With voice control for Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant, each kit includes two dimmable soft white A19 bulbs, a Hue Bridge, ethernet cable, power adapter, manual, and three-year warranty.
Product Packaging:Standard Packaging Combining energy efficiency with intuitive controls the Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit changes the way you control and experience light at home. Enhance your home with soft white lighting, controlled remotely wherever you are. Set timers and light schedules, automating your lights to make it seem like someone is home even when you are away. With everything you need to get started, this easy-to-use kit comes with two A19 LED smart bulbs, able to fit standard table lamps and the Philips Hue Bridge that can control up to 50 lights. Install the LED lights as you would install ordinary bulbs. They are pre-paired with the Hue Bridge, which allows you to control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App. Easily expand your smart lighting system with Hue accessories (sold separately), such as a Hue Dimmer Switch, Hue Tap, or Hue Motion Sensor. Pair it for automation with your existing Nest or Samsung SmartThings system. With voice control for Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant, each kit includes two dimmable soft white A19 bulbs, a Hue Bridge, ethernet cable, power adapter, manual, and three-year warranty.
Works with Echo. Was very easy to set up and use. This starter kit included two bulbs, but we quickly realized we wanted more. Searching Amazon for additional WHITE bulbs that were compatible with the HUE Bridge was confusing and ultimately pointless (and I’ve never felt like that - they usually have everything).But I found the correct bulbs at Bestbuy for $15 each. I went and picked up 7 more the day after Christmas. In case you are struggling to find the white wireless bulbs for the HUE Bride, search for Model: 455295 / SKU: 4374300If you are using with Echo, make sure to create “Groups” and name the groups something simple, like “Living Room”. Echo had a very hard time understanding “Alexa, turn Hue Lights On”, but she understands “Alexa, turn the Living Room on” every time. You can even create sub groups. For example - I have “Living Room”, Dinning Room”, “The Lights” (Which is both living and dinning room) and even small groups like “Lamps” (which are just 2 of my living room lights).Easy and it works.
I recently decided to see what the whole commotion was in regards to an “Automated Home.” Several Amazon Dots and various smart accessories later, my home is tricked out and I must say, it’s awesome. This is one of the rare purchases and features that makes me stop and say “Damn, the future is now”. Out of all the smart accessories I purchased, the Hue is my favorite. It took all of 3 minutes to setup and has been working like a charm. I initially purchased the TP Link version of smart lighting, but they couldn’t stay on my network for the life of them. One quick exchange later, and the Hue was here and set up. It’s quick, responsive, pairs with Alexa in no time at all, and the best thing yet; it’s almost endlessly upgradable (for the normal sized home, that is.) if you have been throwing the idea of automating your home around, and have a couple houndred dollars lying around (I automated pretty much everything for around $400 which includes the Amazon Dots for a few different rooms), pull the trigger. You won’t regret it. Just make sure your Network has full coverage of your home to prevent frustration. Also, to anyone disappoint the hub is not WIFI based there is a reason for that. Reliability. This hub transmits the signal to all of your Hue devices. Nothing would frustrate people more than a dodgy wireless signal relaying their request to their other devices. A hardwired connection ensures every relay is transmitted correctly and appropriately. Hard wired connections may be “ugly” but they ensure quality transfer rates!
These things are neat.That’s really the sum of the entire smart home automation experience, which the Phillips Hue is a microcosm of.Realistically speaking there are two avenues of approach with regards to smart lighting. You can either install smart switches, which would in turn control all of the bulbs connected to that switch. Or you can go for smart bulbs, which are a more individual approach. There are pros and cons to each method, but I won’t get into that debate here. This is about the smart bulbs and bridge listed here.First of all, these bulbs are the white spectrum dimmer bulbs in the Hue set. They don’t do colors, but a full range of white temperatures.The app for controlling the bulbs is firmly “okay”. It offers things like bulb grouping (for designating rooms, mainly), time programming (turn the lights on to 25% at 5:30pm, for the cat :3), and location/proximity triggers (when you detect my phone is nearby, turn the lights on. When I leave, turn them off). It does this through a somewhat clunky, inflexible UI that obfuscates things behind layered menus. It’s sometimes hard to figure out where you are in the app, or if what you just programmed has been truly set up. The one thing the app does right is that it offers a master on/off switch for all of your bulbs at the top no matter where you are in it.Alexa integration is great, and should be a primary decider for you in this purchase. Alexa lets you name bulb groups and do simple commands for the lights i.e. “Alexa, dim the bedroom to 50%” or similar. If you already have Alexa coverage in the room(s) you intend to use these in, it’s great. It really feels like we’re living in the future.The main rub with these bulbs is that they require the socket they’re in to always be “on”. This makes them ideal for lamps, since those are always plugged in anyway and benefit well from both individual control and grouping. They still work okay for permanent fixtures and sockets, but with some catches that I’ll get to next. If the source for the bulb is turned off and then back on, the bulb will behave as a normal lightbulb. The obvious issue with this will be evident should you ever lose power - when power is restored all of your smart bulbs will be on.Another detriment, one that seems to be a sort of side-effect behavior is that, since the bulbs are controlled by an app that lives on one person’s phone, if you don’t have any secondary control schemes then people will just avoid using the lights at all. Worse still, they’ll wind up flipping a switch twice as much to accomplish what normal bulbs used to, and as a bonus interrupt your current programming.Even myself, if I don’t have my phone on me at all times, then what is included in this package is basically objectively less useful than a real lightbulb. Of course, Phillips is all too happy to sell you programmable switches, motion detectors, or offer up the Amazon Dot as a solution. Note that none of these things comes in under $35. Each.If I had to make a closing statement, to cease my rambling, it’s this:This is a good product that could be a great product if you’re willing to go all-in and deck it out with the whole nine yards, and kit out your whole home to support them. There are things that I could envision doing with the Hue switches, color bulbs, motion detectors, voice commands etc. that could come out being really awesome and simultaneously more expensive than I can justify all at once.
Do not buy this thinking one of the highly rated third party Windows apps will work. All you will get is the ability to turn the lights on and off.
I love this product. I love showing it off to people when they come to my house. It was one of my first buy after I bought my Echo.
I’ve used these bulbs for a couple of months and they work great. I’ve setup a time schedule and they perform very well.
Late adapter but love this system. Wish it came i daylight. It awesome to not be able to use a light switch. Have not touch a switch in my house in months
Couldn’t Get These To Work.. Returned And Purchased TP Link Bulbs…Which have been easy to install and have worked flawlessly.
Do not be fooled or upset if you open this and it says all over it that it only works for apple OS. The printed instructions must be old, because the google App store had the…
These are great! Use them with my iPhone and Echo. I have since added a few more light bulbs with no issues. The dimming feature is a really nice touch.
These lightbulbs are amazing. They work well with Alexa and the app is great. Since my first purchase I have since added to my arsenal of hue lightbulbs and I’ve only started…
I got the starter kit for my husband and myself because he is crazy about having to have certain lights on at night to be able to walk through the house, but then he doesnt turn…
comments powered by DisqusDid does not work with my Insteon system!