Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

Reviews for Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 159 reviews

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Great but needs a bit more features

    • Written by from reseda

    Setup was quick and easy. Control is instant and the color and light output is great. The app takes a bit of learning, and is pretty basic right now. Looks like pairing of bulbs or areas together can only be done if you setup a preset that you program. Hard to figure out what bulb you are controlling outside of a preset, would be nice if you could just tap a bulb or bulbs then a preset, color or global control for them, as well as define pairs or groups ahead of time. My biggest disappointment is no way to set the default color and output when they are turned on with a switch, right now it resets and defaults to a very warm light. Would be awesome if you could program what setting they go to when powered on via switch, including an option for them to go to the last used. Other people in the house don't use an app to turn the lights on/off so when the switch is used it defaults back to the warm light and you have to power up the app and reset it back to what you want every time if a switch is used. Looking forward to some improvements in the control and what 3rd party developers come up with.

    60 of 65 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Promising, Yet Disappointing

    • Written by from Dallas

    Hue- great idea. This is an amazing idea. Too bad Apple and Philips have placed this on the market before it's developed enough to do anything. This product WILL NOT create a lighting schedule OR recurring timer. If you're wanting automation, a wake-up alarm or light to come on automatically while on vacation, this is not the product- at least not yet.

    I was highly disappointed that the timer is only 24 hour. There are no daily or recurring schedule options. Also, this will not fully mimic a clear incandescent light bulb- it cannot match it, and it casts no shadows or depth you might be used to. Light bulbs are not "Cool to the Touch," gray plastic housing the electronics gets very warm.

    I fear the money we spent on this will be lost. If Philips continues to grow their App and offers the kind of custom options expected for lighting with this kind of technology, most of my worries will go away. If not, I see Hue quickly disappearing. DO NOT succumb to your impulses- wait it out and see if this goes somewhere or gets abandoned by its maker.

    40 of 44 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Love It & Hate It

    • Written by from WEST LINN

    How can something be so cool in some ways be so lame in others?

    CONS:
    1) Bulbs in starter set are permanently tied to the bridge. The bulb are supposed to last 15 years. If the bridge has a problem then I lose $180 in bulbs

    2) I have two bridges, one in my home, one in my home office. I wanted to switch my extra Hue bulb from home to office. There was no intuitive way to do this or info on the website. I wrote Phillips tech support and they said, "Reset the bridge and ghost bulbs are forgotten." But wait a second. What if I was using 50 bulbs as it can do. To move one I have to forget 46 (not counting the three permanently tied to bridge).
    This is absurd!

    Phillips motto is "Sense and Simplicity." I got news for you Philips, all of the above makes no sense and it's not simple.

    3) The App is counter intuitive and the script font is useless to actually read.

    4) I have two bridges and can't name them. I have to recognize them by IP address. Obviously with only two bridges it's not difficult to remember which is which, but that doesn't make it any less lame.

    5) It's only 600 lumens. It's not going to be the primary illumination.

    PROS:

    1) It is really cool. We have a three paper lantern lamp and my professional artist wife spent a half hour dialing in her perfect combination for holiday party.

    2) In my office I find the pre-sets for energize, concentration and relax very useful. Then I created others like red alert.

    3) The bulbs are only 600 lumens so they are not going to be a primary illumination if you actually want to see something, but for ambience and accents they are awesome.

    I've created great accents in the home theater. Like putting a light behind the wood stove. If I make the light orange you see the silhouette of the stove and the orange light like fire. Very cool.

    4) Apps can be fixed so hopefully the non sense and non simplicity will get fixed.

    35 of 37 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Good hardware. Abysmal software. Nonfunctional distant remote control.

    • Written by from Lenexa

    When I say good, I don't mean great. As mentioned elsewhere the light output on these are underwhelming. I read that starter pack bulbs are locked to the base they come with. I can't imagine any scenario where this is helpful to a consumer or benefits the manufacturer.

