The Best Smart Bulbs to Light Up Your Home

[Karlston]

The Best Smart Bulbs to Light Up Your Home 

They're the easiest way to start building a smart home. From Lifx to Philips Hue, here are our favorites.

 

 

If you’re anything like me, you spent your childhood dreaming of lights you could control by clapping. The Clapper's premise was brilliant—no more getting up from your comfortable bed to hit the light switch! (You can still buy it.) But technology has come a long way since then. Now, you can control lightbulbs with your smartphone or even your voice if you have a smart assistant in your home. It's not just about turning your lights on and off, either. Some models let you change colors and create custom routines, no clapping required.

 

Smart bulbs are a great place to start if you want to make your home a little smarter. Most options are relatively cheap and they’re easy to install. There are also no cameras or door locks for someone to hack into and invade your privacy. I've tested out a handful for the past month, and these are my favorites.

 

You might want to look into getting a smart speaker or smart display if you want to use your voice to control these bulbs. Two affordable options we like are the Nest Mini and the Echo Dot, but you don't need them. You can always use the bulb's corresponding app.

 

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  Photograph: Philips

  A Word on Smart Light Bulbs

  Lighting Tips

   

  You'll typically see smart bulbs categorized by full color, dimmable white, and tunable white (bright white and warm tone options). All the color bulbs we tried have numerous white and warm settings, so if there's any chance you might want to try out colors occasionally, we recommend going with them. If you're buying lighting for an office or other professional space where pink or blue shades would be frowned upon (or you just want the most affordable bulb), we have basic options listed below.

   

  Setting up smart bulbs is simple. Usually, you only need to replace a bulb. Then make sure to leave the power switch to the lamp or the wall switch turned on so the corresponding app can control power. You might have to occasionally reconnect them to the app.

   

  Note: You might run into issues using smart bulbs with dimmer switches, and the lights we recommend below are also not meant to be used outdoors. We'll be testing outdoor bulbs soon to bring you more recommendations.

   

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  Photograph:  LIFX

  Best Smart Light Bulb

  LIFX A19

   

  This bulb offers more white and warm tone options than the other models I tried. It gets bright—1,100 lumens to be exact—but it can run surprisingly dim too. This is also the best bulb if you want to paint your home in splashes of color, as there are what feels like limitless color options (a trillion, according to the company). These Lifx bulbs also have scenes you can easily toggle on, like one that syncs to your music for a full-on dance session and one rightfully called “spooky” if you want the perfect backdrop for horror movie night.

   

  There's also the A19+, which has a hidden little gem: infrared light (invisible to the naked eye) that will increase a security camera’s night vision when the bulb is under 5 percent brightness. But this bulb isn't cheap, so if you don't have a security camera or have one with night vision built in, go for the standard version.

   

  Compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple Homekit, Samsung SmartThings

   

  $60 $47 at Amazon

   

  $60 at Lifx

   

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  Photograph: Wyze

  Best Budget Bulb

  Wyze Bulb

   

  Wyze consistently rivals larger smart home brands with affordable but easy-to-use devices, and its bulbs are no different. Costing around $8 for one or $30 to $40 for a set of four (depending on the retailer), it's one of the cheapest ways to smarten up the lighting in your home. The compromise is that there are no bells and whistles. You can choose from shades of bright white and warm, and that's it. But for an office, or if you don’t care about color bulbs, this is a great option that's easy to control.

  Compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

   

  $12 at Amazon

   

  $8 at Wyze

 

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  Photograph: Philips

  Best Hub-Supported Bulb

  Philips Hue Starter Kit

   

  Most smart bulbs these days don't need a hub to connect to, but they can be useful. This Philips-branded kit (they're now made by a company called Signify) comes with four bulbs and a Hue Bridge hub. The Bridge lets you connect the new bulbs to your phone or voice assistant, but it's also how you connect older Philips bulbs if you have any, as well as other first- or third-party accessories like the Philips Outdoor Motion Sensor. It's best to go with this if you want to use one system for all your smart home devices.

   

  The bulbs can change color like the Lifx ones, and there are lots of preset scenes to choose from to set the mood (or you can make your own). The app also includes how-to videos that briefly explain the various extras these bulbs can do, like using a blinking light as a timer. You can also purchase the bulbs by themselves. They're affordable, and there are several options to choose from (including a color bulb). WIRED contributing writer Boone Ashworth says he's had issues connecting to some of the bulbs sometimes, but I haven't run into any issues in my testing.

   

  Compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit (Via Hue Bridge), Samsung SmartThings

   

  $194 at Amazon

   

  $199 at The Home Depot

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  Photograph: GE

  Best Budget Color Bulb

  C by GE Full Color

   

  These bulbs from GE have white and color options similar to what you get with the Lifx and Philips Hue bulbs, minus the preset scenes to choose from. You can, however, create your own scenes with any color and brightness level, as well as set schedules for your lights to go on or turn off. No fuss, not too many frills, all the benefits. We've linked to the two-pack below, but you can also buy one bulb for $30.

   

  Compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit

   

  $55 at Amazon

   

  $30 at Best Buy

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  Photograph: Eufy

  Another Good Cheap Bulb

  Eufy Lumos Smart Bulb 2.0 Tunable White

   

  Eufy's bulbs are more expensive than Wyze's, but they're still quite affordable at $20 apiece. They’re nice if you want a basic smart light but don’t want to deal with color, scenes, or other extras. I like the tunable white bulb, which has many shades of warm and bright white, but there's also a dimmable white option if that's all you need.

   

  Compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

   

  $20 at Amazon

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  Photograph: TP Link

  If You Can't Swap Bulbs

  TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Lite

   

  Maybe you're like me (Julian) and use fancy light bulbs, or maybe you just can't change the bulb in your home or apartment for some reason. That's where smart switches and smart plugs come into play. I've connected several of my lamps to TP-Link's Smart Plugs, which use your home's Wi-Fi network to let you remotely control power to the bulb. You can use the corresponding app to control your lights and schedule on or off times, or you can connect it to a voice assistant for voice control. I've also used smart plugs from WeMo, but they frequently disconnect, and I've had issues reconnecting them.

   

  You can also replace your light switches with smart ones, but that requires a little more work. I haven't tested these, but Lutron and TP-Link's options come well recommended. —Julian Chokkattu

   

  Compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

 

Source: The Best Smart Bulbs to Light Up Your Home (Wired)