Opinions about yeelight smart bulbs (and others in general)

PH0ENiX

Skilled
As the title says, I am looking to buy 5 yeelight tunable white bulbs for my room. (4 wall fixtures & 1 floor lamp) Can anyone here vouch for them?

Also whats the point of RGB bulbs? Worth spending extra 300 per bulb on? I obviously want my room looking like a cyberpunk brothel But don’t yall get headaches?
 
I understand the point you are trying to make. And honestly RGB doesn't make much sense until used in conjunction with other home automation devices. For example i use Phillips as a signal for my door bell. So if i am on third floor and for some reason I didn't hear the door bell, the hue bulb will start flashing green colour. Or you can program them to flash red colour if the air quality index drops below a certain level.
 
What are you looking to achieve. I only wanted wireless control so have opted for a cheaper alternative of Sonoff switches and normal bulbs. Of course, if you need the dimmable feature then such smart bulbs are needed.
 
I prefer smart switches or even a panel to smart bulbs

Course if you want that cyber punk look then bulbs are the way to go

Headaches are to do with flicker. So long as the light is at the same height or below a ceiling fan there will be no flicker.
 
I prefer smart switches or even a panel to smart bulbs

Course if you want that cyber punk look then bulbs are the way to go

Headaches are to do with flicker. So long as the light is at the same height or below a ceiling fan there will be no flicker.
At the least I would be content with having warm white bulbs w dimmer. Any cheaper option to achieve the same?
 
At the least I would be content with having warm white bulbs w dimmer. Any cheaper option to achieve the same?
The LED bulbs sold here don't work with dimmers i think. I was last in the market over a year back when i changed all to LED in the house.
 
I have a large mix of all sorts of bulbs in the house - few yeelight, few milight, 5 odd LIFX and at last count 10 hue

The most reliable, by far is Hue and I have, over time been switching over to Hue
LIFX and yeelight are good (LIFX is brighter than hue while yeelight is at par)
HOwever both have a tendency to drop out of the network - not too often but once in a while for sure- and there’s nothing more annoying than a smart bulb that refuses to hear a command when you want to switch it
Hue on the other hand is super stable and never (and I mean never) flakes out

IMO, the rest are good of the options are good to try out if you are getting started with smart lights - but if your intent is to move over to a connected setup for the whole house, the Hue is by far the better choice
 
I have a large mix of all sorts of bulbs in the house - few yeelight, few milight, 5 odd LIFX and at last count 10 hue

The most reliable, by far is Hue and I have, over time been switching over to Hue
LIFX and yeelight are good (LIFX is brighter than hue while yeelight is at par)
HOwever both have a tendency to drop out of the network - not too often but once in a while for sure- and there’s nothing more annoying than a smart bulb that refuses to hear a command when you want to switch it
Hue on the other hand is super stable and never (and I mean never) flakes out

IMO, the rest are good of the options are good to try out if you are getting started with smart lights - but if your intent is to move over to a connected setup for the whole house, the Hue is by far the better choice
Oh man. Reliability matters. Hue needs a hub which will cost more than 4 yeelights. what is the cheapest option there? Any DIY or second hand solution??
 
Oh man. Reliability matters. Hue needs a hub which will cost more than 4 yeelights. what is the cheapest option there? Any DIY or second hand solution??
For maximum bang for buck and reliability use home assistant along with yeelight. Its still wifi but the control is local so reliability is improved drastically. And if you plan to indulge in main stream automation in future, get a zigbee hub along with compatible bulbs/switches. It might be a bit expensive but totally worth it. And if you're comfortable with tinkering you can even use zigbee with home assistant
 
Oh man. Reliability matters. Hue needs a hub which will cost more than 4 yeelights. what is the cheapest option there? Any DIY or second hand solution??
If the intent is to extend smart lights all over the house, the hub is worth it as you can keep adding bulbs at a low incremental cost
If not then yeelight is the way to go - also , when I say they are unreliable, it doesn’t mean they are seriously unreliable
They flake out once in a while and require a power cycle to fix..its an issue for me as I have gone the whole hog and entire house control is only via voice or a phone (I.e. no physical switch) so I need absolute reliability
It will probably not be an issue if you are testing the waters

PS: An alternative option is the Echo Plus which has the required zig bee hardware to control the bulbs directly
PS2: Hue integrates much better/easier with standard or customised automation hubs as the API is public - yeelight is a little trickier but can still be integrated
 
Last edited:
Back
Top