Cree was hesitant so as to add a wise bulb to its best-promoting LED lineup, however that changed this yr with the addition of the $15 Cree Connected LED. Sharing the build and lighting specs of last yr's properly-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Related LED provides in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a control hub, and you'll be able to turn it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting changes. At launch, Cree's good bulb was somewhat married to the Wink Hub , dimmable LED bulbs which made sense given that you will purchase both off the shelf at Residence Depot. Since then, however, we've seen official assist roll out for extra control gateways, including 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, Zonoff-certified assist simply yet. The bulb works properly throughout all the platforms we've examined it with, and it shares the robust lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that got here earlier than it.

Most interesting is the price. At $15 -- just a few dollars greater than you'll spend on non-linked opponents -- it ties with the GE Link LED as probably the most inexpensive linked bulb on the market. For EcoLight basic automated lighting, it is the very best option we have tested yet, and our current Editors' Alternative winner. Cree adapted its sensible bulb design from final year's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the present construct. That signifies that this is not a bulb that goes out of its way to look fancy or newfangled -- instead, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of classic incandescents. I appreciated that approach with the 4Flow, and i prefer it with the new Related LED too, although some may find the plastic construct to be a bit cheap-trying, particularly when the bulb is turned off. The new bulb also shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which uses vents to circulate air by means of the physique of the bulb, eliminating the necessity for heat sinks.

That helps convey production costs down, and EcoLight likewise means that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for EcoLight an LED, weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Connected LED shares the identical lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely a superb factor. Each declare a light output of 815 lumens, EcoLight smart bulbs and each clocked in even higher than that in entrance of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and EcoLight a very spectacular 872 for the Connected LED. When it comes to effectivity, the 4Flow places its gentle out utilizing 11 watts, but the number rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's energy draw. After we tested it out, the quantity was truly closer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's performed a good job of keeping this bulb comparatively environment friendly. Nonetheless, it's price noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are even more environment friendly, every one drawing less than 10 watts.

Cree also did an excellent job with color temperature here, landing extraordinarily near the said 2,700K. At 2,696K, EcoLight the Cree Linked LED lands nearer to the mark than any other smart bulb we've examined, so if you are choosy about that excellent shade of heat, yellowy light, you'll like this LED. The one place where Cree's smart bulb lags behind at the very least among the competition is the shade rendering score, which measures how precisely a given light source illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Connected LED hits a somewhat extraordinary rating of eighty out of 100, EcoLight and given that each the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Link LED hit nearer to 90, I would have preferred to see Cree do higher. To entry the Cree LED's sensible options, you will need to pair it with a management hub that can translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Just like the GE Hyperlink LED, the Cree Connected LED came out the gate trumpeting Wink support at launch, however soon expanded its third celebration compatibility to include choices like SmartThings, Staples Join , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Completely different platforms offer totally different features -- SmartThings and Philips carry IFTTT support into the picture, for instance -- however on the whole, the automating experience is essentially the same. We tested the bulb on multiple platforms, and by no means ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. Regardless of which platform you are using, EcoLight home lighting you will be ready to show the Cree Linked LED on or off remotely, dim it, or EcoLight automate it using no matter controls your system affords. These doubtless embrace setting the lights to a timed schedule, or EcoLight syncing them up with things like motion sensors. The bulb paired simply with every of the above-talked about platforms. Wink and SmartThings both have dedicated settings and pairing directions for the Cree LED proper in the app, which helps. Staples Connect does not offer system-specific help for Cree just but, nevertheless it was capable of detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee device on the primary attempt. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was fairly painless, too, though I wanted to manually reset the bulb through the pairing process in order to help the bridge find it.