Cree refines the 4Flow LED, but maybe it shouldn't have

[MUSIC] Hey, I'm CNET's Ry Crist, here with the new version of the Cree four-flow LED. Now this a refined version of last year's model, it looks the exact same as before. Really just a couple of small hardware tune-ups inside the bulb. It's a little bit more efficient than the old bulb, using just. Ten watts instead of 11, and it's also got a better color rendering score, up to 83 from 80. A little more significant is that the bulb will last a lot longer, instead of the 25,000 hour life span that you saw before, this bulb will last 30,000 hours, or 27 years if you're using it at an average of three hours For day. So, that's a very nice number. Another number I like, the warranty. The old bulb gave you three years of coverage, this bulb gives you five. So, that's a little bit better. A little more peace of mind, if you're not sure about that longevity plan. All that said, there are a couple of steps backward here that I was disappointed to see. first off, it didn't come in quite as bright as the original. Both bulbs claimed 850 lumens worth of brightness The original came in above that number. This bulb came in a little below. Even more disappointing was the dimmablility. Creed claims that this is a better bulb for dimmer switches than before, but we didn't find that to be the case. The old bulb dimmed flawlessly with all of our dimmers on our dimmer rig. This bulb didn't on the The middle one here, the levethon switch, you see a lot of flicker down there at the bottom. That wasn't there before. I don't like to see that. All and all, this is still a very decent bulb. It does a good job with regulation and heat filled convection vents, which is a neat trick, and it has a nice incandescent design- just like before. But that flawless dimmability was really key to recommending this bulb over the cheaper competitors out there like the GE Brightstick LED and the Philips 60 watt LED. Now that dimming isn't flawless, so it's a tougher bulb to recommend. For more, check out my full review of this bulb on CNET. COM and field your LED questions my way on Twitter. For CNET appliances, I'm Ry Chris