Innr Smart Bulb Colour

£26.99, innr.com

We’ll admit it: Innr snuck up on us. It was only recently that the Dutch manufacturer came onto our radar, despite it starting up in 2012 at the hands of a pair of ex-Philips execs. The company’s recent rise to prominence, if the Smart Bulb Colour is anything to go by, is well deserved.

Innr is making cheaper Zigbee bulbs – the Smart Bulb Colour is almost half the SRP of the equivalent Hue lamp – and it matches Hue beat-for-beat. The Hue White and Colour Ambiance outputs 806 lumen, and so does this. Hue’s bulb is rated for 25,000 hours, and so is this. They both score over 80 on the colour rendering index. Innr’s bulbs look great, react fast, and integrate perfectly with the Hue hub, making setup utterly simple.

There are small downsides, but they’re generally minor. There’s no way to change the settings on these if you’re hubless (unlike Hue, which has limited Bluetooth control), so you’ll either need a Hue hub or Innr’s own hub, the latter of which is a requirement for bulb firmware updates. The dimming curve is reasonable, but below around 30% there’s little change, so if you’re looking for a truly dim light, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a bargain expansion to an existing Hue setup, we can see no reason not to look towards Innr.

VERDICT Bargain bulbs with brilliant bite

★★★★

Very cheap and competent Needs a hub