Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

Reviews for Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Starter Pack

Customer Reviews and Ratings

4.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 18 reviews

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Excellent

    • Written by from Warrington

    I bought the starter set in December and installed all three lamps in my living room. One in a large white globe which sit in the floor, another under a frosted glass table that holds my computer and the last in a uptight standard lamp. The three lamp provide more than enough light for reading and general lighting needs but really come into their own when used for setting moods. We love them when watching movies, especially as I downloaded some cinema themes. They have been faultless in their operation, no issues at all. They don't flicker which one reviewer stated, so I can only assume there is some error in his setup. They use little energy and we live them.

    6 of 8 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Appalling Product

    • Written by from Barston

    Apple should be ashamed of selling such an appalling product.

    Replacing existing low energy bulbs, the Hue bulbs (2 of 4) flickered continually, which makes being in the same room distracting.

    Periodically, at different frequencies, but at one point about once an hour, the bulbs switched themselves off and back on. Which would be annoying in any device, but stops a light being useful at all.

    Colours were OK, and the setup was as simple as promised, but the basic product is just useless and not fit for purpose.
    And expensive.

    6 of 24 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    600 lumens is not such a bright idea

    • Written by from London

    If you predominantly use 60W bulbs in your house, then bear in mind that while those put out around 800 lumens, these Hue bulbs only manage 600 lumens, which is obviously a fair bit darker.

    So while these are great for use in rooms that never need to be brightly lit, they're not really suitable for kitchens or study areas.

    19 of 20 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Hue in Denmark

    • Written by from Gislev

    Words perfekt in my country, looking forward to the smaller bulbs, og the E14 bulb...
    My controllere is ipad 4 & iphone 5

    11 of 13 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Perfect!

    • Written by from Newark

    They do as it says on the box! Set them up and then 10 mins later they were working. I had to buy a converter for one of my bulbs to make it fit in the light but apart from that they are perfect.

    I hope they bring the price down of the bulbs down thats all.

    5*

    12 of 18 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    A Great Product, but easily misunderstood

    • Written by from Telford

    The Hue lighting system consists of a controller and then up to 50 bulbs. The Hue is primarily designed for domestic lighting - so the colour gamut used is tailored towards that.

    This means that some colours such as deep blues or greens are not easily achievable using the device. This is a price to pay for the stunning flexibility you have over the range of white light available. You can't tell that the light source is LED, and it reaches maximum power instantly (unlike energy saving bulbs).

    The system has been very reliable and has required no resets to get it to work. A nice touch is that when you turn a bulb on it functions exactly like a normal lightbulb - so in case of router / computer failure you are not without light.

    The software app to control the lights is definitely an early version, but Philips have recently released the SDK for developers, so more applications to use the lights will be possible.

    21 of 21 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    1 2 3 go easy !

    • Written by from Troon

    its brills, you can changes any colours you want ! .. 3 differents u can ! .. but price for one bulb is £49.99 is dear ! hopefully one day price will going down !

    but still brills !

    12 of 13 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    The best thing since sliced bread!

    • Written by from Camberley

    These lamps are amazing. Easy to set up (after buying ES lamp holders from IKEA), easy to set colours and levels on the free App (mind you the App should be free considering the cost of the lamps!), and easy to get hold of in the first place courtesy of Apple, Regent St. Have also got the Hue Disco app which is great fun if you don't mind the neighbours thinking you have a guilty secret or are just plain sad! No need for switches now as the iPhone, iPod touch, ipad does everything. A revolution in domestic lighting!

    9 of 9 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    works!!

    • Written by from skodsborg

    Easy to set up, works perfectly

    4 of 5 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Love it!!

    • Written by from Harwich

    Says 4-6 weeks online; but walked into manchester Trafford centre and there were quite a few lying there :-)
    Brought them back and it was a doddle to set them up in in the living room...
    awesome!!
    cant recommend them highly enough!

    8 of 12 people found this useful

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  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Signs of greatness, but still in beta, just a toy

    • Written by from London

    Fantastic concept, easy to set up, and cost competitive if compared with quality LED light fittings and control hardware.

    But be aware that 1) the lights are relatively dim (as per the packaging, less than 60W equivalent), meaning that they offer decorative more than functional illumination and 2) the iPhone app, at time of review in January 2013, is pretty crude.

    It seems that there are active developer and hacker communities, so the second point may be addressed in one way or another. So future iterations of hardware and software might well be worth a look. For the time being though, this is fun as an expensive toy, but not the serious lighting product required by the price.

    22 of 28 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Excellent product!

    • Written by from Braintree

    I echo everyone elses comments apart from the guy from Biggleswade - clearly if your neighbour has the same system then it would make no difference to you whatsoever owing to the fact that it is connected to YOUR WiFi network. The only way you would get "neighbour interference" is if your neighbour was connecting to your WiFi??!!

    Seriously!!!

    17 of 30 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Fun with lamps!

    • Written by from London

    I've already received my starter pack, ordered and received in December which is nice!

