Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Single Pack

Reviews for Philips Hue Connected Bulb - Single Pack

Customer Reviews and Ratings

4.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 46 reviews

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Spectacular Lights, Mediocre App

    • Written by from Stamford

    First off, this is a really fun and amazing product -- and this is definitely the future of lighting. The ability to load a photograph and change the color of the room with that photograph remotely is nothing short of amazing. Everything works as advertised, but I agree with some of the criticism regarding the included FREE app. I would have given this five stars if the app had been fully thought-out. But hey, it's version 1.0 -- there's plenty of room and time to improve -- and I'm hopeful they will. There looks to be some fun 3rd party apps for the Hue system, but I've only tried the Disco one, which is ok (nothing mind-blowing).

    Set-up time was about 10-15 minutes -- I just put the bulbs in, turned the lights on, hooked up the bridge to my Wi-Fi router and followed the directions (you must push a button on the bridge at the prompt). It's pretty simple.

    I think the Hue App needs the following:
    - Ability to organize lights by room

    - Easier method of instantly changing individual light colors (the interface requires that you turn the device sideways to switch to a color picker)

    - Better pre-set management -- my kids have already created dozens of photo pre-sets and I'd really like to keep them separate from my own (more sophisticated) color preferences. If you hold your finger down on an icon, it jiggles like other icons in the iOS -- but it is very difficult to re-arrange and organize and there are no folders.

    - Overall, the interface could use some expert UI design work -- the hierarchy of information is a bit muddled and frustrating at first. I know there is always a learning curve to new apps, etc. -- but this app is a bit awkward.

    - The scheduling interface is blah -- could be much better.

    - One crit about the lights themselves: It seems to be difficult to get a perfect, rich blue -- it tends to go toward cool white or purple -- I haven't been able to achieve a perfect blue. Perhaps this could be remedied if we had access to actual color numeric values in the app? RGB = 0, 0, 255 for example.

    Otherwise, we are having immense fun with these lights. They really do change the mood instantly, and it's very useful for things like reading, concentrating, relaxing, etc.

    Yes, a bit pricey, but you will have a blast. I hope to replace all of the lights in our house with these over time.

    13 of 16 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Great, but app needs improvement, and needs to be smarter

    • Written by from Tewksbury

    The bulbs are great. Cool to the touch no matter how long they are on, crisp light, great scenes. I'm not sure if it actually affects me or if its a placebo effect, but I do find the light scenes built in work quite well.

    The only hinderance is the app. It isn't designed that well, especially on the iPhone. Colors are hard to get right with the app. And it would be a lot better if there was proximity using bluetooth or something. That way they would turn on when I enter the room with my phone.

    14 of 18 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Amazing hardware, software needs work.

    • Written by from Bay Minette

    I'd previously rated the starter pack 3 stars because of difficulties getting started with the iOS app. Now that I've customized recipes to my liking and gotten them syncing with the hub, it works reasonably well. The app still needs lots of work -- but the potential of the hardware is so great it's worth it.

    My other concern is with the light output of the bulbs -- only equivalent to about a 50w incandescent bulb. I've found that with a two-way bulb adapter, I can use two Hue bulbs in some floor lamps, which results in a really pleasing amount of light. I now have 5 bulbs in 3 lamps for a 100 sq. foot home office.

    5 of 5 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Bluetooth would make this a 5

    • Written by from Guilford

    This product is easy to set up and works great right out of the box. My biggest request for the next generation of the Hue is that is has the option to use bluetooth and/or wifi. Great gift for anyone but especially for yourself. Stop reading this and go buy the starter set!

    3 of 8 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Great Technology

    • Written by from North Little Rock

    This a fine lighting product for those wishing to modernize their home. The lamps themselves are very high quality and emit very pleasing light. As other reviewers have mentioned, the partner app could use some work. Nonetheless, a great product.

    6 of 7 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    GREAT BULBS-Software needs work though!

    • Written by from Portland

    The bulbs are great. They're responsive to the imput. The HUE software program is cumbersome at times and difficult to understand right off the bat- but after time you'll figure it out. Also Phillips doesn't have extensive tech support for these bulbs or a step-by-step explanation. I'd still buy them anyways though!

    3 of 4 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Good product, weak app.

    • Written by from Brooklyn

    The physical functionality of this product is superb. But the app presents it like a novelty toy which it simply doesn't have to be. The full color range is a quirky plus, but these features should be an aside to what this product is at it's best- an energy efficient way to give users total control over the lighting in their home. Make the app better for white balance within a normal range and further explore the energy efficiency possibilities it creates.

    5 of 5 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Color my day

    • Written by from Vancouver

    Very slick, like that I can change the mode of my rooms with the variety of colors.

    App is very clumsy to work with at first. Also the Fade in / out does not work and have seen lots or reports about that. Hopefully they will get that fixed as I would love to take advantage of that feature.

    Overall, neat way to control your lighting without the use of switches.

    1 of 1 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Awesome Product- perhaps revolutionary

    • Written by from SAN ANTONIO

    I've owned these for nearly 2 weeks now and have decided that I absolutely love them. The ability to select the color of the light is admittedly "gimmicky" but fun nonetheless. In certain situations its great to have that feature. The main attraction though, is it's integration with iOS and the ability to adjust your lighting with your iPad or iPhone! I say with complete seriousness that this could be the first of a new generation of lightbulbs. After owning one, it only makes sense to control your lighting this way. Highly recommend for anyone who's got the extra money to get one.

    4 of 4 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Cool Product

    • Written by from Las Vegas

    I have a large house with 22 recessed bulbs in the ceiling. So I just started off getting 4. I have them in the living room and they are great. Really cool. The only downside is the price. I wish they could be more affordable.

    10 of 11 people found this useful

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  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    So Far So Good

    • Written by from Cypress

    Very cool product. App could use some tweaking to make it a bit easier to use as there was a bit of a learning curve. All in all, set up was very easy (less than 3 minutes). I have the starter pack and 2 additional bulbs. I'll be ordering 10 more today to set up more rooms. Groups are a bit of a pain to set up as you have to create a scene and from what I can figure out so far can only set up colors in a group from an existing photo. Colors can be adjusted on an individual light but won't save unless in a scene. Could be I need to spend even more time on the app. Fade function didn't work in my first few trials but again I expect this to be me just taking more time to figure everything out. I also haven't been able to get a group programmed on my iphone to appear on the home ipad for others to use. Not sure if there's a way but will be a pain to set them up on multiple devices. Only a 2 year warranty even though they say the light is good for 15. Having stated all the learning issues, it's a very cool product, easy to get started and in my opinion completely replaces a crestron type lighting system. It is expensive but much less than a home lighting system would be. I will continue to hopefully replace every bulb in the house as various sizes are hopefully released.

    158 of 165 people found this useful

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