Tabu Lumen Sensible LED Bulb (TL800) Evaluation

Ever since the Philips Hue LED($199.99 at Verizon) lighting kit hit the digital dwelling market, EcoLight solutions there was a gentle uptick in competing sensible bulb merchandise just like the LIFX LED Gentle Bulb( at Amazon) and the Related by TCP Sensible Lighting System in addition to recent product announcements from electronics giants LG and Samsung. Add the Lumen TL800 from Tabu to that listing. Priced at $69.Ninety nine per bulb (but available on-line for around $50), the TL800 uses Bluetooth wireless expertise to speak together with your smartphone via a neat little app that allows you to flip lights on and off, select colours, and EcoLight solutions have the lights behave a certain method when you’ve gotten an incoming phone name. Unlike the Philips and TCP bulbs the TL800 would not require a bridge, EcoLight solutions but it surely would not connect to the Web both, which suggests you can’t management it when you’re away from home or have it work together with other residence automation devices. With a vented metallic casing separating the round glass dome from the Edison screw base, the TL800 seems prefer it would be proper at residence in an Apollo spacecraft.

The bulb measures 4.Seventy five inches in size and places out only four hundred lumens, which is equal to a forty watt incandescent bulb. That is not very shiny when in comparison with the LIFX (1,017 lumens), TCP (800 lumens), and Philips (600 lumens) bulbs. As with the Philips and EcoLight lighting LIFX bulbs, it might probably show 16 million colors, but because it does not connect to the Internet you can’t management it with house automation hubs from firms reminiscent of Revolv( at Amazon) and SmartThings($149.Ninety nine at Amazon). Nor can you utilize the popular IFTTT (If This Then That) internet service to have it turn on and EcoLight off or change colors primarily based on issues like Fb requests, Foursquare notifications, and ESPN sports scores. You don’t get much in the best way of instructions with the TL800, but there’s not much to explain. I screwed it right into a lamp in my office, downloaded the app onto my iOS smartphone, made positive Bluetooth was enabled on my gadget, EcoLight solutions and opened the app.

The Lumen app is uncomplicated and straightforward to make use of and lets you management up to 10 bulbs at a time. You’ll be able to management each bulb individually or control a group of bulbs. The home web page lists all installed bulbs and shows you what color they’re presently set to. Pressing a bulb icon takes you to a web page the place you’ll be able to select colour or heat white settings and turn the bulb on or EcoLight outdoor off. Whenever you select the heat white setting you’re introduced with a monochrome wheel that lets you manually adjust brightness, or you’ll be able to choose one of four brightness presets (90, 70, 50, or 30 p.c). Below the wheel is a Call Alert icon that takes you to a web page the place you can configure the sunshine to flash a particular coloration when your cellphone has an incoming name. There’s also a Wake-Up timer that will turn the light on using a dim heat white setting that gradually will get brighter to create a sunrise effect, and a Proximity possibility that can have a gentle activate to a preset coloration and EcoLight solutions brightness when your telephone comes into range (about 30 toes).

In shade mode you get a wheel that lets you select a color for every bulb and assign a shade brightness setting. For deep, sturdy colours you set the brightness stage to the darkest setting; for lighter pastel colours, use a brighter setting. Beneath the coloration wheel are seven preset icons including two get together modes that show pre-programmed flashing colours; a Romance mode that gradually transitions between orange, EcoLight solutions yellow, and purple; a Relaxation mode that’s imagined to simulate a calming moonlight ambiance; and a Music Sync mode that accesses your saved music database and flashes the sunshine to the beat using numerous colors. Here it’s also possible to adjust Proximity and Name Alert settings, however you cannot create your own customized presets like you may with the Hue and LIFX bulbs. From the house web page you may turn all or some lights on and off and add them to groups.

The group choice is helpful if you’d like to manage a number of lights all of sudden. All the settings and presets that can be found for particular person bulbs are additionally out there in group mode. The TL800 makes use of Bluetooth 4.Zero to speak with the smartphone, which accounts for its wonderful responsiveness. It turned on and off immediately when told to do so, and there was no lag time between shade and EcoLight dimmable brightness changes. The Wake-Up function turned on based on my schedule and the bulb turned steadily brighter over time. The call Alert characteristic additionally labored as advertised and is available in very helpful if you are sporting headphones. Coloration high quality was good with very deep reds, blues, and greens, EcoLight but when you are lighting a large room you may need multiple bulb, as four hundred lumens will not be very bright. The Tabu TL800 is an effective selection for anyone trying to add a few colorful lights to a room that they’ll management from a smartphone.