Sengled - Smart LED Multicolor A19 Starter Kit (4-Pack) - Multicolor

PROs: - Combines the best of both types of Smart-bulb lighting capabilities - virtually infinite color adjustment as well as five common presets for white color temperature and manual sliders for fully adjustable color temperature & brightness - Seamlessly integrated with both Alexa and Google Home in addition to more direct/precise control in the companion 'Element Home' app...voice commands easily adjusted color, brightness, and white temperature - The included Element control hub (which can handle up to 64 devices at a time, and not just light bulbs!) isn't much larger than a hockey puck...operates off of your own router via included Ethernet cable (nice!) or wireless via 2.4Ghz wireless - Although virtually nothing comes with a full instruction manual any more, the included mini quick start-up card had enough information to get the entire setup online inside of about 10 minutes - The companion Element Home app included an easy-to-find FAQ covering installation basics, configuration, and troubleshooting questions--it was nice not to have to go to the website to locate additional information right off the bat (the app even indicated and installed a firmware update during initial setup!) - Rudimentary scheduling allows for a wake-up (turn-on) schedule as well as two other preset on/off, brightness and color temp combinations over a period of time to include a one-time event or varying schedule across different hours of the day and days of the week - Easy grouping of lights within the app (for example, all 3 in a ceiling fan) ensures precise color/brightness matching between bulbs CONs: - As is, these bulbs provide a bit more functionality than others I've sampled which will adjust either color temperature for whites, or colors per se (which means "white" is usually more of an incandescent yellow), but not both; that said, they are a bit more expensive than other adjustable color smart bulbs so outfitting an entire house or large floor-plan could start getting pricey - The included power connector for the Element Hub has a USB A connector at one end (for powering via included USB-to-AC plug-in, a spare cell phone charger, open port on a USB hub or PC, a USB port on a router, etc.) but a smaller round power adapter at the hub end...this means if you lose the power cord, you can't just grab a spare USB mini, micro, or USB-C cable - The bulbs remember their last color and brightness settings after they're turned back on, but it would be nice to save color presets for 1-touch access to multiple custom settings depending on the situation (i.e. a color/brightness combo for movies, parties, dinner, morning wake-up, etc.) - It feels like there is a lot more bulbs as capable as these could do if only the app supported the functionality--what about unattended color changing for a rainbow effect or breathing/pulsing for parties or even just a "save current" under the color settings Summary review: With only a fledgling smart home network at this time (an Alexa-enabled TV, a Google Home Mini, a water/leak monitor, and a Google Home-enabled speaker), these were my first real exposure to smart-bulb technology. Installation was painless though it was odd to have to connect something (the Element Hub) to a router via Ethernet for initial setup of the bulbs themselves...other bulbs I've used since trying these have connected directly to the WiFi router or wireless to a Google Home Mini. It's not a big deal to be sure, but just something to keep in mind in case your router isn't necessarily easy-access. Like the other smart-home devices I've used to date, these bulbs and the Element hub do NOT operate on the faster 5Ghz network channels...because you have to use the Element Home app to configure and control these units (at least initially), I had to re-connect my phone to my router's slower 2.4Ghz wireless network before proceeding. The entire family ooh'd and ah'd when we first fired up the colored bulbs in a ceiling fan to see what they'd look like next to a typical bright-white bulb (one of the photos down there in the corner). From there, the possibilities quickly became evident--mood lighting for a family dinner, wake-up lights to get our daughter out of bed and get ready for school, turn lights red when a smart sensor detects trouble, remote/vacation controls to adjust the lights throughout the house, quickly ensuring all lights are turned off before stepping out for the afternoon, etc. etc. etc.! We definitely appreciated the variable schedules available and with Alexa or Google Home integration, I easily adjusted lighting from outside the house with simple voice commands--very nice for turning on lighting in the hallways or bedrooms when we came home later than we figured to an otherwise dark house. Soon we realized services like Alexa could get fancy, too, recognizing voice commands for shades of white (warm, incandescent, white, daylight, cool, relaxed) as well as dozens and dozens of colors (imagine our surprise when Alexa said "OK" to color choices like "chocolate" or "mint cream" as well as magenta, blue, green, etc.). Again, if you're just starting out with some smart-home devices, this really is a great starter pack (and having 3 bulbs as opposed to a typical starter bundle's 2 was actually kind of nice) to give you a sense of everything smart-lighting is capable of providing. For example, the dashboard on the Element Home app tells you which lights are currently on and where. From there, you can turn them all on or off remotely, and you can start drilling down to controlling all lights in a group or each light individually (for instance, we played around with a Christmas theme in our kitchen's main fixture alternating between green and red lights) including how much power they're drawing at the time, how many times they've power cycled, total energy