Tabu Lumen Good LED Bulb TL800 Assessment

Ever since the Philips Hue LED($199.99 at Verizon) lighting equipment hit the digital home market, there was a gradual uptick in competing sensible bulb merchandise just like the LIFX LED Mild Bulb( at Amazon) and the Linked by TCP Good Lighting System in addition to recent product announcements from electronics giants LG and Samsung. Add the Lumen TL800 from Tabu to that checklist. Priced at $69.Ninety nine per bulb (however available on-line for around $50), the TL800 uses Bluetooth wireless technology to speak with your smartphone by way of a neat little app that lets you flip lights on and off, select colors, and have the lights behave a sure means when you will have an incoming phone call. Not like the Philips and TCP bulbs the TL800 doesn't require a bridge, but it does not connect to the Internet both, which suggests you cannot management it when you are away from home or have it work together with other home automation gadgets. With a vented steel casing separating the spherical glass dome from the Edison screw base, the TL800 seems prefer it would be right at dwelling in an Apollo spacecraft.



The bulb measures 4.Seventy five inches in size and places out solely four hundred lumens, which is equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That's not very brilliant when in comparison with the LIFX (1,017 lumens), TCP (800 lumens), and Philips (600 lumens) bulbs. As with the Philips and EcoLight solutions LIFX bulbs, it may possibly show sixteen million colours, but because it doesn't connect with the Internet you can't management it with home automation hubs from companies such as 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 off or change colors primarily based on issues like Fb requests, Foursquare notifications, EcoLight and ESPN sports scores. You don't get much in the way in which of instructions with the TL800, however there's not a lot to clarify. I screwed it into a lamp in my workplace, downloaded the app onto my iOS smartphone, made sure Bluetooth was enabled on my machine, and opened the app.



The Lumen app is uncomplicated and straightforward to make use of and lets you control up to 10 bulbs at a time. You'll be able to control each bulb individually or control a bunch of bulbs. The house page lists all installed bulbs and exhibits you what colour they're currently set to. Urgent a bulb icon takes you to a web page the place you possibly can choose colour or heat white settings and EcoLight solutions turn the bulb on or off. Once you choose the heat white setting you're offered with a monochrome wheel that lets you manually adjust brightness, or you'll be able to select one of 4 brightness presets (90, 70, 50, or 30 percent). Below the wheel is a Name Alert icon that takes you to a page the place you may configure the light to flash a particular colour when your phone has an incoming name. There's additionally a Wake-Up timer that can turn the light on using a dim heat white setting that progressively will get brighter to create a sunrise impact, and a Proximity choice that may have a gentle activate to a preset color and brightness when your cellphone comes into range (about 30 toes).



In color mode you get a wheel that lets you select a color for each bulb and assign a color brightness setting. For deep, sturdy colors you set the brightness stage to the darkest setting; for lighter pastel colors, use a brighter setting. Under the colour wheel are seven preset icons together with two social gathering modes that display pre-programmed flashing colours; a Romance mode that steadily transitions between orange, yellow, and crimson; a Relaxation mode that is imagined to simulate a calming moonlight ambiance; and a Music Sync mode that accesses your stored music database and flashes the light to the beat using varied colors. Right here you can even adjust Proximity and Name Alert settings, but you cannot create your own customized presets like you'll be able to with the Hue and LIFX bulbs. From the home page you may turn all or some lights on and off and add them to teams.



The group possibility is beneficial if you would like to regulate a number of lights suddenly. The entire settings and presets that can be found for particular person bulbs are additionally available in group mode. The TL800 makes use of Bluetooth 4.0 to speak with the smartphone, which accounts for its glorious responsiveness. It turned on and off instantly when told to take action, and there was no lag time between coloration and brightness adjustments. The Wake-Up function turned on in accordance with my schedule and the bulb became progressively brighter over time. The call Alert feature also labored as advertised and EcoLight is available in very useful if you're sporting headphones. Color high quality was good with very deep reds, blues, and greens, but when you are lighting a big room you may need a couple of bulb, as 400 lumens is not very bright. The Tabu TL800 is an effective choice for anyone wanting to add a few colorful lights to a room that they will control from a smartphone.