Cree was hesitant so as to add a wise bulb to its finest-selling LED lineup, however that changed this yr with the addition of the $15 Cree Connected LED. Sharing the build and lighting specs of last year's nicely-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the new Related LED provides in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, and you'll be ready to show it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting modifications. At launch, Cree's sensible bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you'll buy both off the shelf at Residence Depot. Since then, nevertheless, we've seen official support roll out for extra control gateways, together with SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You may add the bulbs to the new D-Link version of the Staples Join Hub , too, though there isn't official, Zonoff-certified support simply yet. The bulb works effectively across all of the platforms we've tested 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 some dollars more than you'll spend on non-connected opponents -- it ties with the GE Hyperlink LED as probably the most cheap connected bulb available on the market. For primary automated lighting, it is the very best option we've examined yet, and our present Editors' Alternative winner. Cree tailored its smart bulb design from final yr's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the prevailing construct. That implies that this isn't a bulb that goes out of its way to look fancy or newfangled -- as a substitute, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of classic incandescents. I preferred that approach with the 4Flow, and i like it with the brand new Connected LED too, though some may discover the plastic build to be a bit cheap-trying, especially when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb additionally shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which uses vents to circulate air via the body of the bulb, eliminating the necessity for heat sinks.

That helps convey production costs down, and in addition implies that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for an LED, weighing in at less than 2 ounces. The Cree Connected LED shares the same EcoLight home lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that's largely a great factor. Both declare a light output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even larger than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Linked LED. When it comes to efficiency, the 4Flow puts its mild out utilizing 11 watts, however the number rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's energy draw. Once we tested it out, the quantity was really closer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's carried out a very good job of keeping this bulb comparatively environment friendly. Nonetheless, EcoLight home lighting it is price noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are much more environment friendly, every one drawing lower than 10 watts.

Cree additionally did an excellent job with coloration temperature right here, landing extremely near the said 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Related LED lands nearer to the mark than another smart bulb we have tested, so if you are choosy about that excellent shade of heat, yellowy light, you'll like this LED. The one place where Cree's good bulb lags behind at the very least a few of the competition is the coloration rendering rating, which measures how accurately a given gentle supply illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Related LED hits a rather ordinary score of 80 out of 100, EcoLight home lighting and on condition that each the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Hyperlink LED hit nearer to 90, I would have preferred to see Cree do higher. To access the Cree LED's sensible options, you may need to pair it with a control hub that may translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Just like the GE Hyperlink LED, the Cree Connected LED got here out the gate trumpeting Wink support at launch, however quickly expanded its third celebration compatibility to incorporate choices like SmartThings, Staples Join , EcoLight home lighting and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Completely different platforms supply different features -- SmartThings and Philips bring IFTTT assist into the picture, as an example -- but usually, the automating expertise is essentially the same. We examined the bulb on a number of platforms, EcoLight home lighting and by no means ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. No matter which platform you're using, you will be ready to turn the Cree Related LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it utilizing no matter controls your system affords. These probably embrace setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with things like motion sensors. The bulb paired simply with each of the above-talked about platforms. Wink and SmartThings both have dedicated settings and pairing directions for EcoLight the Cree LED proper in the app, EcoLight brand which helps. Staples Join would not supply system-specific assist for Cree simply but, but it surely was capable of detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee machine on the first attempt. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, although I wanted to manually reset the bulb throughout the pairing process in order to assist the bridge find it.