used, total hours in operation, etc.. The funny thing is, you don't really know how much you COULD use something like this kit for until you have the bulbs in your home and start seeing what all they can/could do. After a while, we grew to appreciate the flexibility of this Sengled starter bundle, but we also quickly realized the one area where the included app falls just a bit short in our opinion...there's no way to save a "theme" or custom set of color settings and easily call them back up at a later date. While I LOVE the ability to adjust the white color temperature to support keyboarding or office work, I'd really like a set of custom themes that I can easily call up (maybe even via an Alexa or Google voice command) without having to futz with individual color picker and brightness controls every time. Hopefully such capability will be available in a future app or firmware update. Their absence doesn't GREATLY detract from an otherwise stellar offering and the flexibility of being able to adjust both white color temperature and crazy-cool color settings in the same bulb increases the flexibility of these units throughout the house, but there's definitely more than could be included here that would push this set even further over the edge. Still, these bulbs are definitely a great way to get into the smart-home arena without needing a background in computer programming or home automation installation to do it--definitely recommended!

The Sengled Element Color Plus kit comes with 3 color tuneable bulbs and the Sengled Element Hub. The Element hub is a Zigbee based hub used to connect and control the bulbs, as well as allow Google Home or Amazon Alexa control. The hub also allows you to control the bulbs while you are away from home via the app. The bulbs are full RGB controllable (16 million colors) A19 (standard bulb shape and base), and are equivalent in brightness to 60W incandescent bulbs. The bulb life is rated to 25,000 hours (8.5 years of 8 hours a day, every day). Setting up the kit is a straightforward process. I connected the Element Hub via ethernet (cable provided) to my router. I downloaded the Sengled Element Home App for Android, and followed along to connect to my hub. After that adding a bulb was pretty easy. I selected the room it went into, gave it a name, and moved onto the next bulb to repeat the process. I ordered 2 more bulbs (Element Classics 2700K) on Black Friday to put in my bedroom, so I will have to repeat this process once they arrive. The Element Hub can configure and control 64 individual bulbs from across Sengled’s lineup, so 2 more should be no problem. Within the app I could group 2 bulbs I put in the same fixture and give it a name. Individually those bulbs are bulb 2 and 3, but to the app they are grouped under one name. Grouping them together allows me to set the color and brightness of each bulb to the same setting. Or if I want to, I can drill down into the app menu and change each bulb individually. I have these 2 bulbs in my kids’ room, and they like the lights set to different colors each night. Last night I set them to be pink for my daughter, and blue for my son. Other nights they have wanted green or orange, and I (and the bulbs) have been happy to oblige. I can push their brightness way down, and set a timer in the app and these bulbs become the perfect nightlight that will auto shutoff. I used the other bulb (bulb 1) in my living room. I like to watch TV and movies late at night, and the options I had were: 1 – watch in the dark and get a headache from eye strain, or 2 – leave my end table light on and wash out my TV in deep black scenes. I already have red biased lighting beneath my TV which helps a bit when watching without the lights on, but still not enough. With the Color Plus bulb I turn the brightness down below 20% and set the color to red, and with that my eye strain is diminished greatly. For Google Home integration I added the Sengled skill to my profile, and added the bulbs in the same grouping as I did in my element app. Now I just tell my speaker to turn the living room light on, and it does. The same goes for the lights in my kids’ room. However, I do have to explicitly add the ‘s’ to the end of light when I ask Google to do something to my kids’ lights (e.g. Hey Google, turn off the kids’ lights). Otherwise it gets confused, and doesn’t know which bulbs I’m talking about. Also, I like my bulb color to be in the soft/warm white range (2700K), so the name for that color (when talking to my Google Home) is either soft white or warm white. I only have a couple of issues with the Sengled, and that comes down mostly to the app. I have used the app to set a schedule for my living room light to come on right around when I get home. I would rather tie that timing to the sunset. For instance, set it to turn on 2 hours before sunset or something to that effect. That would be better for energy efficiency, as well as just make more sense. Right now, it’s pitch black at 5 PM, but in 6 months it won’t get dark until 8. I have the light coming on at 4 (right before I get home), and this time of year it’s needed. In June I wouldn’t need the light to come on for another 2 hours, so I will have to manually adjust the schedule over the year. The other thing the app should have, at least in my opinion, is a ‘Party Mode’ for the color plus bulbs. Let’s not kid ourselves if you think you wouldn’t use it. I wish I could set it to pulse the colors, and then let my kids have a dance party. They would love it. Overall the Sengled bulbs are great. The color tuning is easy and intuitive, and the full RGB range is awesome. I love the hub’s offsite control of the bulbs. The app could use a little bit of sorting out, and better organization - the schedules should have its own tab to be honest. This is a good starter kit, and it saves a couple of bucks over piecing it together individually.

