Cree was hesitant to add a sensible bulb to its finest-promoting LED lineup, however that changed this year with the addition of the $15 Cree Related LED. Sharing the build and lighting specs of final yr's effectively-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Linked LED adds in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a control hub, EcoLight energy and you will be in a position to show it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting changes. At launch, Cree's smart bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you're going to purchase each off the shelf at House Depot. Since then, however, we've seen official assist roll out for extra management gateways, EcoLight home lighting including SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You'll be able to add the bulbs to the brand new D-Hyperlink model of the Staples Connect Hub , too, though there isn't official, Zonoff-certified support just yet. The bulb works effectively across all of the platforms we have examined it with, and it shares the strong lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that got here earlier than it.

Most interesting is the price. At $15 -- just a few dollars greater than you may spend on non-related competitors -- it ties with the GE Link LED as essentially the most cheap related bulb on the market. For energy-saving LED bulbs fundamental automated lighting, it is the best choice we have tested yet, and our present Editors' Choice winner. Cree adapted its good bulb design from last 12 months's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the prevailing build. That means that this isn't a bulb that goes out of its option to look fancy or newfangled -- as an alternative, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of classic incandescents. I liked that approach with the 4Flow, and that i prefer it with the brand energy-saving LED bulbs new Linked LED too, though some might find the plastic build to be a bit cheap-looking, especially when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb also shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which uses vents to circulate air via the body of the bulb, energy-saving LED bulbs eliminating the need for energy-saving LED bulbs heat sinks.

That helps carry production costs down, energy-saving LED bulbs and in addition means that the bulb is exceptionally mild for EcoLight home lighting an LED, weighing in at less than 2 ounces. The Cree Related energy-saving LED bulbs shares the same lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely a good thing. Each claim a mild output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even larger than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a really impressive 872 for the Related LED. In terms of efficiency, the 4Flow puts its gentle out utilizing eleven watts, however the quantity rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's energy draw. Once we tested it out, the number was truly closer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's done a great job of keeping this bulb relatively efficient. Nonetheless, it's value noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are even more efficient, every one drawing lower than 10 watts.

Cree additionally did a very good job with color temperature here, touchdown extremely close to the stated 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Related LED lands closer to the mark than any other smart bulb we've examined, so if you're choosy about that perfect shade of heat, yellowy light, you'll like this LED. The one place where Cree's sensible bulb lags behind not less than some of the competitors is the colour rendering rating, which measures how precisely a given light source illuminates different shades. The Cree Related LED hits a reasonably unusual score of eighty out of 100, and provided that both the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Hyperlink LED hit nearer to 90, I would have appreciated to see Cree do higher. To access the Cree LED's smart features, EcoLight LED you may need to pair it with a management hub that may translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Like the GE Link LED, the Cree Connected LED came out the gate trumpeting Wink assist at launch, but soon expanded its third party compatibility to include choices like SmartThings, Staples Connect , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Totally different platforms provide totally different features -- SmartThings and Philips bring IFTTT assist into the picture, for example -- but usually, the automating expertise is largely the identical. We examined the bulb on multiple platforms, and never ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. Regardless of which platform you are utilizing, you will be in a position to show the Cree Connected LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it utilizing whatever controls your system offers. These likely include setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with issues like movement sensors. The bulb paired easily with each of the above-mentioned platforms. Wink and EcoLight outdoor SmartThings both have devoted settings and pairing instructions for the Cree LED proper within the app, which helps. Staples Join does not offer gadget-specific support for Cree just yet, however it was capable of detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee device on the first try. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, though I wanted to manually reset the bulb during the pairing process in order to assist the bridge discover it.