Amazon Basics A19 White

Test Date: August 19th, 2024
Firmware: 308003520

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A smart LED light bulb from Amazon Basics is shown next to its box. The box displays product details, including 60W equivalent, tunable white, dimmable, and compatibility with Alexa.
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Specifications

Model: ‎11aSB-A800ST-Q1-WZN
Shape: A19
Base: E26
Weight: 71g
Wattage: 6.8W
Protocols: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Matter Enabled: No
Color Mode: Tunable White
CCT Range: 2100-7100K
BBD Score: 0.0037
Brightness: 16-800 lumens
Avg CRI (Re): 90.7
Avg TM-30 Rf: 90
TM-30 Rg: 88-101

Dimming Algorithm

A line graph titled Dimming Graph shows lumens increasing from about 0 at 1% to over 800 at 100% for Amazon Basics A19 White. The x-axis is percentage (1%-100%); the y-axis is lumens (0-1000).

White Graphs

Spectral power distribution graph for Amazon Basics A19 White bulb, showing intensity across wavelengths. Peaks around 620 nm (orange-red), with smooth curves through blue, green, yellow, and red regions.
Line graph showing Target CCT and Measured CCT for Amazon Basics A19 White bulb from 2200K to 6500K. Both lines rise, with measured values slightly below target until 6500K, where they intersect.
A line graph titled Blackbody Deviation shows Duv values for Amazon Basics A19 White at five color temperatures. Green and magenta reference lines are at 0.002 and -0.002, respectively; the Duv curve dips below both at 3308K.

Thermal Image

Thermal image of a light bulb showing temperature gradients; the top is green-yellow (cooler), while the lower half is orange-red (hotter), with temperatures ranging from 69.6°F to 132.9°F on the color scale.

Flicker Data

A line graph labeled Flicker Waveform: 100% Brightness shows brightness fluctuations of an Amazon Basics A19 White bulb, with the y-axis ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 and a flickering blue waveform pattern.
A light measurement report showing graphs for flicker and frequency, technical details, and compliance with lighting standards. The measured light source falls within the “No Effect Limit” for flicker health impact.

Risk Level: High Risk
Frequency: 120 Hz
Flicker Depth: 37.7%
Flicker Index: 0.08
Assist Mp: 0.1
SVM: 0.96
Pst LM: 0.11

A line graph titled Flicker Waveform: 50% Brightness shows fluctuating light intensity for Amazon Basics A19 White at 50% brightness, with values oscillating between 0.6 and 1.0 over time.
A row of 14 colored squares labeled R1 to R14. Brackets below group R1–R8 as “CRI Ra” and R1–R14 as “CRI Re”. Each square is a different color.

Risk Level: High Risk
Frequency: 120 Hz
Flicker Depth: 31.7%
Flicker Index: 0.07
Assist Mp: 0.18
SVM: 0.57
Pst LM: 0.27

White CCT Data

2100K

Measured CCT: 2125K
Duv: 0.0040
High: 610 lumens
Low: 14 lumens
CRI (Re): 87.5
TM-30 Rf: 86
TM-30 Rg: 88

2700K

Measured CCT: 2670K
Duv: -0.0011
High: 810 lumens
Low: 16 lumens
CRI (Re): 89.8
TM-30 Rf: 91
TM-30 Rg: 97

3300K

Measured CCT: 3305K
Duv: -0.0061
High: 800 lumens
Low: 16 lumens
CRI (Re): 91.9
TM-30 Rf: 92
TM-30 Rg: 101

4900K

Measured CCT: 4900K
Duv: -0.0052
High: 760 lumens
Low: 15 lumens
CRI (Re): 94.1
TM-30 Rf: 92
TM-30 Rg: 101

7100K

Measured CCT: 7100K
Duv: 0.0021
High: 740 lumens
Low: 14 lumens
CRI (Re): 90.4
TM-30 Rf: 89
TM-30 Rg: 98

Learn More

All of this data can be confusing at first, read through this section, and I promise it won’t be any longer.
You’ll be an expert!

Lumens tells you how bright a light source is.

Most lights state they emit “800 lumens” or “1600 lumens”, however, these are seldom accurate.

Our equipment can measure lumen output, so we’ve recorded the average lumen output for whites and RGB settings.

This means you can see just how bright or dim a light can get and how vibrant the RGB colors might be.

Correlated color temperature or CCT refers to the shade of white a light source is, essentially how warm or cool a light source appears.

When you heat a metal, it goes from orange to white, to blue. This color gradient is referred to as the black body locus.

Planckian-locus-on-CIE-1976-u-v-chromaticity-diagram-16
The black body locus appears in the middle of the CIE’s 1976 chromaticity chart.

A CCT of 2700K will be more orange, while 6500K will appear more blue.

representation of color temperature from various lights

One of the most attractive features of many smart LEDs is their ability to change from warm to cool light.

However, how accurately they achieve a selected CCT isn’t disclosed, and some lights are better at this than others.

When possible, each LED is set to a selected CCT such as 2200K, after which the actual emitted CCT is recorded.

A graph showing a light’s deviation from the specified CCT is shown as follows:

The blue line is the selected CCT in the app, while the yellow line is the actual measured CCT from the LED.

One thing worth noting here is that cooler CCTs are much harder to notice large changes in than warmer ones.

Meaning, the color appearance change from 2000K to 3000K is far more drastic than 6000K to 7000K.

Color temperature isn’t the whole picture though, there’s also tint or Duv.

