Make your life easier by installing lights that automatically turn on when you walk into the room.
Sengled has been creating smart home lights since 2014, with some unique products that separate themselves from competitors. When we say unique, we’re referring to their range of lights that in-built speakers, enabling you to fill a room with more than just light.
This offering makes Sengled stand out, and while they don’t have as large a market share as other competitors, they’re still seen as a solid company.
Sengled’s offers a range of traditional smart lighting options, including smart bulbs and light strips. Where they stand out and why you might want to take another look, is with their custom lights featuring in-built speakers and even motion sensors.
While their entry-level bulbs can be considered budget friendly, if you’re after the lights with in-built speakers, you’ll be paying a premium.
Depending on the Sengled light you buy, it’ll either connect via Bluetooth, WiFi or Zigbee (via their own Hub). If you choose one that connects via Bluetooth or WiFi it’s as easy as;
If you opt to use a hub instead, you’ll need to do one additional step;
We want to point out that if you have another hub (that supports Zigbee) – like Samsung SmartThings, you can certainly use that instead of purchasing the Sengled hub. Saving you a bit of money.
Like most smart home products, most of the work is done in the app itself – setting up, controlling and making your devices work together.
Like most smart lights on the market, you’ll be getting around 25,000 hours out of most their bulbs. This will on average last you a good 8-10+ years depending on how long you keep them on each night.
While it varies from model to model, 800 lumens seems to be the average for Sengled lights. Which if you’re not familiar with lumens, 800 lumens is around the same brightness as a traditional 60W bulb.
They do have some lights that are brighter, but they tend to cost more, we’ve included some brighter lights we recommend further below.
All lights work with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit (Siri) only recently becoming supported and only with their third-generation hub.
Using Apple HomeKit? We recommend making sure you’ve purchased the latest Sengled hub to ensure compatibility. There’s a few older versions of the Sengled hub that are still available for purchase so be careful.
Most of Sengled’s range is focused on bulbs, coming in various shapes. Like other smart lights on the market, their bulbs will either offer a white or colour changing light.
Where Sengled separates itself from other brands is through lights that offer addition in-built features, such as motion sensors and the previously mentioned speakers. These of course come with a premium price tag.
If you’re not after a bulb that you can also use as a speaker, then Sengled can certainly be classed as a budget friendly brand. Let’s take a look at which of their lights stand out from the rest.
Don’t have a Samsung SmartThings, Wink or other Zigbee enabled hub? Then you’ll want to start out by purchasing one of Sengled’s starter kits to get you started. These will include not only the hub but also a few lights to get you started.
Once you have a hub, you’ll be free to add more lights as and when you wish. It’s a sound investment if you’re looking to use Sengled lights throughout your home.
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Only after some smart lights that don’t play music or sense motion? Then we have a select few lights you should be looking at.
First, we’re going to look at some lights that don’t require a hub to work, instead they connect through WiFi. Great if you’re only looking to install a handful of smart lights in your home.
Hub less lights (WiFi connected)
Note — these only support Alexa and Google Assistant for voice commands.
Requires Hub (Zigbee connected)
If you’re looking to invest in more than a handful of smart lights we suggest the below models, that connect directly to the hub. There’s a few reasons to choose a hub connected light over a WiFi one, the biggest reason being the fact that if you have a bunch of WiFi enabled bulbs in your home, this could negatively affect your other WiFi devices such as phone, TV and laptop.
Note — these support Alexa and Google Assistant, and if you have Sengled hub v3, they’ll work with Apple Siri.
Now if you’re still unsure if you need a bulb that can change colour, we’ve highlighted the difference between the main 3 bulb types.
Pure White Light Only – Great choice for a lot of people, you get all the benefits of a smart light with the added benefit of being dimmable.
Cool to Warm White Light – If you didn’t already know, warmer (orange) light should be used before bed in order to help you sleep, due to cool (blue) light tricking your brain into thinking it’s daytime. These types of lights are great for the bedroom, allowing you to get a better night’s sleep then switch to a cool (blue) light in the morning to help you raise and shine.
Coloured Light – whether you want to set the mood for a romantic dinner or movie night, colour lights offer versatility the above lights can’t quite match. They’re not for everyone and each person will have an opinion on if colour lights are worth it, for us we’d recommend them for the lounge or living room.
This is where Sengled’s range gets interesting, it’s a cool concept having speakers in-built into the lights, but would you use them?
If having music throughout your home is something you could see yourself taking advantage of, they’re certainly an option. For anyone that already has speakers throughout their home, you probably don’t need these types of lights.
However, their select of lights with in-built motion sensors, can be quite useful. Thankfully Sengled offer several motion sensing lights for indoor and outdoor usage.
Offering a traditional range of accessories, from light switch remotes to door/window sensors – accessories can make transitioning to a home full of smart lights easier.
For instance, it’s not always preferable to open an app on your phone, or yell a voice command to turn the lights on. Instead having a light switch remote allows direct connectivity and means your guests and other people in the home can operate the lights.
Sengled Light Switch – Hub (Zigbee)
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It’s nice to see other brands offering a range of outdoor lights, while we’ve all seen motion sensing lights there’s one unique light Sengled offers.
That is the motion sensor + camera light, which does exactly what you think. With its in-built camera you’re able to view a live video stream directly from your phone.
Great when you don’t want to make it immediately obvious to anyone looking at your home, that you have a camera installed.
While their range offers a few special bulbs, Sengled falls in this funny spot. They do product lights that work well, and for quite a few people that’ll be more than happy with their range. We still do prefer other smart light brands such as Philips Hue for now, but as Sengled releases new products that could certainly change.
Before fully jumping into Sengled we’d suggest thinking about whether lights with speakers or motion sensors are features you’d want to include in your home. If not then you’re probably safe skipping them for now.
Smart lights when implemented correctly can make a huge impact, head over to our smart lighting guide to learn how.
