Best Edison-style filament smart bulbs to make your home glow (2024)

Filament smart bulbs pair modern intelligence and LED efficiency with that classic candlelight glow we all remember from those power-sucking incandescents.

Put simply, these Edison-inspired smart light bulbs have got both brains and beauty.

While LEDs have come a long way from the days of the blue haze – with white tunable and color changing you really can have any color under the sun – sometimes all you need is a nice warm glow.

• The latest and greatest smart lighting systems and bulbs

Enter, the Edison bulb. This style is known as a filament bulb because its “electric” filament is visible through its tinted glass, and it resembles the very first light bulb designed by Thomas Edison way back when.

Only today, you can do way more than Edison ever dreamed, including controlling your light bulb with your voice or your smartphone.

Why would you want an old-fashioned bulb in your smart home? Let’s be clear, these bulbs aren’t for task lighting, they’re all about that ambiance. Most offer between 550 to 800 lumens with a temperature color somewhere around 2100 kelvins (for comparison, Hue’s white bulbs are 800 lumens and 2700 kelvins).

Where filaments really shine is in those decorative light fixtures in your dining room, sitting room or possibly bedroom that are designed to feature the bulb as part of the look.

In general, smart bulbs don’t look that pretty – their opaque white enclosures are designed to be out of sight, whereas most filament bulbs have elegant, tinted glass and an industrial chic reproduction “filament” wire inside.

So, they light up a la bulbs from a century ago and give you a vintage warm light with a retro look that’s super cool. Pop them in a pendant light fixture, table lamp or cage-style chandelier and show off your smart bulbs in style.

For a while, finding a smart filament bulb was a fruitless hunt, but now there are at least six brands with Edison offerings, and more coming soon.

Plus, you’re not just restricted to one style or shape, there are globe, standard and elongated Edison-style, and plenty of compatibility with your smart home.

They work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and some with Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings.

We’ve been living with these smart, filament bulbs in our home for a long time now.

Read on for our reviews of Philips Hue, Sengled, Innr, Ikea and Bulbrite’s offerings, plus a round-up of the other options out there.

Best filament smart bulb: Philips Hue Filament Smart Bulbs

Buy Now: Amazon, philips-hue.com | From $24.99

The versatile, expansive and always excellent Hue line has the best-looking filament smart bulbs on the market.

Available in a range of shapes and fittings, including traditional A19/A60 ($24.99), an ST19/ST64 ‘tube’ shape that’s more traditionally ‘Edison’ in its look ($27.99), and a G25/G93 globe bulb for ($32.99), these bulbs will fit seamlessly into any Hue smart lighting set-up.

Of all the filament bulbs we tested we liked Hue’s design the best. The bulb has a black base instead of white so blends in nicely in an exposed fixture.

Ultimate guide: Everything you need to know about Philips Hue

A white base, no matter how small, just ruins the look this type of bulb is meant for.

Additionally, Hue’s curly filament is more aesthetically appealing than the stick filaments of most of the competition and the amber-tinted glass gives a warm glow without diminishing the light.

Hue’s filaments all shine at the same brightness of 550 lumens with a locked temperature color of 2100 kelvins. You can dim and brighten in the app (and through all the usual smart home controls – HomeKit, Alexa, Google, SmartThings), but there is no tunable white light here, just dimmer or brighter.

You also don’t need a Hue hub to use the bulbs as they can connect via Bluetooth, but, without a hub, you don’t get remote access or the ability to set up routines.

What we love

• Elegant black base
• No hub required
• Works with HomeKit (with a hub)

What we don’t love

• No tunable light
• Expensive

Read our full review of the Philips Hue Filament Smart Bulb here.

Most versatile filament smart bulb: Bulbrite Solana Edison Filament

Buy Now: Amazon | $19.99

Bulbrite’s Solana filament bulbs are our favorite all-around smart filament bulbs, as they are the only ones that offer tunable white light.

This means you can actually use them for task lighting if you need, as they have extra “filament” threads in them that boost their kelvin power all the way from a soothing 2200 up to 6500 kelvins.

Bulbrite’s filament bulbs come in a classic A19 shape, ST18 (the more typical Edison style) and the globe-shaped G25, each offering 600 lumens.

We tested three bulbs in a light fixture over our dining table and found the range it offered ideal for doing homework in the afternoon under invigorating bright lights and then dimming down to a soothing, warm glow for supper time.

Solana bulbs operate over Wi-Fi, so no hub is required, They require a 2.4Ghz network, but worked fine on our dual-band mesh network.

The app lets you dim, adjust the color temperature, set scenes and create schedules and they’re compatible with Alexa or Google Home.

Compared to Hue, they definitely struggle on the brightness scale, being much dimmer at the top level and much brighter at the lowest level.

We also disliked the white base, which was not hidden in our cage-style chandelier, plus they only come in white glass – there are no smokey or amber glass options.

For purely decorative purposes, these are not as nice-looking as some of the other options. But as an inexpensive, hub-free filament bulb for your home with a versatile range, they’re a great option.

What we love

• No hub needed
• Good price
• Three style options

What we don’t love

• The low range of brightness
• Ugly white base
• White glass only
• No HomeKit

Read our full Bulbrite review here.

Best budget filament smart bulb: Sengled Edison Filament Bulb

Buy now: sengled.com, Amazon | $14.99

Low-priced smart bulb pioneer Sengled debuted its first filament bulb at CES last year, and it’s a beauty.

Boasting an all-glass design (no plastic casing at all), it’s got a subtle tint, not too brown, and an elegant, slightly elongated Edison shape.

With the same 2100 kelvin color temperature as Hue’s filament option, it’s also one of the cheapest filament bulbs, at just $14.99 a pop.

