A few years ago it might have been laughable to consider reviewing a light bulb, and it would have been even weirder to consider that the review would have to cover a setup process that included configuring a gateway and an app on a mobile device. These days, just about every device can be connected and the electronic devices in your home are probably all available in a 'smart' version.



This review is going to cover OSRAM Sylvania's Lightify LED tunable white light bulb and their Lightify gateway. The bulb itself looks very much like a typical LED light bulb, but it can be controlled via a mobile app in order to turn it on/off, tune the light output from 2700-6500K, and to dim it. The Lightify gateway is one way to access the bulb from a WiFi network (or the Internet), but it is Zigbee compatible and devices from Wink, WeMo, SmartThings, and Nest all have provisions for controlling Lightify products.

Before taking a look at the items provided for review, let's cover some published data on the bulb and the gateway, as taken from the Sylvania website...

Bulb Key Features & Benefits:

» Home automation smart lighting controlled by smartphone or tablet
» LED bulb tunable between Soft White and Daylight White (2700-6500 Kelvin)
» Dimmable at each set color temperature
» Long 25,000 hour life rating
» LIGHTIFY System is controllable from inside the home or on the go
» Control light sources with simple to use scenes and grouping via the LIGHTIFY App
» A19 and Gateway available as a starter kit and contains Wireless Gateway and Tunable White Bulb

Specifications:

» Electrical Data:
   » Rated wattage 9.50 W
   » Nominal wattage 9.50 W
   » Nominal voltage 240 V
   » Operating frequency 50…60 Hz
   » Power factor λ 0.70
   » Claimed equiv. conventional lamp power 60 W

» Photometrical Data:
   » Color temperature 2500 K
   » Nominal luminous flux 810 lm
   » Rated luminous flux 810 lm
   » Range of adjustable color temperature 2700…6500 K
   » Color rendering index Ra >80
   » Standard deviation of color matching ≤6 sdcm

» Light Technical Data:
   » Warm-up time (60 %) 0.43 s
   » Starting time 0.4 s
   » Light color management Adjustable color temperature

» Dimensions & Weight:
   » Overall length: 110.0 mm
   » Diameter: 60.0 mm
   » Outer bulb: A60
   » Product weight: 135.00 g
   » Length: 110.0 mm

» Lifespan
   » Nominal lamp life time: 20000 h
   » Rated lamp life time: 20000 h
   » Number of switching cycles: 100000

Gateway Key Features & Benefits:

» Wire free, unobtrusive Gateway which can be placed anywhere inside the home
» Provides access to LIGHTIFY light sources and/or device via local WiFi network or remote cloud server
» LIGHTIFY System is controllable from inside the home or on the go
» Can control up to 50 ZigBee compatible LIGHTIFY products per Gateway Wireless for LIGHTIFY compatible products
» Integrated ZigBee and WiFi wireless connectivity
» Control light sources and/or device with simple to use scenes and grouping via the LIGHTIFY App