    Software for this has been discussed in other reviews. I agree that the interface is backwards and convoluted. It is ugly and fails to do the things it claims. The fade in/fade out does not work on any interval with the alarms. To turn an alarm on or off you have to select the picture, which changes the lights. Alarm settings should work the other way around. I choose the time I want the lights to change or come on and then I pick how they should change without changing the lights before the alarm goes off.

    To me the worst failing of this system is the portal, which is what they call the web based control. Controlling it when you are out or on vacation is one of their big selling points. It does not work! I expected a delay while the portal contacted the base, but it fails from my computer and from my phone when I turn off the phone's wifi. It says it is connected through the portal on my phone and indicates the bulb settings you select even though there is no change whatsoever to the light. My computer was even on the same wifi network and it did nothing.

    Even with all it's shortcomings, this is a really fun product. I enjoy it immensely. My issue is that the company promised so many things and then didn't deliver. If they added these features later after they worked that would have been a far better strategy. They also should have considered asking apple to develop the software.

    34 of 38 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Great idea; dim bulbs.

    • Written by from Bay Minette

    The Philips Hue is a great idea, moderately well executed. The bridge is easy to set up (though it'd be better if it supported WiFi connections to the home network) and the bulbs feel well-made. They definitely output a wide range of colors, and the third party apps available in the App Store are fun novelties. Two things keep the Hue from being truly great.

    First is the light output. These bulbs output only 600 lumens each; less than a 60-watt incandescent bulb. I have three lamps in my 8-square-feett office. I installed a Hue bulb in each, but it's not bright enough for comfortable night time reading. This presents a dilemma -- do I add another lamp and buy another Hue bulb, or replace one of the Hue bulbs with a 1100-lumen CFL? The usefulness and interest of Hue comes from being able to control all of the light in a room, so having to rely on other types of bulbs seems inelegant. But in such a small room, I don't really have space for a fourth light fixture. I'll probably wait for Philips to make higher-lumen Hue bulbs, and eventually move these to places where I generally want less light output -- bedside lamps, etc.

    The second issue is the Philips Hue app. The user interface is mystifying, as it's based around choosing colors from photographs. I expected to find a standard color palette to choose the bulb colors, and there is one, but it's hidden in a collection of sample photos. The whole experience really needs to be re-thought, making the process of choosing colors and adjusting brightness more of a primary activity, instead of basing everything around a strange collection of pre-set colors.

    25 of 29 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Cool but not ready for prime time

    • Written by from WASHINGTON

    The Hue is a brilliant concept, and the lights themselves are great and easy to hook up. The app, however, is disappointingly rudimentary, and until that is fixed, it renders this system little more than a gimmick. One example is that you have to set the timer each time you want the lights to come on -- there is no way to set daily, recurring times. Also, if you switch the lights off with a switch, they will default to their plain color, so you pretty much have to rely on the app -- and once the novelty of controlling lights with your phone wears off, that can get pretty old.

    22 of 28 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Good for mood, not for light

    • Written by from New York

    These lights are pretty nifty, but at 600 lumens don't really throw off enough light for much. They are an expensive, innovative way of decorating with light, just don't expect it to be a great reading light.

    15 of 15 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Nice but consider this . . .

    • Written by from Las Vegas

    - FIRST you need to consider how you'll use these bulbs. Your control is thru the app. Do you really want to have to grab your device every time you want to turn the light on? These are great for 'atmospheric' lights, but not utility lights. So then is it worth the price?
    - Setup in the house was easy, but I'm still having trouble connecting my bridge to my online account. 2 emails to Philips over 2 days have gotten no response yet.
    - The bulbs are nice and bright, just the amount I need.
    - The pick a color via photo is a bit gimmicky. I'd be fine with just a color wheel.
    - Color range is huge.
    - It took me a while to figure out a real easy way to create my own settings.
    - The price is a major factor. The price will have to come down before I start to add more lights.

