Josh Hendrickson
Edison-style bulbs are all the rage. They don’t perfectly match traditional incandescent bulbs, but you get something fairly similar, which hits the nostalgia feels. Usually, they cost as much as $25. IKEA’s new $9.99 Edison-bulb is much more affordable.
If you’re not familiar with Edison-style bulbs, they’re modern LED bulbs with slight changes. Through a combination of glass (or plastic) and the use of warm light (typically around 2200 Kelvin), the lights look similar to Thomas Edison’s original lightbulb.
They don’t technically work any better or worse than other LED lights, but they look nicer. If you have an open lamp where the bulb shows, this is the type that adds something to the overall look of your fixture. Unfortunately, style comes with a cost.
Philips Hue Edison-bulbs typically go for $25, and even Bulbrite’s excellent Solana Edison is $20. That’s a lot of money to spend on a single lightbulb.
Enter IKEA, purveyor of less expensive furnishings for your home. The company’s new TRÅDFRI LED bulb looks the part and costs less at just $9.99. You’ll need the TRÅDFRI remote for smarthome control and the TRÅDFRI app (for iOS and Android), but even with that first purchase, you’re still looking at the cost of a single Philip’s bulb before buying that company’s required hub.
As long as you have the remote, TRÅDFRI bulbs are even compatible with Google Assistant and Alexa. So let’s check the boxes: discounting the hub you only have to buy once, you get an Edison-style bulb, smart home features, and voice control, for $15 less than Philip’s offering, and just $2 more than Wyze’s excellent (but dull-looking) bulb. That’s not a bad deal at all.
