Yeelight Release HomeKit Compatible Bluetooth Mesh Downlights

Not to be outdone by Aqara or Mijia, Yeelight is keeping up with smart home releases, with the introduction of new can lights. These new lights – labelled Yeelight M1 Downlights – come with the casing as well as the bulbs.

They’re also part of Yeelights newer Bluetooth mesh range, which work with the company’s own Bluetooth mesh gateway. In this instance, the gateway is the portal for which Yeelight’s Bluetooth mesh products are exposed to HomeKit.

The metal casing for these can lights only comes in white, but the bulbs themselves are capable of warm to cool white (2700 – 6500K), and each light is capable of 32olm (4.1w), so these are best suited in groups for most purposes. They also have anti-glare technology, meaning more even brightness levels overall.

With the very slow takeup of Bluetooth mesh, which only seems to be adopted by Yeelight and Mijia to date, in tandem with the rapid rise of Thread, it’s questionable as to whether these have a place in smart homes of the future, but as it stands, these are ostensibly only for the Chinese market at present, and only 220-240v @50Hz, so are unlikely to be of use to consumers in North America.

Yeelight do have other Bluetooth mesh products, so it’s not entirely obvious how far the company will take this route – unless of course Bluetooth mesh bulbs are also capable of Thread compatibility. Stranger things have happened!