Pros Competitively priced No flicker even at lowest setting Ramps gradually between settings Includes bridge if you don’t have a smart hub Compatible with Zigbee HA smart hubs like SmartThings Quick response time Tracks energy usage when using Sengled Hub Has an option to be wireless or hardwired Cons Using with third party hub limits some features Sengled app is confusing Sengled hub only allows 3 schedules Included instructions are vague Includes ethernet jack but setup defaults to Wi-Fi Ranges is very short when using Sengled hub With smart bulbs becoming more commonplace, more manufacturers are adding color smart bulbs to their product line. The Sengled Element Color Plus 3-pack with hub is one of the latest offerings from Sengled. Although it includes Sengled’s own wireless bridge, the bulbs are compatible with several smart home hubs that support the Zigbee HA protocol. The design of the bulbs looks just like a standard soft white bulb when off. They come already paired with the included hub although the instructions are very vague on this. It tells you to search for Sengled Element Home app and not much else. Sengled does have a YouTube channel with some very helpful videos. Options vary based on the smart home hub you use but, in the end, you sacrifice some features when adding them to your hub instead of the included one. If you decide to use the included hub you will find you gain the ability to group the bulbs and control them as if they were one. You also gain the ability to monitor power usage and hours on for each bulb while restricting yourself to only 3 schedules a day. The included app feels a bit confusing and unrefined as well. Another downside is you lose integration with other smart hubs and only have integration with Google Assistant and Alexa. It isn’t hard to reconfigure the bulbs for either option so it might be best to first test using with the hub as they are set up from the factory and then try connecting them with your smart hub to see which has the features you value most. For anyone with an existing compatible smart hub you will most likely be better served skipping the Sengled hub. To pair with a new setup, a quick factory reset can be issued by turning your light switch off and on 10 times. The instructions don’t say this, but their YouTube channel does. Hopefully in the future Sengled will add more features to their apps for other smart platforms which would add further value to the product. Regardless of how you choose to control them the overall behavior is the same. On and off controls are instant with no ramp or down in brightness. Once the command is issued the bulbs respond quickly. When changing brightness or color for bulbs that are already on the bulbs instead ramp to the different brightness or color. The different between methods feels less refined but still does the job just fine. Ideally a configurable ramp rate would be better as gradual ramp of brightness can give users the ability to create a more sophisticated lighting setup. Overall color reproduction is good but, just as any other colored bulb, darker colors are hard to produce with most color shades being from medium to bright. Some colors, such as turquoise, are harder to create and can sometimes appear white. Others, such as orange appear slightly off but still acceptable. More basic colors such as white, blue, red, and yellow come out looking very nice and distinct. The bulbs can be adjusted down to 1% brightness without any sense of flicker or buzz. Without measuring equipment, it is hard to verify but the 1% brightness seems a lot more like 10 or even 20% brightness which is still good. Overall dispersion of light is very even with no detectable hot spots and the feeling is very similar to the even glow of an incandescent bulb. Sengled seems to have done a nice job with this kit. Long term reliability and support are hard to determine but if first impressions mean anything they have a bright future if they continue to improve. Although the hub and app are a little rough around the edges, the same could be said with even more mature smart products. Even with some interface oddities the overall product works reliably and there is something to be said about offering a kit that has more color bulbs and a hub for less than competitors without feeling distinctly cheap.. Combine that with compatibility with several other smart hub platforms and it becomes much easier to see the value in these bulbs. If you are in the market for some color changing light bulbs and are willing to give a lessor known company a chance to save some money the Sengled Element Color Plus bulbs can be a good fit.

