Sharp Introduces New LED Lightbulbs

Sharp's introducing 9 new models of LED lightbulbs to Japan in mid-July, but the most innovative of those is the one pictured below. What's that thing on the right? It's actually a remote control that allows you to tune the color of the DL-L60AV LED Lamp (Sharp calls it "Adjustable Color Function"), or of a series of those plugged into the same circuit. Why is that a good thing? More details on how it works and its performance below.

Users can select from seven different shades of white ranging from a pleasing warm white to a cooler daylight white to match the weather, the season, time of day, purpose, or other preferences. This model also features a built-in Dimmer Function to adjust brightness. Together, these features allow users to select the illumination they like best to complement a diverse range of interior settings by using a single remote control to change the color and brightness of the light.

They don't give us lumens for the L60AV model, but the DL-L601N LED Lamp delivers a brightness of 560 lumens, which is pretty high (Sharp claims it is "among the brightest in the industry"). The L60AV is probably not quite as efficient... Life for all the new Sharp LED lamps (including the tunable one) is 40,000 hours.