Bright idea: Amp up your home with color and light. (Photo: Amazon)(Amazon)
Imagine you’re all tucked under the covers and ready for slumber. But you suddenly remember that you left the lights on in the living room. The last thing you want to do is go downstairs, but you also don't want to waste electricity. Now imagine something really cool: You have smart lights installed, so you only need to say, “Alexa, turn off the lights” and you've powered them down without having to leave your bed. It's magic! Smart light bulbs are an easy and affordable way to add some internet-connected intelligence to your home. Many allow you to schedule them to turn on or off at certain hours and on certain days. That means you can use them as a gentle alarm clock or as a way to scare off any would-be intruders when you’re out of town too. That’s some "smart" thinking.
Connectivity: Bluetooth or hub | Smart home compatibility: Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri/HomeKit | White or color: Both | Brightness: 800 lumen
One of our favorite smart lighting products comes from Philips Hue, and this 3-pack is a particularly great entry point. You can set the mood with 16 million colors! These bulbs last a ridiculous 22 years — or 25,000 hours. These LED Smart Bulbs are also Bluetooth- and Zigbee-compatible, which means you can connect them to the internet with the companion app. And, yes, they sync with either Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. I have these in my home and I love them. They're especially useful when you're traveling, as you can program them to come on when you're not home to simulate your occupancy. That's a smart way to trick potential robbers!
Plenty of shoppers — over 30,000, in fact — have successfully integrated the Philips Hue Smart Light bulbs into their homes, like this reviewer: “I love these lights…I have six bulbs spread between two bedrooms and a bathroom. I never bothered to look at the instructions the bulbs come with. If you have connected any smart devices to apps before, there isn’t much to it… I use the base wattage bulbs and they have been perfect for me. At 100% it’s more than bright enough."
Connectivity: Bluetooth and hub | White or color: White with up to 50,000 shades of warm or cool | Smart assistant: Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Homekit | Brightness: 800 lumen
If you’re not into lighting your rooms in rainbow hues, then this simple White Ambiance 2-pack is an affordable way to try out the Philips Hue ecosystem. Although these lack color, you can still adjust the white ambiance range up to 50,000 shades of warm or cool. One five-star review said: "I am very picky about light, as is my husband. During the day I like a brighter, cooler-temperature light. In the evenings, I prefer dimmer warm lighting. These bulbs solved all of my problems. Installation was a breeze. I downloaded the app, and it located the bulbs immediately.... Once in the app, you can change the color temperature of the bulbs and the brightness! Even better, you can have the lights connected so they both change to the same settings."
Connectivity: Bluetooth or WiFi | White or color: Color | Smart assistant: Works with Alexa, Google Assistant | Brightness: 800 lumen
This color-changing light bulb offers up any shade you can imagine — white, warm, amber and cool tones. It syncs with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can tweak your lighting with the power of your voice. Forgot to turn off your lights before you left the house? No problem! Simply use the Cync mobile app to take care of everything from your phone. A nice perk: These smart LED light bulbs use 84% less energy and last 15 times longer than conventional bulbs.
GE Cync LED smart bulbs have plenty of fans. Said one of them: "I love these lights. They're such a great way to change the atmosphere of a room. Great for the bedroom, activity room, music room, smoke room, you name it. They sync up perfectly with Google and Alexa as well! I haven't had any issues. I must say, the color is amazing as well. So deep and beautiful."
Connection: Bluetooth or WiFi | White or color: Both | Smart assistant: Works with Alexa, Google Assistant | Brightness: 800 lumen
Philips' Wiz bulbs don't just light up your home, they're great for parties too. They come with a slew of presets like "Fireplace" (it'll flicker between red and yellow) and "Christmas" to set the right mood for the occasion. Fun! We especially like this bulb's Vacation Mode, which randomly turns on and off the lights to make it seem like someone is home. And of course, it works with Alexa as well as Google Assistant.
"Wow, I am impressed with this little light," said a five-star reviewer. "You can fade/dim the light and even set it to pulse. You can also set it to any color imaginable, throughout the entire color spectrum. The app includes lots of cool preset features, like setting a romantic mood or alternating between spring colors. I was really surprised with all of these cool options."
Connectivity: WiFi | White or color: Color | Smart assistant: Works with Alexa and Google Assistant | Brightness: 800 lumen
The Sengled 4-pack of bulbs is a steal. They're easy to use and work with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Use the Sengled companion app to control these bulbs remotely wherever you are in the world — set timers, schedules, wake-up and sleep modes and more. There’s no hub required; you can just connect them directly to your home Wi-Fi network.
A shopper said: "The smart bulbs come in handy greatly because they connect to your Alexa or Google Assistant. The best part about them is that they change colors just by giving instructions to your speaker. Another important thing to consider is that [you can] turn off and on the lights in the room just by giving instructions."
Connectivity: WiFi | White or color: Color | Smart assistant: Works with Alexa and Google Assistant | Brightness: 1100 lumen
The Wyze Bulb is another fantastic budget option. It doesn’t have all the special effects that some of the pricier options offer, but it has pretty much everything else. “Paint” your room in up to 16 million colors and with multiple white-light temperature modes. You can also create time-based color events or automate the syncing of several Wyze devices. This bulb also offers "sleep routines," so you can wake up or fall asleep to your own custom sunrise or sunset.
"This bulb was so easy to set up with the app and with my Google Home, and I feel like it's high quality for a low price," said one review. "I had some off-brand bulb in the past and it worked fine, but it was soo dim, even at 100% brightness. With this Wyze bulb that is not an issue; it has a MUCH brighter capacity."
Connectivity: Most if not all smart bulbs require that they be within range of your home Wi-Fi router. If you have a large home, then you might want to invest in a wireless bridge or other system that will expand your home's Wi-Fi connectivity.
Smart assistant: If you want to control your smart bulbs via voice, consider which smart assistant you prefer. If you have an existing Google Home device, then it makes sense to get a smart bulb that works with Google. If you have an Amazon Echo product on the other hand, then a Works with Alexa bulb would make more sense. That said, most bulbs work with multiple assistants these days, so smart assistant compatibility shouldn't be a problem.
Color options: Smart bulbs are often available in either white or color options. The white options are often cheaper. That said, there are "white ambiance" options available, which let you adjust how warm or cool they are.
Hub required? A lot of the bulbs on our list just require Wi-Fi, with no hub needed. They're also the easiest to set up, since you don't need a hub. But, a central Zigbee-powered hub can make your system more reliable as the connection is separate from your home's Wi-Fi.
These smart bulbs were chosen based on professional reviews, user ratings, price and, where possible, personal experience.
As long as the lamp uses standard A19 bulbs, the answer is yes! You can get smart bulbs for other shapes and sizes as well, but they're less common.
Most smart bulbs do use Wi-Fi to connect over the internet, but there are some that also use Bluetooth as a backup in the event your home internet goes down.
Installing a smart bulb is super easy! You do need to download a companion app — there'll be instructions on how to do so in the box. Then you simply attach the bulb into the desired light fixture and turn it on. The app will recognize the bulb and will walk you through the rest of the installation steps.
Yes and no. They do consume the same amount of energy as regular bulbs. But, since you can control them remotely, it's a lot easier to turn them off when they're not in use. Plus, you can often program them to turn on or off without having to do so manually. It all depends on what your usage patterns are and how you can best tailor your electric consumption to them.
The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication
