White LED Bulbs Are Smart

With their rainbow of hues and myriad party tricks, color LEDs get all the press in the world of smart lighting. It’s fun stuff, but the reality is that most of us will rarely find much of a need to turn all the lights in the house blue or red—unless it’s time to celebrate our team winning the World Series. Even then, you’ll probably want to turn them all back to white after the celebration.

White light is also important in its own right, as today there is plenty of science to show how various shades of white—with variations in color temperature—impact our psychological state. Cool light that’s closer to blue has an energizing effect, and is best in the morning. Warm light is relaxing, and is best after the sun goes down.

Note: not every white LED smart bulb is color-temperature-tunable so  always check out the specifications before you buy.

White smart bulbs downplay the party features that are a staple of color-tunable bulbs. On the other hand, white smart bulbs are less expensive than color bulbs, making it more affordable to roll them out in multiple rooms.

We’ve tested just about every color and white LED smart bulb on the market. You’ll find links to all our reviews at the bottom of the page, and we’ll update this story as new models are introduced.

Let’s Look At Some Choices Of The Best Smart Light Bulbs

Philips A19 Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit

If you’re looking for the easiest way to make your home’s lighting smart, the Philips A19 Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit is the way to go.

It comes with everything you need to bring smart lighting into your home, including four Philips white and color 60 watt A19 Energy Start Certified bulbs (that will fit in all standard lighting fixtures), and a Philips Hue Bridge, which comes complete with a power adapter and an Ethernet cable.

The Hue Bridge boasts a powerful processor that can control as many as 50 Hue lights and won’t have any impact on your WiFi.

Furthermore, it has the ability to run several applications in addition to the Hue system, such as the Apple HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

This starter kit comes with four Philips Hue A19 LED white and color ambiance bulbs, which offer the same power as a 60 watt incandescent light bulb.

These bulbs will fit into any traditional light fixture or lamp, which means that you can transform your existing fixtures into smart fixtures.

All bulbs are Energy Star Certified, so not only do they provide brilliant ambient lighting, but they’ll also help out your energy bill, too – and they run for a total of 25,000 hours!

Installing this smart lighting starter kit is a breeze! Simply replace your current bulbs with the Philips Hue bulbs, plug the Hue Bridge into your WiFi modem, and plug it into the wall.

Next, download the Philips Hue app onto your iOS or Android tablet or smartphone, and you’re ready to go!

The manual offers step-by-step, easy to follow instructions.

Once you’re set up, you’ll be able to access 16 million (you read that right!) different hues and shades of white. Light up any space in any color, or sync with your entertainment system to create a spectacular light show.

This smart light kit from Philips offers endless possibilities.

Pricing is a bit on the high side, but considering that it comes with everything you need, the cost offsets itself.

LOHAS A19 Multicolored Smart Light Bulb

LOHAS may be as well known as Philips, but we found that they offer one of the best smart bulbs on the market.

They’ve been around since 2003 and they offer LED lighting options to more than 100 countries.

This smart light is an A19, so it can be used with any standard lighting fixture. It’s also LED and offers 9 watts of power (the equivalent of 60 watts in a standard light bulb), so you’ll have plenty of light but won’t use a lot of energy.

The bulb is also dimmable and offers 16 million different color options, so you can easily customize your lighting to suit your needs or your mood.

Installing this smart light is pretty straightforward. Before installing the bulb, scan the QR code with your iOS or Android device to download the app that you’ll use to operate the light.

Once the app is downloaded, place the bulb in a lighting fixture. Use the app to operate your lighting; turn it on and off, dim it, choose from different color options, set a timer, etc.

A color wheel on the app allows you to choose from a wide array of options, or you can choose one of the pre-set color schemes.

There are four different color scenes for relaxing, including soft, night, reading, and leisure.

There are also four different scents for entertainment purposes: party, rainbow, shine, and gorgeous. This smart light also works with Google Home and Alexa, so you have the option to control it by voice, too!

The LOHAS Smart Light Bulb has a life span of an estimated 30,000 hours. And, because it’s an LED bulb, it uses about 80 percent less power than a standard light bulb.

It should be noted that this bulb is only supported by 2.4GHz wireless networks, which is a little disappointing.

However, overall, we were impressed by the cost (it’s the most affordable on our list) and the options that the LOHAS Smart Light offers.

LIFX A19 Smart LED WiFi Light Bulb

LIFX is another company that has pioneered the smart lighting and their A19 Smart LED light is one of the best smart bulbs available. Not only does it offer some of the same advanced features as other bulbs listed here, but it also packs an incredible 1,100 lumens of power, making it one of the most powerful smart bulbs available.

