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Add to SafariWhen comparing GE Link vs Mipow BTL 100C Playbulb Color, the Slant community recommends GE Link for most people. In the question“What are the best smart bulbs?” GE Link is ranked 14th while Mipow BTL 100C Playbulb Color is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose GE Link is:
Once you get the Wink App working, controls for the bulbs are simple. Whether you are modifying one bulb at a time, or grouping them to adjust many all at once, the controls are simple and work fairly well. Automating bulbs is just as easy - from basic scheduling (turn on in the morning, off when you go to bed for example) to recognizing when your phone is near and turn on by themselves. If you want to go deeper, you can use the Robots feature, which allows you to craft your own automation recipe and dip into external triggers.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy lighting management
Once you get the Wink App working, controls for the bulbs are simple. Whether you are modifying one bulb at a time, or grouping them to adjust many all at once, the controls are simple and work fairly well. Automating bulbs is just as easy - from basic scheduling (turn on in the morning, off when you go to bed for example) to recognizing when your phone is near and turn on by themselves.
If you want to go deeper, you can use the Robots feature, which allows you to craft your own automation recipe and dip into external triggers.
Pro Great color range
These bulbs can manage to display 90% of the color index - more than any current RGB LED bulb. It scores very well in all colors, expect pure red (about 60%) and pure blue (about 74%). Different shades of these colors all perform well.
Pro Compatible with many products
The GE Link is part of Wink's smart home platform standard, and are compatible with other products that utilize Wink (Honeywell, Dropcam, Philips Hue and more).
Pro Easy lighting options
On the homepage of the app is a color selector wheel, as well as a color saturation slider and buttons to get to lighting effects (including a mode which pulses the light along to the music its playing). It is easy to use with virtually no leaning curve
Pro Included speaker
While the speaker is tinny, its nice that it is included, adding more options for audio at home.
Cons
Con Buggy software
Between installing, registering, and connecting, the setup process is very slow and buggy. Even once connected, changing the colors or settings takes longer and appears more choppy than competing bulbs.
Updates can fail to install properly multiple times in a row (even with restarting your phone and unscrewing the bulbs).
Con Hub required
To access any smart features, you will require a hub. There are different hubs available, with more to come. Currently there is the Link Hub ($30) which will handle lighting, or the Wink Hub ($50) will be able to work the lights as well as other smart home systems. There's also the coming-soon Wink Relay ($300) which will have a touchscreen and act as a wall mounted smart hub.
Con Inefficient compared to other RGB bulbs
The GE Link requires 12 watts to produce 800 lumens - the TCP LEDs and Belkin WeMo provide the same lumens at 11 watts and 9.5 watts, respectively, and the Philips Hue provides 750 lumens using only 9 watts.
The GE Link is one of the most inefficient RGB LEDs available, however it is still many times more efficient than incandescent bulbs.
Con Limited dimming
While other Smart LED bulbs can dim right down to 0.5% of their total brightness, the GE Link will only go down to 10.2% brightness before it turns off. While this is still fairly dim, it would be nice to have an even larger range to make transitioning to bedtime more effective.
Con Slow, unresponsive app
The app could use a lot of work. For such an expensive bulb, the app really should work better than it does.
Con Very dim
At just 200 lumens of brightness (most smart bulbs provide 800 lumens), this is only good for accent lighting. You won't be able to effectively light a room, even with a few of these bulbs.
Con Directional lighting
To make room for the speaker, the bright areas of the bulb are cut off. Light will shine above and below the speaker, making for an awkward looking lighting effect (light shines up and down, but it doesn't surround the bulb as is typical of smart bulbs).
Con May not work in all lighting fixtures
Because of its heft and bulk, it may not fit into some lighting fixtures. It is 5.1x3.1x3.1" and weighs 8.8oz (half a pound). Smaller flexible desk lamps might not be able to hold that weight, or fit the bulb. Even larger appliances may not be able to house it, depending on the specific appliance.