This is my first set of smart bulbs so I was unsure of what I was getting into. I do own a Google Home smart speaker so I was interested to see how they would integrate and if they would function as I anticipated. First off, set-up went well. All you have to do is install an app, connect the smart hub to your router, install your bulbs, and then you are off and running. Then you can connect to your home Wi-Fi and start playing around in the app. Some of the best features of this product include: - The ability to turn lights on and off at the push of a button on your phone. - A huge variety of colors to choose from. - The ability to set timers for when your lights come on and off. This is perfect for if you are on vacation and want to make it appear that someone is still home. - Google Home integration (and Alexa too). I can use voice commands to not only turn the lights on and off, but also select the color I want. I was thoroughly pleased with this product and recommend it to anyone that is looking to add more automated features to their home. I just wish it came with 4 bulbs instead of 3 so that my ceiling fan would have a full compliment of lights. Guess I'll be going shopping for more!

The Sengled Element Color Plus Light kit comes with 3 color A19 bulbs and a hub. It has the ability to connect to Google Home or Amazon Alexa controls. They are controlled by an app on your iOS or Android device(s). Installation – The Element Color Plus installation was fairly easy. Download the app, plug in ethernet cord to hub, plug in power to hub, and install the light bulbs. It’s important to note that your router must have a 2.4 Ghz band to operate the device. Also, I recommend plugging directly into the router during installation. I tried to plug into my switch that connects to the router, and the installation failed every time. Once I plugged directly into the router it was fine. After the hub and lightbulbs were installed I changed the cord back to the network switch. During the installation I noticed that the power cord and the ethernet cord were oddly short (both less than 3 feet). This was a little bit of an issue for me because I have a lot of other stuff installed in my IT closet. Product Appearance – The hub is a pretty small device, about the size of a hockey puck. The bulbs are a normal shaped A19 bulb. They produce a very nice quality of light, and the 16 million available colors are bright and vivid. The color and light quality is what impressed me the most about this product. Product Use – The control speed from the app is very fast. There’s not much of a lag while controlling the light bulbs. All of the settings are controlled through the app. The App – First, the app that I downloaded doesn’t look anything like the product pictures shown on the Best Buy website. I don’t know if they have changed the app/GUI since the product first came out, but you can see from the pictures that I am posting that it’s different. The features in the app work well. There are separate controls if you want to use it as a white light bulb vs a color bulb. The white bulb controls have factory saved colors of white light such as Edison, Warm, Neutral, Cool, and Daylight. This changes the color temperature from an orange/yellow up to a bright white. There are also separate brightness controls. The color controls use a color selection panel that allows you to pin point the color that you would like to use. There are some factory preset scenes, but they are pretty limited. One of the biggest issues that I had with this product is that it says that you can save your own scenes, but I (and others) could not find this option. This is one of the main reasons that I wanted this set, and I can’t use it for what I want. Light bulbs can be grouped together as rooms or fixtures. You can name the groups and the individual light bulbs which will help if you want to be more specific with voice commands through Google or Alexa. You can set schedules through a built-in app feature. Also, there’s a lot of information in the app about the energy usage, power cycles, and time that the bulb is connected. As a whole, the features in the app work, but the general app layout is clunky. Overall, the bulbs seem to be very good and produce bright, high quality light. The app is underdeveloped and is clearly the weak link in this product. If the app could be brought up to speed, then this could easily be a 5 star product.

This Sengled starter kit was pretty easy to setup with initial LAN connection then switching it to Wi-Fi. I used a Samsung Tablet as the main controller with the Sengled Element Home app. I was able to set it up with my Sony SRS-XB501G speaker with Google assistant. Control of the lights and their functions worked great with the app and Google assistant. I had an issue with setting up the first bulb by itself and then adding the other 2 the first bulb was not showing? I was able to add it though. The app is easy to use after some time with it. I have not tried the app with a phone so can't speak to the apps abilities with that. One bulb gives off enough light for a small room though 2 would be better. This is my first venture into Smart lighting and was impressed with Google assistant connectivity and ease of use. The color range is amazing and so is the white color range. If your in the market for a Smart bulb/hub setup I think the Sengled Color Plus Smart LED Starter Kit is a great place to start.

