![\"Sylvania](\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/sylvania-bulb-on-amazon.png\" "\\"sylvania")
If you\u2019ve been avoiding jumping into the smart lighting world because the products always seem to cost an entire paycheck, I may have the solution for you.<\/p>\nIf you\u2019ve been avoiding jumping into the smart lighting world because the products always seem to cost an entire paycheck, I may have the solution for you.<\/p>\n
In fact, one of the top questions I get from viewers, is \u201cwhy is smart lighting so expensive?\u201d Well, like other smart home devices, the cost of the company providing free updates for the life of the product is built into the price. But otherwise, companies doing serious innovation in the smart home tend to have pricier products, and that includes smart lighting from brands like Philips Hue and LIFX.<\/p>\n
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Enter Sylvania, a lighting company that\u2019s been around for a heck of a long time. And, over the past several years, has built up their own line of smart lighting products. Originally branded LIGHTIFY and now called SMART+. And you may see the products advertised under the OSRAM name as well, but they\u2019re basically the same company.<\/p>\n
Instead of creating whiz-bang lighting products with special effects and blinding brightness levels, they\u2019re just making smart lighting products that perform as well as \u201cthose other guys\u201d, but won\u2019t short-circuit your budget. With full color-changing smart bulbs starting at around $28 and light strips at around $45, they can be substantially lower in cost than the competition.<\/p>\n
Also, for certain lighting categories, Sylvania tends to have a wider selection of products than the competition, including really unique products like their outdoor Gardenspots: Color-changing mini spotlights that can light up the outside of your home, backyard or garden. They\u2019re really beautiful and probably my favorite Sylvania smart lighting product.<\/p>\n
To satisfy different customers, Sylvania has two different smart lighting lines, one dedicated for HomeKit, and one that uses Zigbee\u2026like other smart lighting brands. The HomeKit variety is Bluetooth-based and doesn\u2019t require a hub. In fact Sylvania shipped the first 60-watt equivalent color-changing HomeKit smart bulb that doesn\u2019t need a hub in September 2017. Their Zigbee line has more lighting products, like outdoor floodlights, undercabinet lights, and even wireless buttons and smart plugs. The Zigbee products do require a hub for operation, which they are happy to sell you their neat and compact model for about $30, or you can pair the lights to something like an Amazon Echo Plus, SmartThings or Wink hub, or nearly any smart home controller that supports Zigbee.<\/p>\n
The Sylvania app, to be diplomatic, is just not a fantastic experience. It seems that Sylvania is totally ok with you purchasing their smart lights and controlling them from someone else\u2019s system. I don\u2019t think they want to be known for their app. It\u2019s just not very intuitive and somewhat hard to use even for an experienced smart home guy like myself. If you\u2019re using HomeKit, you\u2019ll be able to use Apple\u2019s Home app, or the HomeKit app of your choice to control the lights.<\/p>\n
And it goes without saying that you\u2019ll be able to use Siri to voice control Sylvania\u2019s HomeKit lights, and Amazon\u2019s Lady A or the Google Assistant to control their Zigbee lights when linked up to your favorite smart speaker.<\/p>\n
Sylvania sent me a few of their Zigbee products to review, including a color-changing smart bulb, light strip and those lovely Gardenspots, so for full disclosure, I will officially say thanks to them just in case the FTC is reading this. I found Sylvania\u2019s lights overall to be quality smart lighting products with more than adequate brightness and decently saturated colors. You can check out my full review with demos, which I\u2019m sure Allison will link to, or just go to youtube.com\/smarterhomelife.<\/p>\n
For the lower price and the wider selection of products, Sylvania is definitely a good smart lighting choice for those on a budget.<\/p>\n
Links to some of the Sylvania products on Amazon:<\/p>\n