Review: Wyze’s smart lightbulbs affordably complement your smart home system

PROS:

• Affordable
• Easy-to-use app, easy setup
• Compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and IFTTT

CONS:

• No color options

Full Specs

• Android 5+, iOS 9+ compatible 
• 4.6 ounces
• 2700k-6500k temperature range 
• Indoor-use only 
• 20,000 hours life expectancy
• 60 watts 
• 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz compatible

Wyze is quickly becoming known as the budget smart home system to beat. Big-name competitors might out-tech Wyze in a handful of ways, but many of those features are for serious gadget nerds or consumers with highly specific needs. For the rest of us, Wyze’s products offer ease of use at a competitive price. The Wyze Bulb is no different: The smart lightbulb works with the rest of the tools nicely to accent your entry-level smart home.

Look and feel: 4/5

It’s sort of difficult to rate the aesthetics of a light bulb. The Wyze Bulb looks like any white LED bulb. It screws into any correctly sized fixture and has a relatively wide cool-to-warm range, which users can control from the app. Arguably the only complaint a user might have is that Wyze currently only has white bulbs. There aren’t any color options or hues available.

Usability: 4/5

Users can control the Wyze Bulb from inside Wyze’s app. (You’ll see a list of all your Wyze smart home devices on the home screen.) If you have more than one, you can label them and select which bulb you want to tinker with. Tapping the bulb takes you to a settings screen for the light, where you can determine how much light a bulb is putting out and how warm or cool the tone is.

You can create names for certain light or tone settings. For example, I named a Wyze Bulb “romantic” (it’s warmer and darker) and another “interrogation” (it’s bright and white). Beyond that, users can set lights on Vacation Mode (which makes it look like someone is home even when you’re not) and do things like set up schedules or share control access to the device from the screen. It’s a simple, straightforward app. No frills and obvious labeling make it a fun, easy place to toy with the smart bulbs. 

The only reason the Wyze Bulb gets a slight knock is that mine disconnected once without me choosing and I had to set them up again. This isn’t unusual for smart home products: Internet outages, connection issues, and app updates can create small, occasional frustrations. Such is the life of trying out smart home products in these early days.

Performance and power: 5/5

When Wyze Bulbs are connected, they are absolutely wonderful to use. (I’ll reiterate that any connection issues were limited but worth mentioning when talking about performance.) I was able to jump right into tinkering with lighting. The app and lights were immediately responsive, as were features like the ability to share access with other users within the app. The Wyze Bulbs also worked perfectly with my Google Home without any issue. That’s what’s so alluring about Wyze: You’re able to upgrade your smart home experience seamlessly without investing in one specific platform or spending a premium price.

Overall rating:  4/5

The Wyze Bulb’s price point is nearly impossible to beat, and the product is incredibly competitive with the rest of the market. The only advantages some other devices in the category have to offer are color and hue options. Admittedly, turning your room purple or blue is a fun novelty, but it’s for you to decide whether that’s worth the extra cash. Who knows, maybe hued light bulbs are on the product roadmap for Wyze eventually. 

Despite the minimal connection issues, the fact that Wyze Bulbs blend into a smart home experience—not stand out in it—are their selling point.