LIFX slashes the price tag on its Wi-Fi color LED bulbs
Why this matters: As rightly pointed out by CNET—which first noticed the sudden change in price—the LIFX smart is no longer at a price disadvantage vis-à-vis its chief competitor: the Philips Hue. Both products now cost the same. This is important because the Hue range has been to smart luminaries what the iPad has long been to tablets: the product to beat.
The LIFX bulb can produce 16 million different colors, with color temperatures ranging from 2000K to 8000K, and it’s exceptionally bright: You can crank its brightness all the way up to 1000 lumens, which is about as much as a 75-watt incandescent. That’s a good 25-percent brighter than the latest Philips A19 Hue Color. The LIFX color consumes 17 Watts at peak brightness, according to the company.
And unlike its more popular Zigbee-speaking rival, the LIFX bulb doesn’t require a hub, it has an integrated Wi-Fi adapter and can talk directly to your home network. So, whereas you must buy a “starter pack” containing a Zigbee-to-Wi-Fi hub and multiple bulbs in order to get started with the Hue, there’s no such requirement when it comes to LIFX; you can start off with as few as one bulb.
LIFX has come a long way since making its commercial debut in 2013 (a year after beginning life as a Kickstarter project). The product has added support for a number of popular third-party devices like Nest Learning Thermostat, SmartThings hub and Logitech Harmony, and even has its own IFTTT (If This Then That) channel. Earlier this year, the company also began selling a white-only dimmable option costing $40, and there’s a color-tunable downlight priced at $100.