graceful citrus
I've had a few Athom Tech RGBW that have served me well for years in ESPHOME. I previously automated switches (Zwave mostly) instead of lights.
I bought a new (bigger!) house recently and want to go all in on smart lights. Wifi bulbs from Athom are ~$15 each and I'm looking at 40 or so.
IKEA was previously highly recommended but is now Matter only, has some questions about longevity, and also in the $15 price range.
So... What's the current Zigbee market looking like?
graceful citrus
Or Bluetooth maybe? Not sure what's in right now. Thanks!
glass pasture
I'd highly recommend Zigbee rather than Wifi if looking into more than 1 or 2 bulbs. For options you can not only use the "older" Ikea bulbs, but also Philips Hue (they have the fancy expensive bulbs and also a more affordable line of bulbs called Hue Essentials), ThirdReality I hear makes good Zigbee bulbs too
bitter pulsar
I'm kinda in the same boat. I just stopped at Ikea the other day and saw they were all sold out, so I ordered a 4-pak of "THIRDREALITY" from amazon to give a try. They're "okay" for basic colors, but the Ikea ones are much more accurate.
Any recommendations for "inexpensive" zigbee bulbs?
I see a mix of matter/wifi/etc and that's really annoying. I like Govee brand typically but don't see any zigbee stuff from them.
grand canyon
kinda surprised to see someone say that the ikea zigbee bulbs are more accurate colours, I've found them to be kinda bad, particularly in the blue/green area.
You probably should be looking at the "Hue Essential" series for zigbee bulbs right now. (They support both zigbee and matter/thread). Available for USD $15 each if you get a 4-pack.
You can still consider the new ikea matter/thread bulbs once they become available in your region - it is possible to convince most of them to connect via zigbee, although ikea doesn't officially support this.
bitter pulsar
kinda surprised to see someone say that the ikea zigbee bulbs are more accurate ...
They don't seem to support zigbee???
never mind