Reviews for Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

I give the hardware 4.5 stars ... the only change I would like is to be able to make it ramp up to a full 1000 lumens. I give the software 3.5 stars ... totally useable and crash-free. However, it is definitely in it's infancy. I predict that this product will be a game-changer once the software evolves a little bit. Would like to see the software be able to seamlessly integrate with Indigo (already in alpha), Nest, and some kind of home security hardware/software.

No issues yet. I hear about it possibly not working remotely, but I personally don't even see the need to change my lighting while I am out of the house.

i just receved my Starterkit (3 Bulp) and plus 3 Bulps extra.
after setup HUE it is finding just the 3 extra Bulp but not the 3 Bulp's from starter kit.
after 3 times reseting the bridge no better result.
until yet no answer from the philips....

This product is awesome. It is a bit expensive but being able to control your lights via your iOS device and change the color of the light based on your mood is pure genius. Philips did a great job on designing this product!

The best Christmas present! It works great. The cons mentioned by others are surely true, but I am sure in future updates of the app there will be improvements e.g. more settings for time (on and of). Now limited.

I bought a Starter Kit and 1 additional bulb.

Pros:
- solid, quality, dimmable LED bulbs.
- very easy setup — bulbs which are included to the Starter Kit are already "paired" with bridge.
- easy addition of new bulbs.
- lamps will go to defaults (color, brightness) after turning off with wall switch — a safety feature!
- local control through Wi-Fi using iPhone / iPad is fast and reliable.
- you can control which scenes to sync to which devices from meethue.com website

Cons:
- There is no Candelabra bulbs, only standard E26 bulbs.
- Philips cloud is a joke! I've got an enormous number of errors from Google App Engine while interacting with meethue.com website. Bulb status (on/off) is often different on website and in my room.
- Each time when you register a new iPad/iPhone it will get a default scenes from Philips. When app will be (re)started next time on that device, it will ask you if you want to sync your scenes to other devices. If you answer "yes" then you'll get a default recipes on your other devices again. Very inconsistent user's experience.
- Bulbs emit high-frequency noise in soft-off mode. My wife can't hear that noise but I can hear it. It shouldn't be a problem if you plan to place your bulbs to a floor lamp heading them to ceiling but I do not recommend using those bulbs in lamps on your desk. If you turn off your bulbs with a wall switch than that noise goes away.
- There is no off button for scene, only off button for all bulbs. If you want to turn off particular set of bulbs off without touching other bulbs than you need to select any scene which include those bulbs and select "O" in submenu.
- Non-existing support for now. All what you get is meethue.com with FAQ list.
- On/off timers are buggy. I initially created a timer for turning my bulbs off and on and reached a limit very fast. After that I deleted default scenes including those ones with existing timers. Next morning when I tried create a turn-off timer, a first one for existing scenes, app complained that "You have reached the maximum number of active alarms, please deactivate another alarm and try again.". But I have no other alarm defined in my active scenes! Also there is no way to tell application "turn off that scene in 10 minutes from now" or "wake me up tomorrow at 6:30am using that scene" — you need to edit a scene and those changes will be permanent.
- There is no alarm management or bulbs management within a scene through portal — it must be done using an app.
- Delay while controlling scene through Internet is >10 seconds.
- There is no way to determine an offline bulbs — those which were turned off using wall switch.

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 product gave me this "One more thing" feeling again, getting something that I haven´t expected and genuinely surprised me for it´s innovation and quality.

This product is gorgeous! It just works. It will make your home a bit more comfortable and more enjoyable.

I was first interested just in the ability to control my lighting remotely via my iPhone. I thought the idea of changing the colors of the bulbs seemed a bit of a gimmick, but it is actually very nice. It's nice to be able to control not only the temperature of the "white" color, but the actual hue of the lamps.

The app is great and the degree of customization is amazing. Extremely easy to set up. Took me longer to put the 3 bulbs into the fixture than it did to set up the hub and the app.

Wish the bulbs weren't so expensive. I'd put them everywhere in my house. Brightness is good mounted in recessed lighting cans in the ceiling. Would be nice if they were just a touch brighter, but they'll be fine.

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.