    The kit works well and is so simple to install, epitome of "plug and play"

    I already had 4 other Philips products that use the same "Smartlink / Zigbee" wireless technology; Gen2 LivingColor lamps, Gen3 LivingColour lamps and LivingWhites wall plug dimmers. All of these can be hooked up to the bridge after following instructions on the Hue website. I've got 7 device in total, even controlling my Christmas tree lights!

    The iOS app is definitely stronger than the Android app. The iOS app supports some great online features. You can download and submit colour schemes and set schedules/timers for your lights which is pretty awesome!

    The apps could do with some obvious improvements, mind. Duplicating scenes or creating scenes from the current light settings seem like they'd be trivial features to add.

    For the technically minded, it's possible to write your own apps to control the lights! I adapted my alarm clock app to turn the lights on! I'm looking forward to Philips opening their API so many more apps can control the lights!

    I'm really happy with the product, though there are some niggles:

    Colours are a bit pastel in tone. It's hard to make vibrant greens or blues but my biggest complaint is that the blue LEDs on the top of the bridge are a bit dazzling!

    8 of 8 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Finally

    • Written by from Bromsgrove

    Bought the starter set together with a single bulb.
    Installation is very easy, connect all, install the app and press the connect button. Nothing more to it. I simply love it, the combinations are endless, and even the misses loves it. Overall a good investment which will earn itself back over time.

    15 of 17 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Good first release.

    • Written by from Portsmouth

    The app is okay but the update that I expect will come in the Spring should add better control of groups of lights, timers etc. For example, the timer only remains active for 24 hours and needs to be set every day. The fade in over time doesn't appear to work, tried several times with no luck.
    The bulbs themselves work as advertised with the red, blue and purple hues being particularly rich, yellow and green are a little washed out. Various shades of white work well.
    The es adapters are avail from good electrical suppliers online (about £1.99) and work with bayonet connections as expected.
    I have one fitted to a sealed outdoor porch light and so far no problems (avoiding red).
    If you have spare money, like gadgets and don't mind spending a few hundred quid on lightbulbs you won't be disappointed. I have tried with iPhone, iPad and nexus 7 all work as expected. The android app has a little less functionality than the iOS version.

    18 of 19 people found this useful

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  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Great LED lights with novelty features...

    • Written by from Stafford

    I've had remote controlled lights for a while now but I had been looking for an LED alternative. When I saw the Philips Hue lighting system I just had to get them. But I could not find information anywhere on the type of bulb or their sizes to make sure I could buy the correct sized light fitting.

    I blindly bought some downlight bulb holders (type E27 after a bit more research) from B&Q but I bought a large size as I still did not know the dimensions (which I now know to be 110mm long and 62mm diameter at the widest part).

    The bulbs and the iOS app work great for a light set-up. Colours are bright and the normal white light goes well for any room. I do admit the app needs a few tweaks but it still allows you to use the complete lighting set-up so I can't see why anyone could complain.
    Bulbs are numbered on the app and can be controlled individually so control of separate rooms should be managed easily with custom scenes.

    It definitely beats flicking an old fashioned light switch on and off! I'm looking forward to any future third party apps but I wouldn't like Hue any less if it stayed the way it was. Great!

    56 of 63 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Better than most LED lamps, even for 'normal' light.

    • Written by from Newton Mearns

    These are miles ahead of most LED lamps on the market - even when just being used to provide 'white' light in any colour temperature from 2000K to 6500K.

    The sources within a Hue are not primary Red, Green and Blue as are used in other LED lighting products; The Red is a touch more 'orange', the Green is closer to a 'lime-green' and the Blue is closer to Violet. This enabled much better whites (see above) and subtle hues but it cannot achieve some colours although this is not a problem in it's intended application.

    The app itself isn't perfect - but it's a first version and will no doubt improve and for those who want a bit more control there's a simple HTTP API behind them.

    At the moment they are only available in an "E27" or "ES" base, aka 'screw fit', most UK light fittings are Bayonet ("BC" or "B22") so keep this in mind if you're planning on putting these in existing fittings although adapters are available they wont fit in all lamps.

    54 of 59 people found this useful

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  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    16 Million Colours. None of them blue.

    • Written by from Biggleswade

    I picked up a set of these just after launch. I like them, but they're very much a 'beta' product. You might want to wait.
    The biggest issue I've found is a complete inability to render blue. Even shades shown in their own promotional material (and on the box!) are impossible to render, due to the choice of LEDs. I think that poor, especially at the price.
    On the plus side, they're easy to install and set up, and it's pretty cool to control lighting from an iPhone/iPad etc.
    On the negative side, aside from the colour rendition, the app is pretty clunky. Many features seem to be missing - proper control of rooms, grouping lights, easy set up of pre-set scenes. All obvious features. You can't even remove lamps, and as it auto-adds new lamps I have no clue what would happen if a neighbour also had the same system.
    On top of which, the bulbs are only available in what is one of the rarest fitting types in the UK with no word on anything else (so only a handful, if any, of your existing lamps can be fitted out).
    It's a good (if expensive) start, but they have a long way to go.

    191 of 226 people found this useful

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