The best smart lights on the market
We are using Philips Hue for more than six months now and had the best experience ever. This is why we think Philips Hue are the best smart lights on the market right now. The only “problem” is they cost an arm and a leg. If you think the Hue will break the bank, please review our Yeelights review. We highly recommend them because of the price.
Back to the Hue… The starting point is the Hue Bridge, we recommend buying one of the starter kits if you are just stepping in this space, it will give you all you need to start.
And please don’t go extremely crazy over the price, you will not need colored bulbs everywhere. There are many places where the “white ambiance” bulbs will do the job just fine (read on).
The setup
The setup is extremely easy, plug the Bridge into power and network, download the Hue app on the phone and follow instructions. Note the Bridge only works over LAN cable (no wireless). In our setup this is next to the TV in the living room and we were concerned the wife approval will not be easily granted. On the opposite, she loves the sleek look of the Bridge and is happy to have it displayed next to the TV.
The mobile app
The Hue app is the best, very intuitive, reach on features and working great on both Android and iOS devices. Probably the best feature is that the Bridge can be synced with multiple devices and accounts. This means that everyone at home can manage the lights individually from their own devices, regardless of the brand and OS. The change will be synced thru the Bridge and visible to everyone instantly.
Other features that stand out are: scenes, coming and leaving home, wake-up and routines. We love waking up in the morning with lights, in this mode the light will gradually come-on creating the sensation of the Sunrise. The wake-up process is very gradual and non-intrusive (opposite to the alarm clock), we love it. The Home and Away feature is great as well, there is no “did I turned off the lights in the bedroom!?” anymore. And our home is lid-up every time we come home late. Note this will activate only after sunset, light will not go on an off during the day.
Speaking of Sunset, the Hue has that covered as well… You can configure your home to light-up automatically on the evening and dim-down when it’s bed time. Attention to detail that is well made.
Lets talk scenes now… the way that Hue does this is brilliant. It will somehow know which light is up and which is down in the room. It will then have them use different colors to best represent the scene you want displayed. This works very nicely when you have mix of color and white bulbs in the room. Not as great when all lights are colored, but still very very good.
Tropical Twilight, both colored bulbs
Arctic Aurora, white bulb on top, colored on the desk
The ecosystem
The Philips Hue have the richest ecosystem – remote controls, motion sensors, all bulb sockets, light strips, spot lights, indoor and outdoor lights – you name it, they have it. They constantly introduce new features in the mobile app as well (default power-on state was added recently) and have many complimentary (mostly paid) applications.
Final verdict
Final words on the Philip Hue – they are the greatest on the market, Philips (Signify now) are manufacturing light bulbs for decades (first bulb manufactured in the early 1900’s in Eindhoven, the Netherlands). They are constantly on the cutting edge of lighting solutions (plant growing innovations) and are leading the smart home space at the moment. Also lighting solutions is their core business, you should not be worried they will abаndon this space any time soon.