In fact, after testing and comparing the brightness of this bulb with other options, we can honestly say that it stands up to – if not outshines – the competition.

The LIFX smart light bulb offers WiFi connectivity, allowing you to take advantage of easy to access and fully immersive lighting to your home.

All of the technology and hardware that’s needed to operate the bulb is built right into it, so there’s no hub required, which makes setting up your smart home lighting a breeze.

Simply install the bulb into the lighting fixture of your choice (since it’s an A19 bulb, it works with most standard fixtures), download the LIFX app on your iOS or Android device, and you’re ready to start using it.

It can also be integrated with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant, which allows for super convenient voice operation.

The LIFX app has several built-in color themes, such as “Halloween” and “blissful”, or you can use the more than 16 million shades of white and hues of color to create your own unique color combination.

The app also features a cool “Day and Dusk” setting, which will adjust your lighting to a cool, energizing light in during the morning hours and will fade into a more relaxed, warm light during evening hours.

The LIFX Smart Light Bulb is the equivalent to a standard 75 watt bulb, but since it’s LED, it uses much less power.

Easy installation, seamless integration, a long life span (almost 29 years if used for 3 hours a day), an affordable price tag, and limitless color options make the LIFX A19 WiFi Smart Light Bulb an excellent choice.

Flux Bluetooth Smart Light Bulb

Flux is a budget light bulb company, but don’t assume that “budget” means poor quality. Everything you need to make your home’s lighting smart is packed into this bulb!

This bulb is outfitted with a 4.0 Bluetooth connection, which allows it to link right to your iOS or Android tablet or smartphone; there’s no hub required to operate this bulb, which makes set up a real cinch.

In fact, you don’t even have to worry about pairing the light bulb to your device! Once you’ve downloaded the Flux app, the bulb will automatically pair to it!

The Flux app is loaded with tons of features and the design is highly intuitive and very user-friendly, which make using the Bluetooth Smart Light Bulb super easy.

There are several control dials within the app that you can use to choose the perfect color and setting for your nights.

Opt for one of the 16 million colors or shades of white, or you can pick one of the five different presets.

There are also several different modes built into the app that automatically adjust the brightness, color, and setting of the bulb.

Sunrise and Sunset mode, for example, automatically adjusts the color and warmth of the lighting to correspond with the time of day.

With Scene Mode, you can set the light bulb to colors that are selected from the photos saves on your device. There’s even a built-in music player!

Play songs on your device and the light will pulse in time with the music.

The Flux Bluetooth Smart Light Bulb has a 20,000 hour lifespan, so you can be sure you’ll get plenty of use out of it before you have to replace your bulb.

Instant connectivity, tons of options, and extremely versatile, the Flux Bluetooth Smart Light Bulb will make turning your home’s lighting system smart a breeze.

Best Smart Light Bulb Buyer’s Guide

If you’re looking to add smart lighting to your home, you’re going to find that there are tons of options out there.

To make the best choice for your needs, it’s a good idea to know types of factors you should consider before you make a decision.

Here’s a look at some of the most important things that we think you should take into consideration when it comes to smart light bulbs:

Color choices

Do you want white light or a wide selection of hues to choose from? If you can’t decide or if you want to have different options available, we suggest looking for a bulb that features both!

All of the smart bulbs on our list offer a vast array of color options, including different shades of white and more hues than you can imagine.

Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity, smart bulbs can be powered by WiFi or Bluetooth. With WiFi, you’ll need a hub or some other way to connect your bulb, but you can operate it anywhere you have a connection to the Internet, which means you can control it remotely.

With Bluetooth bulbs, all of the hardware is built right in, which allows for easier setup, but they are only operable within Bluetooth range.

Compatibility

If you want real ease of use, look for a smart bulb that can be integrated with other smart products you own, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home.

Once you sync the bulbs to these devices, you can operate them with your voice and they can work in conjunction with other elements that are connected to these smart products.

Settings

You can do some pretty incredible things with smart light bulbs. For example, you can sync them so that they play in time with music, create light shows, set timers that automatically adjust the brightness and colors of your lighting and turn the lights on and off.

Figure out which features are the most important to you and look for a bulb that offers those features so that you can enjoy using it to the fullest.

We’ve tested out tons of options and have found that the five showcased on this list are really the best smart bulbs currently on the market.

There Are Now A Lot Of Smart Lighting Options

Which one is right for your needs?

Consider the factors mentioned above and one of the smart light bulbs mentioned above will surely meet your needs.

Of course if you are building a new home then you can specify what you want, but you can now easily convert an existing home over to smart lighting.

You can buy them online which is often going to save you money too.