First look: LIFX Mini smartbulb with Apple HomeKit
Roger Fingas
LIFX is one of the better-known LED smartbulb brands, but until recently, it was also completely missing from Apple's HomeKit platform. We're currently testing this newfound support with one of the company's latest lights, the Mini.
The Mini is essentially a cheaper, more compact version of the standard LIFX bulb, and comes in three different versions. The regular unit supports 16 million colors, while the White offers just a single "warm" 2,700K shade. In between is the Day & Dusk, which like Philips' Hue White Ambiance bulbs outputs in various shades of white — specifically, color temperatures between 2,500 and 9,000K.
An import difference is that every Mini tops out at 800 lumens of brightness. That's comparable to most smartbulbs, but significantly dimmer than the 1,100-lumen flagship LIFX.
Control options include Siri, the iOS and Apple Watch Home apps, and the LIFX app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. There are also hooks for IFTTT, Nest, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and more — essentially, it would be more surprising to find something the Mini isn't compatible with.
HomeKit means that LIFX bulbs can finally be integrated into that platform's scenes and automations. A Mini might turn on or off alongside air conditioning, for instance, or dim down to a menacing red for a "horror movie" mode.
Keep watch for AppleInsider's full review in the near future.
William Gallagher
Marko Zivkovic
Charles Martin
Andrew Orr
Wesley Hilliard
4 Comments
LIFX makes great products. Best HomeKit lighting choice. Very reliable. Much better than the cheap junk Philips makes.
Love LIFX bulbs. I’ve got 16 of the standard 1100 lumens color changing bulbs and counting. They blow Philips Hue bulbs out of the water IMO. If I had one complaint it would be that they support 2.4GHz WiFi only. I live in NYC and have tons of 2.4GHz congestion in my apartment building. These are the only things I have left that can’t operate on 5GHz, then I could just shut the 2.4GHz radio off.
I have one of the new Sylvania bulbs. It is Bluetooth only but given it’s within range of an Apple TV, it seems more responsive with Siri commands and the HomeKit app, and was easier to set up compared to the iDevices switches that I have that use Wi-Fi. The Sylvania is 800 lumens like the LIFX Mini and compares similarly in price. Glad to see there is a Wi-Fi option, I think I’ll stick to Sylvanias if I’m planning to install them near my Apple TVs, but go with LIFX bulbs where they may out of Bluetooth range.
I bought the original LIFX bulbs. They were great and had everything I wanted: bright LEDs, WiFi, cloud enabled controls, multiple colors, no hub required, and a good iOS app. The only thing missing was HomeKit but at the time, HomeKit was still very early with almost no products and LIFX was claiming they would support it in the future.
The LIFX bulbs are superb. I had a faulty one and LIFX support replaced it with no questions asked. The website said HomeKit support was coming for years. I didn't want to walk away from LIFX since their bulbs are better than anyone else's that I could find but the lack of HomeKit was becoming an issue.
Now that their newer bulbs support HomeKit, I rushed to buy replacements for my existing bulbs. It would have been nice to have my old bulbs supported since they will probably work for another 10 years but upgrading was really a simple decision. I couldn't be happier. Everything as good as the original and HomeKit integration with Siri. It is a bit magical to ask Siri on my Watch to turn on the living room light and have it turn on in less than 2 seconds. A big thumbs up.