In a constantly growing, developing, connected world, one of the more recent additions to the marketplace is products for the “connected home”. This goes from music streaming services, to bluetooth speakers and an ever growing market: lighting.
Yeelight sent me a review unit of their Bluetooth Controlled Light about a week ago, to be honest I was a bit apprehensive about it. My thought process was along the lines of “it’s a light, what’s the big deal” but when I had the time to sit down, investigate and play… The technology and the potential captured me pretty quickly.
Some of the competitor products to the Yeelight are a very simple device to setup; you don’t need a central hub to control them which the Zigbee requires and since they’re bluetooth controlled (via app) they don’t require any networking setup which can be frustrating for some users.
To start from the beginning, you will need the Yeelight control app installed on your phone or tablet. To install it, head to the Play Store, install the app and then follow the bouncing ball to connect your light (or lights if you have multiple).
Even the process of connecting your app to the lights has a bit of a fun flare to it, detecting nearby lights like a radar and allowing you to select them one at a time.
Once connected the controls within the app for your Yeelights are really simple:
- Pick a light
- Pick Colour, “Sunshine” (white/yellow light) or flow (changing light)
- Pick your brightness
Its actually pretty important to mention at this point that you don’t need to use the app to control your lights, they can be controlled simply by turning the light switch off and on which will put the device on yellow light at 70% of its capable brightness.
At the end of the day, it’s an expensive light globe; available in bayonet or screw in, that has some very cool features. With the good comes what some will see as bad… the price. $59.95 for a light is a pretty hefty price to pay for something that you may only really utilise when you have guest over.
It’s not quite as bad when you take into account the globes are good for around 20,000 hours of life they’re not going to go “pop” any time soon. To put that in basic perspective for users – IF, you use your globe for 5 hours a day, you’re looking at 15 years of life before needing replacement.
To put the price of the Yeelight into perspective, lets compare to some of the competitor product pricing
| Device | Cost | Hub Required | Hub Cost |
| Yeelight | $59.95 | No | N/A |
| LifX | $129.00 | No | N/A |
| Zigbee | $99.00 | Yes | $60.00 and up |
| Philips Hue | $69.00 | Yes | Available in kits @ $249.00 inlcudes three globes |
So as far as setup cost goes if you’re looking to setup a party room, or just have an interesting gadget in the house the Yeelight is by far the cheapest option on the market but still has some great features and with 16 million colours that the light is capable of you’re not going to run out of options quickly.
After all of this, what does it look like?
If the Yeelight is something that captures your attention and is within the bounds of your budget, check out the Yeelight website and order your Yeelight LED Blue II Smart Bulb today.
What devices have you added to your connected home setup? Share your toys and experiences with the Ausdroid community
Only Bluetooth? So no way to remotely control it, then.
LIFX has a great bulb but that’s where it ends. twice the price of everyone else and a really crappy back end with no working API’s any more and developers giving them the finger because they can’t get their act together.