Comparing Cree's 100W replacement LED with the competition (pictures)

With 1,600 lumens from just 18W of electricity, this highly efficient LED is Cree's brightest bulb yet. How does it compare with other bulbs that promise lots of light? Click through to see for yourself.

Cree's 100W replacement LED has a lot in common with the Philips 100W replacement LED (left). Both glow at color temperatures of 2,700 K, although the Philips LED is slightly brighter with an extra 80 lumens.

The Cree bulb's brightness and omnidirectionality make it an ideal reading light.

Here's the same shot with the Philips bulb swapped in. It's almost impossible to distinguish one bulb from the other.

Here's a 100W replacement CFL, with a take on 2,700 K that's far more yellow than the "soft white" glow that Cree offers.

This 100W replacement CFL glows at the opposite end of the spectrum, with a very blue color temperature of 6,000 K. Again, the Cree bulb is a much much more neutral tone by comparison.

1,600 lumens is plenty bright for almost all household purposes, but it's nothing compared to this blindingly bright, 200W incandescent (left). In spite of the rising efficiency standards, you can still find existing stocks of these sorts of ultra-bright bulbs at most major hardware stores.

From left to right, we have Cree's 60W, 75W, and the noticeably larger 100W replacement LEDs, with lumen outputs of 800, 1,100, and 1,600, respectively. The extra brightness is why the 100W Cree looks less yellow than the other two, despite the fact that all three share the same color temperature.

Cree's 100W replacement LED has a decent, yet unspectacular color rendering score of 80 out of 100.

Philips' 100W replacement also has a CRI score of 80. Not surprisingly, colors look just about the same, aside from the slight uptick in brightness.

Cree's 100W replacement casts a slightly more neutral light than its yellowy 60W predecessor, shown here.

Cree also offers a TW Series 60W replacement that uses spectral notching to filter out light that distorts colors. This gives it an impressive CRI score of 93, but also makes it a bit dimmer than the standard 60W replacement (and, of course, much dimmer than the 100W replacement). If the colors in this picture look noticeably better to you, then it might be a bulb worth checking out.