If you’re anything like me, you’ve been all-in on smart lights for years. I almost never use light switches anymore and the luxury I’ve grown used to is immediately made apparent when I spend a night away from home. That said, smart lighting has continued to evolve far beyond the basic bulbs I’ve grown used to, and this was plain as day when I got my hands on the new Linkind Smart Light Stick.
First and foremost, these bulbs pack Matter compatibility for simple controls, but the perks really come to life when you tap into the AiDot app. This is where you can take advantage of addressable zones within the bulb, which sort of blew my mind. I also love the clean cylindrical look of these bulbs, which I will showcase down below.
The first thing that stood out to me when unboxing it was the hardware design. Rather than sticking to the familiar pear shape of standard household bulbs, Linkind opted for a clean, frosted cylinder. For this reason, I really think it will look great in frosted and transparent fixtures alike.
Matter-compatible bulbs with rich app customization
The setup process was refreshingly straightforward. As shown in the screenshots, grabbing the AiDot app and running through the pairing sequence took about a minute or so, and I was relieved straight away when I saw that the app actually had solid ratings. While Matter certification allows users to skip third-party apps entirely, skipping AiDot would cause you to miss out on a lot of the features that an app like AiDot can offer.
As you can see below, the number of available scenes is sort of obscene. It was a little overwhelming to see the number of options, but it’s easy to create favorites, which I’ll certainly be doing so it is easy to switch for whatever holiday season we are in the middle of.
To put these bulbs through their paces, I installed them across three different fixtures. First up was the pergola and hot tub area. Transparent wall mounted lanterns along the white lattice frame gave the Light Sticks plenty of room to show off. I then added them to one of the lamp posts in my yard, followed by the lamp that resides in my home office.
Hero feature is the customizable flame effect
Easily the coolest trick up the Light Stick’s sleeve is its built-in flame simulation. Rather than settling for a basic pixelated flicker, the frosted cylindrical design diffuses light to deliver a much more authentic look than I tend to see with other bulbs, especially when dropped into an open fixture like my office lamp or outdoor lanterns.
Setup is straight forward, allowing me to quickly customize the look I was after. I did my best to capture it in action in the video below. In my opinion, the video doesn’t quite do it justice, as I think it looks much better in person.
Seasonal curb appeal with festive scenes
Until now, I’ve been going with warm white lighting 100% of the time. With Linkind Smart Light Stick Pro, I don’t have a reason to forego shaking up the look of my space when the seasons change or a holiday arrives.
While there are plenty of pre-made dynamic scenes to pick from, the DIY tab in the AiDot app is where the hardware really shines. As mentioned earlier, there are individually addressable zones, offering up 50 individual areas you can customize. I was able to use the app to create a neat color effect in under a minute, and you can see the UI below.
The settings above lead to another neat animation that I tried to capture on video. Like before, while it looks great on video, it’s even better in person. I took the lamp shade off and you can see that the bulb looks great even when fully on display, which is something I cannot say for a lot of the other smart bulbs out there.
And if you want clearer examples of what the bulbs actually look like in person, check out the official footage in the video below. It highlights a wider variety of dynamic presets, from festive holiday scenes to subtle ambient glows. It really drives home just how versatile these are compared to standard, single-color smart bulbs.
Pricing and availability
If you want to step up your outdoor or indoor lighting like I have, head over to Linkind’s website to find these bulbs (and all of the others they sell). You can pick up the bulbs directly on Amazon, where they are currently selling for $39.99.
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