In this article I will make a detailed technical review for the TP-Link Tapo L530E smart Wi-Fi multicolor light bulb.
I will jump directly to my opinion, for the fellows that don’t want to read all the technical details, but might find my opinion regarding the device useful.
What I do not like about the TP-Link Tapo L530E:
- I struggled to configure it at first, needed to switch the light ON/OFF a lot of times until it “reached” pairing mode (it did not blink 3 times and did not provide the Tapo WiFi network)
- I needed to create a dedicated 2.4 GHz WiFi network in order to be able to pair it (before this, I had both 2.4 and 5 GHz networks with the same name)
- I feel that the lightbulb could “give” more light when configured at 100% brightness, especially in big rooms.
- It only has two default themes (relax and party) – I feel that more could have been present by default, like, for example, something for Cinema.
What I like about TP-Link Tapo L530E:
- Very good value for money
- It has an Away mode (you can set an away time interval and the device start randomly in this time, simulating that someone is home)
- You can also include the brightness level in the schedule, so this is great
- Good Alexa and Google Home integration
- It does not require a hub
Worth mentioning:
If you turn it ON and OFF a lot of times without any pauses, the smart light doesn’t respond anymore when used via the app. You don’t see any error in the app, the bulb does not go offline, but it does not respond to any commands. It usually recovers by itself in a couple of minutes, without having you to do anything.
This is how changing the colors and using the available themes looks like:
This being said, now I will continue with the detailed review:
The main features of TP-Link Tapo L530E:
Programmable and dimmable multicolor E27 light bulb. It is nice that you can create different ON/OFF schedules or use the timer to make the smart light bulb run for only a configured interval.
The TP-Link Tapo L530E does not require a hub to work and can be configured with a 2.4 GHz WiFi connection. However, a hub enables you to configure different automations and setups (for example, do this if another compatible device does that.)
The TP-Link smart light bulb can be configured from both Android and iOS via the Tapo App, which you can download for free.
Also, because of the TP-Link cloud, the Tapo smart light bulb can be accessed and configured via the internet, not requiring you to be in the same LAN.
The lightbulb outputs 806 lumens, which is similar to a classical 60W light bulb. The light is decent, but it’s a little insufficient if used a single light source in a big room.
The TP-Link Tapo L530E smart light bulb does not have support for Apple HomeKit, SmartThings or IFTTT, but integrates very well with Alexa and Google Home. This is an important limitation you should be aware about.
The smart light bulb monitors the power consumption, displaying usage statistics for Today, Past 7 Days and Past 30 Days. This is not much, but if you have more devices that are able to monitor the power consumption, you can figure out which hardware appliances are the ones that use the most of your energy and maybe plan to replace them, to save on costs.
I find the Away Mode really useful. It allows you to configure the time interval when you are away from home and in this interval, the TP-Link Tapo L530E turns ON and OFF at random times, to simulate that there is someone home. This alone doesn’t save you for being burglered, but it is a nice security enhancement.
Another useful thing is that you can share the access to your TP-Link Tapo L530E device with another user. I shared the access with my wife, so we/or she can also turn ON/OFF the lightbulb, when needed.
The Auto mode has two functions, Auto Match that adjusts the temperature of the light to match the natural lighting from dawn to dusk (it runs with a brightness level similar to the natural light) and the second one, Auto Compensate which compensates the lack of natural light (example: the light turns on automatically on a dark corridor, if there is no natural light). I find the Auto Compensate feature more useful, as the other one turns on the light during day, which is don’t find really helpful.
TP-Link Tapo L530E – The configuration
The configuration of the TP-Link Tapo L530E is pretty straight forward, as the options are self explanatory. I will only provide some photos of the options available there.
Verdict:
With everything being said, the TP-Link Tapo L530E smart color light bulb is good enough for its price. I would buy it again, even though I have discovered its limitations and struggled to configure it.
