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when I last reviewed the company’s bulbs, they were a welcome novelty, but finicky to run. I recently decided to give LIFX bulbs another look so in this review I’ll talk about my experience with them today, how the set up process is, if any improvements have been made, and how these bulbs integrate into my smart home.
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I recently ordered LIFX 1100 lumen larger format bulb and the LIFX 800 lumen colour bulbs which are the size of a traditional bulb, and both have the standard E26 screw base), so those are the bulbs I’m focusing on today.
In my initial review of LIFX bulbs, they were difficult to set up, they often took several attempts at connection, and over weeks and months would often randomly disconnect or become unreachable for no reason, requiring a complicated reset process. Also, over the six or so years I had LIFX bulbs, several of them simply ceased to function altogether meaning I had to toss them away; an expensive prospect at their price point of about $40-60CAD each. I’d say of the 8 LIFX bulbs I’ve owned, four have already reached end of life. And while in this short review period I won’t be able to judge longevity, I will be watching to see how the newer generation of bulbs hold up.
I’m disappointed to find LIFX bulbs are no easier to set up than when I previously reviewed them. They continue to be buggy, difficult or just plain broken.
Enter the set up code or use the camera to scan the QR code on the back of the paper. The LIFX app will then get you connected.
If you don't have that HomeKit code, it is possible to get that code off the serial number that is on the light bulb, but it's a bit hard to read. I waited several minutes for the HOmeKit set up to complete, but all I got was a spinning wheel.
All of a sudden the bulb went out and I couldnt get it to turn back on again. So that was a complete dud.
I pulled another light from its box and tried again.
This time it seemed to connect correctly, even with HomeKit, but during the set up it not only forced me to add it to a room, but also to create a group within it. Despite the fact I didn't want it to be grouped.
This brings me to the LIFX app. While it is nicely designed and laid out, it's not very intuitive or easy to navigate in my opinion, and I’m saying this as someone who’s used hundreds of smart home apps. The way the app tends to want to group your lights and devices doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And it's extremely difficult to figure out how to redo the groupings or to re-organize your home.
The lights do have a wide array of colors and brightnesses. For the basic 'white' light most of us use every day, there's a host of variations; on your smart phone there's a dial which allows you to control whether you want a cool bluish light, or a warmer pinkish yellow light. You also have the ability to brighten or dim the bulb from your smart phone. It's very easy to control, and the color wheel setup in the app makes it easy to see what you're getting or what else is available to change it to.
You can also set schedules for your lights to behave a certain way each day ad I can say that this actually worked well in my testing.
One last little twist of the knife.. as I was wotrkig on this video, anothert of my LIFX lights died; I’ve had to factory reset this light strip multiple times when it stops working in the two years I’ve had it. . Today, it just quit completely and woldn’t turn back on, so into the garbage it went..