Philips EnduraLED 17watt A21 Dimmable
LIGHTZY RATING: 65
Don't be fooled by the yellow plastic shielding, this bulb produces a really nice, bright, warm white light. It's also dimmable. This is a very solid bulb, in terms of performance. It has three problems, however: 1) it's bright yellow when it's off, and very big, so if you stick it in a recessed can or small lamp everyone will notice it as one of the first things they see when walking into a room; 2) it can make a very light buzz when it's on, not bad, but which might make it not so pleasant to have in a bedside lamp; and 3) it's a bit expensive. Also, while the brightness was okay and the color-warmth was great, I didn't get brightness results matching a 75w incandescent, which this is advertised to replace. Perhaps b/c it was in a can, and is instead designed to spread the light to the sides...
So if you want an LED bulb that everyone will notice and then be pleased by the light it produces, or a bulb used in a standing lamp with a high shade, this is a good choice. But for me, this bulb has been relegated to an outside (but dry) fixture. I couldn't find anywhere inside the house I thought it would work for me.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 26 lux
4 feet to the side: 22 lux
8 feet to the side: 14 lux
Price: $50. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
Don't be fooled by the yellow plastic shielding, this bulb produces a really nice, bright, warm white light. It's also dimmable. This is a very solid bulb, in terms of performance. It has three problems, however: 1) it's bright yellow when it's off, and very big, so if you stick it in a recessed can or small lamp everyone will notice it as one of the first things they see when walking into a room; 2) it can make a very light buzz when it's on, not bad, but which might make it not so pleasant to have in a bedside lamp; and 3) it's a bit expensive. Also, while the brightness was okay and the color-warmth was great, I didn't get brightness results matching a 75w incandescent, which this is advertised to replace. Perhaps b/c it was in a can, and is instead designed to spread the light to the sides...
So if you want an LED bulb that everyone will notice and then be pleased by the light it produces, or a bulb used in a standing lamp with a high shade, this is a good choice. But for me, this bulb has been relegated to an outside (but dry) fixture. I couldn't find anywhere inside the house I thought it would work for me.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 26 lux
4 feet to the side: 22 lux
8 feet to the side: 14 lux
Price: $50. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
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Lighting Science Definity - A19 Omni V2 - 60 watt replacement
LIGHTZY RATING: 69
This is a very nice bulb for the right use. I have four of them installed in 3.5in recessed cans in one small room, and they really light it up nicely, and dim well. I wasn't able to get the brightness out of it to warrant calling it a 60 watt replacement, but perhaps that's because it was in a can and designed to send light out to the sides. Maybe it would be a good solution as a table lamp bulb. But I think its "flashlight" design makes it look best in a small can, where it looks good, similar to the look of a traditional bulb. In a 5in or wider can, however, it can look a bit small and show a gap, as shown below... I will buy more of these. Nice bulb, decent price, just make sure you have a lamp or 3-4 inch can.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 21 lux
4 feet to the side: 17 lux
8 feet to the side: 9 lux
Price: $28. Claimed lifetime: 50,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
This is a very nice bulb for the right use. I have four of them installed in 3.5in recessed cans in one small room, and they really light it up nicely, and dim well. I wasn't able to get the brightness out of it to warrant calling it a 60 watt replacement, but perhaps that's because it was in a can and designed to send light out to the sides. Maybe it would be a good solution as a table lamp bulb. But I think its "flashlight" design makes it look best in a small can, where it looks good, similar to the look of a traditional bulb. In a 5in or wider can, however, it can look a bit small and show a gap, as shown below... I will buy more of these. Nice bulb, decent price, just make sure you have a lamp or 3-4 inch can.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 21 lux
4 feet to the side: 17 lux
8 feet to the side: 9 lux
Price: $28. Claimed lifetime: 50,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
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GE 62180 9-Watt LED Soft White A19
LIGHTZY RATING: 62
As you can tell from the bedroom picture below, this is a dim bulb. And it doesn't dim. But for the right use, it's fairly nice. It's certainly the most "normal" looking LED bulb I've seen so far. If used in a bedside lamp, I think it's great. As general room illumination, it's not up to the task. And I guess the biggest downer is that, at around $30 a bulb, it feels overpriced for such a limited usage case. But if you want to put LED lightbulbs in accent lighting lamps and brightness or cost aren't issues, this is one of the better-looking choices I've seen.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 12 lux
4 feet to the side: 9 lux
8 feet to the side: 5 lux
Price: $30. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 3000K.
