Review: Abode smart light bulb: what can you do without a gateway/hub and is it worth it?

Get one: https://amzn.to/3vVslgB Read more: http://www.TechGadgetsCanada.com Follow me on Facebook:   / techgadgetscanada   Smart lightbulbs are a simple, easy, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to start your smart home. They don’t cost a lot, and they give you plenty of bang for your buck. Plus, colour-chaning smart lights are a lot of fun and a nice way to change up your home décor without painting or renovating. I’ve reviewed plenty of smart bulbs including Philips Hue, LifX Cync and Govee, and now I’m trying out a brand I’ve not yet experimented with so far… Abose Smart Bulbs. In this review I’ll take a look at what this smart lightbulb and smart home system is all about. How easy the lights are to set up or not, what kind of smart control they have, and if I can recommend them for you. Do you need a Hub/Bridge for Wi-Fi? Smart lightbulbs tend to operate in two ways: they utilize what’s known as a hub, gateway, or bridge accessory to connect to your homes Wi-Fi. Some smart lightbulbs, particularly ones made in the last couple of years, have the ability to skip the hub, as the smart home connectivity and Wi-Fi capabilities are built into each individual lightbulb. As an example, Phillips Hue uses a hub or a bridge to make this Wi-Fi connection. And the hub comes at an extra cost. In this case, with the abode bulbs, you don’t need that extra accessory; the Abode bulbs connect to your Wi_fi on their own. But as I’ll explain a little later on, having a gateway does create the option of using additional functions with your bulbs. Set up Thanks to the integrated Wi-Fi connectivity, setting up the abode bulbs is easy To begin, sign up for or sign into the abode home app. Then just screw the bulb in to a lamp or overhead fixture, and ensure the power is on. Your light will begin pulsing or flashing blue and this indicates it’s in pairing mode. In the Abode app, tap the Plus sign to add a bulb. In less than a minute I had a bulb installed in my office and another in the bedroom. Voice Control & smart home One of the great things about choosing a smart lightbulb that can connect with other smart home ecosystems, is that it makes it very easy to integrate it into whatever system you may already have. Patient point, the abode bulbs will synchronize with either Google home app or the Amazon Alexa system. This means if you’re already running Google Home, you can install one of these lights and use Google voice control and trigger it in the Google Home app too. I successfully linked the Abode smart bulb to my Alexa and Google Assistant platforms without issues. To do it, go to either the Google home or Alexa app and add it as a skill (Alexa) or a new device (Google). Because the Abode smart bulb is platform agonistic, the bulb should play well with other smart home products. Indeed, in my experience, I was able to control the bulbs as part of established routines I already have in Google home. Abode app You can of course use a bodes own app to control your lights if you don’t have additional smart home component. The app is quite simple and easy to navigate, yet at the same time it has all the functions and shortcuts you need to control your lightbulbs. Even so, the app is a little clunky to navigate, as when the lights are turned off, the control bar for them disappears on the app screen. I think a board could make the app a little more user-friendly. The app does make changing your light color, or brightness easy enough and you can choose from presets on offer, or dial in your own colours and settings. . The brightness maxes out at 800 lumens, you can pick from a 16-million color palette with white temperatures ranging from 1,800K to 6,500K). How Does the Abode Bulb Compare to Philips Hue On a technical level, the Philips Hue products are superior because that’s just the law of physics! With a Philips Hue setup, you only need to connect the Philips Hue Bridge to the router doing so via Ethernet is a surefire way for a hassle-free setup! The Philips Hue Bridge offers its own Zigbee-powered mesh network that doesn’t interfere with your ordinary Wi-Fi devices. In short, the abode smart lightbulbs are a good option, both for those just beginning to explore smart home, and for those who may already have a larger smart home ecosystem. They’ll work simply, with just the abode app, or create a larger set up with either the abode gateway, or a Google home hub. Overall it’s a decent product for about $30 USD and that gives you a pair to work with! I can recommend the abode smart lightbulbs for you.