Nanoleaf Matter Smart RGBCW Downlights - 4 Dimmable Recessed Ceiling Lights, 6W Colour Changing LED Down Lights - Bluetooth Matter over Thread, App & Voice Control (Google, Apple Home), Decor & Gaming

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.

Nanoleaf really can't get their act together with matter and thread. The implementation in the essentials range is at best unreliable and in most cases simply not functional. If you want to use with homekit (and you have enough repeaters/hubs) then you will be ok 70% of the time, if you want to use with anything else then you are unlikely to get anywhere close to your expectations.Nanoleaf support know they have fundamental issues with thread and matter, they know they lazily just piggybacked on homekit until they have found themselves down a dead end technologically, so they just try kicking issues into the long grass hoping the dev team will actually fix something.Alas this is a premium priced product and many other matter gu10's are heading out to market at a lower price and with flawless connectivity. I recently beta tested a set of, as yet unreleased, matter govee products including gu10's and they worked flawlessly... I'll repeat that: govee worked perfectly implementing an open standard and nanoleaf struggles without closed homekit to help out, the world is upside down.

I have numerous other Nanoleaf essentials items and they are absolutely fine, but these new GU-10 bulbs seem to have problems. They are incredibly new hardware and it feels like they are still in beta testing. I Installed all six on the network in the same way, but a couple dropped into "no response" status within a couple of hours. Not helpful because I have them all on one switch so resetting them to re-include them means doing all 6 again. Not a good first impression, now I am waiting to see if they drop off the network again ...Update 17 March 2025: I have had these bulbs for around 16 months now and I am going to say that my first instincts were correct, these bulbs are definitely not reliable. I have newer firmware, but they regularly lose connection to the network and one of them has now gone completely unresponsive and that even includes through the Nanoleaf app. I haven't found any of my nanoleaf equipment massively reliable, but these bulbs are definitely the worst, along with the matter LCD strip by nanoleaf.

Having had quite a few Nanoleaf bulbs and strips for a while now I did not expect setup to be such a fiddle. Make sure you read the instructions carefully. Adding these GU10s is a two-step process for Apple Home. First add using the Nanoleaf app where you can join the GU10 to Apple Home using Matter. THEN go to Apple HomeKit app and find the GU10 bulb at the end of the list of your lights. You will need to copy a pairing code BEFORE you attempt to add the GU10 to your devices in a specific room. You should then be able to add the GU10 to Apple HomeKit. Once installed in HomeKit the GU10s can be easily grouped to work from one light switch. If you have used Nanoleaf bulbs before do not make my mistake - read the instructions first. Once installed they are the usual good quality Nanoleaf products.

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.

Easy to set up, nice colours for different atmosphere. I like it so much.