What happens when smart bulbs meet dumb software?
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Philips Hue
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AVERAGE CRITIC SCORE
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Philips Hue
- Critic Reviews (13)
- User Reviews (11)
- 78AVERAGE CRITIC SCORE13 ReviewsPC Mag80Philips Hue Connected BulbThe Philips Hue Connected Bulb system lets you wirelessly control the color and intensity of your home or office lighting, and while it's undeniably cool, the cost of entry could preclude many.CNET80Lighting up your connected lifeYou might not have an obvious need for an Internet-connected, color-changing light bulb, but the Philips Hue Connected Bulb kit offers enough potential to justify its high price tag.Gizmodo80Philips Hue Lightning Review: Your Lamp’s Not WoNearly $300 to start and another $90 a bulb after that is tough to swallow. But the Hue system is insanely cool and, in the hands of a skilled interior designer, could be used to turn every room in your house into a light-flooded canvas.PC Mag80Philips Hue Connected BulbThe Philips Hue Connected Bulb system lets you wirelessly control the color and intensity of your home or office lighting, and while it's undeniably cool, the cost of entry could preclude many.Ars Technica80In living color: Ars reviews the hacker-approved PMy recommendation is that if you have the spare cash, they are worth buying. They're just too fun and too addictive to not own.AllThingsD80Control Your Home Lighting With Smartphone-FriendlIf you’ve got extra cash lying around and you’ve been looking for an iPhone-controlled lighting system, Philips Hue might do it for you.PC World Australia80Philips Hue ‘connected’ light bulbEntirely controlled over your smartphone or tablet’s Wi-Fi, they can be programmed to suit your daily habits. They’re not a perfect replacement for existing incandescent bulbs, and they’re definitely expensive, but the concept is laudable.MacLife70Philips Hue ReviewIf you can stomach the asking price and some limitations, the Philips Hue system is a wildly innovative new approach to home lighting.Pocket-Lint90Philips Hue reviewYou should see this as the future...that is bright and colourful, light and shiny. A future that once you get past the "let's make the room pink" moment, will actually become incredibly useful whether it is creating soft lighting for entertaining, or merely something bright enough to let you see what you are doing.SlashGear80Philips hue ReviewPhilips’ hue apps aren’t entirely refined, and the promise of third-party integration is yet to materialize, but hue is off to an excellent start where it counts: bringing the cost of color-changing lighting down to a more manageable price point.TechRadar60Philips Hue reviewAnd despite all the caveats, we can't deny that we're charmed by them, and it's possible that we won't be able to resist buying a set.The Next Web80Review: Philips Hue smart LED light bulbsAs it stands, the Hue lamps are a luxury buy ... but with open standards and Philips dedicating resources to continue iterating the product (and welcoming developers), the product’s best times might yet be ahead of it.Geek.com80Review: Philips Hue is where gadgets, apps, and liSelling people on expensive lighting is difficult, but selling them on a cool app and a system with some actual functionality should prove to be much easier. At this point Hue is as much tool as toy, but over time things could definitely improve.
- 89AVERAGE USER SCORE11 Reviewsjs87100October 5, 2015Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!A gadget unicorn - EngadgetEngadget Reader100August 3, 2014Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!A gadget unicorn - EngadgetEngadget Reader90March 30, 2014Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!The best in its category. We highly recommend it. - Engadgetdvdxr90January 8, 2014Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!These are the Lamborghini of light bulbs: No body needs them but if you can afford them they are pretty cool. The starter set comes with a base station and three standard bulbs. A new starter kit is also available that includes three of the new BR30 downlight version of the bulbs. Setup is a snap. Install the bulbs and power them on (they default to a nice soft-white when powered on). Then plug in the bridge to power and Ethernet (fair warning: it does not connect to your network via WiFi). The bridge comes pre-paired with the kit lights. Additional single purchase lights can be added easily via the software. Once up, run the app. Anytime you connect a new app (even from the same phone) to the system, you just need to press the button on the bridge to authorize it. Super simple. Even the web based app at meethue.com works this way (I assume the device pings home and the web app looks for it coming in from the same IP as your browser at the time. It's quite clever). So no typing in serial numbers or anything like that. And that's it! You are up and running. The stock Philips app gives you plenty of options, including:* Scenes - These are individual settings for each bulb's color, saturation, and brightness that you can save and set. Think of them like desktop themes in Windows. There are a number of defaults you can use and even more community themes available on meethue.com. You can, of course, create your own as well as modify the stock and community scenes. Each scene allows you to set which bulbs are part of the scene and what color and how bright each should be.