Gabe: Hey, folks.
This is Gabe from Security Baron.
LIFX got the bright idea to add an infrared bulb to its lineup.
Today, we're going to review the LIFX Plus.
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Gabe: I'm excited to check out the infrared capabilities of the LIFX Plus.
In today's review, I'm going to check out its design, feature set, installation experience,
and mobile application, LIFX app to make sure you have all the information you need to make
the right decision.
If you'd like to see a list of our favorite smart bulbs, google Security Baron best smart
bulbs.
If you have questions about today's review, leave us a comment and I'll get back to you.
Let's kick off today's review of the LIFX Plus looking at its design.
You'll note right from the outset, it's got a pretty weighty, solid plastic base.
Despite the actual bulb space being pretty small, it actually emits 1,100 lumens.
You're going to get a lot of brightness out of a little bit of bulb.
I'm generally a fan of this design.
You have the plus sign here to help you distinguish between your typical LIFX bulbs.
Overall, it's a solid design.
It'll fit into basically any lamp that you already have with its lamp size of E26 and
the actual bulb size approximating an A19 standard bulb.
That's the design on the LIFX Plus.
Now that you've gone over the design of the LIFX Plus, let's talk about its feature set.
The LIFX Plus does look a lot of other smart bulbs on the market do.
You can, of course, control it remotely using the LIFX app.
You can set up a schedule to have a turn on and off when you'd like.
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You can even set up scenes where you can have your LIFX bulbs working in conjunction to
provide that particular mood or ambiance that you seek.
It has geofencing to help you save on energy costs where you leave the home, turns the
light off, when you get home turns on, maybe preventing you from stubbing your toe in the
dark.
One particular thing that I like especially is the number of smart platform integrations
that you get with it.
Not only you get Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but you also get Microsoft Cortana.
You can set it up with your CO2 and smoke sensors so that it flashes red whenever it
sees something happening.
You get that visual indicator of exactly what's going on in your home.
A unique feature of the LIFX Plus is this infrared light that actually will considerably
improve the night vision on your indoor and outdoor security cameras.
That's honestly something I've not seen with many of the other smart bulbs out there.
I'm excited to check that out with the LIFX Plus.
[music]
Gabe: Whoa!
Whoa!
Hold on.
I hope you're enjoying today's review of the LIFX Plus smart bulb.
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We're dropping new content weekly.
All right, let's get back to the video.
Now that we've talked about the features of the LIFX Plus, let's walk you through the
setup process.
It's very straightforward and simple.
[echo]
Gabe: You're going to take your LIFX bulb, screw it in.
I'm kind of slow at this, but very steady.
I've got the bulb.
Screw it in.
Want to make sure it's turned on.
[echo ends]
Gabe: From here, you're going to go into the LIFX app.
You're going to see a plus sign in the upper right-hand corner.
You tap on that plus sign.
It's going to ask you to connect the light.
Once you connect that light, you're going to go into your WiFi settings, find the wireless
connection for the LIFX bulb.
It'll say as such.
Then you're just going to hit, "Add to your current network."
Once you have the network added, it'll add this accessory, it joins the network.
You go back into the LIFX app and it walks you through the rest of the process.
It's very straightforward, simple, even intuitive.
You're going to, of course, name your light.
I give it a group.
You'll be able to control it right there in the LIFX app.
Overall, the whole process takes less than three minutes.
One of my favorite bulb installation processes, thus far.
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Gabe: Here I am checking out the LIFX app for the LIFX Plus smart bulb.
The application is where you're doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the smart bulb, where
you're interfacing, where you're setting up your schedules.
You want it to be an intuitive, consistent process.
One thing we'll note about the app is that it doesn't have the best app ratings.
On Android, it does pretty well.
It has 3.3 out of 5 stars.
For Apple iPhone users, it's not doing as well.
It's got 2.5 out of 5 stars, with many of those just being 1-star ratings.
Let's go ahead and check it out on my iPhone 10.
As we check out the LIFX app, you'll note that there's a lot going on, on this screen.
