The home of a tech-savvy consumer is evolving fast. From the introduction of smart speakers like Google Home, Amazon Echo, and now the Apple HomePod, consumers are putting down their smartphones and are now talking to digital assistants. While it’s great to order something online hands-free or get your burning questions answered immediately, people are looking for more direct interactivity with their household. TP-Link has now entered the market with their own line of Smart home products to satisfy these consumers needs, beginning with the lightbulb.
Retailing at $65 CAD per colour-changing bulb, the TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb (Model # LB130) has a lot to prove to justify its hefty price tag for most mainstream consumers. Starting with the specifications, the Smart Wi-Fi Bulb achieves a brightness of 800 lumens, has a light appearance range of 2500K-9000K from warm to cool, and operates as a 60W equivalent. The big selling point of such expensive bulbs is their long life expectancy of up to 23 years and their minimal energy costs. In the case of the TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Bulb, these products will cost homeowners a meagre $1.32 a year on their energy bill when used 3 hours a day.
Compared to standard light bulbs, the savings can be as much as $3-5 per bulb per year. It’s an interesting trade-off for consumers to consider. Sure, incandescent bulbs are dirt cheap, but if your energy bill is draining your wallet, switching to premium bulbs could be a smarter investment in the long run.
Setup is as simple as screwing in a light bulb and downloading the TP-Link Kasa app to your smartphone. The TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Bulb can only be paired via a 2.4 GHz connection and is easy to configure using the Kasa app. The app serves as a base for all the user’s TP-Link smart home products and is intuitive to use.
Each bulb can be titled and given an icon to represent its location in the home, and each bulb can also be programmed separately for different lighting schedules. While some may be disappointed that this colour-changing bulb doesn’t offer RGB lighting effects such as pulsing or breathing, the impressive range of colours is still taken into account to create any type of mood lighting the user desires.
The biggest disappointment for smart speaker owners is that the TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Bulb doesn’t offer enough interactivity within the commands. While the speaker can switch the light on and off and adjust the brightness, it can’t change the colour with a voice command. You still have to use the Kasa app to do this.
Overall, I can’t recommend the TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb as the definitive choice for homeowners. While it’s nice to have a colour-changing spectrum, realistically, users won’t be using it on a daily basis and will stick to basic white and yellow light. The much better value for consumers offered by TP-Link is their Dimmable Smart LED Bulbs (Model # LB100), which knock off $30 CAD per bulb and still offer all the energy savings along with Kasa app functionality and smart speaker compatibility.
