Reviews for Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

Brought the starter pack. Set up complete in less than a minute. LIght controls are easy to use. Would definitely buy more bulbs... Hopefully will get cheaper.

Just picked this up tonight and had the system running in a few minutes.
The only issue I had was that I was using my phone and I could not connect to the router. I had to disable cell service to "be on the same network" to recognize the system.

We have many existing Philips LED lights but we prefer the color changing capabilities so we can get the "warm" light even at high light output!

These are expensive but worth the price in a few areas of the house. I put ours in the Master bedroom.

I am still learning the App, hoping that I can do grouping, scheduling and fading of lights.

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.

What's good - easy to install and easy to use. The lights themselves render excellent colours.

What's not - software is very limited, especially in regards to setting timers. There isn't any mechanism to schedule re-occuring scenes (ie - turn on the lights every morning). All you can do is schedule a scene to turn on in the next 24 hours.

Overall - great for setting lighting scenes to meet your every mood. But if you are looking at something to support home automation, the current version of the software (both the website and the ios app) is too limiting.

Really easy to set up and it works really well.
You can share scenes with other people and turn off/on, change the lights through their website at no extra cost.
It would be good to have different size bulbs so I can use them in more places.

This is a great idea executed very poorly. They obviously spent a lot of time on the bulb/hardware and the control app was an afterthought. I am returning my entire system after fighting with it and Hue's poor support for ~2 weeks. Some examples:

Advertised: "Can I turn hue into a wake up light? You can use the timer option and turn hue into your morning wake up call." [direct quote from Hue's website].

Reality: You can set a timer/alarm to fade in your lights. ONCE. You have to re-setup the alarm every day, there is no repeat option.
Additionally, I've only been able to set up 2 timers (I get an error in the app when saving the third timer that I have exceeded the allowed number of timers and I must deactivate one.) I own four bulbs in different rooms....having only two timers is a silly limitation that makes Hue not useful.

Avoid this until the app/software gets a bunch of these issues worked out.

I was really surprised at what a REALLY well put together product this turned out to be; the hardware and packaging is top notch. The iPhone and iPad app is ideal. I'm very pleased with this purchase. It's one of the coolest things I've bought in a long time. Philips really thought through usability in my opinion. I plan on expanding to many more bulbs. I have a three story townhome and I tested the bulbs on each level and they work flawlessly. I was worried about the distance between the bulbs/base, but it does not seem to be an issue. I have the base in my basement and the test bulb in the top level; works perfectly. I do hope the individual bulb prices come down a bit as i would love to have them all over the house. Given the order backlog, they must be pretty popular right now! I was hoping to order a set or two as Christmas gifts.

Web page says 1-2 month shipping but my nearest Apple Store had them in stock. It took <5min to install.

For home automation fans, Indigo already has a plug-in available so the lights integrate flawlessly.

Weekend's here... Put some lounge music on AirPlay, mix up some martinis, and set the lights.

After using the HUE system for a couple of days now i am not happy. especial the application is very buggy and does things i don't expect.
I paid 200 euro's. I expect more from a Philips product that is "linked" to a "Apple audience".
If Apple should release this product, i should NEVER BE released at all !!

The lightbulb:
Can't make the color blue

Application:
randomly craches, even when i'm doing nothing with it.
Seems to be "busy" all the time (spinning indicator in the IOS bar on top of the screen)
When i have the swipe panel (white panel) in the up state and swipe it down, the messages panel from IOS comes down. (active areas are to close to each other)

Scenes:
Scenes do random change position in the list or end up in a new page that i didn't create
Scenes do sometimes disappear or suddenly re-appear. (in some cases the scene is in place but without an image)
Scenes sometimes group up colour pickers into one picker ( i didn't create this)
In one rare case i had 11 bulb markers in the beach scene. (i have only 3 bulbs)
When dimming the group slider to almost zero (scene dimming) bulb 1 goes off and the other two stay on. I can only switch bulb 1 back on by selecting another scene.
When selecting a scene the pencil (edit) button is relative small and does not respond directly when trying to touch

Timers:
The settings for timers are not user friendly. When i change the time, 2 error messages pop up that i have set the maximum amount of timers. (why? changing = replacing)
Why are the timers called "alarm"?
Why are some timer icons grey and only one is red. (i assume it's related to the active scene, but that isn't true)
My current scene (relax scene) was switched off by a timer setting from another scene

Internet (meethue.com site):
A lot of error messages (little red bar) with server/communication error message or full white page with " internal server error" while changing scenes.
Slow response of the website ( i have a 60Mbit internet connection and the Hue website takes up till 20 seconds to display )

Another (small) thing: You talk about the low power consumption of the bulbs, also when in standby, but you not say anything about the base station. ( if you talk about 0.0x Watt, then you also mention the 5Watt from the base station)

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.