JoakimFlorence
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2016
- Messages
- 137
From the exterior this LED bulb looks almost identical to a conventional incandescent bulb. The bulb is opaque, and it's made out of glass, which I consider a plus. It's not quite a filament bulb but there is a thin stand inside holding the LED emitters (so it's mostly empty space inside). I think it is just using ordinary LEDs but the bulb covering it is slightly blue-tinted neodymium glass, which has a modifying effect on the spectrum.
Exterior appearance: opaque frosted slightly bluish tinted glass, but not as bluish as conventional GE Reveal incandescent bulbs. The glass is a nice feature, I find that frosted glass does a better job at diffusing light than opaque plastic, and that also means the plastic isn't going to eventually crack or discolor if it's in outside lamp fixture exposed to the sun. Of course the downside is the glass could shatter if jarred or dropped. One small thing I don't like so much is there's a lot of lettering stamp printed onto the very top of the bulb, which I suppose doesn't matter so much if it's behind a lampshade. Inside the bulb the support for holding the emitter board appears to be clear (a glass stand in fact, like in a conventional light bulb), if you hold the bulb up against the light.
Distribution of light: The bulb is pretty omnidirectional, more so than a half-dome LED bulb, so it's good to use behind a lampshade or anywhere where you need the light to come out horizontally from the sides. Does a fairly good job at sending light downwards, but not quite as perfect as a conventional or filament bulb.
Color temperature: Due, I believe, to the use of neodymium glass, the color temperature is 2850K, which is a less common offering intermediate between 2700K and 3000K. This is an ideal color temperature I believe, not too bright white but not too orange.
Tint: Due to the neodymium glass, the light does not feel too "yellowish" and the light is white with an ever so slight magenta tint, which is typical for Reveal. Overall good color tint.
Color rendering index & light quality: Color rendering is probably a little better than the average LED bulb but does not appear to be particularly high. (The fact that the LED light is filtered a little bit through neodymium glass leads to some slightly peculiar color rendering properties) The light itself appears like it has some warmth, and it does make warm colors and wood colors in a room feel warm (more so than standard LED light), yet at the same time these red-hued wood colors can look pretty orange-hued, and red colors do not look very saturated. Basically the colors are just as bad as a regular LED bulb but at least it does make warm colors look warm. An Ikea bulb (90-92 CRI) appears to have slightly better color rendering, in comparison.
Skin tones appear fair, somewhere in between regular and high CRI LED, just a tad orangish, not unlike how skin tones appear under the Feit "high CRI" LED downlight par bulbs, probably adequate for residential lighting purposes.
The packaging claims they're dimmable. I haven't tested that.
Note: This seems to be the latest model of the GE Reveal HD+, completely reworked design from the previous one. It's practically a different bulb with the same name.
Exterior appearance: opaque frosted slightly bluish tinted glass, but not as bluish as conventional GE Reveal incandescent bulbs. The glass is a nice feature, I find that frosted glass does a better job at diffusing light than opaque plastic, and that also means the plastic isn't going to eventually crack or discolor if it's in outside lamp fixture exposed to the sun. Of course the downside is the glass could shatter if jarred or dropped. One small thing I don't like so much is there's a lot of lettering stamp printed onto the very top of the bulb, which I suppose doesn't matter so much if it's behind a lampshade. Inside the bulb the support for holding the emitter board appears to be clear (a glass stand in fact, like in a conventional light bulb), if you hold the bulb up against the light.
Distribution of light: The bulb is pretty omnidirectional, more so than a half-dome LED bulb, so it's good to use behind a lampshade or anywhere where you need the light to come out horizontally from the sides. Does a fairly good job at sending light downwards, but not quite as perfect as a conventional or filament bulb.
One down side when turned on, the very base of the bulb doesn't appear to be really illuminated, so in some sense the light appearance of the actual bulb itself isn't fully even, but this doesn't affect the overall directional distribution of light so much, so this makes no difference if it's behind a lampshade. Might only be a slight cosmetic issue if the bulb is going to be bare. (probably not worth mentioning, but I wanted to write a thorough review)
There does not appear to be any flicker.
There is no buzzing or slight noise given off from the bulb. Some people are really sensitive to that, so that's a big plus for me.
Edit: There's a very slight buzzing sound. You'd have to put your head within two feet of the bulb to even hear it, and that's if the surroundings are completely silent. I say it's only about half as loud as a dimmable Ikea bulb, which isn't very noticeable either.
There does not appear to be any flicker.
There is no buzzing or slight noise given off from the bulb. Some people are really sensitive to that, so that's a big plus for me.
Edit: There's a very slight buzzing sound. You'd have to put your head within two feet of the bulb to even hear it, and that's if the surroundings are completely silent. I say it's only about half as loud as a dimmable Ikea bulb, which isn't very noticeable either.
Color temperature: Due, I believe, to the use of neodymium glass, the color temperature is 2850K, which is a less common offering intermediate between 2700K and 3000K. This is an ideal color temperature I believe, not too bright white but not too orange.
Tint: Due to the neodymium glass, the light does not feel too "yellowish" and the light is white with an ever so slight magenta tint, which is typical for Reveal. Overall good color tint.
Color rendering index & light quality: Color rendering is probably a little better than the average LED bulb but does not appear to be particularly high. (The fact that the LED light is filtered a little bit through neodymium glass leads to some slightly peculiar color rendering properties) The light itself appears like it has some warmth, and it does make warm colors and wood colors in a room feel warm (more so than standard LED light), yet at the same time these red-hued wood colors can look pretty orange-hued, and red colors do not look very saturated. Basically the colors are just as bad as a regular LED bulb but at least it does make warm colors look warm. An Ikea bulb (90-92 CRI) appears to have slightly better color rendering, in comparison.
Skin tones appear fair, somewhere in between regular and high CRI LED, just a tad orangish, not unlike how skin tones appear under the Feit "high CRI" LED downlight par bulbs, probably adequate for residential lighting purposes.
The packaging claims they're dimmable. I haven't tested that.
Note: This seems to be the latest model of the GE Reveal HD+, completely reworked design from the previous one. It's practically a different bulb with the same name.
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