The best smart bulbs in 2019

Smart light bulbs are the core component of any smart home. Without them, you cannot really call your home, smart. Smart light bulbs can be controlled and monitored using smart home apps or your voice if your smart home has a voice-based personal assistant installed. These light bulbs come with multi-colour option. With smart light bulbs, you can change the tone, brightness and even colour. So, you can change colours whenever depending on your mood. Having a party? Create a party scene on your home automation app and set a lively colour on your smart light bulbs.

If you implement some of your beautiful lighting design ideas at your smart home, then getting a smart lighting system is a must. You will have plenty of options with it. Once you switch from your dumb light bulbs to smart light bulbs, you will be wondering why you haven’t made the switch before! These bulbs are costlier than regular bulbs, however, what you get in return is surely worth the cost.

The biggest name in this field is Philips Hue. You may have already made up your mind for buying this smart bulb. We agree that it is certainly a great choice, but, let us brief you with some other smart lighting options available in the market.

LIFX A19

If you have just started searching about smart lighting, then LIFX is a new name to you. But for us who regularly install home automation systems in London, LIFX is a huge name. They are often considered a pioneer in smart lighting technology. The LIFX A19 smart bulb is shaped like the head of Frankenstein. This is essentially an updated version of their hugely successful LIFX+, which had a security problem. The company fixed that problem and made some minor adjustments and released LIFX A19 in 2018. Since then, it has received plenty of awesome reviews from its users. The Bulb is compatible with Alexa, Apple Homekit, Google Assistant and NEST. So, you can easily integrate it to a home automation system of your choice.

LIFX A19 has a feature called Day & Dusk. This system automates lights turning on to a refreshing and cold looking light in the early of the day and slowly fading to a relaxing warmer light at night time.

The light bulb fits in a standard lights socket. It has ton of different colours. It has an app and during test we found out that the bulb is very responsive to that app.

Hive Active Light

Hive a subsidiary of British Gas is generally known for its range of smart thermostats and door sensors, however, they also have smart light bulbs in their inventory. We particularly liked its Active light bulb. Just like many other smart lights, the bulb itself houses the intelligence section. As a result, the bulb is slightly heavier than dumb LED bulbs. However, you would not need any additional fitting for the bulb. They look exactly like normal LED bulbs. It is easy to install, thanks to its compatibility with standard fitting.

You can control the light with the Hive app. If you have a Samsung SmartThings, you can use that instead of the Hive app.

With this light, you can set up a simple schedule, selecting when you want a light to turn on and its intensity as well as when to turn it off. Using this option, you can turn on your lights in your empty home fooling potential burglars.

The light also works with Alexa, you will need to download Alexa skill set. It also supports IFTTT. However, with IFTTT you can only turn on and off the light, cannot control intensity or colour. Google Assistant support is also available.

Sengled Element Classic Starter Kit

Senglads latest colour changing smart bulbs are a more economical option than other smart bulbs in the market. The bulb is fully compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant. It works with an App which tracks the real-time power consumption of each setting. So, you can set save some power cost. The colours are not that bright compared to Lifx or Hue but they are pretty accurate. The app is also not as responsive as Lifx app. Plus point is, it works with IFTTT and Apple Homekit.

The starter kit comes with Two bulbs and a wifi hub. The bulbs are bright enough, even after using it for several hours, the bulbs remain cool. Installation is also very straightforward, just connect the wifi hub to your router, download the App, scan the light bulb and rename it to whatever you want.

You can also connect the light with Alexa. With each wifi hub, you can control up to 64 bulbs. You can group lights by rooms and give them a specific name. For example, if you have 4 lights in your bedroom you can create a group and call it bedroom light. Then you can control them all together with a single command.

Philips Hue

Philips Hue is clearly the best smart light bulbs in the market. The light produces the most natural looking light compared to all other lights. The app is easy to use, and installation requires only a few steps. With Philips hue, you need a Hub. So, you will need to purchase the starter kit. However, you do not need a separate hub for each light as they all can be connected to the same hub.

Philips Hue has different variations of smart lights. The white light bulb only emits white light while the colour option allows over 16 million available colours. And ambient variants of these two variations gives you the option of dimmer tones.