The connected home, it’s definitely the future. While Philips might be the most popular name when it comes to connected lightbulbs, they aren’t the only game in town. We recently took a look at Nyrius’ own Smart LED bulb, and now we’re talking a look at PLAYBULB’s line of smart light bulbs, including a candle here. Being able to control the colors of your lights from your smartphone is pretty cool, heck just being able to turn them on or off is pretty cool. But there’s more to this PLAYBULB Candle then just that.
This candle isn’t like ordinary candles. As you probably figured out, seeing as this is a connected device, it does not have an actual flame. Inside it does have a light-bulb that is shaped like a flame however. Its a very small lightbulb, and works off of 3 AA batteries. There is a small circle that goes inside the candle, that puts out a nice lavender scent. Another feature of this candle that I find pretty cool is that you can blow it out like a real candle. This is thanks to the built in smart sensor in the PLAYBULB Candle. The bottom of the Candle can be used as a candle holder. With the Candle on, it looks pretty cool.
So enough about the Candle aspects of the PLAYBULB Candle, what about the smart part of the candle. MiPow has an app for the PLAYBULB products. My favorite part of the app is that it uses one app for everything, unlike Nyrius, who uses a different app for each product. As long as the candle is turned on, you can fire up the app and tap on “Connect” and within seconds it’ll connect to the PLAYBULB Candle. It’s all done very easily. Compared to other smart light bulbs I’ve used, it connects instantly every time. Something that should be common, but isn’t. I’ve been using the PLAYBULB Candle for a few weeks now, and have yet to have any issues with connecting to the candle to control it or what not.
Now with the app, there many things that can be done here. Of course, the most obvious being the colors. You can choose virtually any color you want to shine in the candle, thanks to the color wheel. I’m real fond of the purple color, for some reason. Red is nice and bright as well. You can also adjust the brightness. So you can have it be as bright as you want, or as low as you want. Now, in the effects section is where things get interesting. Under the “Candle Effect” tab, you can choose to turn on the candle effect or not. And what this does is make the candle look like a real candle. Flickering and all. I actually really like it. From here you can also change the color to be whatever you want as well. You can also choose to have it flash, like you’re at a party. You are able to adjust the speed of the flashing as well as whether you want the colors to switch as well. The Pulsing is one of my favorite effects here, it slowly pulses between different colors. Finally we have Rainbow and Rainbow fade, which flashes from all different colors in the rainbow, as you’d expect from the name.
That’s not all. The app can also use the Candle as an equalizer for the music you have playing. So it can change colors based on whatever song you’re playing. However, it does not work with music apps on your device, you need to have music stored locally that the app can read to use this feature. Now we also have scenes, where you can drag the droplet to get the exact color from a scene for the candle. You can also adjust the saturation of the color here. You can also create your own scenes with your own pictures. Which is a nice touch. That might seem like a lot, but that’s still not all that can be done with the app. The app also allows you to manage your different devices. So if you have more than one PLAYBULB device, you can manage them all. There is also a timer, so you can set the candle to turn off at a certain time. The app works really well and has so many features that are part of it.
The PLAYBULB Candle is a nice candle around the house as you don’t need to worry about it setting anything on fire like an actual flame would. It will also last around 60 days on a single set of batteries (MiPow says that is with an average 4 hours on each day). And since it works with 3 AA batteries, it is a good product to have around the house in case the power does go out. The PLAYBULB Candle sells for $20. But the company also sells it in a 2 and 3-pack which go for $30 and $40. Not bad pricing at all for these candles. As a lot of these connected light bulbs go for around $30-40 a piece already. The app is also free on the Google Play Store to download.
Overall, I’d definitely recommend the MiPow PLAYBULB Candle to anyone out there looking for a nice candle for their home. It works exactly as advertised, and there’s even a few hidden features that make the experience even better. I’d say my favorite feature of this product is the fact that you can actually blow it out like a candle. I’m not afraid to say that I “geeked out” when I realized you could do that. And the fact that it did actually work as it was intended too. The build was nice and solid, and the experience was pretty darn good. You can pick up the PLAYBULB Candle from their online store today. It is also available on Amazon, for slightly cheaper.
