New Matter Enabled Tube Light from LiFX Now Available

Say what you want about LiFX, but despite all the odds, they’ve managed to weather the storm, and come back with some interesting lighting products, that in some ways think a little out of the box. The latest of these to fit the bill is a new light bulb with a rather interesting tube shape. The LiFX Tube is an E26 light bulb, so it’ll fit fine into existing light sockets, although due to its lengthy shape (151mm / 5.94in) it might be too long to fit into some lamp shades or other fittings.

This is bulb meant to be seen, however, in part due to the shape, but also for the fact it uses LiFX’ own ‘Polychrome’ technology. This allows the bulb to display not just the now standard 16 million colours (it can offer billions apparently), but multiple colours at once. The specs state the T10 bulb has 104 individual LEDs with a massive 52 controllable zones. That’s insane for a light bulb! However, it’s just as well this bulb is meant for mood lighting, as it tops out at a mere 5.2W at full brightness, so this isn’t going to perform as well for decently lit areas.

As with all LiFX releases since it was obtained by US lighting company Feat Electric, this new bulb adopts the Matter standard, using Matter over WiFi for its method of connection/communication to you smart home. This means aside from a Matter Controller, no hub is required. Aside from supporting the four major Matter compatible platforms – Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings, it will also work with Home Assistant and even Razer Chroma for all the avid gamers out there.

Currently the bulb is available to purchase in the United States for US$39.98 at Home Depot. Whether it’ll come to other territories is not clear, although it does work with both 110~120V and 220~240V systems.