Cree was hesitant to add a sensible bulb to its finest-selling LED lineup, however that modified this yr with the addition of the $15 Cree Linked LED. Sharing the construct and lighting specs of last yr's nicely-reviewed Cree 4Flow LED , the brand new Related LED provides in a Zigbee radio. Pair it with a management hub, and 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 will buy both off the shelf at House Depot. Since then, nonetheless, we have seen official help roll out for EcoLight extra control gateways, together with SmartThings and the Philips Hue Bridge . You can add the bulbs to the new D-Link version of the Staples Connect Hub , too, though there is not official, Zonoff-certified help just but. The bulb works effectively across all of the platforms we have examined it with, and it shares the sturdy lighting specs of the 4Flow LED that got here before it.

Most appealing is the value. At $15 -- just a few dollars greater than you will spend on non-connected opponents -- it ties with the GE Hyperlink LED as probably the most cheap connected bulb on the market. For primary automated lighting, it is one of the best choice we've examined yet, and our present Editors' Choice winner. Cree adapted its smart bulb design from last year's 4Flow LED, packing a Zigbee radio into the present build. That implies that this is not a bulb that goes out of its approach to look fancy or newfangled -- as a substitute, EcoLight it copies the 4Flow's emphasis on mimicking the silhouette of traditional incandescents. I liked that method with the 4Flow, and i like it with the brand new Connected LED too, although some may find 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 makes use of vents to circulate air by means of the physique of the bulb, eliminating the necessity for heat sinks.

That helps convey manufacturing costs down, and in addition implies that the bulb is exceptionally mild for an LED, weighing in at lower than 2 ounces. The Cree Related LED shares the same lighting specs because the 4Flow LED, too, and that is largely an excellent thing. Each claim a mild output of 815 lumens, and both clocked in even greater than that in front of our spectrometer -- 835 lumens for the 4Flow, and a very spectacular 872 for the Linked LED. By way of effectivity, the 4Flow places its light out using 11 watts, but the number rises to 11.5 watts for EcoLight energy the Linked LED on account of the Zigbee radio's EcoLight energy draw. After we examined it out, the quantity was really nearer to 11.1 watts, so Cree's executed an excellent job of keeping this bulb relatively efficient. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that each the Philips Hue Lux LED and the Belkin WeMo LED are even more efficient, EcoLight solar bulbs each drawing less than 10 watts.

Cree also did an excellent job with colour temperature here, landing extraordinarily near the said 2,700K. At 2,696K, the Cree Related LED lands nearer to the mark than every other sensible bulb we've examined, so if you are picky about that good shade of heat, EcoLight energy yellowy gentle, EcoLight energy you'll like this LED. The one place the place Cree's smart bulb lags behind not less than a few of the competitors is the colour rendering score, which measures how precisely a given mild supply illuminates totally different shades. The Cree Connected LED hits a quite atypical rating of eighty out of 100, and given that each the WeMo LED and the equally cheap GE Link LED hit closer to 90, I would have preferred to see Cree do higher. To entry the Cree LED's good options, you'll must pair it with a management hub that may translate its Zigbee sign into Wi-Fi. Just like the GE Link LED, EcoLight LED the Cree Linked LED got here out the gate trumpeting Wink help at launch, but soon expanded its third social gathering compatibility to incorporate options like SmartThings, Staples Join , and the Philips Hue Bridge .

Totally different platforms offer totally different features -- SmartThings and Philips bring IFTTT help into the image, as an example -- but on the whole, EcoLight energy the automating experience is largely the identical. We tested the bulb on a number of platforms, and EcoLight bulbs by no means ran into any difficulties pairing it or controlling it. Regardless of which platform you're using, you will be able to turn the Cree Related LED on or off remotely, dim it, or automate it using whatever controls your system offers. These doubtless embrace setting the lights to a timed schedule, or syncing them up with things 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 right in the app, EcoLight energy which helps. Staples Connect does not provide device-specific help for Cree just but, but it surely 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 fairly painless, too, though I needed to manually reset the bulb through the pairing process in order to help the bridge discover it.

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Pub: 15 Aug 2025 23:20 UTC

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