Haven't used any of Sengled products before, so was curious to see how this compares to the ones in the market. Installed one in the bedroom primarily to use it as night/TV lamp and one in the living room to use it as a daytime lamp. Installed one in the office room as well. Pros (out of 5 stars) Seamless integration with Samsung Smart things and Google home (should work with amazon echo as well).Works well for the Zigbee range. Was able to control the lights using google assistant voice commands. Working on setting up routines (like red when CO alarm triggers and white when motion sensor triggers, etc) for lights to automatically turn on and turn off with other sensors - 5/5 Definitely impressed by the selection of colors (good, bright and vivid) and dimmable range (using Scenes option on hub app). Matches with the competitor product (that has similar selection) that I have been using for the last 3 years. I especially like the sunrise color option that gets triggered with my wake up alarm at mornings. I liked (for reading) the white light that has a little blue cast on it (60W with 6500k) for my office room - 5/5 Price is relatively cheaper (~25% cheaper) to the well-known branded ones in the market and offers similar options and selection on color and dimness. The bulbs itself are cheaper (could go cheaper to light up a big house with 12 rooms ;-) ) if you want to add more to the hub. Can't comment on reliability yet for the price offered, so will have to test it for couple months to rate it higher than 4 - 4/5 Doesn't get hot! This was a big concern on a cheaper one that I bought and had to discard as it posed a fire hazard. Cons (room for improvement) Price can go cheaper, still in the lower price range compared to branded ones Don't believe it can be used outdoor/patio. Wanted one that can withstand outdoor temperatures and moisture - None in the market so far Wish they had the strip light that can go with the hub, don't have to buy a different brand to complete the home kit Wish it came with a remote for non-app users (for kids) Definitely worth the money if you are looking to light up a big house (64 units max) for lower cost. Will update this review after couple months of use and test it out on other 3rd party hubs

Just in time for the Holiday season, I got these with the goal of adding some complementary lighting to our home over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Setup was as simple as could be: I installed the Sengled Home app on my (Android) phone, connected the hub to my network with the included patch cable and powered it up. The app saw everything right away and I was able to configure the hub, associate the 3 bulbs, create rooms, and assign the bulbs to rooms/groups quite easily. Although you can configure the hub to function off the network wirelessly I chose to leave it wired. The Sengled Home hub is powered by a standard USB-A adapter and port on one end, but unfortunately the hub-end of the cable is not standard which makes the cable unnecessarily restrictive. I’d much rather the hub side of the cable be USB-C, or even the older Micro-USB. I’d also like to have seen PoE as an option to give a little more freedom from needing to be tied to a nearby power outlet at all. Grouping the bulbs together is easy and is helpful for setting groups of bulbs to the exact same color shade. The preset options are Edison (very orange), Warm, Neutral, Cool, and Daylight, increasing in pure-whiteness color temperature progressively. If you want to set a color though then there is a color selection panel below the presets. While this works for picking colors, there is no way I saw to save the color you pick as a new preset or to set the RGB values yourself directly. So long as the bulbs are grouped this probably isn’t a problem because they will all change to the matching color at the same time. But, if you have bulbs that are not grouped and want them to be the exact same color you may find it difficult to achieve since, other than the presets mentioned before, there is no way to repeatedly set the exact same color. You can get pretty close manually, but it would be great if the app gave you the ability to save custom color choices so that you can specifically retrieve and use them later, even across different rooms or individual bulbs. You can also schedule the lights and the app gives three “slots”. The first two slots are functionally the same -- allowing you to set on time, off time, and to select a lighting preset. If you don’t pick a preset here the lights will instead power up at the last color and brightness used. What’s missing is that the scheduler does not let you pick any colors here, only the presets are listed with no color picker chart shown where you’d expect it to be based on the normal lighting options. The 3rd schedule slot is special wherein the lights will turn on and gradually get brighter at the designated time to facilitate a progressive wake-up lighting experience. Other than a few inconsistencies and limits in the app I found this kit to provide what I think is otherwise a solid platform for smart, custom, colored lighting. The only other issue that stood out to me is that the bulbs would often show as dimmed all the way down in the app even though the bulbs were actually turned all the way up. So long as I kept the lights grouped I had no problem setting a consistent custom color to complement family activities in a particular room or area. And, even though these aren’t specifically designed for outdoors, I’ve got a weather protected 2-bulb fixture above our front porch that I think will serve well to spread some color to our homefront. I’ve had standard LED bulbs there for years without issue so I’m willing to risk the investment of a couple of these and hope they last there as well.