TP-Link LB130 Kasa Smart Light Bulb, Multicolor WiFi Bulbs, Works with Alexa & Google Old Version

doing some research and assesing my needs I settled on TP-Link because of the variety of Smart products they offered
I made the jump to a “Smart Home” a little over a month ago after Alexa joined our family. After talking to some friends, doing some research and assesing my needs I settled on TP-Link because of the variety of Smart products they offered, no requirements for a Hub, the lower cost and the ability to control everything from one simple app on my Smart phone and Amazon”s Alexa. I have not been disappointed. After a very short learning curve, I surprisingly found the installation and set-up of all the TP-Link Smart devices extremely easy and intuitive. I have installed several different Smart devices including three different bulbs (LB-100, 120 & 130) depending on the area, as well as, Smart Switches (HB-200) and Smart Plugs. All of it has installed, programed and worked with few problems. The only criticism I have is the Kasa App. I have found it to be a bit bugy at times, but since I use it primarily for programming and setting up new devices and scenes, rather than operationally, it has not been an issue since Alexa handels most of that work. So far, in the six weeks my Smart Home has been in operation I have only had one problem where Alexa and the Kasa app lost communication with most of (but not all) of my TP-Link devices. But after a bit of head scratching I was able to restore communication. So here’s a tip to remember: I first tried rebooting the devices by cycling the power breaker, but that didn’t work. Probably due to multiple devices signaling simultaneously and overloading Kasa. But, powering each device down for a few seconds then back up, and testing it before moving on ro the next one worked without a problem. I also recommend using a different control application. I only have experience with Amazon Alexa, but it also interfaces with Google Home among others. I have found that controlling scenes from Kasa not to be reluable for some reason, while issuing the scene commands to Alexa works 90% of the time, with repeating the command becoming necessary about 10% of the time. But even with an occasional repeated command being necessary, TP-Link devices respond extremely well through Alexa’s control. Plus Alexa is able to easily “group” multiple devices so you can control areas with a single command, or program macro activities that Alexa can perform with a single command. Capabilities Kasa does not have. This is another deficiency of the Kasa app. Without the ability to group devices or run macro routines, it relies on programmed scenes which are very limiting for operational control. So another controlling app like Alexa or Home is essential to the TP-Link Smart Home system. For me, because I have Alexa for operational control, both at home and away, these short comings in the Kasa app are non-issues. But if I didnt have this capability I think I would look to a different Hub controlled platform for my Smart Home lighting and device control.LB-130 Smart Bulb: I first bought the multicolored Smart bulb for my porch light to enhance my Holiday decorations, but I liked it so much I got 4 more for lamps in my living room to set mood and night light scenes for parties, movie/TV watching and minimal light settings for overnight guests. I love the lighting effects you can create with these Smart bulbs so easily with just a few commands, or program a complex scene in minutes that is ready to execute with a single command to Alexa or a single touch of the Alexa app remotely.

Uses with Alexa – Has it’s pros and cons. Can’t gradually fade on lights.
This light has a lot of great things going for it, but a couple of cons.ProsThe light is extremely bright.I can change it into so many colors with the app or ask Alexa to make it different shades of a color (if you want a very specific color though, you’ll want to do that in the app).And you can use a circadian rhythm mode that mimics the sun to help you wake up. In the settings I chose a timezone an hour earlier so it’d mimic a brighter sun sooner.Plus, if you’re comfortable with technology this is pretty easy to figure out and set up. Just follow the instructions and play with the app for a few minutes.ConsEvery now and again, even with strong wifi it doesn’t accept a command. This isn’t too common, and most the time simply giving it again will get you the results you want.If you change your wifi network you’ll have to connect your devices individually (which isn’t too bad for me, but I imagine a hassle for someone with a whole smart home).The carcadian rhythm mode rotates between a blue white to get you up and a yellow white to wind down. While this makes sense to me since blue light keeps people up, it looks hideous and makes everything around it look worse. This wouldn’t be a problem if I could customize how I’d like my lights to fade on.You can’t make them fade on or off or cycle through colors. The only way to do that would be to give it commands every minute for the exact thing you want like at 5:30AM 1% white light, 5:31AM 2% white light, etc. So if you want the light to fade on over 10 minutes you’d need to put in ten commands. Then if you wanted to change that time, you’d need to change it for each of the 10 commands. And the light still isn’t fading on smoothly, it’s inching up in brightness pretty obviously. I even checked apps like IFTTT for enhanced capabilities and while there are some I like (turning devices on or off when you leave) you still can’t fade on or off the lights.If you tell it to change to say a yellow white that’s 5% brightness for a movie mode then you turn it off, it’ll turn back on to the last on setting. You can’t just have a default setting, anytime you change it you’ll have to tell it to go back to the specific setting you like.With Alexa I can dim the lights to very specific percentages like 1%, 3%, etc. But in the app it’s just a bar that slides and doesn’t go below 5%. Since I primarily ask Alexa to change it, that’s no big deal to me but if I couldn’t that would really be a dampener since 1% is perfect when you’re getting ready to sleep or you need the light but don’t want to risk waking your partner up.ConclusionIf I could set the lights to gradually fade on, even with only one color (but especially if I could cycle through colors) this would be a five star product. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s reasonably priced, doesn’t require a hub, and it’s easy to use. I don’t mind a little more effort to get exactly what I’d like, I’m just bummed that when it comes to smoothly fading a light on and off that’s basically impossible and the work around is tedious. Having millions of colors available is cool, not being able to program it to seamlessly fade on and off? That’s kind of ridiculous.Note: You’ll need the box to register your warranty. Lightbulbs don’t have serial numbers on them, the box does so don’t throw away your boxes, at least before registering any warantees. It only takes a couple of minutes and can give you some piece of mind if your lightbulb stops working too soon.

Foco de fácil uso, mis hijas aprendieron a operarlo fácilmente con app en celular. Configuración sencilla de app. Buena calidad de iluminación y colores variados. Lo recomiendo.

facil de instalar y compatible con Alexa, son focos que trabajan de manera independiente sin depender de un Hub como los de philips, la calidad es de lo mejor, el precio es un poco elevado pero creo que lo vale llego ya más de 6 meses en uso el ahorro se ve reflejado en mi recibo de luz, recomendable!!