Nanoleaf Essentials A19 review: A Thread-enabled smart bulb with 120 sides

After wowing smart home users (including us) with its eye-popping, touch-sensitive smart light panels, Nanoleaf has launched an "Essentials" line of more traditional smart lighting products, including a color A19 bulb. Like most things Nanoleaf, the Essentials A19 comes with a few twists, including its trippy, 120-sided design and its support for Thread, an IP-based Internet of Things (IoT) protocol backed by the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung SmartThings. Thread is a low-power, high-reliability, and security-focused protocol that's been percolating for more than six years, but it's only supported by a handful of products, which means its potential has yet to be fully realized. The same could be said for Nanoleaf's Essentials A19 bulb, which boasts some interesting features--including the ability to sync with music, Mac and PC monitors, and Nanoleaf's own Shapes light panels--that aren't yet ready for prime time yet. Another wrinkle is the fact that the bulb's most advanced features rely on a Thread border router--a device that acts as a bridge between a Thread network and another networks, such as Wi-Fi--and for now, there's only one consumer model: the $99 Apple HomePod Mini.