It’s a (pun intended) bright idea: cram a small-profile Bluetooth speaker into a lightbulb and make them both controllable from your phone. It’s a little bit of the Internet of Things, with a side of convenience.
The Pulse Solo from Sengled executes that simple idea. It’s a little bit bigger, and rather heavier than a normal bulb, but not far off from the compact fluorescents we’re all just getting around to getting rid of. It screws into any standard E26 lamp, and turns on when you turn on the power. You then pair it with your phone or other mobile device via Bluetooth. You can start playing music through it right away, or download the Pulse app which lets you also control the brightness and turn it on and off, independent of any light switch.
The light is good; 6W LED at 2700K color temperature, which is a nice warm white. The sound is about what you’d expect from little 1″, 3W speakers (there’s a pair and they put out stereo) – so all mediums and highs, no base at all. You’re not going to vibrate furniture with these, but the sound is clear, and you get good volume out of them. It’s not for fine listening, but for providing background music at a party it’s more than adequate. We’re sending the one we received for this review off to college with our teen for his dorm room – seems just about perfect for a tiny room where a dedicate speaker takes up space, and power outlets.
The Sengled Pulse Solo costs $38 on Amazon.
Sengled provided a unit for this review; the opinions are my own.
