The two images below show the bulb from different sides to capture the text on the bulb, which includes most of the specifications and manufacturing information. What is interesting to me is that the bulb does not have the typical profile with curved sides, but instead features a tapered octagonal base.
The image below shows the Novostella A19 bulb mixed in with some of my other smart bulbs for size and shape comparison. The 120W equivalent Novostella bulb isn't much bigger than these other smart bulbs from Sengled, Sylvania, or Osram Lightify. While the Sengled and Sylvania bulbs are white only, the Osram Lightify bulb is RGB - but all of these other bulbs are 60W equivalent models. Quite often, bulbs rated at 75-120W equivalent are much bigger than their 60W couterparts, and this can lead to problems fitting them into fixtures, or having them sit low enough in a lamp shade that they don't peak out the top. I don't anticipate this being a problem here, as these bulbs are rather compact.
Once installed in a socket and powered up, I found the pairing process very easy via the Smart Life app. This app has broad compatibility, and my house already had a few bulbs and light strips connected, so I was pleased that Novostella's bulbs could be used this way, too. The two screenshots below show a bit of the interface for controlling these bulbs, which allows you to set them to the various colors / white temperatures, dim them, implement preset scenes, and group multiple bulbs to be controlled together.
The first video embedded below shows off one of the Novostella bulbs in a pendant fixture that I lowered a bit to make recording it easier. This was in the TV room, and my son was particularly enthused about leaving the lights this way, and getting a few more bulbs to make it an even more fun place to hang out. While I will now just admit I am terrible at making videos, what I am attempting to show is the various lighting effects available via the app and how well the bulb responds. The white lighting is very bright and is definitely well suited to every day lighting around your house. But, unlike many other RGBCW bulbs, the brightness of the colored light is also very bright. Many smart bulbs seem to do fine with the white light output, but the power seems much lower when in RGB mode. The Novostella bulbs don't suffer from this, and it is pretty impressive how bight they are in RGB mode.
In order to show off two of the Novostella bulbs working together I took them to a different room, which is definitely a more formal, less fun space... Until you fire up a color shifting scene on these bulbs! Looking good Mr. Peacock.
While the videos may not represent them to their fullest, the bulbs really are impressive in terms of white and color brightness, as well as responsiveness to dimming, scenes, and any controls you throw at them via the app or Google Home.
