The world of smart home lighting can feel complicated at first, but it turns out to be one of the most simple ways to make your living space smarter.
A Smart Start with Simple Filament Bulbs
You don’t need a massive overhaul; combine just a handful of these bulbs with an affordable Google or Alexa device and you can turn your lights on, off, dim them, or change the mood by simply using voice commands. However, more often than not traditional smart bulbs look… well, like light bulbs. They function but they lack charm.
This is where smart filament bulbs come in nicely to save the day. It doesn’t matter which way you turn at any given moment; every hipster bar has plenty of exposed brickwork, piping and classic bulb filaments hanging around. Consequently, more often than not smart lighting manufacturers are providing options for those who want to combine that specific beauty with automation here.
Our Top Picks
We share our top picks based on your needs so you can choose between functionality or price effectively right now in 2023 UK. Here we go into the details of the three best options currently available to help make that choice for you easily.
Philips Hue White Filament Bulbs
When people think of smart bulbs Philips Hue is usually the brand that comes straight to mind, even though others are rising. They’re well established, eco friendly and work well with a whole variety of systems in your home.
The launch just occurred under 2 years ago providing you that retro look while staying technically advanced in one unit. You can pick them up with E27 and bayonet fittings to suit different fixtures because they are compatible widely enough for almost any fitting type available today.
Detailed Pros
The biggest benefit is the compatibility, as it supports Bluetooth and wireless connectivity seamlessly without needing constant internet access. The brightness level stays plenty high enough for rooms of all sizes while maintaining that nice warm white color temperature everyone loves looking at before turning to sleep.
Further Benefits
It works with Google’s Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, Siri and Homekit as the main options currently available. The app experience is really great for control even though they might seem complex initially when starting from scratch first time user perspective wise.
Innr Smart Filament Bulbs
The Innr company might be less well-known to some, but their smart bulbs are making waves in the market as a solid competitor. They’re compatible with Samsung SmartThings and also work like Hue allowing you to link them into whatever lighting ecosystem you already have established at home without total replacement of your system.
Innr’s bulbs come with various fittings available too for standard E27 or bayonet needs, they are gold colored internally which is aesthetically pleasing on the eye. As noted before, like Hue they’re super energy efficient as well in their daily usage cycle so you won’t be worrying about bills going up unnecessarily.
Innr Pros
The key selling points involve compatibility with Samsung SmartThings and Amazon Alexa while using a bridge requirement only for full Hue system use. It offers voice control options directly from those platforms to keep things simple, but you can’t get HomeKit support right now if that is essential.
Innr Cons
You must note the tradeoffs here as these lack official Siri support which Apple users might miss out on. The biggest advantage remains price-wise as they are half the cost of Hue bulbs, but this creates a choice between features and savings directly dependent upon your budget.
Nedis Wifi Smart LED Bulb
This third option from NEDIS is our final pick here where we trust you there may be more choices out there in general but they’re not good enough to feature. They work with E27 fittings and mix a variety of shape options which makes them great for mixing and matching shapes within your existing lamp shade.
NEDIS starts pricing from £13 upwards depending on the specific shape you go for rather than having one rigid standard price point that everyone pays equally regardless of style needed in their decor design preferences specifically.
Detailed Pros
The first advantage involves compatibility with lots of existing systems already installed so you don’t need to buy a hub immediately unless you want one. This means they work nicely if you use TUYA network devices and integrate these into your app easily for management purposes in the future.
Detailed Cons
You do lose some support compared to top tier models as there is no HomeKit feature included here at all which keeps them out of those specific ecosystems. They also don’t work with Samsung SmartThings or Philips Hue systems specifically if that matters for your main hub compatibility needs currently available on the market today.
Final Verdict
In our opinion any one of these three is a great choice depending where you stand in terms of budget. If you’re starting from scratch then the NEDIS lets you tap into a whole variety of other budget smarthome tech thanks to its use of the TUYA network which connects widely.
If however if you’re looking to invest we’d certainly favour Philips Hue for it’s functionality rather than just cheap features. It’s all about your needs really, so pick accordingly based on whether you prioritize price or feature set compatibility with current devices in your home now.
