LIFX currently offers four different smart light bulbs for your consideration. These smart lights, including the Color 1000 BR30 – the first one we’re reviewing, all use Wifi to communicate with the rest of your Smart Home, including, of course apps for your smart phones, tablets, etc.
This will be our main LIFX smart light review at this time, with shorter reviews covering the other two LIFX bulbs we received, published over the next couple of weeks. The other (cross-linked, of course) two reviews will deal with the specific attributes of those bulbs, while this review will also go into a lot more depth about controlling the bulbs, practical strengths and weaknesses, (including how Wifi bulbs compare to other methods such as Zigbee, Bluetooth, etc., and competitive commentary.)
Just a quick rundown. This is the Color 1000 BR30 flood. There is also the regular non-flood – the Color 1000. Both have a retail price of $59.99. There are also the two white smart bulbs, the White 800 BR30 (flood) and White 800 (normal light pattern), both $39.99. The App is, naturally, free.
BR30 is a designation for a type of flood light, relatively large residential ones, the type that normally go into larger five and six inch “cans” – that is recessed ceiling light fixtures fp, as you can see in many images within this review.
Here’s some interesting background before we get into highlights and the rest of the review. LIFX is one of the many crowdfunded new companies in the home automation / smart home business. In their case, they raised their money on Kickstarter. Also of note – although they have offices in the US, they are an Australian company. OK, time to get to work. This LIFX Color 1000 BR30 smart light earns our 2nd highest award. Only a missing feature or two in the App, and one eco-system compatibility prevented us from giving it our Beyond Awesome Award. I expect their next generation lights to easily earn the higher award. We are impressed!
Art's been reviewing high tech products and editing their reviews for 15 years. He launched his first website presenting solutions.com (sold in 2003) in early 1995 when there were only a few thousand .coms. He launched ProjectorReviews.com in 2000, and started planning Smarterhomeautomation.com back in 2011.
Art's goal is to provide in-depth reviews on the latest and hottest products that fit into the Smart Home, aka Home Automation, as well as insightful articles to educate people into what's available, what makes the most sense, and where the market is going, so people can better plan, and implement their goals for energy efficient, convenient, and downright "cool" capabilities.
Ancient history: Born in Allentown PA, Graduated 1972. Sold and managed stereo stores (and did a little surfing) in the early, mid-70's before getting into computers and more AV. Managed the first computers store in Pa, starting in 1979 (not the first manager). Moved to selling computers to major accounts. Then moved west to SF area, for a four year stint with Epson starting in 1982, then left for one of the early large venture backed start-ups in the Silicon Valley - Presentation Technologies. Left there to start up Presenting Solutions, which became the first projector focused reseller on the internet (Jan 1995). Married Lori in 1990, and have been enjoying our daughter Lisa, since 1992! Presently living, and working in San Clemente, CA.
