Best smart lighting: Philips Hue, LIFX, Nanoleaf, and more

Who should buy the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance smart bulb

Just about anyone looking to get started with smart lighting would do well with the Philips Hue White and Color Ambience smart bulb. It offers easy setup, doesn’t require the Hue Bridge (although you can always add one later), works with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant, and boasts terrific reliability (our editors have been using them for years and have yet to report any serious failures). And while Hue bulbs tend to be a tad pricier than the competition, they’re worth the extra cost.

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance smart bulb: Further considerations

Philips (now known as Signify) was one of the first players in this market, and the company’s experience shows. The addition Bluetooth support obviates the need for the $60 Philips Hue Bridge (although most smart home denizens will want the Bridge anyway). Signify’s Philips Hue lighting ecosystem is the industry’s deepest and broadest, with bulbs of every shape and size imaginable, not to mention lighting fixtures landscape lighting.

Who should buy the Wyze Bulb Color

Wyze’s color bulbs are among the most affordable on the market, and you don’t need a bridge to add one–or many–to your home. They’ll also work in tandem with your Wyze Cam, meaning you can set your Wyze camera to trigger a Wyze bulb if the cam detects motion. But the Wyze Bulb Color doesn’t support Matter, which means it’s a no-go for Apple HomeKit users, and the Wyze lighting ecosystem can’t match Philips Hue’s.

Wyze Bulb Color: Further considerations

Wyze Labs can’t match Philips Hue in terms of the breadth of its smart lighting ecosystem, but it beats Signify’s brand by a country mile in terms of pricing, and Wyze has a much broader array of product offerings when it comes to other areas of the smart home–most importantly in terms of home security. Wyze also now offers an excellent BR30 color smart bulb.

Who should buy the Philips Hue White Ambiance (Bluetooth + Zigbee) smart bulb

As with Philips Hue’s color smart bulb, we recommend the Hue White Ambiance for most folks who want to add smart lighting to their homes, although the A19 form factor is more appropriate for lamps and the like). It’s easy to set up, works with all the major smart home ecosystems, and the Hue Bridge is entirely optional (although certainly nice to have). The Hue White Ambiance is also considerably more affordable than the Hue White and Color Ambiance bulb, so peppering them around your home won’t break the bank.

Philips Hue White Ambiance (Bluetooth + Zigbee) smart bulb: Further considerations

Our choice won’t surprise anyone who’s been following this market. Philips dominates this space and is also our top pick for best color LED smart bulb. The latest Hue bulbs can be controlled via Bluetooth or Zigbee (the latter requires the Philips Hue Bridge), they deliver high-quality light, and are backed by a strong warranty. We only received the BR30 form factor for our review, but apart from form factor, that bulb is the same as the A19.

Read our full Philips Hue White Ambiance (Bluetooth + Zigbee) review

Who should buy the Linkind Matter Smart RGBTW A19 Smart Bulb

Smart home dwellers who object to needing a hub to bridge their smart bulbs to their Wi-Fi network should jump on this smart bulb while it’s this affordable (the bulbs are manufactured in China, so tariffs could jack up the price). The AiDot app, developed by Linkind’s parent company, offers a wealth of customization options, or you can integrate the bulbs in your smart home ecosystem of choice thanks to their support for Matter.

Linkind Matter Smart RGBTW A19 Smart Bulb: Further considerations

The price tag is this smart bulb’s primary attraction, but certainly not its only feature. Different retailers have different prices, but the average street price was around $6 per bulb (purchased in a 4-pack) at the time of this review. Among the features you’ll get with Linkind’s lineup, which includes BR30 floodlights and tall A21 bulbs, is Matter compatibility, color and tunable white light, dimming capability, and–silly as it might sound–the ability to sync these bulbs to music, using your smartphone’s microphone.

Who should buy the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus

It may be pricier than other light strips on the market, but we still recommend the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus even if you’re on a budget. The reason: Smart light strips are notoriously prone to failure, particularly the cheap ones. But a Hue Lightstrip Plus has been working flawlessly for years in a TechHive editor’s kitchen, and Hue has been good about replacing defective units if the need arises. Aside from reliability, the Hue Lightstrip Plus benefits from Hue’s robust ecosystem, support for all the major smart home platforms, and the fact that the Hue Bridge is optional.

Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus: Further considerations

The Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus makes for a great and easy way to add accent lighting to kitchen counters, stairways, and other indoor areas. The Philips Hue ecosystem is bigger than any other smart lighting solution, but Hue products are also much more expensive than the competition.

Who should buy the TP-Link Kasa Smart Light Strip KL400L5

If you must spend less on a smart light strip, we’ll point you in TP-Link’s direction. While you can’t extend this light strip, you can put it on a schedule, group it with other Kasa lights, and use it with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings, and you can even tee up some nifty animated lighting scenes.

TP-Link Kasa Smart Light Strip KL400L5: Further considerations

TP-Link built more features into this light strip than we expected for the price, and it even offers one feature that our top pick doesn’t: animation sequences. The Philips Hue product, on the other hand, feels much more durable, and you can add extensions to the end of a strip. The biggest factor in TP-Link’s favor? The price tag.

Who should buy the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons

Whether you’re a Twitch streamer who wants to add some eye candy to their setup or you simply want to decorate your office or another room, Nanoleaf’s Shapes light panels are the way to go. They’re easy to install–and, crucially, remove when the time comes. They also work with Matter (following a software update), and their touch functionality remains unmatched.

Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons: Further considerations

This is the first of Nanoleaf’s Shapes interactive light panels, and it set the stage for several other equally fun versions. This modular lighting system won’t illuminate a room–that’s not it’s intended purpose–but it can set a mood like nothing else on the market today.