    15 of 16 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Good not Great

    • Written by from Milton

    The concept of wifi-controlled lighting is amazing and the Philips Hue delivers. My issue is solely with the app. The timer functionality is poorly implemented. First off, they are not timers as they need to be reset/restarted EVERY SINGLE DAY. I want it to be setup once and be done with it. Let the system take care of itself. The timers I have created turn lights on and off and set the scene (such as a night light in my daughter's room); but it is useless, if I need re-enable them nightly. Additionally, timers are not (as far as I can tell) saved to the portal nor sync-ed to other controller apps. I suspect (but have no evidence) that the scenes are stored locally and when the SAVE button is pressed it is sync'ed across controllers. A central repository needs to be defined and self-managed (a la Sonos).

    Secondly, the picture-color selector is a neat gimmick, but it is just that; a gimmick. Give me a color wheel option as part of the "recipes".

    Thirdly, there is no indication that the iphone controller app is connected via the web portal or directly (other than the really bad lag). And there is no way to toggle between or retry wifi connection.Meaning, if I have fiddled with the app while outside of my home wifi, it switches itself to connect via the portal; once I return home, I need to kill the app to force it reconnect via wifi.

    Finally, the scenes view is a bit childish (I say that because my 6 year old loves to play with it). Eventually users want a screen that shows the lights (possibly grouped) with color and dimmer sliders.

    All these shortcomings are application-related and are easily fixed. Cheers to Philips for making my Christmas lighting really easy this year ;) One red, one green, one red...

    The only hardware problem that I see, is when the physical switch is turned off and on, the light reverts to regular light (rather than the last used lighting color strategy). I am okay with this, but would rather see an option in the app to control this behaviour. Case in point, you are on vacation and the power fails for a few moment; all the lights will be on until you return.

    13 of 14 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Hue shortcomings

    • Written by from AUSTIN

    I have two noteworthy shortcomings of the HUE app that might influence your purchase decision. I might NOT have purchased the starter kit if I was aware of these. I hope that they are corrected in a third party app (as Philip's support suggests) or Philips corrects them in a future release. 1.) The scene alarms (timers) can only be set 24 hours in advance while connected to your home network. You can not create new scenes unless you are on your home network. 2.) Scene alarms are not persistent. After 24 hours away from your home network, the only thing you can do with the app is turn the lights on/off, adjust brightness and adjust light color remotely. This does not replace light timers.

    9 of 10 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    fun but iOS app is lacking

    • Written by from Phoenix

    The lights themselves are pretty fun to play with. And the system is super easy to configure and works just great. That said, the iOS app is severely lacking some very major features (like turning all the lights on, there's one for "all off" but none for "all on" durrrr!!!! And the iPad app flakes out in navigating your photo collection.

    Also interesting to note ... Philips has said they are giving up on the consumer market ... and I'm not sure what this will mean for continued support. Also extra bulbs are extremely difficult to acquire (only available via the Apple Store if at all!).

    9 of 11 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    No fade in or fade out

    • Written by from Barcelona

    Overall the product isn't bad but it has 2 big problems:

    1 - It doesn't fade in / fade out. Simply switch on or off! To switch lights out and on a timer can do it for less money. The advertisement video clearly shows it, but after several attempts I couldn't do it.

    2 - doesn't memorize the alarm, you have to set it each day, again the timer does a better job that this system.

    I leave also a suggestion, integration with iCloud to avoid the double work of doing the same light scenes on several devices

    10 of 14 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Timer work?

    • Written by from South park

    hi everybody, pretty much same review, great lights, not so great software, bad app.

    but, I cannot get the timer to work either on or off. no matter what I selecrt, 3 or 9 minute fade in or out they come on fully bright or shutoff right away,

    Any ideas??

    9 of 12 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Great Bulb, Lame App

    • Written by from San Diego

    I would give the bulb 5 stars, but the app 1 star.

    The App loses all its scenes and needs to be reset to mostly recover its mind, but re-downloaded to fully recover. The process of moving a scene from page to page can confuse it. It's a poor remote control, at best, in its current form.

