PureEdge Pure Smart TruColor A19 Smart Bulb review: Nope

PureEdge makes a variety of high-end lighting products compatible with the Signify-owned WiZ ecosystem, but perhaps the most foundational of them all is this Edison-style light bulb, a full-color lamp designed to provide maximum flexibility as it smartens up conventional light sockets.

The bulb has a traditional size and shape with an E26 base, measuring 4.4 inches in height and featuring a large, white heat sink. PureEdge bills its LED technology as five-channel RGBTW (RGB + tunable white), with white color temperature support ranging from 1500K to 6500K. The bulb draws 9 watts maximum and delivers up to 800 lumens (a 60-watt equivalent).

PureEdge specifies an impressive lifespan of the bulb of 30,000 hours; note, however, that the bulb does not support traditional dimmer switches. PureEdge does offer its own in-wall controller that will dim and do a whole lot more with this and Wiz’s own smart bulbs.

All WiZ devices, including this bulb, work over 2.4GHz Wi-Fi with no hub required, and onboarding the TruColor bulb to the WiZ app is a simple matter thanks to an automated Bluetooth setup process that takes care of most of the work behind the scenes. The bulb also supports a range of additional integrations, including Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and IFTTT. Some of the bulb’s more advanced features, however, will only work via the WiZ app.

I must say that I am not wholly in love with the WiZ app. Its user interface comes across as decidedly basic, although it works well enough if you’re just making simple color or white color temperature adjustments. That said, color and brightness adjustments are quite smooth and speedy, and throughout my testing I never found the bulb to be anything but immediately responsive to all my requests.

In addition to static color and white modes, the WiZ app includes a few dynamic modes, although I didn’t find them particularly useful. A “Christmas” mode, for example, abruptly swaps between green and red at set intervals—probably no one’s idea of how to get people in a holiday mood. Other dynamic modes didn’t seem to change color at all.

However, an adjustable circadian rhythm mode that slowly shifts white temperature from its coolest setting to its warmest worked nicely, smoothly shifting the tone of the lighting over the course of the day. Incidentally, you’ll find these settings buried in the Automation section of the WiZ app, under the “Rhythms” tab.

More WiZ features

Christopher Null/Foundry

Another feature in this Automation section is called SpaceSense, which is an innovative system that detects subtle disturbances in a room’s Wi-Fi network to determine when there is physical movement in the space and, if there is, to turn the lights on or off for you—all without the need for a traditional motion sensor. SpaceSense requires at least two WiZ lights in the room, one positioned centrally and one in a corner, and it does not work with Bluetooth bulbs.

It also, I discovered, does not work if you have a mesh Wi-Fi network, so although I had the requisite lighting hardware in place, I was unable to test SpaceSense because I have an Eero system in my home. The WiZ scheduling system, however, did work as promised; although, as with other aspects of the WiZ app, it’s not 100-percent intuitive to configure.

Further reading: This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting.

Should you buy Pure Smart TruColor A19 Smart Bulb?

Now for the catch: The bulb runs around $32 and is exclusively sold at the online retailer Lightology.com. That price puts it in rarified air as one of the most expensive smart bulbs on the market, particularly those in a standard Edison form factor. In fact, you can find nearly identical WiZ bulbs on Amazon at $20 for a two-pack—and they offer all the same features as this bulb, including SpaceSense.

That alone makes these bulbs almost impossible to recommend, although a (significant) price cut might encourage us to revise that calculus.