Brighten things up with GE's Energy Smart LED (pictures)
GE's baseline bulb offers decent all around performance -- take a look and see if it's right for you.
GE Energy Smart 60W Replacement LED
The GE Energy Smart 60W Replacement LED is one of several high efficiency, low cost lighting options that have emerged in 2014. Click through for a closer look at what it has to offer.
The specs
GE's LED puts out 800 lumens at a color temperature slightly below 2,700 K. This gives it a warm, yellowish tone.
Energy efficiency
Those specs make it a worthy replacement for a typical 60W incandescent -- yet it uses just 11 watts. That adds up to significant energy savings in the long run.
More details
GE's LED claims a lifespan of 15,000 hours, which comes out to 13.7 years at an average of three hours of usage per day. That's less than the 25,000 hours most competitors currently promise.
Color quality
GE's bulb has a CRI score of 80 out of 100, which is very typical for an LED. Colors look more or less like they should, but they definitely won't "pop" quite as much as they will under a bulb with a higher CRI.
A closer look
Still, as far as colors are concerned, we liked what we saw from GE. In this shot, the white bowl doesn't look yellowed out, the wooden table looks nice and natural, and the candy still looks colorful.
CRI graph
Here's the hard data on that CRI score, which is really just an average of several scores, each one for a specific color. Like most LEDs, GE struggles with red, but this score is actually pretty good. Many LEDs we've tested will post red scores that don't even show up on our chart.
Price point
The GE Energy Smart 60W Replacement LED is available for sale at Walmart, Target, and Sam's Club. It'll cost you $10, the same as the Cree 60W Replacement LED and a dollar more than the Philips SlimStyle.