Yeelight Candela
Yeelight launched their first lighting product in San Francisco in 2013 and have grown since then to a multinational smart lighting provider. The Chinese company has shipped multiple millions of connected lighting products around the globe, and amongst those were my Yeelight Candela lights, their innovative candle-like smart light.
Candela is a networkable, rechargeable electric candle with a beautiful design. Candela says they spent 4-months collaborating with design teams, creating and discarding thousands of sketches before they ended up with this sleek gold-metal and transparent poly-carbonate lamp. To my eye, they have done a fantastic job. I got three of these and they look stunning in my home. The hidden charging port and controls are well placed on the bottom of the base, so they don’t detract in any way from the overall look. The Candela is minimalist and simple to use.
Setting up the Candela was a bit of a challenge. The product uses BLE Mesh technology to link the Candelas as one unit which means you can use one single Candela to control up to 30,000 others. Bluetooth set up was tricky but after a bit of playing around I worked it out. The Candela, once set up, is controlled by rotating the base – or via the Yeelight phone app. Using the app you can create groups of devices and program them to display various patterns. The light itself is a warm 1600K colour temperature, which is the same as candlelight but with the added benefit of being able to control the brightness. The Candela produces minimal blue light, meaning no eye-strain if you’re using these to light a room for an event or similar.
Yeelight Candela Specs
| Luminous Flux | 0.3-13 lm |
| Color Temperature | 1600k |
| Battery | 2100mAh+Micro USB(1.2m) |
| Communication range | 20m (open environment) |
| Working temperature | -10 — +40°C |
| Power | 6.5 W |
With a 2100mAh battery in each unit, the company claims up to 8 hours of continuous use from a single charge. Unfortunately, mine are not performing to that standard, and that is where Candela loses a lot of the props I’ve given for design and function. After the first full charge, I used them for about an hour in the evening and then turned them off till the next night – when I found they’d gone flat.
So yes, the Candela is a gorgeous product, with a sleek look and really cool networkable functionality. I just don’t think I want to remember to charge these after each use. Finally, check out our other digital home reviews.
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