Tabu Lumen Good LED Bulb TL800 Review

Ever because the Philips Hue LED($199.99 at Verizon) lighting equipment hit the digital home market, energy-saving LED bulbs there was a steady uptick in competing good bulb merchandise just like the LIFX energy-saving LED bulbs Light Bulb( at Amazon) and energy-saving LED bulbs the Connected by TCP Smart 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 $69.99 per bulb (however accessible on-line for round $50), the TL800 makes use of Bluetooth wireless technology to communicate together with your smartphone via a neat little app that allows you to turn lights on and off, choose colours, and have the lights behave a sure method when you have got an incoming telephone call. Unlike the Philips and TCP bulbs the TL800 would not require a bridge, but it does not connect to the Web either, which implies you can't management it when you're away from residence or have it work together with different house automation devices. With a vented metallic casing separating the round glass dome from the Edison screw base, the TL800 seems to be like it would be right at residence in an Apollo spacecraft.



The bulb measures 4.75 inches in size and places out solely 400 lumens, which is equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That is not very vivid when in comparison with the LIFX (1,017 lumens), TCP (800 lumens), and Philips (600 lumens) bulbs. As with the Philips and energy-saving LED bulbs LIFX bulbs, it may display sixteen million colors, however because it does not hook up with the Internet you cannot control it with home automation hubs from companies reminiscent of Revolv( at Amazon) and SmartThings($149.99 at Amazon). Nor can you utilize the popular IFTTT (If This Then That) internet service to have it activate and EcoLight home lighting off or change colours based mostly on issues like Facebook requests, Foursquare notifications, and ESPN sports activities scores. You don't get much in the best way of instructions with the TL800, however there's not a lot to explain. I screwed it right into a lamp in my workplace, downloaded the app onto my iOS smartphone, made sure Bluetooth was enabled on my system, energy-efficient bulbs and opened the app.



The Lumen app is uncomplicated and simple to make use of and lets you control up to ten bulbs at a time. You can management every bulb individually or management a gaggle of bulbs. The house web page lists all installed bulbs and energy-saving LED bulbs reveals you what coloration they're currently set to. Urgent a bulb icon takes you to a page where you possibly can choose shade or warm white settings and turn the bulb on or off. When you select the warm white setting you are introduced with a monochrome wheel that allows you to manually modify brightness, or you'll be able to choose one of 4 brightness presets (90, 70, 50, or 30 %). Beneath the wheel is a Call Alert icon that takes you to a page where you possibly can configure the sunshine to flash a specific colour when your phone has an incoming call. There's also a Wake-Up timer that may turn the sunshine on utilizing a dim heat white setting that progressively will get brighter to create a sunrise impact, and a Proximity option that may have a light turn on to a preset color EcoLight solar bulbs and brightness when your phone comes into range (about 30 toes).



In colour mode you get a wheel that lets you choose a shade for every bulb and assign a coloration brightness setting. For deep, strong colours you set the brightness degree to the darkest setting; for lighter pastel colours, use a brighter setting. Under the shade wheel are seven preset icons including two party modes that show pre-programmed flashing colours; a Romance mode that regularly transitions between orange, LED bulbs for home yellow, and red; a Relaxation mode that is speculated to simulate a calming moonlight ambiance; and a Music Sync mode that accesses your stored music database and flashes the sunshine to the beat utilizing numerous colors. Right here you may also adjust Proximity and Name Alert settings, but you cannot create your own customized presets like you can with the Hue and LIFX bulbs. From the home page you may flip all or some lights on and energy-saving LED bulbs off and add them to teams.



The group option is beneficial if you would like to regulate a number of lights unexpectedly. All the settings and presets that can be found for individual bulbs are additionally out there in group mode. The TL800 makes use of Bluetooth 4.Zero to speak with the smartphone, which accounts for EcoLight solutions its glorious responsiveness. It turned on and off immediately when told to do so, and there was no lag time between color and brightness changes. The Wake-Up function turned on in keeping with my schedule and the bulb turned steadily brighter over time. The call Alert characteristic also labored as marketed and comes in very useful if you are sporting headphones. Shade quality was good with very deep reds, blues, and greens, but if you are lighting a large room you may need more than one bulb, as four hundred lumens is not very vivid. The Tabu TL800 is an efficient selection for anybody looking so as to add a couple of colorful lights to a room that they will management from a smartphone.