    The bulb seems solid and I hope the software will mature to provide better support and automation. Maybe 3rd parties will be allowed to provide a decent app, maybe a "disco" mode to play to my music...

    6 of 6 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Overhyped but not bad

    • Written by from Berkeley

    Like most shiny new tech things this really only delivers about 70% of what's promised out of the box. The bulbs themselves are great; solid construction, nice range of colors, decent illumination. But the software is just awful; non-intuitive, timers are available ONLY on picking colors from pictures, etc. Further, the system requires a restart of your device after adding new bulbs, and often they still don't respond. Definitely a first gen software clunker.

    5 of 7 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Bulbs are awesome, brightness is not

    • Written by from SPOKANE

    Just like the title says, the bulbs are great. Adjusting the colors, brightness, on, off, timer, all from an iPhone app is neat and the variety gives you many many different lighting options at the touch of a finger. Hopefully the app is refined to be a bit more functional and less fun (I'd like a basic control that just lets me adjust light and color, rather then the scene or mood selections the app uses).

    The brightness of the bulbs is a big let down. I have an air purifier that has a light sensor on it (when the lights are on, it knows I'm awake and runs normally, when the lights are off, it runs in quiet mode). I used to light my living room with a chandelier powered by a single fluorescent light bulb, and that was more then enough for the whole room. I replaced that with TWO Philips hue bulbs, and even with two bulbs AND an additional lamp, its still not enough light to wake up the air purifier in the same room.

    So the product gets 3 stars for a nice start, I look forward to improvements in the app and to brighter light bulbs (even having made the initial investment, I'll be first in line to purchase better bulbs when they're offered).

    5 of 7 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Great concept, but not enough lumens

    • Written by from Billerica

    I installed these in my TV room (20x25') and they are just too dim to fill the space with enough light to, for example, simulate a bright sunny day on a beach, even at their brightest. Otherwise the product works as advertised. I will wait until 75W equivalent (or higher) bulbs become available before expanding my system.

    4 of 6 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Cool, mostly well done, but expensive

    • Written by from Briarcliff Manor

    I had this setup for a couple weeks before deciding to return them. Setup was pretty easy, everything worked as advertised. In general i just cant see spending the $$ on these for what they offer. I also would like some different size bulbs - i put these in my recessed lighting fixtures in the master bedroom and the leave too much space - they are smaller than a regular flood bulb that goes into a standard recessed lighting enclosure.

    i may try these again if the price comes down, or they offer more options. but right now, in my opinion, not really worth the money they charge.

    5 of 9 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Good, but needed a new wi-fi router!!

    • Written by from Philadelphia

    Got to start by saying you need a wi-fi router with an EXTRA ethernet/lan port. I have been using the plug in the wall Airport Express for the past 2 years and figured I was all set to use this product out of the box. Yes, the requirements do state a wi-fi router, but it makes no mention to needed a free/empty port. Seen as my router was Apple, i thought i was in good hands. More fool me... Im now down over $300 before even getting the lights to work.

    Lights do work well and are fun, but they are a little less impactful as they are in the video (the magic of editing i guess). Agree with the call outs that there needs to be a basic color wheel option in the app and the timer interface needs a major overhaul, but i found it pretty easy to use. So far, we are on a rotation of only 3 or 4 'hues' but look forward to experimenting more when we have people over and are entertaining vs sitting on the couch watching TV.

    All in all, cool product, but still bummed i had to spend another $100 to replace what was a perfectly good wi-fi router without any mention of needing a new one.

    8 of 15 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    ONLY for Apple Products

    • Written by from Fort Lauderdale

    I read the reviews online and they were dead on accurate. The lights are great fun to play with and they have a full range of colors. They are not bright, about 50w. My biggest issue is I don't have an Apple device. I was using an Android and the app is still in development. No alarm, no timer and no remote connection. If you don't have an iPhone or iPad, don't bother. If you do, might be just the thing you're looking for.

    7 of 41 people found this useful

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