Near is a constantly expanding its product lineup to include a large variety of smart lighting options. When it comes to light bulbs, apart from the smart E27 bulb, Near also sells a smart Gu10 bulb. The Near Smart GU10 Bulb is a Wi-Fi enabled light bulb which you can adjust the white ambiance colour from 2700K – 6500K, with an accompanying app to provide smart lighting control and features. The Near Smart GU10 Bulb retails at S$11.90.
Tech specs
| Near Smart GU10 Bulb 5W | Philips Hue White Ambiance 5W GU10 Smart Spot Light Bulb | |
| Bulb Fitting | GU10 | GU10 |
| Power | 5W | 5.5W |
| Colour temperature | 2700K to 6500K | 2200-6500K |
| Brightness | 400 Lumen | 350 lumens |
| Lifetime | 25,000 hours | 15,000 hours |
| Warranty | 2 years | 2 years |
| Price | S$11.90 | S$49.00 |
When it comes to competition, the Near Smart GU10 Bulb will compete with the Philips Hue White Ambiance 5W GU10 Smart Spot Light Bulb directly as they are both GU10 bulbs with white ambiance settings. And remember you still have to get the S$89 Philips Bridge to access smart lighting and controls. Looking at price alone, the Near Smart GU10 Bulb simply offers may better value.
Unboxing
The Near Smart GU10 Bulb comes in a simple box which contains the GU10 bulb and small instruction card.
Setup
You will need to download the Near app and register as a user in order for you to access the smart features and controls. The app is now able to sense any pairing smart lights when you turn it on. If the light is in pairing mode it will be flashing on/off repeatedly. Do ensure that your Wi-Fi on your smartphone is connected to 2.4GHz network.
Do I need to be connected to 2.4GHz network in order to control the light?
That was my initial worry as I am always using a 5.0GHz network. But I’m glad to say that you not need to be connected to the 2.4GHz network. In fact, as long as your smartphone is connected to the internet (even mobile data), you can control the light! You just need the 2.4GHz network for the initial setup.
Light customisation
The Near Smart GU10 Bulb is rated at 400 lumens and it gets really bright. Unfortunately I do not have a lamp there uses a GU10 bulb so I can’t show a picture of it in it. But I held the bulb in the middle of my room in a tall spot and it was able to light up my whole room well.
Unlike the discontinued E27 Smart Light bulb, the Near Smart GU10 bulb can only adjust the temperature of the the white light from 2700K to 6500K (ie. daylight to warm-white). These customisations need to done through the Near app.
White and warm light
On the main dashboard of the light menu, you are able to adjust the temperature via the scroll knobs, or pre-selected colour icons. You can also increase/decrease the brightness.
Check out the video demo below:
Mood scenes
There is a tab called ‘Mood’, which is identical to the ‘Scenes’ features that we have seen on othr Near smart lights. By default, the app pre-installs to moods – (1) Lepak Ah (ie. chill), and (2) Chiong Ah (ie. Focus). The chill mood produces a relaxing warm light, while the focus mood shines white light.
You can create your own scene too, and adjust settings as shown below:
Accessories for GU10 bulb
Near also sells accessories that allow you to install on the Near Smart GU10 Bulb. They are (1) GU10 Recessed Downlight Holder, and (2) GU10 Tracklight Holder.
GU10 Recessed Downlight Holder
The GU10 Recessed Downlight Holder comes in two colours – black or white. The holder has a hole cutout of ø 95mm, with 35° vertical tilting. It retails for S$14.90 a piece and has 2-year hardware warranty.
Unfortunately, I do not have any light fittings in my house that fits the size of the downlight so I can unable to show a picture of the installed downlight. However, you can refer to the pictures below for a general sense of how the downlight looks with the Near Smart GU10 Bulb.
