When comparing Cree Connected vs Oort SmartLED bulb, the Slant community recommends Cree Connected for most people. In the question“What are the best smart bulbs?” Cree Connected is ranked 13th while Oort SmartLED bulb is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Cree Connected is:
At just $15, this is one of the most inexpensive smart bulbs available. It's great not only as a first step into smart bulbs, but also as an inexpensive addition into a Philips Hue or other compatible bulb system.
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Pros
Pro Inexpensive
At just $15, this is one of the most inexpensive smart bulbs available. It's great not only as a first step into smart bulbs, but also as an inexpensive addition into a Philips Hue or other compatible bulb system.
Pro Many options for automation
Robots is an easy to use automation tool that lets you take control and create your own recipes for your bulbs to follow (flash blue when you receive a text, flash red when the door opens, etc). Shortcuts are also supported - you can setup a cluster of lights to all enter a pre-determined mode with the touch of a single button. Also supported is scheduled lighting - you can have the lights dim near bedtime, and start to illuminate in the morning to help ease the sleep process.
Pro Compatible with many ecosystems
At launch it was only compatible with Wink, but since then has added Staples Connect, SmartThings, and Philips Hue Bridge support. This allows for a wide range of hardware (at varying prices), as well as your choice of ecosystem.
Pro Lighting effects included
There are a number of preset modes, such as a sleep timer, a snore mode (breathing effect), and a flashing effect. Dimming is smooth as well, which is good to hear as some other bulbs seem to find this tricky sometimes.
Pro No hub required
While many smart bulbs require a hub to connect, the Oort bulbs connect directly with your phone which not only makes the initial setup easier, but also less costly (as you don't need to buy the hub).
Cons
Con Below average color rendering
The colors that the Cree connected provides are just below average for smart bulbs. At 80% of the spectrum, they fall behind the GE Link (90%), Belkin WeMo (88%), and Osram (81%) but a hair ahead of the Philips Hue (79%).
Con Hub required
You will need a hub, but at least you can pick your choice of hardware from cheap solutions ($30) that just control the lights to $50+ systems that can be the brains for your whole connected house.
Con Poor lightswitch dimming
As with all smart bulbs with in-app dimming, dimming from a lightswitch provides less than optimal results. The two dimming systems both try to take control, which results in flickering and some buzzing.
Con Very dim light
180 lumens won't do much good in terms of lighting (for comparison, regular bulbs produce about 800 lumens - the Oort bulb provides less brightness than the typical refrigerator light). This is really only effective as a supplement to an existing lighting solution as mood lighting, and not a regular bulb replacement.
Con Very short range
With a range of only 12m, don't expect to control your lights from far away. The good news is that the bulbs work together in a 'mesh' configuration, meaning that as long as you are within range of one bulb (and the other bulbs are in range of each other as well), you can control all the bulbs.
Con Poor color reproduction
The colors this bulb produces don't look saturated, and there isn't a very wide range of colors (about 20 noticeably different colors).
