An
illuminating experience.
We're
no strangers to smart home technology, as Test Pit Towers is
basically like walking into the future (complete with “futuristic”
bad smells and overflowing rubbish bins). One thing we've noticed
about smart home tech is that to be truly 'smart' it needs to be
constantly connected to the internet. In the past we've reviewed
lighting systems that aren't, such as those that connect to your
mobile device via range-limited Bluetooth. The LIFX Color 1000 isn't
limited at all, which we recently found out.
First up, yeah, we know... 'color'? It's spelt 'colour', you twonks. But we're willing to let that slip, as not only do we recognise that other countries spell words differently (ever been to France? It's like a whole other language over there) they also make excellent smart bulbs, and the LIFX Color 100 is one of them.
Screw
in this bulb to any light fitting that will take it (we waited for a
far more British-standard bayonet, but screw fittings are also
available) and you'll be able to control it via the free LIFX app, up
for grabs on Android, iOS and, refreshingly, Windows Mobile. However,
connecting the app to the bulb is done via WiFi, not Bluetooth, which
means that not only can you control it with your phone from the other
side of the world, it can also be connected to other devices and
services.
Before
we talk about that, lets look at the bulb itself. The LIFX Color 1000
is so called because it can shine (up to 1055 Lumens – about 75
Watts) in millions of colours at varying levels of brightness. The
LIFX app uses a colour wheel whereby you simply spin your thumb
around the palette to find to right tone of light. The app then lets
you set 'scenes', either for individual bulbs, or entire rooms if you
have more than one, so in future you can press just one button to get
the lighting and colours you want every time.
We
found the response time to be exceptionally quick, with the gap
between hitting the desired button in the app to the bulb springing
to life was less than a second. The whole app is thankfully very user
friendly as well, and setting additional features like timers and
integration with other hardware was a doddle.
Speaking
of which, what got us most excited about the LIFX Color 1000 SmartBulb was its ability to communicate with other devices. The LIFX app
is compatible with the likes of Nest, Amazon Echo, Samsung's Smart
Things, and – crucially – IFTTT. There are plenty of recipes
already on IFTTT that work with LIFX, and thanks to full integration
with Google, Android users can use voice commands to switch it on.
Nice.
We
really enjoyed how smoothly it worked with our Nest Protect. We set
it up flash red whenever smoke was detected, which – thanks to an
ill-informed bout of intentionally setting fire to bits of paper –
it worked a treat. Via IFTTT we also set it to blink blue whenever we
received a mention on Twitter, and thanks tot he competition we
currently have running, it did... a lot.
There
are lots of other 'smart' bulbs out there at the moment that promise
to shine in a million colours and be truly wireless. None of them are
actually smart if they can't connect to the internet however, and the
LIFX Color 1000 is leading the way for self-contained, inexpensive
smart lighting. Check it out.
£59.98