* Light Recipes - These are special themes that are essentially different variations of white light. Four are included out of the box: Relax, Reading, Energize, and Concentrate * Alarms - Alarms allow you to set a scene (or light recipe) to come on or go off at a set time. You can even set it to automatically adjust the alarm time by a random interval inside of +/- 30 minutes. Great for when you are away and don't want it to look like the house is unoccupied. Alarms also allow you to set a ramp-up/ramp-down time for the brightness when they come on (immediately, or over 3 or 9 minutes). Good for simulated sunrise in the morning, although the initial base brightness is still a bit bright for this type of use, in my opinion. Finally, you can also set the days of the week the alarms apply to (this will probably require a firmware update to the base before it will allow you to use this or the +/- 30 minute feature)* GeoFence - You can set a lighting scene to turn on or off depending on your location (or more precisely the location of your smartphone). For example you can set your favorite scene to come on when you get home or to turn off the lights when you leave. There is also an option you can check so that it will only run after sunset and not during the daytime. * Timer - You can set a scene to turn on or off after a preset time (hours and minutes). Think of this like a sleep timer on your TV or clock radio. When you activate the scene, the timer begins and after it expires, it either turns the lights on or off (depending on how you set it). So you could have one that turns the lights in the kids room off 30 minute after they go to bed. This option also gives you the ability to set a fade in/out time of immediately, 3, or 9 minutes.You can edit scenes from either the smart phone app or the meethue website. Linking the phone app to your web account allows it to sync between the two. The stock app is very useful but the real fun (and power) comes from the API. There are a number of third party apps available that allow for syncing to music, strobe effects, dynamic scenes (where colors change over time), syncing with video (there is a XBMC plugin), and most important there is a Philips Hue IFTTT channel which opens up all sorts of possibilities. There are also some hardware products like the Revolv Smart Home Automation system that can work with the Hue products.With all that said there are a couple of faults with the product. First, if you need to move lightbulbs to a new bridge it's a bit of a pain in the butt to do. There are a few ways to do it but the most common is to use a java app called LampStealer. If you buy two starter packs and want to use the bulbs on one bridge, you will have to do this as the starter packs come pre-paired to the bridge they come with. Second, they are not as bight as most 60 watt replacements. They are only 600 lumens, well below the 800 lumens of the regular 60 watt replacement lamps. This means you will need more bulbs to light a given room, and that's not an inexpensive concession. Third Philips does not provide a wall switch to easily control the lamps in a room. You CAN use your normal switch, but the bulbs will revert back to their default soft-white when they come back on. The only real way to control them is via the smartphone app. Now the system uses zigbee, so there may be a way to do it with a compatible 3rd party product, I haven't looked into that yet. Finally, the bulbs are EXPENSIVE. When the system was first introduced the bulb price wasn't that bad, normal soft-white LEDs where $30-40. That has changed drastically since the product was introduced and now the $60 MSRP for the bulbs is starting to look a bit pricey. Looking around my own dwelling, I'm looking at $240 in bulbs for one ceiling fan! The Philips white LED bulbs with the same form factor as the Hue cost around $16. It's time Philips knocked $10-20 off the price. Overall I'm happy with my purchase and I will be adding a few more bulbs around the house as time goes on. I bought it mainly to use as a wake-up light, especially in winter. I'm also quickly finding that I truly enjoy being able to control the color temp through out the day as well. It's surprising how much that affects your mode at different times of day. Philips has shown that they are still actively pursuing this market with the recent addition of LED strip lights (SMD 5050 weatherproof style strip with a controller and power), the BR30 downlights, and the Friends of Hue Living Color Bloom light. The new lights are currently exclusive to Apple stores. The regular bulbs and starter packs are available from Apple Stores and (in generic packaging) from Amazon. In conclusion, if you have the $200 and don't mind spending it on light bulbs this is a great product. I would encourage you to visit everyhue.com if you have questions about the product. They maintain a fantastic knowledge base and user community. Also take a look at some of the available recipes on IFTTT for the hue to see some of the really cool things that you can do with them and IFTTT. For more information on the API visit developers.meethue.com.Engadget Reader90December 16, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!I am really happy with my Hue bulbs and I think more and more people will start getting them and installing at homes in 2014. Apart from the savings in energy consumption and the noticeable longer lifetime of Hue, I found a couple of really nice uses for it. There are a couple of other smart led bulbs that I was trying to compare but I found out Philips Hue is so far the richest in features. http://smartbulbreviews.com looks to be detailing the differences among all of them in a comparison table that is easy to follow.Some of my uses: - As normal lighting. I wished they would have been producing more lumens as I think 600 lumens are not bright enough as opposed to my 1300 lumens Ikea bulbs. I need to use 2 of them to produce enough light in one room. I would say that whether the bulb produces bright enough light or not is a matter of taste and is relative from one person to another though.