Let there be light... and some music too
With the rise of smart everything these days, it was really only a matter of time before someone married a light bulb and a Bluetooth speaker together.
The Sengled Pulse is the product of this blissful union, in the form of a pair of large 8W 600-lumens bulbs - one designated as the Master, the other as the Satellite. All you need do is download the Sengled app for either your Android or iOS device, enable Bluetooth and connect to the Master bulb.
Once paired, you'll be able to control the light and the built-in JBL wireless speaker from the accompanying app. And if you've placed the bulbs at an appropriate distance from each other, you'll be able to enjoy streamed stereo music from your device and through the bulbs.
The installation is very simple. Each bulb has a screw fitting to an E27/B22 socket, where all that's needed is for you to flick the light switch to power up the bulbs. However, therein lies a small snag with the Sengled Pulse, as these are by far the biggest and heaviest light bulbs we've come across, and as a result it was pretty difficult to find a fitting that was capable of accepting the size and weight of the bulbs without possible damage to the light socket itself.
With each bulb measuring 140mm in height and 98mm in diameter, and weighing slightly over 400g, you can begin to understand what a technical challenge it was to find the perfect socket. Saying that, once we had the pair fitted, the bulbs worked perfectly well, and the 13W 1.75" full range drivers delivered a decent level of audio volume as well as clarity.
Naturally, the speaker inside the bulb will never replace your stereo system, and there were moments when the Bluetooth signal dropped slightly and the quality degraded a little. But these were few and far between, and they never ruined the fun and novelty value of having music blasted from a couple of light bulbs.
The Sengled Pulse is just one part of a home automation setup. You could, in theory at least, come home from work and have the lights set at the perfect level, playing your favourite relaxing music to unwind to. Likewise, they'd be handy for a romantic meal at home - if you're still young at heart enough for that kind of thing.
They're certainly a unique addition to any home automation system, but at around £149, they are quite expensive. We haven't, however, had the opportunity to look at any other smart bulbs with speakers installed, so while they seem expensive, we can't compare them with the competition, if there is any.
On the whole, we rather liked the Sengled Pulse kit. It's an interesting concept, and the pair of bulbs work and perform well. In an ideal world, they'd be significantly smaller, lighter and cheaper too, but for what you get, they're pretty good. David Hayward
Interesting, but a tad expensive.