You guide to smart lighting and some best budget-friendly smart bulbs.
Would you believe if we say you can remotely control all your home appliances and devices, such as fans, lights, locks, etc., using your mobile phone while sitting on your couch anywhere in your home?
You may not believe it. But this concept exists in the real world and is known as Smart Home.
Smart Home is a convenient home setup where all home appliances and devices can be controlled remotely using an internet-activated mobile device.
Thus, a smart home is a combination of different “smart” units working together, and one such integration is Smart Lighting.
What Is Smart Lighting?
When we say “Smart Lighting,” we mean lights that can be controlled remotely using a wireless connection.
Smart lights come with an integrated WiFi or Bluetooth module that helps establish a connection between the phone and the lights.
But smart lights don’t always rely on wireless connections. Some of their features may also rely on motion-detecting sensors. These sensors automatically turn on/off the lights or perform a specific task based on changes in the environment.
If you’re planning to switch to smart lighting from traditional lighting, however, you might face a significant price jump.
But along with the price gap, you’ll also find numerous benefits of smart lighting over their traditional counterparts, as discussed below:
1. The first benefit of choosing smart lighting is that you can easily control it remotely using a mobile app.
2. Unlike traditional lighting, smart lighting offers options to change the light’s color temperature, brightness, etc., per your mood.
3. This lighting system may also come with a Scheduling feature that automatically switches on and off your home’s lights at your specified times.
4. Unlike traditional lights, smart lights can be controlled using voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
5. Lastly, the smart lighting system is more energy efficient compared to the traditional lighting system.
6. And there is no need to install wall switches anymore.
So, these were a few of their features. If you’re convinced and ready to take the leap, here are a few smart bulbs to help you pick the right one.
Top 5 Smart Bulbs To Consider
Before looking at the best smart LED bulbs, let’s take a look at all the features you should look for in smart bulbs:
1. Color Tuning: The first thing you should look for while picking a smart bulb for your smart home is that it allows you to change the light’s temperature and brightness with ease. Other than this, it should allow you to set the light’s color to any possible color shade you like.
2. Smart Scheduling: Another thing you should look for in a smart LED light bulb is that it supports light scheduling. It means it should let you automatically turn on/off lights at set times.
3. Easy To Use: No doubt, any smart LED bulb you choose should let you customize the lighting as you want from anywhere. But one thing you should look at is that doing so is easy.
4. Pairing With Voice & Smart Assistants: The next thing you should consider while choosing a smart bulb is that it works with the majority of voice assistants, especially Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
5. Durability & Warranty: The next important thing you should consider is that the smart bulb is durable. You can know this by reading related reviews of it on Amazon and other eCommerce stores. Besides this, you should also ensure that it comes with at least 1 year of warranty.
So, these are all the features you should consider while choosing a smart LED light bulb for your smart home. Let’s now take a look at some of the best smart light bulbs available out there.
Related: A beginner’s guide to Smart locks.
We’ve selected the below-listed smart bulbs based on their features and customer reviews on Amazon.
Qubo Smart Bulb
The first smart LED light bulb we’ve selected is Qubo Smart Bulb. It’s a perfect smart LED light bulb for home and office purposes. Qubo Smart Bulb supports more than 16 million RGB color shades, which means you can set its shade to any possible shade.
Other than this, this smart bulb comes with 16 different presets for different moods. Like other smart bulbs, it also lets you change your light’s brightness according to your needs.
You can set its brightness to Warm, Neutral, or White Tunable Light. Besides, it comes with both WiFi and Bluetooth support. You can connect your mobile phone to this smart light bulb via WiFi or Bluetooth and easily control it in the Qubo Smart Home app.
Giving a glimpse of the Qubo Smart Home app. It’s very easy to use, as it comes with an intuitive interface. You can view and control all your Qubo lights and other devices in one place.
Moving on, you can also use the Qubo Smart Home app to create schedules. For instance, you can use it to automatically turn on/off lights or change the light’s shade at set times. One of the best things about Qubo Smart Bulb is that it works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, which means you can change the light’s color, presets, and more using voice commands.
It comes in three different wattages: 9W, 12WB22, and 12WE27. Of course, the price of all variants varies. Last but not least, all variants come with 1 year of warranty from the purchase date.
Philips Wiz
The next smart light bulb on our list is Philips Wiz. Like Qubo Smart Bulb, it also supports up to 16 million RGB colors, which leaves you with so many lighting options to choose from. Along with this, it has a huge library of light modes, including different static and dynamic light modes to match your mood.
Not only this, but you can also change the brightness and temperature of the smart bulb in the Wiz app. You can choose from three levels: Warm White, Daylight, and Cool White.
