I have been using 2 LZW42 bulbs in my bedroom for about 2 years. They were rock solid for a while, then got wiggy last year when I added some zen25 plugs to the mix. Those are gone and the LZW42 's were fine agin until last week when they suddenly started changing colors and wouldnt stay where I wanted them. Had to exclude, reset, re-unclude them. I'm hitting the end of my patience with them. I'm starting to look in the direction of the LIFX bulbs. So, what I would like is someone to give me a really compelling argument for why I should just switch to LIFX. I would like to have the option of using colors (for night niaiins, etc). We don't run our lights on full brightness, usually 50% max, and as low as 3%. Can they hand that low of a brightness. Basically bright enough I can see to not trip over the dog at 5:00 a.m., but not bright enough to wake my wife ( color changes could come into play here too).
Other thoughts how "bold" are th colors? If I replaced the lights on my garage and set them to red for christmas, are they actually red? Or kind of pastel? There are Alot of people in my neighborhiid who's red and green look more like easter than Christmas!
With table lamps, you do have the option to use a dumb dimmable bulb with a dimmable outlet. You don't get color changing, but I seem to find the outlets more reliable for some reason. I have some GE/Jasco Zigbee outlets that work well.
In other table lamps I just use cheap Zigbee dimmable Ecosmart bulbs, and they also work OK. But the LIFX are pretty tempting.
To directly address this, here are Sengled, Hue, LIFX, and Inovelli (from left to right) at red (hue 0) with 1% brightness, which I compared for myself a while back:
Sengled and Inovelli both get pretty dim and Hue was a little orange in comparison but not something I'd notice by itself (my house is full of them and I don't in actual use, and I do use red at 1% for "night lights with motion" in some rooms). LIFX looks a little pink-ish in this picture, but it's actually similar to Hue except a tad closer to a real red (but again, probably not a difference I'd notice without this side-by-side). Inovelli was actually slightly pink-ish in comparison, which also probably didn't come through well in this picture and is also likely not something I'd notice in real life if there weren't other bulbs side-by-side.
So, I guess this is actually a pretty bad picture. (I wrote my real-world comments along with it when I saved this and regurgitated them above.)
But basically, all brands of bulbs I've used have some quirk somewhere. Most are pretty good at warm white, but then with different brands you'll find odd things as you move around the rest of the color and brightness space. For example, Sengled get unexpectetly cooler than the stated color temperature as you dim if the CT is much above 2700. Hue has some colors that are less saturated than the rest, but then other brands that are saturated at these colors are noticeably dimmer at most levels, whereas 1% doesn't dim quite as much on some brands as others but only at certain colors or CTs.
As one example of the above, LIFX doesn't get quite as dim at 2500K at 1%, though at higher levels they are similar except that I'm not sure Sengled and Inovelli are able to get quite as warm in the first place (may be out of spec or just differently calibrated?):
This is one of my favorite CTs because Hue uses it for its default "Relax" scene (circa 66%) which I happen to like late in the evening. I'm pretty picky about CTs and super-warm whites in particular, which I think Hue does pretty well in comparison and is one reason I keep using them besides the reliability of my Bridge network. But your preferences may vary...
(I wrote my real-world comments along with it when I saved this and regurgitated them above.)