You have the lights, the groups, the scenes, and the schedules.
Let's look at the most important element, which are the lights.
Here, I already have my original LIFX and the LIFX Plus, which I've named LIFX IR, set
up together.
If we go into "All Lights," you can see here that I can turn them off by if I tap the power
button.
Now we're complete darkness.
If I tap it back the lights come back on.
I can change the warmth of the room.
I can change how bright it is.
You see that I'm just going down.
I can swipe for color.
I can change the saturation a long with those colors and of course, I can change those brightnesses
as well.
One thing I want to note, when you're looking at this element is you can also set up various
effects.
You can have it flicker.
You see now the lights are flickering.
There's a strobe option.
You just get a lot of flexibility.
You can of course set up schedules and scenes.
If you go into the top right-hand corner where you would connect a new light, you'll see
new scene and new schedule.
I do have various schedules already set up.
If I wanted to set up a new one, let's just call it schedule and every day at 2:00 I can
have it repeat every Tuesday and Thursday.
Now it's going to turn on my LIFX Plus light.
I hit save and now that's a new schedule.
I can do the same thing for scene where I just make one up if I want the lights to work
in a specific function.
You see here you have all the different elements, very picking in the lighting picking the room,
the duration.
Let's just call it scene and voila.
You have a lot of options there for setting up the exact mood and ambience that you would
like.
The final thing I want to mention in this particular element, is that you will have
infrared capabilities with the LIFX Plus.
If you look in the LIFX IR that I've set up, you can click on that I in the upper right.
It says, "To enhance night vision of your security camera, an invisible infrared illumination
will turn on automatically when brightness is low."
That's our look at some of the features available within the LIFX app.
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Gabe: Now it's time to answer the question on all of our minds.
What can the LIFX Plus's infrared technology do for me?
Here I am putting it to the test using my eufyCam E. This room is illuminated only by
the eufyCam's infrared LEDs.
Now the video quality is impressive on its own, but let's see how we can maximize his
potential using it in conjunction with the LIFX Plus.
I know what you're thinking, he just turned the lamp on.
Now I know it looks that way, ligbut the lightt emanating from that lamp is produced by that
LIFX Plus's invisible infrared light in a completely dark room.
While the infrared LEDs in your home security camera can only reach so far.
Placing these bulbs around your home allowd you to see detailed images of what's happening
at distances much further than your camera can reach on its own.
Imagine an intruder going down a long hallway in your home.
With these bulbs and fixtures along the corridor, you will be able to pick out more distinguishing
features far more easily.
I don't know about you, but it does help me sleep a little bit more soundly at night.
Now I didn't know what to expect from our night vision test with the LIFX Plus, but
I was very impressed with the results.
Sometimes you can't be bothered to use your mobile device to change your LIFX Plus.
That's when it comes in handy to have a smart platform integration and just use voice control
to really set the mood.
I go ahead and test that out here with Google Assistant.
Hey, Google, change my LIFX IR to blue.
[Google Assistant responds]
Gave: That's just one example of some of the utility you get out of a smart platform integration.
We've shown you a lot of what the LIFX Plus has to offer, but you want to know, is it
the right bulb for me?
Well, it has a comprehensive feature set that compares with the best smart bulbs out there.
And when you look at its 1,100 lumen output, it may be the brightest smart bulb on the
consumer market.
Beyond that it has infrared capability that's going to improve the night vision on your
home security cameras.
Finally, it has a host of smart platform integrations that are going to give you that one particular
home automation that really makes you content.
Now, on the con side, I will note that it's one of the spendier smart bulbs out there.
It's not going to be cheap.
Along with that if you're an iPhone user, you're going to want to pay attention to the
somewhat mediocre Apple App Store ratings.
But if you're looking for a smart bulb that's going to give you everything you could want
from a smart bulb, you may not have to look much further than the LIFX Plus.
That concludes our review of the LIFX Plus smart bulb.
If you appreciated today's video, give us a like and hit that subscribe button.
As always, this is Gabe with Security Baron, [snaps fingers] be secure.
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