So what set of smart home LED bulbs should you get? I’ve been using a variety of different smart home light bulbs over the last few months and I can tell you that there are two clear winners. I’m sure this list will change over the next couple of years but as of right now, go with the Philips Hue lineup or if you need a centre piece in your home, the Nanoleaf Aurora.

Here's the Top 5, as of right now, out of all the smart home lights we've reviewed:

#5 - Ikea Tradfri
#4 - Sylvania/Osram (or the GE lights)
#3 - Nanoleaf Smart Ivy
#2 - Nanoleaf Aurora
#1 - Philips Hue Ambiance (Color)

Most up to date Top 5 Smart Home LED Lights: https://smarthomereviews-eh.ca/top-5-...

Philips Hue vs. Nanoleaf Aurora:    • Which one should you get? Aurora Nano...  

Smart Lights vs. Smart Switches:    • Smart Light Bulbs vs. Smart Light Swi...  

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At #5, we have the iKea Tradfri. In general, I would stay away from these smart lights unless you have a serious affinity for iKea products. I was quite disappointed with them because I love setting up iKea furniture but I hated the setup process for the Tradfri. You have to manually pair every light bulb using an an accessory like the remote. I never got to pair the third light bulb in my first attempt at setting up the bulbs...

The only upside is the Tradfri base station can hide the extra length of cables which helps with keeping the base station area tidy. The Iea lights are dimmable and you can customize the shade of white you want coming from the bulbs. The Tradfri is also the brightest set of bulbs in this list at 980 lumens whereas every other bulb tops out at 800 lumens.

The only other downside worth mentioning is that the Tradfri isn't compatible with other smart home platforms. Silly.

At #4, we have the Sylvania Osram lights. The Osram lights are color customizable, dimmable and Sylvania offers remote access outside of your chosen smart home platform.

The standout feature for the Osram lights is the lack of a wired base station. In my opinion, it’s the only true wireless smart home led light system in this list. It still has a base station but it looks more like a smart plug.

For me, the biggest downside is the lack of compatibility with other smart home platforms. The Osram lights work well with Amazon Alexa but not with Google Home or Apple Home.

#3 goes to the Nanoleaf Smart Ivy lights. These are by far the coolest looking lights on this list. In fact, I had to add a design aspect to the scoring system because of these Smart Ivy bulbs.

I’ll be honest with you, the Smart Ivy lights were harder to setup and use. It took multiple tries for my bulbs to sync with the base station and even now, one of the bulbs will reboot itself. The Smart Ivy lights are dimmable but unlike every other smart home LED bulb in this list, doesn’t allow you to customize the color of the bulbs.

#2 goes to the Nanoleaf Aurora. This is the only non-light bulb shaped product on this list but the Aurora by itself can easily light up a room. I like the Aurora for the same reasons that I like the Smart Ivy. Nanoleaf decided to step outside the frosted bulb and design something quite unique. Philips has lots of traditional looking lights that are smart whereas Nanoleaf Aurora leaps out at you.

The only downside I noticed with the Nanoleaf Aurora is the lack of standalone remote access as well as Apple watch integration. If those two things don’t matter and you have the wall space for it, the Aurora is worth getting. Portability is also going to be a problem but we found a way around that.

#1 goes to the Philips Hue line of bulbs. Within this group, I’ve included the White, White Ambiance and Color Ambiance. The biggest difference between these products is the ability to customize the color of the light. If I was to break down Philips standard line of smart bulbs, the White and White Ambiance would score higher than the Nanoleaf Smart Ivy but lower than the Nanoleaf Aurora’s.

So why are the Philips Hue bulbs at the top of this list? Because Philips gives you the most opportunities to access your smart bulbs. Philips provides you with remote access, an Apple watch app and 3rd party app integration. Philips has done a great job ensuring that their bulbs can be used with any platform. The exact opposite of the iKea Tradfri.

Out of all the smart home light bulbs, the Philips Hue’s have been the most consistent. They stay connected and synced despite being moved countless times and they don’t weird things like turn off by themselves like the Smart Ivy’s have done