The Yeelight 1S Color looked like a good value - decent color bulb at a lower price than Hue. After five months, the bulb itself is fine, but the cloud dependency on Yeelight's servers (primarily hosted in China) creates latency and reliability issues that undermine the experience.
Design & Build
Standard A19 bulb form factor. Fits most lamps without issue. The white body is slightly larger than non-smart bulbs but not problematically so.
Light output (800 lumens) is adequate. Color range covers the spectrum reasonably well.
Build quality seems decent for the price point.
Features
16 million colors plus tunable white (1700K-6500K). Standard smart bulb feature set.
Works with Alexa, Google Assistant, and HomeKit (via Yeelight app). Music sync mode for party effects.
Here's the problem: all cloud processing goes through Yeelight's servers, primarily in China. For users outside China, this adds latency and creates reliability issues when those servers have problems.
Home Assistant integration is possible but cloud-dependent. Local control requires enabling LAN mode and using unofficial integrations.
Performance
Light quality is good. Colors are reasonably accurate, brightness is sufficient, dimming works smoothly.
Response time is the issue. Commands through the app or voice assistants often take 2-4 seconds to execute - noticeably slow compared to local-control bulbs.
Reliability is inconsistent. The bulbs occasionally show as offline when they're fine. Server issues in China affect US users.
During one week when Yeelight servers had problems, my bulbs were essentially unusable for smart control.
Ease of Use
Setup through the Yeelight app works but requires creating an account on Yeelight's servers. The app is functional but not polished.
Adding to voice assistants requires linking accounts - standard but another step in the chain.
When things work, operation is fine. When servers have issues, troubleshooting is frustrating because the problem isn't local.
Value
Around $20-25 for a color bulb. That's cheaper than Hue or LIFX.
But the cloud dependency undermines the value. A $20 bulb that doesn't respond reliably isn't really saving money compared to a $30 bulb that works consistently.
Nanoleaf Essentials bulbs cost similarly and offer local Thread/Matter control.
Pros
- Affordable color bulb
- Good light output and color range
- Works with major voice assistants
- Music sync mode
- HomeKit support
Cons
- Cloud-dependent with China-based servers
- Slow response times
- Unreliable during server issues
- Local control requires workarounds
- Yeelight app is mediocre
Final Grade
The Yeelight 1S Color is a decent bulb hampered by cloud dependency issues. When Yeelight's servers are working well, it's a functional color bulb at a good price. When servers have problems - which happens - your bulbs become unreliable. The 2-4 second command latency is annoying for daily use. If you can enable LAN control through Home Assistant, the experience improves significantly. Otherwise, consider Thread/Matter bulbs like Nanoleaf that don't depend on distant cloud servers.