- For parties with the Disco app. They are a lot of fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRULTqvYhRw- As a wake up alarm! Surprisingly they work better than my loud annoying alarm. It is kind of a light therapy for sleeping patterns disorders. http://bit.ly/18NcywI- To monitor the stocks I am investing in. I set them through https://ifttt.com to turn green whenever the stocks I am investing in rise by 5% in a specific day.Engadget Reader80August 24, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!These bulbs are fun, they work really great, and with the hue app and IFTTT integration, you have a bunch of control options that make them really worth the steep price.Engadget Reader90March 28, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!I initially purchased the starter kit for my home office. The fun / geek factor was amazing for a while, but I drove my family crazy with all the brightness and color changing I was doing. The real practical use came when I put them in our kitchen. We turn the lights to a bright white to work / cook by, then dim to a nice soft yellow/white for dinning. At $60 per bulb, I don't think I'll put them anywhere else in the house, but if they price came down I'd consider it. The online community at philips hue is very nice and helpful.Engadget Reader90March 22, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!I did a review of Hue for AnandTech - you can find it here: http://bit.ly/YIuty1Engadget Reader80March 19, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!Overall I have I really like these lights but mostly for the geek factor than any practical need or use for them. They have been fun and easy to use and easy to get up and running. In my case I removed the bulbs in my office space and installed the 3 bulbs from the starter kit. My router is also in the same area so it was easy installing the base station. All of this was pretty much plug and play. I have noticed that different light settings cause different reaction from people. I don’t know if they make a huge difference but the lighting does affect the mood and it’s been interesting to play with them to get it just right.The App on the iPhone or iPad work good but has some definite room for improvement. I wish it was easier to set alarms and set recurring alarms. There is a community around the Hue lights and you can easily find different “Scenes†on line to set up the lights with. Basically each “Scene†is a picture you want to use to duplicate the color scheme in your room. Since I have 3 bulbs in the room I can set each light to have a different color and at a different intensity. This lets you dial the colors in to just how you want them. I will say that it’s easier to use the app on the iPad then on the iPhone because of the screen size.A major drawback to the bulbs is that you need the app to control them and you shouldn’t use the light switch to turn them on off. That can be a problem especially if you don’t have your iOS device with you at all times. When I first got these up and running I can’t tell you how many times I kept hitting the light switch to turn them off and on. Once you remember that your iOS device controls the light in the room your fine. But do you always want to have your phone or tablet on you at all times?I don’t see myself buying a $60 light bulb for every light socket and room in the house. But for places like the family room, and even the bedrooms I can see them being fun and even possibly beneficial in some cases. Right now I just don’t think they are the most practical for my home. I will keep them in my office and likely add another bulb to get an even spread of light in the room (basically a bulb in each corner).Would I recommend these to my friends and family? Not likely at least not right now. I think the next version of the App and a software update or two to the base station before I can recommend them. I would like to see the alarms recurring at least.Engadget Reader90March 11, 2013Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!It's a fantastic system. Creates multiple ambiances in a room. It is particularly good for a room which is multi-use. Allows you to create environments which cater to working, reading, or relaxing. Couldn't be happier with my purchase.Engadget Reader80November 7, 2012Feedback submitted!Unable to submit feedback!The Philips Hue system is a complete luxury item - cool, somewhat useful, but by no means a must-have device as far as improvement to your lifestyle. That being said, I've found that the lighting environments you can make do have an impact on mood and energy levels.Installation is a snap - take out your old bulbs, put in the new ones, turn the switches and leave them alone. Install the app on your iOS or Android device, press the button on the bridge, and you're done. You can change your bulb's lighting colors and intensity from the app using color swatches or "scenes" - photos they provide (or you can use your own), allowing you to pick anywhere on the photo to match the scene. This is mostly useful in creating mood environments in a single room with multiple Hue lights, but I wasn't able to test this.In addition, you can set timers, and use fades in or out in the timers, which is nice if you wake up in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. However, you can't currently set a repeating timer, which is annoying - I want the hallway light in my apartment on every day at 5. It's easy to set the timer - just double tap it on the app's home screen to start it again - but it still requires user interaction.The other frustrating thing about the app is that it doesn't use iCloud syncing between devices. It has rudimentary sharing that doesn't work well. Hopefully this is something they add in future updates.The price seems a bit steep, but the lights should last you about 10-15 years or so, and use less power than traditional bulbs, so you may see savings over your current lighting costs over the long term.I'd say if you have some disposable income and like the idea of the Hue, you should go for it, but by no means feel you're missing on something huge if you don't really have the cash to throw around.
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