While Sengled has Wi-Fi bulbs, the filament is Zigbee-based so requires a smart home hub to work – either Sengled’s own or any Zigbee-enabled hub – such as an Echo Plus or SmartThings.

We were impressed with the Sengled’s brightness range and design, although there was quite a bit of flickering when dimming and brightening, especially compared to the Hue and Bulbrite bulbs.

Sengled works with Alexa and Google Assistant, and if you opt for the inexpensive Sengled Hub ($40), you can get HomeKit compatibility too.

What we love

• All glass design
• Inexpensive
• Works with HomeKit (with a hub)

What we don’t love

• No tunable light
• Requires a hub
• Flickering during dimming

Alternative budget option: Ikea Trådfri filament bulb

Buy Now: Ikea.com | $9.99

One of the newer entries to the Swedish company’s smart lighting lineup, this smart filament light bulb is catchily named the ‘Trådfri LED bulb E26 250 lumen wireless dimmable warm glow, globe brown clear glass.’

Any questions?

• How to get Ikea Trådfri bulbs working with Philips Hue

It offers a warm 2200 kelvin glow and works via the Trådfri hub ($79.99), or you can pair the bulb with an Echo Plus or Hue hub courtesy of its Zigbee powers.

At just $9.99 for a single bulb, this is the cheapest filament bulb out there, plus it has a snazzy curly filament and a brass base (no garish white here) and a nice tinted brown glass for that extra smokey bistro vibe.

Ikea’s Trådfri supports Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit, the last one meaning you can also use Siri to control your lights

What we love

• Nice brass base
• Inexpensive
• Works with HomeKit (with a hub)

What we don’t love

• No tunable light
• Requires a hub

Great Zigbee option: Innr filament smart bulbs

Buy Now: Amazon | from £15.99

This Dutch brand was created by a group of ex-Hue and Ikea employees, and the result is what you’d expect: affordable, easy-to-use, good-quality smart light bulbs. While the rest of the lineup is available in the US, currently its retro filament lineup is only in Europe and the UK.

Innr has four different filament models all offering 2200 kelvins. There’s a regular bulb, an Edison-shape and a great big Globe bulb, all with options of tinted glass or white glass.

• How to connect Innr bulbs to Phillips Hue

As with most of the other filaments we tested these don’t offer the same warmth range adjustments of the regular white LEDs – as they are designed to always look warm for that retro feel. But you can adjust the brightness.

Zigbee-powered these need an Innr hub or any Zigbee controller, such as a Philips Hue bridge, an Amazon Echo Plus or a Samsung Smart Things hub.

They’re good bulbs, not as premium as their Hue counterparts and there’s no HomeKit compatibility, but they do work with Alexa and Google.

What we love

• Works with Hue hub
• Inexpensive
• Tinted and white glass options
• Brass base

What we don’t love

• Not available in the US
• No HomeKit

Read our full review of the Innr line-up here.

The best of the rest

While we’ve yet to test out these filament bulbs, here’s a rundown on the specs, prices and compatibility of the other options so you can compare. We’ll update this guide as and when we get our hands on these.

Sylvania Smart+ Bluetooth Clear A19 Filament

Buy now: Amazon | $19.99

Sylvania’s smart filament bulb is a bit brighter than most – offering 2700 kelvins – plus it works with HomeKit, Alexa and Google all without a hub, as they use a Bluetooth Mesh system.

There’s only one style and it has that pesky white base, only comes in clear glass and is a bit on the pricey side.

Lifx Filament

Coming soon (hopefully) | $29.99

Lifx’s new filament range debuted at CES way back in 2020… but we’re still waiting for them to show up for sale. All mentions have also been removed from the company’s site, so this one isn’t looking to promising.

When they were initially unveiled, Lifx indicates there would be two styles – an ST64 Teardrop (pictured) and a G95 Globe with “Sticks” LEDs. They were also set to come in three glass options – smokey, amber and clear glass – making this the broadest range out there in terms of glass.

These are still only single, warm white dimmable, though, with no tunable light.

Lifx’s line is Wi-Fi-powered and the bulbs will work with Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit when/if they ever get released.

TCP Smart Filament Twist Classic

Buy now: Amazon | £14.33

A budget bulb available in the UK, not the US, the TCP Smart Filament Twist Classic is a bulb better suited to a lamp or for gentle ambient lighting, as it’s not that bright at 250 lumens. Available in B22 or E27 fittings, this bulb connects via Wi-Fi.

You can use the TCP Smart app, but the bulb is actually compatible with the Smart Life system, so it’s worth using that app to expand the range of devices that you can connect together.

This bulb is tunable between warm (2000K) and cold (5000K), giving a bit more variety than a lot of the competition.

The twist design is quite nice and a little different to most of the competition. This bulb also looks nice when it’s turned off, thanks to the yellow glass and metal base (there’s not an inch of plastic on display).

Trust Smart LED Filament

Buy now: Amazon | £20.99 (two-pack)

Another budget smart bulb, the Wi-Fi powered Trust Smart LED Filament is available in single packs or, for better value, double packs.

This bulb uses a more standard design, with straight filaments inside. Thanks to the brass-colour screw connector, there’s no plastic on display, while the yellow-tinted glass gives a more vintage look.

Again, this is a product that can be controlled through Trust’s app, although you can also install it via Smart Life. The latter is probably the better option, as you can add devices from multiple applications into one place.

Tunable between 1800K (warm) and 2700K (warm like a traditional bulb, there’s a small amount of adjustment but not as much as you get with much of the competition.

This bulb is rated at 450-lumens, although we didn’t find it noticeably brighter than the TCP bulb, making it a better choice for table lamps.