If you've been to the lighting aisle of your local hardware store recently you've probably noticed that light bulbs have changed in appearance some what.
Today's new LEDs have new builds and heat syncs and they don't look exactly like the bulbs that you probably grew up with, the incandescents of years past.
But this bulb here which looks just like one of those incandescents is actually an LED.
This is the Saffron LED 40 watt replacement.
And as you can see, it sits in that same classic glass curved bulb that looks just like an incandescent.
And it's designed especially for people who don't like the way LEDs look these days.
If that includes you, you're probably pretty happy with the way this bulb looks sitting beside me.
It looks.
Just like an incandescent goes on and off.
In terms of performance this bulb uses just six watts to put out about 375 lumens.
So less than the stated 400 and less than the 450 lumens that you probably want from a 40 watt replacement bulb.
So disappointing in the brightness.
Also got a color rendering score of 78, which is right below that benchmark point of 80 that you really want an LED to hit.
Additionally, this is a non-dimmable bulb, so you can't use it on a dimmer switch without some pretty intense flickering.
If you want a cheap strobe light, it'll do the job just fine, but as a dimmer bulb lightbulb, this is not an option you want to consider.
At $12, it's more expensive than the options you'll get from Cree, Phillips, and Osram, and it's not as strong an option as those.
So for that reason, it's a pretty tough bulb for me to recommend unless you are absolutely in love with the way it looks.
And as candescent lookalikes go it is the closest we've seen so far.
So I gotta give it credit for that.
Thanks for watching, and check out the rest of my lightbulb smart home and appliance reviews at cnet.com/appliance.
for CNet, I'm Ry Crist.
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