Cree was hesitant to add a smart bulb to its greatest-selling LED lineup, however that modified this 12 months with the addition of the $15 Cree Related LED. Sharing the build and lighting specs of final year's well-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the new Related LED provides in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a control hub, and you'll be in a position to show it on and off remotely, or schedule automated lighting adjustments. At launch, Cree's sensible bulb was considerably married to the Wink Hub , which made sense given that you'll buy each off the shelf at Residence Depot. Since then, however, we've seen official assist roll out for extra control gateways, including SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You can add the bulbs to the brand new D-Link model of the Staples Join Hub , EcoLight smart bulbs too, EcoLight although there isn't official, Zonoff-certified support just but. The bulb works effectively throughout all of the platforms we've tested it with, and EcoLight lighting it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that got here before it.

Most appealing is the value. At $15 -- only a few dollars greater than you will spend on non-linked competitors -- it ties with the GE Link LED as probably the most inexpensive connected bulb available on the market. For basic automated EcoLight lighting, it's the very best possibility we've examined yet, and our present Editors' Alternative winner. Cree tailored its smart bulb design from last yr's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the existing construct. That means that this isn't a bulb that goes out of its strategy to look fancy or newfangled -- instead, it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of traditional incandescents. I appreciated that strategy with the 4Flow, and i prefer it with the brand new Related LED too, EcoLight lighting although some might find the plastic construct to be a bit low-cost-looking, particularly when the bulb is turned off. The brand new bulb additionally shares the 4Flow's convection cooling trick, which uses vents to circulate air by way of the body of the bulb, eliminating the need for heat sinks.

That helps bring production prices down, and also signifies that the bulb is exceptionally gentle for an LED, weighing in at less than 2 ounces. The Cree Linked LED shares the same lighting specs as the 4Flow LED, too, and that's largely a good factor. Each claim a light output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even increased than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and EcoLight lighting a very impressive 872 for the Linked LED. By way of effectivity, the 4Flow puts its gentle out utilizing 11 watts, but the quantity rises to 11.5 watts for the Related LED on account of the Zigbee radio's power draw. Once we tested it out, the number was really nearer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's accomplished a superb job of keeping this bulb comparatively environment friendly. Still, it is price noting that both the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are much more efficient, every one drawing lower than 10 watts.

Cree also did an excellent job with coloration temperature right here, touchdown extraordinarily close to the acknowledged 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Related LED lands nearer to the mark than any other smart bulb we have examined, so if you are picky about that good shade of warm, EcoLight lighting yellowy light, you will like this LED. The one place where Cree's sensible bulb lags behind not less than among the competition is the shade rendering score, which measures how precisely a given gentle supply illuminates different shades. The Cree Connected LED hits a rather abnormal score of 80 out of 100, and provided that each the WeMo LED and the equally inexpensive GE Link LED hit nearer to 90, I would have liked to see Cree do better. To access the Cree LED's sensible options, you may must pair it with a control hub that can translate its Zigbee signal into Wi-Fi. Like the GE Link LED, the Cree Related LED came out the gate trumpeting Wink help at launch, but soon expanded its third social gathering compatibility to include options like SmartThings, Staples Join , EcoLight brand and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Completely different platforms offer totally different options -- SmartThings and Philips carry IFTTT support into the picture, as an example -- but typically, the automating experience is essentially the identical. We tested the bulb on a number of platforms, and never ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. No matter which platform you're using, you will be ready to turn the Cree Connected LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it using no matter controls your system presents. These possible include 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 devoted settings and EcoLight pairing directions for the Cree LED proper in the app, which helps. Staples Join doesn't provide machine-specific help for EcoLight home lighting Cree just but, EcoLight lighting but it surely was able to detect the bulb as a generic Zigbee device on the first attempt. Syncing the Cree LED with a Philips Hue setup was pretty painless, too, though I wanted to manually reset the bulb throughout the pairing process so as to help the bridge discover it.

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Pub: 16 Aug 2025 13:05 UTC

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