Who should buy the LIFX SuperColor Ceiling

With its easy installation, the LIFX SuperColor Ceiling is a great choice for those who might otherwise balk at installing a smart light in their ceiling. And thanks to its Matter support, the LIFX light will work in Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings households

LIFX SuperColor Ceiling: Further considerations

The best feature LIFX’s SuperColor Ceiling light may well be how easy it is to install. Thanks to a cleverly designed mounting bracket and a handy clip that holds the fixture a few inches below the ceiling, the LIFX Ceiling light has an almost idiot-proof setup process. We also love the two-zone lighting as well as the Matter support.

Who should buy the Philips Hue Lily

Already invested in the Philips Hue ecosystem for your indoor lights? If so, then ponying up for Hue outdoor lights is a no-brainer, and the Lily spotlight is a great place to start. It’s weatherized for the elements, works with all the major smart home ecosystems (now that the Hue Bridge has been updated with Matter), and plays nice with a variety of Hue outdoor accessories, including the Hue Outdoor Sensor.

Philips Hue Lily: Further considerations

Signify’s Philips Hue product line includes the most complete collection of outdoor and landscape LED lighting. In addition to the Lily spotlight, there’s the Lily XL spotlight, the Calla Bollard light, the Econic Outdoor Pedestal, the Amarant linear outdoor light, no fewer than 9 wall or ceiling-mount outdoor lights, and even outdoor LED light strips. That diversity, and the high-quality design and construction of these luminaires, justifies Signify’s high price tags.

Who should buy the Hampton Bay Hubspace Landscape Spotlights

If you’re not already a Philips Hue user or you don’t have a Hue-sized budget, you can still up your outdoor lighting game with this affordable kit from Home Depot. It’s relatively easy to deploy, works with an increasingly wide range of Hubspace lighting devices, an–so far–Home Depot appears to be sticking by its smart home brand, unlike other retailers we’ve seen.

Hampton Bay Hubspace Landscape Spotlights: Further considerations

These budget-priced landscape spotlights deserve to be compared to the much-pricier Philips Hue Lily product line. The trade-offs include less-robust construction, less-sophisticated wiring, slightly dimmer brightness, and a less-complete smart lighting ecosystem, but you will spend significantly less money, especially if you deploy a lot of lights.

Who should buy the Philips Hue Calla

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Philips Hue’s lighting products are well worth their premium prices, particularly when it comes to outdoor lights like the Calla. That makes them the best choice for those who want to light up their outdoor pathways, especially if you’re already a Hue user, and they’ll work seamlessly with any other Hue lights in your yard.

Philips Hue Calla: Further considerations

The Philips Hue Calla outdoor pathway light adds sophisticated safety to outdoor walkways and patios, and Philips has the most complete smart lighting ecosystem in the industry. But you’ll need an outdoor outlet to power this and all other Hue landscape lighting, and the components are very expensive.

Who should buy the Linkind Smart Solar Spotlight SL5C?

Tired of the pathetically dim solar-powered path lights you’ll find at your local home-improvement store? Linkind’s Smart Solar Spotlight SL5C deliver an incredible amount of light for the price; what’s more, they can glow in colors in addition to temperature-tunable white. These are smart bulbs, too, so you can program them to operate with entire lighting scenes on a schedules. They come with ground stakes, of course, but Linkind also gives you the option of mounting them to a wall. They are a fabulous value.

Ring Smart Lighting Solar Pathlight: Further considerations

Be aware that these are directional spotlights, do they won’t flood an area with light, but they’re so inexpensive that you can buy enough to light a path without spending a huge sum of money. They have integrated solar panels, so you don’t need to worry about having a weatherized outdoor outlet or stringing cable along the ground (and burying it so no one trips on it). Linkind says they can run for 14 hours after a full day in the sun, but our reviewer managed to get a whopping 22 hours of light from them. The single drawback we encountered was that each light must be managed in the Linkind app individually. That said, they operate on a Bluetooth mesh, so you can program just one light and then copy those settings to all the others. Linkind even offers a $30 hub that will bridge the lights to your Wi-Fi network for even easier management as well as enabling control of them with a smart speaker.

Who should buy the Enbrighten Wi-Fi Café Lights

Provided you have the budget, the Enbrighten Wi-Fi Café Lights is a good choice for decorative outdoor string lights that respond to Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. These café lights are also a great pick if you have a lot of ground to cover, given that the strings can be daisy-chained together.

Enbrighten Wi-Fi Café Lights: Further considerations

Jasco’s Enbrighten Wi-Fi Café Lights are certainly expensive, but they’re also very pretty, highly customizable, and exceptionally durable for year-round outdoor installations. There’s also surprisingly little competition in this admittedly specialized segment of outdoor lighting. Signify has outdoor Philips Hue light strips, for example, but that’s a very different look from café-style lights.

Who should buy Enbrighten Eternity Lights

You don’t need to be a smart home enthusiast to enjoy these lights; all you really need is a Wi-Fi router, a smartphone, an outdoor outlet you can plug their power supply into, and the desire to decorate your home with light. Enbrighten Eternity Lights can glow in lots of colors as well as different temperatures of white light, and they can be programmed to flash, sequence, and dance in preset patterns or you can customize your own lighting scenes.

Enbrighten Eternity Lights: Further considerations

The winter holidays aren’t the only time it’s fun to decorate your house, but no one wants to drag the ladder out of storage several times a year to hang and then take down outdoor lighting. With the Enbrighten Eternity Lights, you don’t have to: Once you’ve installed them, they can stay up forever and you can program for every season–or just highlight your home’s architecture with tunable white light. They connect to your Wi-Fi network, of course, and they can operate on a schedule, with geofencing, or with voice commands spoken to Alexa or Google smart speakers.