Finally Bulb Review

LED Bulb

With the phaseout of most incandescent light bulbs over the last couple of years, LED bulbs have come storming into the news for their longevity and efficient use of energy to produce light. (Known in the industry as efficacy -- the number of lumens, or light output, produced by a watt of energy.)

Complaints about LEDs have traditionally been about the quality of the light produced and the cost of the bulbs. But prices have been plummeting and light quality has gone up dramatically, so there's little left to complain about. Long-term, these bulbs really are big money savers!

Despite this progress and greater public acceptance (even a genuine liking) of LED bulbs, there are still dissenters, and a new lighting technology called "acandescent" is aimed at upending the LED apple cart ... and its garnered a lot of press coverage while trying to do so, even before the first bulb has been sold to the public. The company that developed this technology is producing what's called the "Finally" bulb, and we wanted to provide an in-depth review comparing this bulb with LEDs.

To understand how they compare, it's important to understand a couple things about light bulbs:

Watts vs. Lumens
1) Most of us are used to thinking of light bulbs in terms of watts, because this gave you an idea of how much light would be produced. But this is more accurately understood by lumen output. An old 60-watt incandescent produced around 800 lumens of light. An LED can do that with around 10 watts of energy.

Color Temperature
2) Most people are accustomed to incandescent bulbs, which produce light at a "warm" color temperature of around 2700K. (A yellowish bulb.) Halogen bulbs are a little whiter, or cooler, at up to 3000K. Offices often use bulbs at 3500K to 4100K, and there are even whiter or cooler bulbs as well. Early issues with LEDs were how white they were, but they now mimic the 2700K of an incandescent very well.

CRI, or Color Rendering Index
3) CRI stands for Color Rendering Index, and has to do with how well a light bulb reproduces the colors of an object accurately. This scale tops out at 100, which is about the rating of incandescents and halogens. In other words, they render colors extremely well. Most LED bulbs score about 80 to 82, which is typical of fairly good fluorescent bulbs in an office setting, and is adequate for most applications. Some LEDs, however, score into the 90s.


The Finally Bulb Review
Now that we have some background knowledge, let's look at how the Finally bulb stacks up against LEDs. I felt this was important to address because the Finally bulb website has its own comparison chart, which I find grossly misleading for the consumer. Here are the comparison points it makes, and my response to them:

Familiar / Attractive Shape:
Finally: Yes    LED: No
Once upon a time LEDs had stranger shapes, but these days many if not most look like traditional incandescent bulbs. Some look different by design, offering an artistic approach to lighting that might complement one's decor. While the Finally bulb looks nice, I think most LEDs do as well, and they offer options not available from Finally.

Fits Standard Fixtures:
Finally: Yes   LED: No
I don't even know where this comes from. LEDs have specifically been designed as replacement bulbs, fitting the traditional "Edison" screw that we have throughout our homes. And the bulbs themselves are typically the same size. In some cases, the heat sink makes part of the bulb a little larger, but this wouldn't preclude them from fitting in most fixtures.

Warm / High Quality Light:
Finally: Yes   LED: No
Go back to the color temperature item I discussed earlier and you can see that LEDs now closely mimic the warmth of incandescent bulbs. As for quality, LEDs (typically 80 to 82 CRI) and the Finally bulb (83 CRI) render colors almost identically. So there's not much support for this claim. However, some who've had early access to the Finally bulb have talked about it visually having a nicer look, and this is something I won't know until the bulbs are available later this year.

Omnidirectional:
Finally: Yes   LED: No
This is sort of true. An incandescent bulbs spreads its light in all directions ... which can be good or bad depending on the application. For instance, a light bulb in a lamp with the bulb facing upward would then shine light up toward the ceiling (where you don't need it) and downwards toward the book you're reading. LEDs provide directional light -- they shine mainly in one direction. But that is the individual diode. Several diodes are used in a bulb, and they can be positioned in a way that sends light in all directions. They are more flexible in this regard. So the value of this comparison really depends on your application and on the LED that you buy.

Instantly Bright:
Finally: Yes   LED: Yes
This is an honest comparison. Both of them provide full brightness basically as soon as you hit the switch.

Energy Efficient:
Finally: Yes   LED: Yes
This is also an honest comparison ... sort of. They're both far more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs, but LEDs are about 30% more efficient than Finally bulbs. The latter use 14.5 watts to produce 800 lumens while LEDs only take 9-11 watts at the time of this writing. That might not sound like a lot but at two hours a day and 15 cents per kWh (including delivery charges), those 4 watts cost you about 45 cents more per year for every Finally bulb in your house. As we'll see, the bulbs themselves cost about the same amount, so this is just money out the window.

Long Life:
Finally: Yes   LED: Yes
Again an honest comparison against incandescent bulbs. But Finally bulbs are rated for about 15,000 hours of life and LEDs are for about 25,000 hours. This means that Finally bulbs don't just cost you more to run, but they're likely to cost you more in replacements over time as well. Of course both should last you for years, but that doesn't negate this point.

Low Cost:
Finally: Yes   LED: No
One of their touted reasons for developing this technology is that LED bulbs were too expensive and people wouldn't pay that much for light bulbs. Unfortunately for them, LED bulbs are now easily purchased for $10 or less, and the Finally bulb is slated for release at $9.99 per bulb. You can buy a known-brand LED for that much, and a non-dimmable version for even less. Between this and the energy costs, I feel like price is definitely in favor of LEDs.

Smart Bulbs:
This is NOT an item covered by the Finally bulbs review, but I should point out that LED is a digital technology, which can lead to a lot of interesting extras. People are developing LED bulbs that are also speakers, or that respond to voice commands. And many are now available that respond to smart phones and programming. They can gradually brighten to wake you or dim to help you fall asleep. They can change colors. They can respond to music, or turn on as you approach, and much more. The Philips Hue is perhaps the best known of these, but TCP and others have both come out with versions as well..

Mercury:
Also not covered in the Finally comparison chart ... LEDs do not contain any mercury, which is a toxic element that we don't want making its way to landfills. Light bulbs with mercury can be recycled, but they're often not. Finally bulbs contain about 2 mg of mercury each -- less than the amount used in CFL bulbs. But they still have mercury.


At the end of the day, I think the value of Finally bulbs will really come down to whether people see a meaningful difference in the quality of light. They don't win based on color temperature and CRI alone, but perhaps they do in person, and this would have to make the difference if they're going to really make a dent in the LED market. When we get our hands on a Finally bulb, we'll bring our own experience of light quality into this review. Besides that, time will tell if this is the next bulb to fall in love with, or just a great attempt at a massive consumer market.

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