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Philips Hue is finally affordable. At $14.95, the Philips Hue White smart light bulb isn’t exacty a bargain, but the price has come a long way from the original Hue bulb. We’ve seen plenty of connected lights since then, including some affordable options from big names like Cree and GE, and smaller ones like TikTeck. But the Philips Hue line has remain unsurpassed in terms of features and support, and the Philips Hue White brings those benefits to a price tag that makes it possible to outfit your entire home in smart bulbs. That makes the Hue White worthy of our Editors’ Choice.
Pricing and Design
The Philips Hue White ($14.99 at Newegg)(Opens in a new window) replaces the Philips Hue Lux line. At $14.95 apiece, you’re paying a quarter of the price of the color-changing Hue bulbs, or the same price as the white-only Cree Connected LED and GE Link bulbs.
In order to control the Hue White with your phone, you need a hub like the Philips Hue Bridge 2.0 or the Wink Connected Home Hub. (You can get two Hue White bulbs in a bundle with the Hue Bridge 2.0 for $79.95.) The Cree and GE bulbs also require the use of a hub. Bluetooth-only bulbs like the TikTeck Smart LED don’t require a hub, but you’re limited to control only when you’re within Bluetooth range, which means you can’t modify them when you’re out and about.
Philips Hue White Review
Equipped with an E26 screw that will fit in most lamps and fixtures, the Hue White is a simple LED bulb that measures 4.2 inches tall and 2.4 inches across at its widest point. It’s made of smooth white matte plastic at the base, and a shinier opaque plastic above. There are no vents or exposed hardware like in the Cree or GE Link, respectively. The Hue White is capable of shining at 800 lumens of brightness, which is roughly the same as a traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb. That’s the same as the GE Link, and just slightly lower than the Cree Connected LED (815 lumens).
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As its name suggests, the Hue White only radiates soft white light at a color temperature of 2,700K. You’ll need to pay more if you want a color-changing bulb like the original Hue or the LIFX Color 1000. Philips estimates the bulb will last almost 23 years based on three hours of usage per day, which makes for about 25,000 hours total. The Cree and and GE bulbs are also rated for up to 25,000 hours of use.
As for energy efficiency, the Hue White has the competition beat. The Hue White uses 9.5 watts, which is less than both the Cree (11.5 watts) and GE options (12 watts).
Setup, App, and Performance
Installation is simple. If you’re using a Hue Bridge, you just need to screw the Hue White into a socket, switch it on, download the free Philips Hue app on your Android or iOS device, and follow the instructions from there. It shouldn’t take more than a minute. I connected the Hue White bulb with both an Apple iPhone 6 and a Samsung Galaxy S6 with no problem.
The Philips Hue app has received a refresh since the last time I used it, and the interface has been streamlined considerably. Now you can more easily name rooms, arrange bulbs, and adjust the brightness of entire groups of lights. I liked the app before, but now it stands as the best one out there.
The Home screen is a list of your rooms with Hue lights installed. Each room has a toggle switch next to it so you can switch all of the lights on or off at once. Tap the room and you’re taken to a screen where you can individually control every light in that room on one screen.
At the top of the screen you’ll find tabs for Scenes, Routines, and More. Scenes are essentially pre-programmed lighting scenarios designed to evoke a particular mood. Under Routines, you can set schedules and timers for when you’re away from home. More lets you log in to your Philips Hue account so you can control your lights from a remote location. You can also hook the lights up with If This Then That (IFTTT) here, which lets you create recipes that automatically cause the lights to react to certain triggers, like phone notifications or changes in weather.
If you use an Apple device, you can tell Siri to turn your lights on or off, or to set the lights to specific scenes via Apple’s smart home protocol HomeKit. And if you have an Amazon Echo or another Alexa-equipped device, you can download a third-party Philips Hue widget in the Echo app so you can use Alexa to control your lights.
Conclusions
For $15, the Philips Hue White isn’t going to replace the standard $2 CFL bulb anytime soon. But for anyone looking to get into smart lighting (not to mention existing Hue users), the Hue White is an excellent option. It’s affordable enough that you can add multiple bulbs around your home without taking out a second mortgage, and the Hue ecosystem simply has more features, support, and versatility than any other smart bulb line out there. That makes it our Editors’ Choice for smart bulbs.
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The Philips Hue White is the best way to bring smart lighting to your home on a reasonable budget.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/philips-hue-white