This smart bulb comes with a built-in WiFi module, which lets you connect your phone to the smart bulb via WiFi. But to connect your phone to the bulb, you need to use the Wiz app, available on Google Play Store and App Store.
One thing that’s worth mentioning is that its setup process is very easy. This is because the Wiz app features an intuitive interface, which ultimately makes things easier. Furthermore, you can create personalized scenes for your rooms in the Wiz app.
Like other smart bulbs, Philips Wiz also has a Light Scheduling feature, which lets you automate lighting based on the set time of the day. But one feature that makes it different from other smart bulbs is Rhythms. The Rhythms feature automatically changes the light mode and brightness level at different times of the day. You can choose from given rhythms or create your own.
The most highlighting part about Philips Wiz is it’s compatibility with IFTTT, Google Assistant, and Alexa. Last but not least, the Philips Wiz smart bulb comes with only 1 year of warranty.
Wipro LED Smart Bulb
Wipro Smart LED Bulb is a great smart RGB bulb that’s perfect for photography purposes, as per the manufacturer. By default, its color shade is warm white. Other than this, it supports up to 16 million colors. You can also alter your light’s brightness to any level.
Wipro Smart LED Bulb has similar features as other smart LED light bulbs on this list. But one feature that differentiates it from other smart bulbs is music sync. The Music Sync feature makes your light dance with your songs’ rhythms and changes the entire room’s vibe. It’s a great feature for someone who regularly hosts parties at their place. You can also create light schedules and routines to switch lights on or off automatically at set times.
On connectivity front, Wipro Smart LED Bulb comes with only a WiFi module. It doesn’t support Bluetooth connectivity, which could be a drawback for people who don’t have WiFi at their place. You need to use the Wipro Next Smart Home app on your phone to set it up. Once done, you can use it to customize light, create light schedules, and more.
Most importantly, Wipro Smart LED Bulb works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. You can use voice commands like “Alexa/Ok Google, turn on Wipro lights” to switch on the lights.
Wipro Smart LED Bulb comes with 1 year of warranty and two different wattages: 9W and 12W.
Syska Smart Bulb
Another smart LED bulb that’s worth considering on our top smart bulbs list is Syska Smart Bulb, which is a 12W smart bulb that comes with 2 years of warranty. Similar to other smart LED light bulbs, Syska Smart Bulb also supports up to 16 million color shades. Likewise, it supports adjusting the light’s brightness and temperature according to your needs with Syska Smart Home app.
This app features a clean user interface, which eventually makes the setup and light customization process smoother. It also supports creating different scenes and routines.
Moving ahead, Syska Smart Bulb comes pre-enabled with 2.4 GHz WiFi only. It means it doesn’t work on Bluetooth. If you don’t have WiFi at your place, you can connect it to your mobile’s hotspot. But for this, you need to keep the mobile hotspot enabled all the time.
You can also use the Syska Smart Home app to schedule lighting. However, the most highlighting part of Syska Smart Bulb is its Music Sync feature, which makes the light dance to the musics’ tunes. Last but not least, it’s also compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
MI Led Smart Color Bulb
The last smart LED bulb on this list is MI Led Smart Color Bulb. Like other smart bulbs, it also comes with up to 16 million colors to choose from. You can set the MI Led Smart Color Bulb’s color shade to any color you want with the MI Home app control.
The best part is that the app works on iOS and Android and has an easy-to-use user interface.
Hence, it makes it easy to manage and control all MI’s smart lights and other home devices under one roof. You can use the app to switch on/off lights, adjust the brightness, temperature, and more.
The app also has a Group Lights feature that lets you group all the lights by MI and customize them together to create stunning decor. Additionally, you can create lighting schedules within the app.
You can connect MI Led Smart Color Bulb to the mobile device using WiFi. But notably, it doesn’t connect to the 5G WiFi networks, which is a drawback of this smart LED bulb.
Moving to the most highlighting part of MI Led Smart Color Bulb. It’s compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. MI Led Smart Color Bulb comes with only 6 months of warranty, which is disappointing, as most smart LED bulbs come with 1 or 2 years of warranty. Finally, it comes as a single 9W variant without higher wattage options to choose from.
Conclusion
So these are some smart bulbs you can consider for your smart home.
But out of all, I personally liked Phillips Wiz for a lot of reasons. First, it comes with various light modes, such as static, dynamic, etc. Secondly, it has advanced features like Light Automation, Scenes, and Rhythms. Most importantly, the Wiz app has a simple and clean interface, which is easy to use.
If you can’t go with Philips Wiz for any reason, consider Wipro LED Smart Bulb. It also comes with many amazing lighting features, including Real-time Music Syncing.
We hope we helped you make an informed decision.
Until next time!
