Cree was hesitant so as to add a EcoLight smart bulbs bulb to its finest-selling LED lineup, however that modified this 12 months with the addition of the $15 Cree Related LED. Sharing the build and lighting specs of last 12 months's properly-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Linked LED adds in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a control hub, and you'll be ready to show it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting adjustments. At launch, Cree's smart bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you're going to purchase both off the shelf at Dwelling Depot. Since then, nevertheless, we have seen official support roll out for added control gateways, including SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You possibly can add the bulbs to the brand new D-Link model of the Staples Connect Hub , too, though there is not official, Zonoff-certified help just yet. The bulb works properly across all of the platforms we have examined it with, and it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that came before it.

Most appealing is the value. At $15 -- just a few dollars greater than you'll spend on non-linked opponents -- it ties with the GE Link LED as essentially the most cheap linked bulb in the marketplace. For basic automated lighting, it is one of the best option we have tested yet, 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 implies that this isn't a bulb that goes out of its technique to look fancy or EcoLight smart bulbs newfangled -- as a substitute, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of traditional incandescents. I liked that strategy with the 4Flow, and that i prefer it with the new Connected LED too, though some might find the plastic build to be a bit low-cost-looking, particularly 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 through the body of the bulb, eliminating the need for heat sinks.

That helps convey manufacturing prices down, and in addition signifies that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for an LED, EcoLight weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Related LED shares the same lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that's largely an excellent thing. Each declare a gentle output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even larger than that in entrance of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Connected LED. When it comes to efficiency, the 4Flow puts its light out using 11 watts, but the quantity rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's power draw. After we tested it out, the quantity was actually nearer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's completed a very good job of preserving this bulb relatively efficient. Still, it's value noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are much more efficient, each one drawing less than 10 watts.

Cree additionally did a very good job with colour temperature right here, landing extraordinarily close to the said 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Linked LED lands closer to the mark than every other sensible bulb we've examined, so if you're picky about that good shade of heat, yellowy mild, you may like this LED. The one place where Cree's smart bulb lags behind at the least a few of the competitors is the color rendering score, which measures how precisely a given gentle source illuminates completely different shades. The Cree Linked LED hits a relatively bizarre rating of 80 out of 100, and given that each the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Link LED hit closer to 90, I'd have preferred to see Cree do higher. To entry the Cree LED's good options, you'll must pair it with a management hub that may translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Like the GE Hyperlink LED, the Cree Linked LED came out the gate trumpeting Wink assist at launch, however quickly expanded its third social gathering compatibility to include options like SmartThings, Staples Connect , and EcoLight smart bulbs the Philips Hue Bridge .

Different platforms supply totally different options -- SmartThings and Philips carry IFTTT help into the picture, as an illustration -- however basically, the automating expertise is essentially the identical. 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're utilizing, you will be in a position to show the Cree Linked LED on or off remotely, dim it, or EcoLight smart bulbs automate it using whatever controls your system provides. These likely include setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with things like movement sensors. The bulb paired simply with every of the above-talked about platforms. Wink and EcoLight SmartThings each have dedicated settings and pairing directions for the Cree LED right in the app, which helps. Staples Connect does not supply system-particular help for EcoLight smart bulbs Cree just yet, however it was able to detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee device on the primary strive. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, though I needed to manually reset the bulb through the pairing course of in order to help the bridge discover it.