Duv shows you how far a light’s color deviates from the black body locus:

black body locus with duv labels
Rarely does a light source fall directly on top of the BBL curve.

A negative Duv indicates that the source is “below” the blackbody locus, having a purplish tint, while a positive Duv indicates that the source is “above” the blackbody locus, having a greenish tint.

Most people seem to prefer a slightly negative Duv over a positive one.

We’ve highlighted Duv which exceeds +/- 0.002 as this is about when tint usually becomes noticeable.

For white tunable LEDs, we’ve included a blackbody deviation chart so you can see how well a light stays within the 0.002 limit across its range.

a line graph displaying the duv deviation from baseline across multiple color temperatures
An example of a blackbody deviation chart.

We also include a blackbody deviation score or BBD.

This uses a single number to represent how far a light deviates from perfect white across it’s entire range. The closer to 0 it gets, the better.

The oldest and most widely adopted color rendering metric is the color rendering index or CRI.

This essentially compares a reference light (such as sunlight) to the light being tested. A score of 100 indicates that the test source reflects colors identically to the reference light.

Color rendering of an apple from lights of CRI 97, 90, and 80

CRI leaves a LOT to be desired and has since become obsolete with the recent development of the TM-30 standard, however, since everyone is still using it, we’ve decided to include it in our measurements.

You may have noticed however that we use CRI “Re”, which includes saturated colors such as R9 or deep red. This is a much harder score to rank high in. When companies state their “CRI” score, they’re referring to CRI Ra, which excludes these color. But still, just use TM-30 Rf, CRI sucks.

The new TM-30 standard is a far more modern and useful set of color quality metrics.

TM-30 was created in 2015 and was designed to replace the antiquated CRI standard.

TM-30 gives us tons of useful information for grading the quality of a light source:

Rf or Fidelity

This is a number from 1 to 100 that measures the reflected light accuracy compared to a standard, similar to CRI.

While CRI only measures 8 to 15 colors for its average score, TM-30 uses 99 total colors.

Graphic showing the 8 colors used to determine CRI score versus the 99 colors used to determine the TM-30 fidelity score

The fidelity graph looks like this, giving you an idea of how accurately it reflects certain colors.

tm-30 color fidelity graph
TM-30 fidelity graph showing how well a light source reflects all 99 colors

Rg or Gamut

This number shows how saturated a light source is on average. A number higher than 100 indicates it’s slightly over-saturated, while a number under 100 indicates under-saturation.

Color Vector Graphic

Finally, we get the CVG, which gives us a visual representation of color saturation.

a graphic explaining how to interpret a color vector graphic

We’ve included a full TM-30 report for each CCT tested.

A thermal image is taken of each bulb after 1 hour at maximum brightness:

thermal photo of wyze color a19
LEDs will often continue to increase in heat beyond 1 hour, just at a much slower rate.

This is mostly just for fun…

Generally speaking, smart lights dim in one of two ways:

  • Logarithmic
  • Linear

Here is what logarithmic dimming looks like:

Dimming Graph - LIFX A19 Color 9W

And here is what linear dimming looks like:

Dimming Graph - wyze color a19

You may think that linear dimming makes the most sense, but humans perceive light changes logarithmically, so you may prefer this style of dimming over linear.

Most lights modulate their brightness over time. This is often referred to as “flicker” although this is a generic term for the idea.

There are several ways to measure temporal light modulation and artifacts.

We measure just about all of them using a LabFlicker meter and describe them in more depth below.

Included are waveform graphs and test reports at 100% and 50% brightness levels.

Temporal Light Modulation and Artifact Measurement Standards

Here are the metrics we measure:

1. Flicker Risk

According to the IEEE’s 1789 flicker standard, flicker can be grouped into three categories:

  • No Risk
  • Low Risk
  • High Risk

This is an oversimplification of flicker but is useful for “at a glance” judgment of a light’s flickering.

2. Frequency

Well built drivers will maintain a 0 Hz flicker across it’s brightness range, while poor drivers will almost always flicker at around 120 Hz, equal to the 120V energy system used in the US.

Many lights flicker anywhere from 120-4000 Hz and can vary considerably within this range.

3. Flicker Depth

This tells us exactly how much the light intensity changes from maximum to minimum brightness.

A flicker depth of 90% means the light source is dimming down to 10% of it’s maximum brightness.

4. Flicker Index

Flicker Index is an older metric that tries to quantify the “flicker” by calculating the area over the average divided by the total between both:

diagram showing how the flicker index is calculated

Many people consider this metric useless compared to the other newer ones, but it’s generally considered that the lower the number the better.

5. ASSIST Mp

This is another metric used to quantify flicker severity perceived by individuals under different lighting conditions.

It takes into account factors such as flicker frequency and modulation depth to assess how noticeable and potentially uncomfortable flicker may be.

We like to see this number stay under 0.1

6. SVM (Stroboscopic Effect Visibility Measure)

SVM seeks to determine how noticeable the stroboscopic effect from a light source is.

A stroboscopic effect occurs when a fast-moving object appears stationary or moves slowly under a flickering light source that flashes at a frequency matching or close to the object’s motion frequency, creating an illusion of motion distortion or stillness.

  • SVM < 1: Not Visible
  • SVM = 1: Just Visible
  • SVM > 1: Visible

7. Pst LM (short-term light modulation)

Visible flicker typically occurs when the frequency is from 0.3-80 Hz.

A PstLM of 1 means that the average observer has a 50% probability of detecting flicker, so the lower the better.

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