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Review LIFX Smart RGB Bulbs

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TSidoblu
post Dec 5 2017, 07:49 AM, updated 7y ago

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Bought 3 of the LIFX Color 1000. These are E27 Edison screw type LED bulbs.
It uses 11 watt at full brightness and puts out 1055 lumens or equivalent to a normal incandescent 75 watt bulb.
Now it does uses a bit of power during standby at about ~0.7W
Their website says it is capable of producing 16 million colors and 1000 shades of white ranging from 2,500K to 9,000K.
Two years warranty
Normal price is $59.99 but there is a $20 discount now so each bulb is $39.99
If anyone wants a $5 Discount Code, let me know. I got one.
Postage is a flat rate of $20 for one or many bulbs.

LIFX is an Australian company but the bulbs are made in China (like everything else)
My bulbs were shipped from their depot in HK using DHL. They also use HK Post but you don't have a choice of which method during ordering.

DHL called me say kena tax. Kastam wanted 20% + 6% and DHL fee is RM50
I told DHL is just LED light bulbs and only 3 pieces and for personal home use. They then manage to convinced Kastam. In the end I kena only 5% + 6% + Rm50. I had to come out with another RM120 to clear it.
Don't understand how Taobao buyers dont kena tax for their LED lights.

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This is the box that it came in. It has padded foam protection all round. It has no instructions inside the box whatsoever. Infact not a single piece of paper inside. Nothing to read.


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The size compare to my 9.5w Philips LED Bulb which btw is also a 70w equivalent bulb. Almost the same size but the LIFX is much heavier due to extra electronics inside.
JayceOoi
post Dec 5 2017, 08:13 AM

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Welcome to DHL. Company that always look for a way to charge you RM50 custom tax service fee. tongue.gif
Zot
post Dec 5 2017, 08:18 AM

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Tax is hit and miss stuff. Stuffs brought in by courier service are randomly picked for tax as far as I know especially small package and look personal. If you are lucky, if will just slip through.
TSidoblu
post Dec 5 2017, 08:19 AM

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QUOTE(JayceOoi @ Dec 5 2017, 08:13 AM)
Welcome to DHL. Company that always look for a way to charge you RM50 custom tax service fee. tongue.gif
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i think all the big courier companies got the same weird ways to charge you
just recently I bought a $70 item and got it shipped by FedEx. It cost me USD$15 but FedEx inflate the freight charge to USD$95 on the invoice which bumps my total cost way above Rm500 so it the end I kena tax vmad.gif
TSidoblu
post Dec 5 2017, 08:21 AM

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QUOTE(Zot @ Dec 5 2017, 08:18 AM)
Tax is hit and miss stuff. Stuffs brought in by courier service are randomly picked for tax as far as I know especially small package and look personal. If you are lucky, if will just slip through.
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it really depends on your seller. i would say if your seller is in china, they "know" how to declare it. If you bought your stuff from angmoh countries....then good luck to you

for example you bought a selfie stick and if they declare it as bluetooth selfie stick then habis, you will need to apply for an expensive Sirim license

This post has been edited by idoblu: Dec 5 2017, 08:25 AM
Zot
post Dec 5 2017, 08:23 AM

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QUOTE(JayceOoi @ Dec 5 2017, 08:13 AM)
Welcome to DHL. Company that always look for a way to charge you RM50 custom tax service fee. tongue.gif
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Any courier service will charge for clearing fee if stuff get tax by customs. You can go to clear yourself or you can get friend to clear for free. Clearing is not difficult but they charge so much which is just normal routine for them. Anyway, courier companies also have to deposit certain amount of money for taxing purpose. They also have to pay customs that is normally stationed at their bonded warehouses.
Zot
post Dec 5 2017, 08:28 AM

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QUOTE(idoblu @ Dec 5 2017, 08:21 AM)
it really depends on your seller. i would say if your seller is in china, they "know" how to declare it. If you bought your stuff from angmoh countries....then good luck to you
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Not necessarily. I bought stuff on Ali Express and it delivered straight to my office as I use office address. No trick declaration. True, declaration can make difference in taxing. Last time I remember using word cable can be misleading even though it is just power cable. Cable is a word for something big. Better use Power Cord. Otherwise, tax can be different. If you do not agree with the tax class use by customs, you can always go to clarify and if you can convince them, you get cheaper tax.
TSidoblu
post Dec 5 2017, 08:30 AM

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Installation is very simple. Screw in the bulb. Download the LIFX app. Connect the bulbs to your smart device (phone or tablet) and it will then connect to your home WIFI network. Yes the bulbs needs Wifi so you can control it. Your phone/tablet must be connected to the Internet also but it need not be on the same Wifi network as your bulbs. You can be on 3g/4g and it will still work so that means you can check or control your bulbs even when you are somewhere else.
Please note that during initial setup, your smart device needs to be on the same Wifi network.

COLOR WHEEL
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WHITE WHEEL
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Ok the app. Here is the color wheel and white wheel. You can control Color, intensity (dimming), Color temperature for Whites, On/Off. You can control bulbs either in groups or individual.

THEMES
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There also preset themes incase you dunno what to choose.

OFF
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ON
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Difference between On and Off.
You can tell the status of your lights whether they are On or Off, Brightness and what Color they were in.

SCHEDULES
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Last but not least, this is the most important feature. The Schedule Settings. Or timer setting.
You can set your lights (whether in groups or individual) when to turn On or Off. You can select time and day.
You can also select at what Color, Brightness or Scene when they turn On
And also if you want the lights to Fade In/Fade Out during On/Off
Multiple schedules can run concurrently

If I'm not mistaken, all these settings are located at LIFX's Cloud server.

I only received them yesterday. So far they work ok but I'm worried that they will drop offline either because it lost connection to the Wifi router or some network problem. The 16 million colors seems like a gimmick. I think first few days you might play around with it but later you will set it back to the normal White color light.

You can also buy just White bulbs from LIFX. They are cheaper but it produces less lumens. They also have Color light strips which is new. I hope they will come out with bulbs for E14 base. I have three E27 table lamps, the rest are using E14 bulbs.

Oh one more thing. There are other ways to control your LIFX bulbs and not just by using their app. You can tell Alexa to turn On/Off, change , etc if you have Amazon Echo and Google Home. You can also use IFTTT but I havent tried. Hopefully Apple's Home will be included soon then you can ask SIRI to do stuff to your lights
TSidoblu
post Dec 7 2017, 08:51 PM

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QUOTE(Wilsondrake @ Dec 7 2017, 06:34 PM)
Are these the ones which are LIFI ? Thats a technology for getting Wifi through LED Bulbs. Are these those ?
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No it’s not Lifi

 

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