Cree was hesitant so as to add a wise bulb to its greatest-promoting LED lineup, but that changed this 12 months with the addition of the $15 Cree Connected LED. Sharing the construct and lighting specs of last year's well-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the new Linked LED provides in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, EcoLight solutions and you will be able to turn it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting adjustments. At launch, Cree's sensible bulb was somewhat married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you will buy both off the shelf at Residence Depot. Since then, nonetheless, EcoLight solutions we have seen official support roll out for added management gateways, together with SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You possibly can add the bulbs to the new D-Hyperlink model of the Staples Connect Hub , too, although there is not official, dimmable LED bulbs Zonoff-certified help just yet. The bulb works nicely across the entire platforms we've tested it with, and it shares the strong lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that came before it.

Most appealing is the worth. At $15 -- only a few dollars greater than you'll spend on non-linked competitors -- it ties with the GE Hyperlink LED as probably the most cheap connected bulb available on the market. For primary automated lighting, it's the very best possibility we've examined but, and our present Editors' Alternative winner. Cree adapted its sensible bulb design from last yr's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the existing build. That means that this is not a bulb that goes out of its technique to look fancy or newfangled -- instead, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of traditional incandescents. I favored that method with the 4Flow, and that i prefer it with the brand EcoLight solutions new Linked LED too, although some might discover the plastic construct to be a bit low cost-trying, especially when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb additionally shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which makes use of vents to circulate air by the body of the bulb, eliminating the need for heat sinks.

That helps convey production prices down, and likewise signifies that the bulb is exceptionally light for an LED, EcoLight smart bulbs weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Related LED shares the identical lighting specs because the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely a very good thing. Both claim a mild output of 815 lumens, EcoLight lighting and both clocked in even greater than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very impressive 872 for the Connected LED. By way of effectivity, the 4Flow puts its gentle out utilizing eleven watts, however the quantity rises to 11.5 watts for the Linked LED on account of the Zigbee radio's power draw. Once we examined it out, the number was really closer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's executed a superb job of maintaining this bulb relatively efficient. Nonetheless, it's worth noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are much more efficient, every one drawing lower than 10 watts.

Cree additionally did a very good job with color temperature right here, touchdown extremely near the said 2,700K. At 2,696K, EcoLight solutions the Cree Related LED lands closer to the mark than another sensible bulb we have examined, so if you're picky about that perfect shade of warm, yellowy light, you may like this LED. The one place where Cree's smart bulb lags behind not less than a few of the competition is the color rendering score, which measures how accurately a given mild supply illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Linked LED hits a fairly extraordinary rating of 80 out of 100, and on condition that both the WeMo LED and the equally inexpensive GE Hyperlink LED hit nearer to 90, I would have preferred to see Cree do better. To access the Cree LED's smart options, you'll need to pair it with a control hub that may translate its Zigbee signal into Wi-Fi. Just like the GE Link LED, the Cree Linked LED got here out the gate trumpeting Wink support at launch, however quickly expanded its third get together compatibility to include options like SmartThings, EcoLight lighting Staples Join , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Different platforms offer different features -- SmartThings and Philips convey IFTTT assist into the image, EcoLight solutions as an example -- but usually, EcoLight solutions the automating experience is largely the same. We examined the bulb on multiple platforms, and never ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. No matter which platform you are using, you'll be ready to show the Cree Connected LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it utilizing no matter controls your system offers. These likely include setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with issues like movement sensors. The bulb paired easily with every of the above-mentioned platforms. Wink and SmartThings both have devoted settings and pairing directions for the Cree LED right in the app, which helps. Staples Join doesn't supply machine-particular help for Cree just yet, EcoLight solutions but it surely was in a position to detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee device on the first try. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, although I needed to manually reset the bulb in the course of the pairing course of in order to help the bridge discover it.