My Experience With LIFX: Bulbs That Change Temperature And Brightness

It's been about over a week since I've bought my LIFX bulbs. These bulbs basically change color temperature (white balance) as well as the brightness levels. Being able to control color and light sounded awesome! Even better, they're LED so they don't get hot.

I will definitely say that this is the best thing I've bought this past year. I played with them for a couple of hours after I got it and I know 10 people that also picked them up after I did. If you're a color nerd and are very particular about lighting, you'll probably wonder (like I did) why it took so long to get these.

You could also use them on shoots and add a touch of color to your shots (brainstorming here!).

This move was inspired when one of my lights went out in my room. I had heard about the Philips HUE bulbs that everyone seemed to have. When I asked my network, all but three people said to check out LIFX.

I went with LIFX because of two main reasons:

1. The HUE bulbs require a bridge/hub along with the bulbs to get them to work. I like simplicity and didn't want another thing. These bulbs plug straight into any socket and they do not require a bridge.

2. These go up to 1100 lumens so they are bright! The others did not go that high either.

COST and OPTIONS:

The Generation 3 bulbs I got cost $200 in total for the pack of four: LINK.

If you want bulbs that only change the color temperature without the addition of any colors, these pack of four seem to be the best buy: LINK. They're also cheaper than the same variety than the competition. By default, it does say European Union only except they do say they will only ship US compliant bulbs to the US. So just double check that upon ordering.

However, they aren't as bright as the most recent generation ones I have, but I would say they are bright enough! At just $90 for the four, they seem to be great and I would probably do that if I had to do it all over again.

On their website, they also have this awesome LED strip too: LINK

PRO TIP: If you have Amazon Prime, you can pick them up there with your free 2 day shipping! If you're reading this before Christmas, treat yourself... or your friends.

SETUP:

Setup was actually easy. Once you put the bulbs in, you turn on the power like and regular bulb from the light switch. Once they're on, they emit light and also a wifi signal! Download the LIFX app and simply connect to the LIFX wifi network. Once it's connected, it will add itself to your main wifi network that you usually use. Then, the app will show the bulb and you can turn it on and off from the app or change anything you want.

You can also add it to a folder (group) so you can turn multiple lights on and off at the same time, or change the brightness and color temperature for multiple lights at the same time.

In the second image, you'll see the wheel adjusts your white balance and the vertical scroll bar in the middle will control brightness. The color tab can change any light to whatever color you want as well as the saturation. I don't find myself using it for anything at the moment. There is also an effects tab that allows you to do a lot of fun visual effects. The music visualizer will flicker and dance to the music in the most delicate way. It's rather trippy.

Conclusion:

I'd definitely recommend these to anyone, not only creatives. I had no idea how much color temperature changes my mood and helps keep me happy. Before, my ambient settings were whatever my bulbs were at the time. Now, in the evenings if I want to feel a little more cozy, I'll dim them and make them warmer while working and I feel great.

While crawling into bed at night, I'll change it to a candle light setting (super warm and 1% brightness) while reading. My main light turns into night lights! And inversely, easing into the day has become great as I simply start with a dimmer setting.

It's impacted my mood a lot. When I'm working on anything during the day I find myself going quite neutral and bright.

Being able to adjust these settings has become irreplaceable! I can't believe I hadn't done it sooner. My next buy is these color strips (link) and outfitting them under my desk as well.

Now if only LIFX would just sponsor me haha! No seriously...