Top 3 Smart Light Bulbs To Brighten Up Your Abode

Updated on April 1st, 2022

Smart light bulbs controlled by a hub or a smartphone app are no longer a novel concept. What's surprising is how far this technology has progressed in only a few years. Today's Best Smart Light Bulbs are smaller, brighter, and have better color representation.. They also, for the most part, come with control applications that do more and are quicker to set up than ever before.

Smart lights are an excellent place to start if you want to make your house a bit smarter. The majority of solutions are inexpensive and simple to set up. There are also no cameras or door locks to hack into, as well as no wiring to tamper with.

Let's take a look at the top 3 most popular smart light bulbs so that you can pick one that suits your needs.

Check out the Kasa Smart Light Bulb KL110, LED Wi-Fi smart bulb, works with Alexa and Google Home

Our Top 3 Picks:

1. Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 E26 LED Smart Bulb

The Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance is the first Hue smart light to have a Bluetooth radio, allowing it to be controlled without a Hue Bridge. It comes with its own software that allows you to switch it on or off, dim it, alter the colors and temperature settings, and it works with Alexa and Google voice commands. It's a simple and quick method to add smart lights to your house, but it's not cheap, and you have to stay within Bluetooth range to use it.

If you want to operate it from afar and take advantage of smart home integration and all of the other capabilities that make Hue a best-in-class smart lighting platform, you can attach it to a Hue Bridge. The Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance bulb is a fantastic place to start if you only want to dip your toe into the smart lighting waters before investing in an expensive hub-controlled system.

2. Cree Lighting Connected Max Smart LED Bulb

Cree Lighting's Connected Max range of bulbs, which are available in both dimmable white and color-changing variants, takes the lighting company even deeper into the smart home. The color A19 bulb, which is both a complete color-changing and a tunable white light, has made it to our top 3 picks of smart light bulbs. The bulb has a classic shape, with a big heat sink and an Edison-style globe on top, about the same size as a standard incandescent. The bulb uses 9 watts and produces 800 lumens, making it a 60-watt incandescent replacement.

A comprehensive variety of tuning choices, including a white color temperature range of 2200K to 6500K and a competent dimmer, are available to experiment with. In addition, an easy-to-use color wheel makes it simple to light the space for the holidays—and the bulb's hues are vivid and vibrant. The bulb connects to the internet through Bluetooth at first, but only on the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi frequency.

The Cree Lighting mobile app made initial configuration a breeze, and installation occurred without a hassle. The app integrates with Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to operate the light using voice commands.

Check the Cree Lighting Connected Max Smart LED Bulb A19 60W Tunable White + Color Changing

3. LIFX Color Wi-Fi Smart LED Light Bulb

The LIFX A19 800 lumens, Billions of Colors and Whites, Wi-Fi Smart LED Light Bulb appears to be the most powerful smart bulb on the market. It outshines its competitors in terms of brightness. The LIFX A19 is virtually identical to the LIFX+, which adds an infrared night light to a regular, color-tunable smart bulb.

The 11-watt LIFX A19 also has HomeKit compatibility, which is a newer feature. Smart light bulbs may be set up manually via Wi-Fi, with the standalone LIFX app, or with HomeKit if you have an Apple TV that serves as a HomeKit hub. If you use HomeKit, the bulbs will display in the iOS Home app and function like any other color bulb, with dimming, color tweaking, and scheduling options all easily accessible.

However, like with other LIFX bulbs, using the A19 does not need the use of a hub of any type. You may also use an Amazon Echo, Google Home, or Apple HomePod to operate any LIFX smart light using voice commands. A simple dial provides an easy color wheel to pick colors from and a dimming slider in the center of the circle, allowing you to move between color tuning and white color temperature tuning. 

The program has eight specialty settings as well as various prebuilt themes ranging from "blissful" to "Halloween." This smart bulb is compatible with LIFX's "Day & Dusk" system, which automates lights going on to an energetic cold light in the morning and gradually fading to a soothing warm light at night. While LIFX bulbs are still on the pricey side, the difference has narrowed enough to make LIFX a top-tier bulb worth considering for any situation that requires customizable color.

Looking for outdoor lights too? Check out Best Smart Outdoor Lights To Light Up Your Home This Holiday Season