As you can tell from the bedroom picture below, this is a dim bulb. And it doesn't dim. But for the right use, it's fairly nice. It's certainly the most "normal" looking LED bulb I've seen so far. If used in a bedside lamp, I think it's great. As general room illumination, it's not up to the task. And I guess the biggest downer is that, at around $30 a bulb, it feels overpriced for such a limited usage case. But if you want to put LED lightbulbs in accent lighting lamps and brightness or cost aren't issues, this is one of the better-looking choices I've seen.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 12 lux
4 feet to the side: 9 lux
8 feet to the side: 5 lux
Price: $30. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 3000K.
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G7 Power Warm White LED 65w equivalent
LIGHTZY RATING: 54
This is a very inexpensive LED bulb. And unfortunately, although looking fine on the spec sheet from a pure performance perspective, the low-cost components are pretty obvious. First is the vaguely warped mark on the clear cover (you can see it on the picture to the left). Next is the unfortunate silver plastic plastic base cover (why not white?). And finally, just holding it, it feels less solid than the other bulbs we've tested. It didn't show any obvious failings in performance in a first test and survived shipping to the house, so perhaps this is a smart cost-savings approach. But I just didn't have a good first impression of the bulb. As exacerbated but the fact that I can't find any spec sheet for this product anywhere which provides a claimed life expectancy... So the bulb got dinged for that as well.
Plus, while the color temperature was fine, the brightness wasn't what I would have expected from a 900 lumen rated bulb (it didn't test as bright as standard 65w bulbs). And it doesn't work with dimmers. So all in all, unless you're desperate for a sub-$20 bulb, look elsewhere.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 29 lux
4 feet to the side: 21 lux
8 feet to the side: 9 lux
Price: $18.50. Claimed lifetime: N/a, although they claim a "lifetime guarantee" (I'm not sure what that means). Claimed color temperature: 3000K.
This is a very inexpensive LED bulb. And unfortunately, although looking fine on the spec sheet from a pure performance perspective, the low-cost components are pretty obvious. First is the vaguely warped mark on the clear cover (you can see it on the picture to the left). Next is the unfortunate silver plastic plastic base cover (why not white?). And finally, just holding it, it feels less solid than the other bulbs we've tested. It didn't show any obvious failings in performance in a first test and survived shipping to the house, so perhaps this is a smart cost-savings approach. But I just didn't have a good first impression of the bulb. As exacerbated but the fact that I can't find any spec sheet for this product anywhere which provides a claimed life expectancy... So the bulb got dinged for that as well.
Plus, while the color temperature was fine, the brightness wasn't what I would have expected from a 900 lumen rated bulb (it didn't test as bright as standard 65w bulbs). And it doesn't work with dimmers. So all in all, unless you're desperate for a sub-$20 bulb, look elsewhere.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 29 lux
4 feet to the side: 21 lux
8 feet to the side: 9 lux
Price: $18.50. Claimed lifetime: N/a, although they claim a "lifetime guarantee" (I'm not sure what that means). Claimed color temperature: 3000K.
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EarthLED EvoLux 2 - Cool White
LIGHTZY RATING: 63
This is a curious bulb, because it seems to be somewhat attractively put together. It's an LED bulb that looks fine in a lamp, and feels solidly put together including a white metal casing, and yet this cool white version is so harshly "cold" (5000K color temperature) that I'd be surprised if many people would want it in a bedside lamp. The 1000 lumen version I tested (note: slightly different from the dimmer version linked to below at Amazon) was fairly bright (although from a measured lux perspective, not as bright as I would have expected versus my initial impressions - that's "cold" light for you...), and aside from not dimming seems like a decent bulb at a decent price. But I've had to stick this test bulb in an outdoors socket because it's too harsh of a light color to use in any of our lamps. Seems a waste of an otherwise good design. I look forward to testing some of their "warmer" versions...
Brightness directly below the bulb: 58 lux
4 feet to the side: 41 lux
8 feet to the side: 20 lux
Price: $25. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 5000K.
This is a curious bulb, because it seems to be somewhat attractively put together. It's an LED bulb that looks fine in a lamp, and feels solidly put together including a white metal casing, and yet this cool white version is so harshly "cold" (5000K color temperature) that I'd be surprised if many people would want it in a bedside lamp. The 1000 lumen version I tested (note: slightly different from the dimmer version linked to below at Amazon) was fairly bright (although from a measured lux perspective, not as bright as I would have expected versus my initial impressions - that's "cold" light for you...), and aside from not dimming seems like a decent bulb at a decent price. But I've had to stick this test bulb in an outdoors socket because it's too harsh of a light color to use in any of our lamps. Seems a waste of an otherwise good design. I look forward to testing some of their "warmer" versions...
