Make your life easier by installing lights that automatically turn on when you walk into the room.
Wyze Labs have hit upon a cost-friendly solution for homeowners to install smart lighting without having to pay through the nose. Wyze smart bulbs are only available via online orders which enables them to keep costs super low; $8 for a single smart bulb or a four-pack for $30 - no hub required. The simple setup is programmed through your WiFi network and organised from the mobile app.
Lemon Squeezy.
Wyze smart lights are like common-or-garden white LED light bulbs that you can control via voice assistants, directly from your mobile phone or tablet and several other smart home devices. The tunable-white bulbs are rated at 800 lumens of brightness - the equivalent of a traditional 60-watt bulb - and connect to your WiFi so you don’t need a hub.
As far as smart lights are concerned, Wyze bulbs are inexpensive. Amazon sells Wyze bulbs for less than $15 for one and less than $40 (at the time of writing) although you will need to factor in shipping costs (which differs depending on your country of residence).
The “A19” LED smart light bulb is your standard, round, bulb, while “E26” refers to size of the socket — a standard “full size” lamp. Rated at 9.5-watts producing up to 800 lumens, Wyze bulbs can be dimmed using voice control or the Wyze App. They do not use with dimmer switches.
Find out more about Wyze bulbs here.
You basically plug ’n’ play Wyze lights. All you have to do is screw the bulb into the socket, download the Wyze app on to a mobile device, name the bulb (and other devices such as Wyze Security camera or Wyze Starter kit) and adjust the settings.
From the app, you can adjust brightness and colour temperature using simple sliders. You can also create a scene or simply go with the presets.
To name your bulbs, tap the settings icon (shaped like a gear) in the top right-hand corner, enter the name of the bulb (e.g kitchen, bathroom, master bedroom, [son’s name] bedroom, [daughter’s name] bedroom etc.
There is also a “Vacation Mode” which is a nifty little feature that turns your smart light on and off to make it appear as though you are at home when you are sunning yourself on holiday. That’ll fool them pesky burglars.
You can even operate Wyze lights with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. For the time being Apple Homekit is not supported but that could be subject to change.
N.B. As far as we know, nothing is in the pipeline with Apple to date but rest assured, we will keep you posted as soon as we hear anything!
The longevity of smart bulbs is like a piece of string. It all depends on how often you use them and the brightness settings you program. But LED lights are long-lasting. One estimate that has been touted is that Wyze light bulbs will last 18.3 years if you only have them turned on 3-hours a day.
You can create settings for single bulbs or a group of bulbs. You can set grouped bulbs individually to create a scene with your preferred brightness and colour temperature, but one slider operates the dimmer for them all.
Other Wyze smart lighting settings include scheduling and defining shortcuts.
Wyze smart lighting is a smart piece of kit for an inexpensive price. On that basis alone, we’re prepared to recommend Wyze bulbs and, yes, by all means, you should get Wyze smart lights.
Having said that, they are the bog-basic bulbs of the smart lighting world. The smart lighting system you invest in really depends on how smart you want your home to be.
Wyze smart lighting is a good entry point. For such low prices in comparison to the more sophisticated smart bulbs such as Philips Hue, they have decent functionality and a reasonable number of features.
You may experience a few glitches with the app and a delay in the responsiveness of the bulbs but other than that, Wyze smart lighting represents excellent value for money.
Smart-home connectivity is limited because of the lack of products available from Wyze Labs, but the Wyze app works with their range of smart cameras - the product which enabled them to penetrate the world of smart devices in the first place.
So there’s probably more to come from the Americans. Wyze Labs is still a relatively young company, but have customer-centred ethics which in today’s world of unethical corporate empires is not to be scoffed at. If you want to support brands that offer high-quality products at affordable prices, Wyze Labs is a wise choice.
Wyze smart lighting may not be the most sophisticated but it doesn’t pretend tone either. Nor does it need to be if truth be told. At $8 a pop, Wyze bulbs are a smart choice for budget-seeking shoppers or homeowners that are curious about trialling smart lighting to see what the fuss is all about.
