Sengled, a brand best known for the combination connected bulb/Bluetooth speaker device that’s often now found in home improvement store bargain bins, has introduced two new connected bulbs that should elevate Sengled from the novelty product classification. Sengled debuted both bulbs at this year’s CES Unveiled, the opening event at CES for media.
The first bulb, the Element, is a warm white (2700K) bulb with the lowest price for a hub-controlled connected bulb, coming in at $9.99. It looks like a traditional LED bulb with a frosted white globe.
The second bulb, the Element Plus, is the real gem, though. This adds color tuning between 2700K and 6500K for a full range of warm to cool white light. This bulb has a more pair-shaped form factor, though, and it features a clear globe around exposed diodes. It costs $17.99 per bulb or $59.99 for a starter kit with a hub.
Unlike any other bulb we’ve encountered, the Sengled Plus will work with traditional dimmer switches, allowing you to dim the light while still maintaining full connected feature control. This is a much bigger deal that it might sound at first. Other connected bulbs are simply incompatible with wall dimmers and start to flake out, flash, or, at the very least, become unresponsive to app control when controlled by the dimmer switch on the wall. The Element Plus not only adjusts to the incoming line voltage and dims accordingly, but it can also still be remotely controlled like any other smart bulb, even when dimmed down to as low as 10% from the wall. So you can dim it manually or remotely, depending on your needs or preferences.
Both bulbs can be controlled through Sengled’s own app, which enables control, scheduling, energy monitoring, and more. Unlike other Sengled products, these are ZigBee based, allowing them to also work with third-party systems like iControl, AT&T Digital Life, Comcast Xfinity Home, and others. The Element Plus is available today at Sengled.com’s web site for $17.99 (also coming soon to Amazon), and the $9.99 Element is expected to be out early this year. As an added bonus that almost seems a bit like overachieving, Sengled will plant a tree for every bulb sold, ultimately reducing more carbon than the bulb itself claims to account for in its lifetime.