Cree was hesitant to add a sensible bulb to its best-selling LED lineup, however that modified this 12 months with the addition of the $15 Cree Related LED. Sharing the construct and lighting specs of final year's well-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Connected LED adds in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, and EcoLight products you will be able to turn it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting adjustments. At launch, Cree's good bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you're going to buy both off the shelf at House Depot. Since then, nevertheless, we have seen official support roll out for extra management gateways, including SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You'll be able to add the bulbs to the new D-Hyperlink version of the Staples Join Hub , EcoLight dimmable too, though there is not official, Zonoff-certified support simply yet. The bulb works properly across the entire platforms we have examined it with, and it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that came earlier than it.

Most appealing is the worth. At $15 -- just some dollars more than you will spend on non-linked competitors -- it ties with the GE Hyperlink LED as probably the most inexpensive connected bulb available on the market. For fundamental automated lighting, it is the perfect option we've tested but, and our current Editors' Choice winner. Cree tailored its sensible bulb design from last 12 months's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the present construct. That means that this isn't a bulb that goes out of its solution to look fancy or newfangled -- instead, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of basic incandescents. I preferred that strategy with the 4Flow, and that i prefer it with the brand new Related LED too, though some would possibly discover the plastic build to be a bit low cost-wanting, particularly when the bulb is turned off. The new bulb additionally shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which uses vents to circulate air through the body of the bulb, eliminating the need for heat sinks.

That helps bring manufacturing costs down, and also signifies that the bulb is exceptionally mild for an LED, weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Linked LED shares the same lighting specs because the 4Flow LED, too, and that's largely a good factor. Each declare a light output of 815 lumens, and each clocked in even increased than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Connected LED. By way of effectivity, the 4Flow places its mild out using eleven watts, but the number rises to 11.5 watts for the Linked LED on account of the Zigbee radio's energy draw. Once we tested it out, the quantity was really nearer to 11.1 watts, energy-efficient bulbs so Cree's achieved a good job of preserving this bulb comparatively efficient. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that each the Philips Hue Lux LED and EcoLight bulbs the Belkin WeMo LED are much more efficient, each drawing less than 10 watts.

Cree also did an excellent job with color temperature right here, landing extraordinarily close to the acknowledged 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Connected LED lands nearer to the mark than any other smart bulb we have tested, so if you are choosy about that good shade of warm, yellowy light, EcoLight products you'll like this LED. The one place where Cree's good bulb lags behind not less than among the competition is the color rendering score, which measures how accurately a given mild supply illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Connected LED hits a moderately ordinary score of eighty out of 100, EcoLight and on condition that each the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Link LED hit nearer to 90, I might have favored to see Cree do higher. To access the Cree LED's smart options, you'll need to pair it with a management hub that can translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Like the GE Hyperlink LED, the Cree Connected LED got here out the gate trumpeting Wink support at launch, however soon expanded its third celebration compatibility to incorporate options like SmartThings, Staples Join , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Different platforms offer different options -- SmartThings and Philips deliver IFTTT support into the image, for example -- however usually, the automating expertise is largely the identical. We examined the bulb on a number of platforms, and by no means ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. Regardless of which platform you're using, you may be in a position to turn the Cree Linked LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it utilizing no matter controls your system offers. These seemingly embody setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with issues like motion sensors. The bulb paired simply with each of the above-talked about platforms. Wink and SmartThings each have dedicated settings and pairing directions for the Cree LED proper in the app, which helps. Staples Join doesn't provide system-particular support for Cree simply yet, however it was capable of detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee gadget on the primary try. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, although I needed to manually reset the bulb through the pairing course of so as to assist the bridge discover it.

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Pub: 16 Aug 2025 21:14 UTC

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