Ever for EcoLight solar bulbs the reason that Philips Hue LED($199.99 at Verizon) lighting package hit the digital house market, there was a gradual uptick in competing good bulb products just like the LIFX LED Mild Bulb( at Amazon) and EcoLight solutions the Linked by TCP Good Lighting System in addition to latest product announcements from electronics giants LG and Samsung. Add the Lumen TL800 from Tabu to that checklist. Priced at $69.99 per bulb (but obtainable online for around $50), the TL800 uses Bluetooth wireless expertise to speak together with your smartphone by way of a neat little app that allows you to turn lights on and off, select colors, and have the lights behave a sure method when you will have an incoming phone call. Unlike the Philips and TCP bulbs the TL800 would not require a bridge, but it surely doesn't connect to the Internet both, which means you can't management it when you are away from dwelling or have it interact with other house automation units. With a vented steel casing separating the round glass dome from the Edison screw base, the TL800 looks prefer it could be proper at house in an Apollo spacecraft.

The bulb measures 4.75 inches in size and puts out only 400 lumens, which is equal to a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That is not very bright when compared to the LIFX (1,017 lumens), TCP (800 lumens), and Philips (600 lumens) bulbs. As with the Philips and LIFX bulbs, it might probably display 16 million colors, however since it does not hook up with the Web you cannot management it with residence automation hubs from corporations equivalent to Revolv( at Amazon) and SmartThings($149.99 at Amazon). Nor can you utilize the favored IFTTT (If This Then That) internet service to have it activate and off or change colours based on issues like Facebook requests, Foursquare notifications, and ESPN sports scores. You do not get much in the way of instructions with the TL800, but there's not much to clarify. I screwed it into a lamp in my workplace, downloaded the app onto my iOS smartphone, made positive Bluetooth was enabled on my system, and opened the app.

The Lumen app is uncomplicated and simple to use and lets you management up to 10 bulbs at a time. You possibly can management every bulb individually or control a gaggle of bulbs. The home page lists all installed bulbs and reveals you what color they're at the moment set to. Urgent a bulb icon takes you to a web page the place you may select colour or warm white settings and turn the bulb on or off. While you select the warm white setting you're offered with a monochrome wheel that allows you to manually modify brightness, or you'll be able to choose one of 4 brightness presets (90, 70, 50, or 30 p.c). Under the wheel is a Name Alert icon that takes you to a page where you possibly can configure the light to flash a specific shade when your phone has an incoming call. There's additionally a Wake-Up timer that may turn the light on utilizing a dim warm white setting that gradually will get brighter to create a sunrise effect, and a Proximity possibility that may have a gentle activate to a preset shade and brightness when your phone comes into vary (about 30 toes).

In colour mode you get a wheel that lets you select a coloration for each bulb and assign a color brightness setting. For deep, strong colors you set the brightness level to the darkest setting; for lighter pastel colors, use a brighter setting. Under the coloration wheel are seven preset icons including two celebration modes that display pre-programmed flashing colors; a Romance mode that gradually transitions between orange, yellow, and red; a Relaxation mode that is imagined to simulate a calming moonlight ambiance; and a Music Sync mode that accesses your stored music database and flashes the sunshine to the beat using numerous colors. Right here you can even regulate Proximity and Name Alert settings, but you can't create your personal custom presets like you'll be able to with the Hue and LIFX EcoLight solar bulbs. From the house page you can flip all or some lights on and off and add them to groups.

The group option is beneficial in order for you to control multiple lights all of sudden. All the settings and presets that can be found for particular person bulbs are additionally out there in group mode. The TL800 makes use of Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate with the smartphone, which accounts for its glorious responsiveness. It turned on and off immediately when instructed to take action, and there was no lag time between shade and brightness adjustments. The Wake-Up function turned on based on my schedule and the bulb grew to become progressively brighter over time. The decision Alert characteristic also worked as advertised and is available in very useful if you are sporting headphones. Color quality was good with very deep reds, blues, and greens, but when you are lighting a big room you may have multiple bulb, as 400 lumens is not very brilliant. The Tabu TL800 is a good alternative for anyone trying so as to add a few colorful lights to a room that they'll control from a smartphone.