Brightness directly below the bulb: 58 lux
4 feet to the side: 41 lux
8 feet to the side: 20 lux
Price: $25. Claimed lifetime: 25,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 5000K.
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LG LED A19 7.5w
LIGHTZY RATING: 52
Another week, another snow-cone A-19. This one is very cheap, at around $10 a bulb. The price is right, and the color temperature is also decent. Unfortunately, it's not very bright. It's intended to be a 40w replacement, but performed very poorly in our test, one of the dimmest bulbs yet, and I doubt it meets its marketed benchmark. Furthermore, it doesn't dim, had a half-second delay to turn on, and viewed through my iPhone camera I saw visible interference lines -- which industry experts have told me is a sign of cheap electronics inside the bulb.
If you just want a couple of cheap LED bulbs with warm light color and an all-white exterior, this one does fine in an initial test, it didn't blow up or anything. But otherwise, even at $10 it's not worth it.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 12 lux
4 feet to the side: 9 lux
8 feet to the side: 4 lux
Price: $10 (link below is for a two-pack). Claimed lifetime: 30,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
Another week, another snow-cone A-19. This one is very cheap, at around $10 a bulb. The price is right, and the color temperature is also decent. Unfortunately, it's not very bright. It's intended to be a 40w replacement, but performed very poorly in our test, one of the dimmest bulbs yet, and I doubt it meets its marketed benchmark. Furthermore, it doesn't dim, had a half-second delay to turn on, and viewed through my iPhone camera I saw visible interference lines -- which industry experts have told me is a sign of cheap electronics inside the bulb.
If you just want a couple of cheap LED bulbs with warm light color and an all-white exterior, this one does fine in an initial test, it didn't blow up or anything. But otherwise, even at $10 it's not worth it.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 12 lux
4 feet to the side: 9 lux
8 feet to the side: 4 lux
Price: $10 (link below is for a two-pack). Claimed lifetime: 30,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 2700K.
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Aluratek A19 Cool White 8w
LIGHTZY RATING: 48
First of all, be careful ordering any Aluratek A19 bulbs at Amazon. The company uses the same basic box for several different models, and then just hand-marks which are which. When I ordered an Aluratek bulb through Amazon, I ordered "warm white". I got "cool white", and decidedly so. The box was marked that way, but apparently their packaging is confusing the fulfillment team at Amazon...
Anyway, besides being just about the harshest cool white I've yet tested, it's also not a very attractive bulb, with silver cooling ridges and a snow cone shape. Also, it says it's not rated to use with dimmers. Even if the color temperature was perfect, and the rest of the bulb's performance and appearance stayed the same, it still would have only gotten a 64 Lightzy Rating. So at >$20 per bulb, I'm not too interested. Which is unfortunate, because Aluratek appears to offer a nice range of color temps and brightnesses with their A19 line, but unless you like the looks of the bulb below, you probably won't like any of them very much.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 28 lux
4 feet to the side: 20 lux
8 feet to the side: 10 lux
Price: $20. Claimed lifetime: 50,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 4500-6500K.
First of all, be careful ordering any Aluratek A19 bulbs at Amazon. The company uses the same basic box for several different models, and then just hand-marks which are which. When I ordered an Aluratek bulb through Amazon, I ordered "warm white". I got "cool white", and decidedly so. The box was marked that way, but apparently their packaging is confusing the fulfillment team at Amazon...
Anyway, besides being just about the harshest cool white I've yet tested, it's also not a very attractive bulb, with silver cooling ridges and a snow cone shape. Also, it says it's not rated to use with dimmers. Even if the color temperature was perfect, and the rest of the bulb's performance and appearance stayed the same, it still would have only gotten a 64 Lightzy Rating. So at >$20 per bulb, I'm not too interested. Which is unfortunate, because Aluratek appears to offer a nice range of color temps and brightnesses with their A19 line, but unless you like the looks of the bulb below, you probably won't like any of them very much.
Brightness directly below the bulb: 28 lux
4 feet to the side: 20 lux
8 feet to the side: 10 lux
Price: $20. Claimed lifetime: 50,000 hours. Claimed color temperature: 4500-6500K.
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