Cree was hesitant to add a wise bulb to its finest-promoting LED lineup, however that changed this year with the addition of the $15 Cree Related LED. Sharing the construct and lighting specs of last yr's effectively-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Linked LED adds in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, and you'll be able to turn it on and off remotely, EcoLight or schedule automated lighting modifications. At launch, Cree's good bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you'll buy each off the shelf at House Depot. Since then, however, we've seen official support roll out for added control gateways, together with SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You can add the bulbs to the new D-Hyperlink version of the Staples Join Hub , too, though there is not official, Zonoff-certified assist just yet. The bulb works properly across the entire platforms we have tested it with, and it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that came before it.
Most interesting is the price. At $15 -- just some dollars more than you may spend on non-connected opponents -- it ties with the GE Hyperlink LED as essentially the most cheap related bulb available on the market. For primary automated lighting, it is one of the best option we've examined but, and our present Editors' Choice winner. Cree tailored its smart bulb design from final 12 months's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the existing build. That implies that this is not a bulb that goes out of its strategy to look fancy or newfangled -- as a substitute, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of classic incandescents. I favored that strategy with the 4Flow, and that i prefer it with the brand new Linked LED too, although some may find the plastic construct to be a bit low-cost-looking, particularly when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb also shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which makes use of vents to circulate air by means of the physique of the bulb, eliminating the necessity for heat sinks.
That helps bring production prices down, and likewise implies that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for an LED, weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Related LED shares the same EcoLight lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely a superb factor. Each claim a mild output of 815 lumens, and each clocked in even larger than that in entrance of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Connected LED. In terms of effectivity, the 4Flow places its gentle out utilizing 11 watts, but the number rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's power draw. When we tested it out, the number was actually nearer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's completed a very good job of retaining this bulb relatively environment friendly. Still, it is worth noting that each the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are even more efficient, each drawing less than 10 watts.
Cree also did an excellent job with coloration temperature right here, touchdown extraordinarily near the acknowledged 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Related LED lands nearer to the mark than any other sensible bulb we have examined, so if you're choosy about that perfect shade of heat, yellowy gentle, you will like this LED. The one place the place Cree's sensible bulb lags behind at least a number of the competition is the shade rendering rating, which measures how precisely a given mild source illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Connected LED hits a moderately extraordinary score of 80 out of 100, and on condition that both the WeMo LED and the equally inexpensive GE Link LED hit nearer to 90, I might have liked to see Cree do better. To entry the Cree LED's sensible options, you may have 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 came out the gate trumpeting Wink help at launch, but quickly expanded its third social gathering compatibility to incorporate options like SmartThings, Staples Join , and the Philips Hue Bridge .
Totally different platforms provide completely different features -- SmartThings and Philips convey IFTTT help into the image, for example -- however usually, EcoLight the automating expertise is basically the same. We examined the bulb on multiple platforms, and never ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. No matter which platform you are utilizing, you may be able to show the Cree Linked LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it using whatever controls your system gives. These likely embody 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 SmartThings both have devoted settings and pairing instructions for the Cree LED proper within the app, which helps. Staples Join does not supply system-specific help for Cree simply yet, but it surely was capable of detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee system on the primary try. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, although I wanted to manually reset the bulb in the course of the pairing process so as to help the bridge discover it.