Peace by Hampton BR30 LED Wi-Fi smart bulb review: An affordable color floodlight with robust automation tools

If you’re looking for a bargain-priced smart floodlight that doesn’t require a hub, the new Peace by Hampton BR30 Smart Wi-Fi bulbs might fit the bill. One of the first three devices in Hampton Products’s new Peace by Hampton product line, this easy-to-install BR30 smart bulb connects directly to your Wi-Fi network, and it boasts robust automation tools, along with support for Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri. That said, vacation and sleep/wake-up routines are missing, and while the manufacturer says they can be used indoors or out, they’re not bright enough to qualify as security lighting.

Design and specifications

The Peace by Hampton smart line currently includes two lighting products: an A19 multi-color bulb and the BR30 multi-color floodlight that’s the subject of this review. A Peace by Hampton smart plug (see our review) is also available.

Both the A19 and BR30 bulbs are available exclusively through Best Buy, and while both products were initially sold only in four-packs, they can now be purchased individually as well. At a little more than $16 a bulb when bought as a set of four, the Peace by Hampton BR30 hovers around the lower end of other color-capable BR30 lights we’ve tested. If you want just one BR30 bulbRemove non-product link, the price goes up to $19 each.

Rated to last up to 13.7 years based on about three hours of use per day, the Peace by Hampton BR30 has a standard E26 base and is mainly intended for indoor use (e.g., in a recessed ceiling can), although the bulb’s specifications note that it can be used in damp locations, such as under an eave or otherwise protected from direct contact with rain or snow.

When I inquired further, a Hampton Products rep told me that the floodlight and its completely sealed housing could also be used outside where it’s directly exposed to the elements. Screwing the bulb into an outdoor socket typically reserved for a weatherized Philips Hue BR30 bulb, the Peace by Hampton BR30 survived a week of Brooklyn thunderstorms and appeared ready for more.

Capable of emitting up to 760 lumens of light (a bit shy of a 60-watt incandescent bulb), this BR30 bulb had no problem lighting up my office during an indoor test, but the bulb did look noticeably dimmer outdoors than my 800-lumen Philips Hue B30 smart bulb. If you intend to use the Peace by Hampton BR30 outside, you might want to use it more as mood lighting than for, say, illuminating a dark walkway.

As with the Peace by Hampton A19 bulb, the BR30 floodlight’s white light can be tuned from a warm 2,700 Kelvin to a cooler 5,000 Kelvin, and it can glow in up to 16 million colors.

Setup

Because the Peace by Hampton BR30 bulb can connect directly to Wi-Fi, you won’t need a hub to add the floodlight to your home network. All you need to do is download and install the Peace by Hampton mobile app, which can automatically scan for new Peace by Hampton bulbs once you’ve registered for an account (you can’t log in with Google or Facebook, so you’ll need to enter your email address and create a password). Like most other smart bulbs, the Peace by Hampton BR30 spotlight only connects to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks, but the bulb managed to connect to my dual-band Wi-Fi router without the need to temporarily disable its 5GHz network.

Once you’ve added the bulb—or bulbs, given that we’re dealing with a four-pack—you can add them to rooms in your home (“Living Room,” “Master Bedroom,” “Kitchen,” and so on), and then start grouping them together or with other Peace by Hampton lights. Oddly, the app doesn’t let you control all the lights in a room, but it does let you control every light in a group, so you might (annoyingly) find yourself having to create lights groups that correspond to your rooms in the app.

Features and functionality

The Peace by Hampton app lets you tune the bulb’s white light, adjust its colors, and change or edit lighting scenes, some of which are animated.

Ben Patterson/IDG

You also get some basic scheduling and some powerful (and potentially intimidating) multi-step automation features, although vacation and sleep/wake-up routines are missing.

As far as smart home integrations go, the Peace by Hampton BR30 bulb supports Alexa and Google Assistant (which means you can ask either Alexa or Google to gradually dim or brighten the light at night or in the morning). The floodlight also lets you export “tap-to-run” automations as Siri Shortcuts, but there’s no full-on HomeKit integration.

Bottom line

Reliable and reasonably priced, the Peace by Hampton BR30 Smart Wi-Fi bulbs coms with an impressive set of automation tools, plus support for Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri Shortcuts. That said, while these tunable white and color smart bulbs can be used outdoors, we don’t think they’re quite bright enough to serve as anything more than mood lighting outside, and we’re disappointed that the Peace by Hampton app lacks vacation and gradual sleep/wake-up routines.

Updated on October 30, 2020 to note that the Peace by Hampton BR30 bulbs are now available for purchase as individual bulbs as well as in four-packs.