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Wyze Bulb Color: 16 million different options in a single color-changing bulb

Preorders for Wyze's new color-changing LED bulbs are open now.

Megan Wollerton Former Senior Writer/Editor
3 min read
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Wyze

Disclaimer: We aren't recommending that consumers purchase Wyze products at this time. Over the past several years, Wyze has suffered from repeated data leaks and security breaches, including a 2019 user data leak, exposed databases in 2022, and exposed video files that same year. More recently, Wyze has seen both 2023 and 2024 security flaws that let at least 13,000 people see through other Wyze security cams owned by unrelated users.

Wyze's forum report on the latest breach includes an update from February 19, 2024: "Our engineering team has added a new layer of verification between users and event videos to prevent this from happening again. We've also removed the client library and will not be using caching until we can find a new client library and stress test it for extreme scenarios like we saw on Friday."

This response is a start, but Wyze has repeatedly struggled to reliably update its approach to security and meaningfully communicate with its users. While we have seen security companies bounce back from security problems in the past, we haven't seen this kind of improvement from Wyze yet. So we are not endorsing their products or any services where you need to create a Wyze account with your personal info. 

We'll keep you updated on Wyze's security and privacy if our recommendations change. If you're looking for security brands that have made notable security improvements or have good privacy track records, we can recommend products from Ring, Google's Nest, Blink, and Arlo.

Wyze on Tuesday announced the long-awaited Wyze Bulb Color, a welcome counterpart to the $8 Wyze Bulb. Despite tacking on color-changing features, the new LED costs about the same as the white-light-only Wyze Bulb. The Wyze Bulb Color is available for preorder now in a four-pack for $35 (after the preorder period, this increases to $40). Single bulbs aren't for sale yet, but the price works out to $8.75 each during preorder and $10 each after. 

The Seattle-based startup is known for its offering of affordable home products, ranging from security cameras to thermostats and more. In the past year, Wyze has been especially busy, adding the Wyze Cam v3, the Wyze Cam Outdoor, the Wyze Thermostat, the Wyze Video Doorbell, Wyze Noise-Cancelling Headphones, the Wyze Robot Vacuum, the Wyze Sprinkler Controller and a Wyze Home Monitoring service.

But Wyze has been a little slow to introduce additional lighting products. That's especially true considering the success of the Wyze Bulb, which earned a CNET Editors' Choice Award for its strong performance, excellent value and optional voice control with Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers and displays. 

The Wyze Bulb Color has the same Alexa and Google Assistant capabilities, Wi-Fi connectivity, dimmability and white light color temperature adjustments as the Wyze Bulb. But this product has a max output of 1,100 lumens compared to the Wyze Bulb's 800 lumens. That's roughly the difference between a 75W and a 60W incandescent bulb in terms of brightness. 

Among the most affordable color-changing smart bulbs available now, Cree's Connected Max 60W Replacement LED is our current favorite. Like the Wyze Bulb Color, Cree's LED works over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth so there's no hub. But at 800 lumens and $10 per bulb, the Cree light is a little more expensive and, at least as far as Wyze's specs claim, it doesn't get as bright. We'll have to test out Wyze's new color-changing bulb for ourselves to see how it holds up to the competition in practice.

The Wyze Bulb Color works in the Wyze app, which has a simple interface, easy scheduling (although I wish they'd introduce a sunrise/sunset feature) and optional integration with other Wyze products. 

The preorder period for the Wyze Bulb Color ends March 9. After that, four packs will continue to cost $35 for Wyze's Cam Plus subscribers, but will jump to $40 if you aren't a subscriber. Since Cam Plus is an optional subscription service for Wyze's security camera customers, it's odd that the LED's pricing is tied to Cam Plus. Regardless, the $5 increase will put the regular retail price right in line with the Cree Connected's $10 per bulb. 

Read more: The best smart bulbs for less than $20

Watch this: CNET's LED Buying Guide makes sense of the light bulb aisle