GU10 Tracklight Holder
The GU10 Tracklight Holder also comes in two colours – black or white. The holder is 355° rotatable with 90° vertical tilting and features 2 Wire Track Type, which works with most LED rails. It retails for S$19.90 a piece and has 2-year hardware warranty.
As I do not have light rails in my house, I unable to show how the light shines of the tracklight holder. But you can still refer to the pictures below for the installed look.
Smart features
The Near Smart GU10 Bulb shares the same smart features that other Near smart lighting products also have. These features are:
- Home and Room management
- Scheduling
- Tap-to-run sequence
- Automation
- Smart Assistant capable
As the features are largely the same, most of the content below will be repeated from the Near E27 Smart Bulb review to facilitate reading.
The following content is adapted from the Near E27 Smart Bulb review.
Home and Room Management
If you plan to own more than one smart light from Near, then this feature allows you categorize each lighting product into a particular room or house. This reduces clutter on the main screen on the app, letting you view and control your lights by rooms so you don’t have scroll through a long list of lights.
Scheduling turn on/off
You can schedule for your lights to turn on or off when it reaches a certain time. And you can do so via two ways of scheduling. The first is through the individual light settings, which now allows you to add a countdown timer.
The second is through a global setting whereby if you own more than one light you can turn all of them on/off when it hits a certain time.
Tap-to-Run sequence
“Tap-to-Run” allows you to create macros and save them as a shortcut, where once you tap on that shortcut, the light will do whatever you specify in your instruction sequence.
In the app, to create a “Tap-to-Run” sequence, you have set the condition to “Click to execute”. After which, you proceed to choose a task to be carried out such as changing the temperature of the light. You can also run actions like switching on/off, giving the light a countdown to turn off, or changing the brightness.
The task that can be carried out are not limited to one light. If you own more than one Near Smart GU10 Bulb, you can configure the task to do two different things, such as one to produce warm light and the other to produce daylight.
If you’re using an iPhone, another great feature of this “Tap-to-Run” sequence is the ability to add to Siri Shortcuts. As such, you can run these actions via Siri and even with your own customised phrase.
On the iPhone, your “Tap-to-Run” sequences will also show up on iPhone widgets if you enable the Near Shortcut Control widget on your home screen. This makes it convenient to activate the action without going into the app.
Automation
Automation is big and must-have feature set if you are buying a smart light. The setup of an automation action is the similar to a “Tap-to-Run” setup, but instead of selecting a “Click to execute” condition, you choose another condition from the list the app gives you.
The Automation setup is simply an “If this happens, then do that” setup. You can tell the light to switch on if the weather is raining, temperature is lower than 30°C, or when the sun sets. The condition can also be based on a device, such as, “if the Smart Light Strip is turned on, then carry out this task”. You can also set the automated action to only run during a specified period of time, for example only during weekdays.
There is a wide variety of automated tasks that you can design, and the permutations of tasks will only increase with more Near Smart Bulbs that you own. The benefits of automation will only get more apparent with more lights you own in the Near ecosystem, and having your entire lighting system automated is surely an amazing setup.
Smart Assistant capable (ie. Google Assistant)
Another great feature of the Near ecosystem is the ability to integrate with Smart Assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant. After linking to your Google Home setup, you can control the Near Smart GU10 Bulb with easy commands.
Google Assistant seems to be able to activate your “Tap-to-Run” actions as long as you say “activate [name of action]”. But if you want to greater flexibility in your triggers, you can simply use IFTTT by linking it to Google Assistant and Near Light (Smart Life in IFTTT) to set up an Applet to do so.
Adapted content from the Near E27 Smart Bulb review ends here.
Conclusion
For just S$11.90, you are able to get a GU10 light bulb that is not only smart but is able to have customisable white temperatures, great for setting a relaxed or focused mood throughout the day. The Near Smart GU10 Bulb offers incredible value over its competitors and with the downlight and tracklight holder as easy accessories to complement the GU10 light bulb, it is even easier to set up smart lights in your house.