If you haven’t replaced all the incandescent light bulbs in your home for LED bulbs yet, what are you waiting for? LED bulbs use less energy which means you’ll see a lower electric bill, they last longer than traditional bulbs and they are better for the environment. If those aren’t good enough reasons for you to upgrade, then how about considering an LED smart bulb like the LIFX Color 1000 A19 WiFi LED smart bulb? These bulbs offer more features than a traditional light bulb. Let’s take a look.
What is the LIFX Color 1000 bulb?
The LIFX Color 1000 bulb is an LED light bulb that fits in a standard screw-in receptacle. When you flip the light switch on, the LFIX lights up and when you flip it off, the light goes out. But that’s just the beginning of what this bulb can do because the LIFX Color 1000 can be controlled with your smartphone and can be customized to shine up to 16 million colors and 1000 shades of whites.
Design and features
The LIFX A19 style bulb has a similar size to a traditional incandescent light bulb, but it definitely has a different look. Light only comes out of the top section of the bulb. The rest of the bulb is made of thick plastic. LIFX also sells a BR30 style bulb with the same smart features.
The A19 bulb has the equivalent brightness of a 75W incandescent bulb (1055 lumens), so it works well in lamps and ceiling fixtures, but where it really “shines” is the ability to be controlled with your smartphone and with services like Amazon’s Alexa, IFTTT, and more.
Installation and setup
Installing the LIFX Color 1000 LED smart bulb is no different than installing any other bulb. You just screw it in the socket. From that point, you can use it just like an ordinary bulb by using your existing light switch. But to take full advantage to all of the features, you need to install the LIFX iOS or Android app on your smartphone or tablet.
The app takes you through the steps to connect to the LIFX bulb. Once connected you can change the bulb’s output color. As you can see from the image above, there are several types of white light from warm to cold.
If a normal white bulb is way too boring for you, then you’ll love the LIFX because you can choose from million of colors as well as different themes, effects and dimming.
Although the colors and themes are fun to play with, I guess I’m just too boring, because I keep the LIFX bulb set to white 99.9% of the time.
I do like that I can control the light with my phone, Alexa, Smart Things and even buttons like the Flic wireless smart button which I recently reviewed.
Things to be aware of…
- The app will show the status of the bulb as long as the bulb has power – the light switch is in the ON position and no one has turned it off. If the light switch has been turned off, the status shown in the app won’t be accurate. The app does not know if there is power to the LIFX.
- If you have kids that like to flip the lights on and off a million times in a row, you’ll have issues with this bulb because flipping the lights on and off 5 times in a row will reset the bulb’s settings.
- If the power flicks on and off, the bulb will turn on and stay on when the power comes back on. I had this happen last week when we had a storm in the middle of the night. The power went off and on several times in a row and each time it did, the LIFX bulb in our bedroom ceiling fixture turned on.
- If you don’t have an internet connection, the app will not allow you to control the bulb. I ran into this problem the last few days when my broadband (T1 line) went down due to the store I mentioned above. With no internet, I couldn’t use the Flic smart button or my phone to toggle the light. The regular light switch still controlled the light though.
- This bulb does not support Apple HomeKit or Google Home yet.
Final thoughts
The LIFX Color 1000 A19 WiFi LED Smart Bulb costs about $55 per bulb. Is it worth it? If you’re only comparing the price of a traditional bulb to the price of the LIFX, it’s hard to say that the LIFX is worth the price. But, when you also realize that the bulb has an estimated energy cost $1.32 a year based on using the bulb for 3hrs a day and it should last more than 22 years, it starts sounding more attractive. Then add the fact that you can customize the brightness and color as well as control it with your phone and other services, the LIFX Color 1000 smart bulb has some benefits worth checking out.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by LIFX. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.
Product Information
| Price: | $59.99 |
| Manufacturer: | LIFX |
| Retailer: | Amazon |
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