The Lifx Plus smart bulb helps your cameras see in the dark

Lifx Plus is the brand's newest smart bulb, and it adds in a unique night vision feature that you won't find anywhere else. Click through to take a look.

The Lifx pitch is pretty simple. It's a Wi-Fi-enabled, color-changing LED light bulb that connects to your home network. Sync everything up, and you'll be able to control the light or change its color on your phone from anywhere with an internet connection.

You can change the color or the white-light color temperature of each Lifx bulb with easy-to-use selector dials.

The app also offers preset color themes, effects like a music visualizer and a strobe function, and a tool to schedule lighting changes that run at specific times of day, or at sunrise or sunset. You can also control the bulbs through Lifx's integrations with SmartThings, IFTTT, Nest and Amazon's Alexa.

What's new with Lifx Plus is the night vision feature. When you turn the bulb off in the app, it'll keep on putting out invisible infrared light. You can't see that light, but your night vision cameras can. The idea is that the bulbs basically work as range extenders for cameras like those.

Here's the CNET Smart Apartment's night vision camera feed in the middle of the night, with and without a Lifx Plus screwed into the lamp in the back of the room. The room is dark and the bulb isn't turned on, but to the camera, it looks as if the lamp is shining bright.

The Lifx Plus is a touch brighter than the first-gen Lifx LED at each major color setting. The difference is slight for most of the colors, but most noticeable at yellow, green and cyan.

Lifx Plus is also brighter than the previous-gen Lifx Color 1000 at every white light setting, especially daylight tones.

You can also pick up a floodlight version of Lifx Plus. Unlike the regular version, it's weather-rated for outdoor use, making it a good pick for something like a porch light.

Both versions of the Lifx Plus LED cost $80 each (international versions are also available for about £65 or AU$105. Check out our full review to see whether or not they'd be a good fit in your home.