A Bulb from the Future! It Looks Like it Belongs on a Spaceship
The Philips AmbientLED 12.5-watt A19 LED lightbulb (quite a name!) is probably the favorite LED bulb that I've tried so far. It beats the competition when it comes to light output (800 lumens vs. 450-590 lumens for the other LEDs that I've tried), the design of the bulb is very innovative, and light quality is excellent. Read on for my full review and more technical specs on the Philips AmbientLED.
Technical Specifications for Philips AmbientLED Bulb
The Philips LED produces 800 lumens, which makes it a 60-watt incandescent equivalent . Its efficiency of 65 lumens per watt made it earn an Energy Star rating, and at 12.5 watts, it uses only about 20% of the energy of a 60-watt bulb. The socket is the A19 E26 standard.
The unit that I am reviewing is warm-white (2700K) and has a CRI of 80. Warranty is 6 years, and Philips rates it at 25,000 hours of operation (it should last for decades if you take good care of it).
As you can see on the photos, the bulb has a very original design. It's pretty small compared to other LEDs on the market (see the photos and link at the bottom of this review), which means that it will fit in more lamp fixtures. It looks great, like it belongs in a spaceship, but in a good way. It's also very omnidirectional, more like the GE LED bulb than the others that I've tried, which are a bit closer to spotlights than traditional incandescents.
When I first saw the Philips LED, I wasn't sure where the light was supposed to be coming from. But as you can see in one of the photos below, it comes from the yellow parts, but that doesn't make the light any more yellow than other "warm white" LED bulbs.
