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Home / News / These smart bulbs make other lights look dim

These smart bulbs make other lights look dim

Wirelessly controlled multi-colour lights are swarming like fireflies – we've rounded up the best for beating the winter blues

Light bulbs used to be boring – but now they’ve been jazzed up with tech smarts, using Wi-Fi connectivity to let you control multiple colours and effects. From light fittings to smart alarms we’ve got the best ones right here, ready to battle the winter blues.

Philips Hue

Philips Hue

From £50, meethue.com

Philips was the first to have the Eureka moment of making light bulbs smart. With over 90 shades of white and nearly every colour, this Wi-Fi controlled LED is leading the way in smart bulbs.

LIFX

LIFX

US$70 (£44), kickstarter.com

Not only does this Kickstarted LED, Wi-Fi friendly 60W equivalent bulb work on iOS and Android – it’s also got one of the coolest metal frames we’ve seen. Good luck getting one soon though; the first batch is already sold out.

UnikkoNordic Aurora Wake-Up Light

£TBA, unikkonordic.com

The sun may not have his hat on at this time of year, but you can still wake up to a rising light with this alarm clock. With multicolours and dimming for sleeping we’re sold – and eagerly awaiting pricing from the Finnish company.

Insteon

Insteon

US$30 (£19), insteon.org

This smart bulb comes with sensors that activate its 60W capacity LED if, for example, a door is opened to the room it’s in. Plus there’s an app for mobile controls – though for a mere £19, don’t expect the rainbow of colours you’ll get from other smart bulbs.

Philips Wake-up Light

Philips Wake-up Light

£180,

Lumen Smart Bulb

Lumen Smart Bulb
GOUK&cid=AOS-UK-KWG-GO_UK_Product-Feed” target=”_blank”>applestore.com

If you haven’t done away with your noisy alarm clock or vibrating phone alarm yet, now’s your chance. This gentle glow rouses you from your slumber in an altogether more refined fashion. It connects with your iPhone, letting you set 10 alarms, track sleep routines and control light settings – though if you’re not in Cupertino’s camp, there’s a less fully-featured £100 version available.

US$50 (£31), indeigogo.com

This bulb looks retro cool, has a wide RGBW colour spectrum and can be controlled directly using Bluetooth 4.0. Great for mobile control in the house, not so good for doing it from elsewhere in the world. Though quite why you’d want to fiddle with the lights while you’re on holiday is beyond us. Still, great for the price.

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home