Nanoleaf Matter Essentials GU10 LED Bulbs, Pack of 3 RGBW Dimmable Smart Bulbs - Matter Over Thread, Bluetooth Colour Changing Light Bulbs, Works with Google Apple, Room Decor & Gaming

I really wanted these lights to work as the idea of them is great, changing the intensity of the brightness, colors and setting certain scenes great! Ha no wrong. It says it’s compatible with Apple HomeKit (the whole reason I purchased these) you have to pair the lights with the nano leaf app first where you can also control them from, then it’ll connect to the Apple home app eventually, this is my main app for all my other smart devices, it says connect to thread network great, I have a HomePod it’ll run off of that, easy right? No wrong again, every time I go onto the Apple home app it says accessory unresponsive, go back to the nano leaf app, bulbs are unreachable… I’m stood underneath them! They have never connected via WiFi always Bluetooth or the rare occasion thread/matter. Every single day I’ve had them there has been an issue, it’s infuriating. Don’t waste your money, the concept is great the execution horrific. I’m still deciding on whether to keep them or admit defeat & give up.

These GU10s from Nanoleaf are pretty much the best GU10 style bulbs I've purchased, and I have purchased a few different ones in recent years. The first thing I want to talk about is connection as I know it comes up a lot for these bulbs. These bulbs don't inherently have any connection problems. In fact, these are basically the same hardware and software inside as the E27 Essential bulbs. The problem some people face with GU10 style lights in general is the housing they are usually put into. I'm going through the process of replacing multiple Wifi GU10 lights from 3 or 4 different manufacturers at the moment, and all of them had Wifi problems because of the housing they were in. In the end I had to have multiple wireless extenders placed near the lights (in my loft actually) just to get them working. It wasn't a perfect solution, but at the time it was my only option. Most GU10 housings cause wireless issues. The recessed ones usually have a metal face plate, and the rear end of them is normally an insulated fireproof case. The ones that stick out and can be tilted etc, usually have a shroud or hood around them, and often are metal too - not ideal. In my testing, most of my smart Wifi devices can reach the other side of my house. WiFi GU10s in some cases could only connect to Wifi if the router was within a couple of meters. It seems that the thread connection of these bulbs is on par with the connection from Wifi bulbs - reaching a similar range before cutting off. I was able to test using a Nest Wifi router which has both Wifi and Thread built in. This means your success with these is going to depend on where your nearest Thread Router device is. For me, it made more sense to have a Thread Border Router, like a Nest Hub or Thread Smart Plug in each room rather than using the Wifi extenders. Wifi extenders usually just degrade the performance of the Wifi network, but more Thread devices usually just improve the Thread coverage. You need to make sure you have the network set up right to support these, just as you would if they were Wifi bulbs, otherwise you're not going to have a great time. If you're not sure, buy one and test it before you buy a whole bunch of them. I like the design of the bulb. The glass part on the face of these has a kind of varied crystal like pattern rather than being plain glass or a defused/frosted layer. It's quite nice. The lights produce night whites, both warm and cool. They are as bright as you would expect from this wattage. The colours are nice and rich, and decently bright too. These will produce a brighter colours than some of the GU10s I've tested, like the Ajax, but they still get beaten by an older LifX GU10 I got a while back. Set up is a little iffy, compared to some of the other matter lights I've set up. To simplify it, I'd recommend setting each light up in the Nanoleaf app, then go straight to software update. The update is crucial because the lights just don't work properly over matter without it. You'll need to keep the phone near the light, and the app needs to keep running as the phone directly uploads the update to the bulb, the bulb doesn't fetch it on it's own. Once the update is complete, you can connect the bulb to your matter hub, and you should be good to go. If you're having issues getting any of this to work, it's likely because of what I mentioned in the beginning, the light housing or fitting is interfering with it's signal, and the light can't communicate with the Hub, the phone, or both. If like me you have some light fittings that are not recessed, and don't have a metal hood, you can set the light up in one of those, then move the light to see if it can connect via a border router in your home. I've had the connected since the day they arrived. There was a little flakiness in the connection until I updated the software. Once I updated them, I turned them off, moved them to the place they now live, and they have been connected without a single disconnect since then. That was nearly 2 weeks ago. The Nanoleaf app is nice, and it's easy to use. Lights can be controlled from there, and updated as mentioned before. The app will also let you use scenes with the lights, and you can create new scenes or download existing ones from the community. You can use the same scenes as on other Nanoleaf lights so that your effects are the same across different types of Nanoleaf lights. I'm happy to recommend these as they are among my favourite GU10 Smart bulbs. Thread connectivity has been reliable, automations always trigger, and the light look great. Again, be patient when setting them up, do the updates, and make sure you've got a Hub or Border router close enough for the lights to talk to.

I have many other Nanoleaf products which work well, hence an investment in many of these GU10 bulbs. Unfortunately, they are much less reliable than the company’s other products and frequently disconnect - rendering them uncontrollable from either Apple Home or the Nanoleaf app. Support from Nanoleaf has also been poor. Now considering alternatives as I cannot rely on these for everyday use.

They can be a bit of a pain to set up, do it one at a time, they’re also a pain to update the firmware which you’d think would be automatic but no. Luckily this doesn’t need doing often and never seems to make much difference if you don’t do it. Once they’re in and working they’re fine. At first they may be slow to respond while they learn the network mine took days to find the Thread network and switch from Bluetooth, this might have been fixed if you get one with a later version. I love how dim these are on 1%, perfect for a cinema room.

Update: Making progress following the recent Apple os18 update. All three bulbs now paired, initially through Apple Home and then updated with the Nanoleaf app opened through each bulbs settings in Apple Home. Currently things look promising apart from a couple of dropped connections, possibly need some settling in. Initial review: After being extremely impressed with the Nanoleaf Shapes (I absolutely love these), I thought that it would be a no brainer to expand further with these bulbs. What a disappointment, after 3 days of googling for potential solutions and numerous hard reset / re-pairing attempts each bulb, I have finally given up trying to get these to work. Most of the time they will only connect via bluetooth and on a few occasions via thread, but then only to fail to respond completely after a few minutes. When pairing did work this was only via the Nanoleaf app, never via Apple Home, and would also fail to sync to Apple Home when paired via the Nanolaef app.

I have many Nanoleaf products, which are generally excellent. but these GU10's simply don't work properly. I put 6 of these bulbs on 3 different circuits; easy enough to setup (make sure you use the Nanoleaf app) but after a day or two they become 'unreachable' by the app and you need to reset them. I have now done this 4 times! The firmware is up to date but still the problem persists. Other Matter devices in the same rooms are all working fine, so I dont think it's a wifi issue.

These bulbs are great and works well in my ceiling light. It syncs well with homekit, but you do need to install the NanoLeaf app to get the bulb upgraded to the latest firmware. I also have this bulbs colour temperature adjust relative to the time of day through the nanoleaf app, but then once set up in the app you can forget about it and just use your homekit automations as they are and it will just work.