For our gadget weeks, we also got different kind of smart bulbs, which we then tested in the course of this occasion. Since I did not wanted to overload the “Gadget Weeks” blog posts, I am giving you the quick hands on review now.
MiPow Playbulb
The MiPow Playbulb combines an LED smart bulb with a Bluetooth speaker. It looks like a standard bulb, except a little bit larger, and is compatible with the E26 and E27 sockets.
Setup
The setup of the Playbulb is quite easy. You just screw the bulb into a lamp, turn it on, download the app and connect your smartphone to the bulb through Bluetooth.
App and its Features
The app provides three interfaces. One to control the light (brightness, colour), one to set lightning scenes and a music player. It is clearly designed and is intuitive to use. A side remark is that the version of the bulb we tested, does not provide colour setting and hence a few features in the app could not be tested.
Conclusion
A bulb with an integrated speaker sounds like fun, but it is not. Since the bulb is bigger than the usual ones, it will not easily fit in all lamps. Also the maximum brightness of the light is not enough to illuminate a whole room. The sound quality is passable to tinny, depending on the music played, and is not suited to use it as main speaker. An other downside is the app, it is very slow and unresponsive. Therefore, the MiPow Playbulb is only suited for secondary lamps that need to play music occasionally.
OORT SmartLED
The SmartLED is a cone like shaped bulb to which you can either connect directly using Bluetooth, or over Wi-Fi using the OORT SmartHub. The supported sockets are E26 and E27.
Setup
Installation of the SmartLED is as simple as for the MiPow Playbulb. Screw it in into a lamp, turn it on, download the app and connect either through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
App and its Features
The app is easy to use with a minimal, attractive to use design. It gives the user the possibility to set the colour and brightness. Additionally you can set an alarm, which will turn on the light slowly, and you can choose different light modes like looping through the colours of a rainbow. An other useful feature is the “White Light” button, which will set the bulb to a standard white.
Conclusion
The SmartLED is a good bulb with an app that is close to perfect. But it also has some drawbacks. The special design makes the light appear dim, even though it is quite powerful (800lm). An other aspect is that it is pretty big and heavy compared with other smart bulbs.