no harm to always switch it on at night.

Protocols and features for smart lamps

There are currently three major control technologies competing for leadership in the smart bulb market (Z-Wave is an important competitor for smart lamps, but you won’t find it in many other lamps – only in switches, plug-in modules, control panels and smart- home hubs).

ZigBee: Lamps that use this popular smart-home network protocol require a bridge to communicate with your home Wi-Fi network. This is the technology that Philips uses for its Hue lamps, but it is not the only one.

Wi-Fi: This lamp communicates directly with your Wi-Fi router, you do not need a hub or bridge. LIFX is today the only major supplier that markets colored Wi-Fi lamps.

Bluetooth: These lights completely skip your home network and connect directly with your smartphone or tablet. As a result, they cannot be operated from outside. GE and a number of other manufacturers make Bluetooth lamps, some of a better quality than others.

Each of these technologies has pros and cons, so before you try to focus on a specific lamp you must first try to determine which technology is right for you if you want to connect your lamps in a wider smart-home system such as SmartThings or Nest.

Bluetooth lights are off. You can operate more than one lamp with your telephone, but you cannot connect it to sensors or other systems in your house. Do you not like to connect a lamp to your phone? A Wi-Fi lamp works best for you, but you don’t have as many options as with a ZigBee product.

Smart lamp or smart switch?

There is a big debate going on about the best way to install smart lighting and there are two approaches that present themselves. You can work with expensive lamps and operate them all separately, or you can use cheap stupid lamps and install smart switches to control all the lamps on that circuit. Both approaches are useful: With intelligent lamps, costs are the biggest problem, but there is also complexity that you have to take into account. Although lamps can usually be grouped based on location, you are largely dependent on the app with which you have to arrange that.

Smart switches, on the other hand, are much more complicated to install to the point where some users do not feel comfortable with exposed wiring and prefer to hire an electrician. However, smart switches offer more flexibility in many installations.

Many users (or their children) will use the wall switch instinctively as standard to switch off the lights when they leave a room. Once that happens, no app will be able to turn the light on again until the switch is turned back to the on position. Although this will not be a problem if you install smart switches, they cannot change the color or color temperature of a lamp. So look carefully at what wisdom is.

That said, smart lights, regardless of technology, will still not be suitable for everyone. Most of these lamps cannot be dimmed via a hardware wall switch (this messes with the electricity going to the radio, making them useless). Some will fail even if there is a dimmer on the circuit and it is set to full power. And although today’s LED lamps are brighter than ever, they are still not bright enough compared to stupid lamps. The quality of light from an LED lamp will probably be much, much better.

The good news is that the prices of smart lamps are falling, so it is easier to get started with smart lamps and hurt less if you notice that a product is not working for you.