16.12.2015

What’s good:Reliable Hue systemEstablished and trusted brandGood lumens outputFlexible settingsUses its own mesh network instead of your wifiWhat’s not so good:Not the full ‘Hue’ experience without coloursWould benefit from system feedback about wireless rangeBulbs are REALLY expensive - relatively speakingSome initial setting-up hiccupsI've been wanting a Philips Hue system for some time, having quite a ‘Smart’ home already in many respects. Now that the range has evolved with a more modern hub and a second generation of bulb technology, I am happy to have taken the plunge and this is a relatively low-cost entry product to get you started. The big downside to this pack (if it makes a difference to you)is that this set includes bulbs that only offer white light as opposed to the spectrum of colour that go with the ‘Hue’ name.The pack includes the new v2 hub device which needs mains power and a wired network connection to your router, plus 2x of the new white bulbs - and in the case of this pack their have ES bulb fitments as opposed to the more common BC bulb fitments. Obviously you will likely pick the pack that contains the fitments type you require, but adapters can be bought cheaply enough provided they leave enough room in your lamp of choice. The bulbs are pre-paired to the hub, so you simply need to follow the instructions to get the hub up and running. My hub did have a few hiccups getting going, after the Hue app on my phone said it was updating the hub, only for it to fail on numerous occasions. Eventually it worked. A reset of my router and a bit of a network tidy up got things running tickety-boo.Hub updating aside, there were two other issues I came across. Firstly, I had intended to use one of the bulbs in my kitchen light, but it could not be detected in that location. The location is about 10 metres from the hub, and the other bulb was installed in a desk lamp about half way between, but the kitchen bulb could still not be detected. There is a 1 metre thick wall in between which was probably the culprit, but I would really like to have some kind of range sensitive meter or readout on the all to give me an indication of whether range is going to be a problem. The Hue system is a mesh network so each extra bulb you add further expands the range of the system as all the bulbs talk directly to one another. My research tells me that other smart lighting systems may use different ways to connect.The final problem I had was in getting the Hue to integrate with my Logitech Harmony remote system, which i could not for the life of me get resolved. Only when I stumbled on a message board that suggested I might be several updates behind on my harmony hub (in spite of the remote itself saying I wasn't). Only a check using my laptop revealed the true update status, and within 20 minutes I was fully up to date and my Hue was talking happily to my Logitech Harmony system.In use, these lights make perfectly good standard replacements and give off excellent light levels similar to an incandescent 60W bulb with a pleasant slightly warm colour temperature. My two are presently installed in a brass desk lamp and a red and cream Tiffany table lamp. I have preset an ‘alarm’ so they both come on at a certain time, and then go off gradually at a later time. I have different light settings dependant on whether I choose to watch a film or normal TV and it can even do things differently if the time is after sunset. It's all very clever, and once you get your head around things, its actually quite intuitive.You can add GU10 bulbs into the equation as well, although they are slightly taller than standard GU10 bulbs. You can also add flexible strips of LEDs and small ambient room lights to project light onto a wall. Philips are now concentrating on how you interact with the bulbs by making better switches to save you having to reach for your phone to simply turn on a light.The hurdle to all of these things is cost, and all things in the Philips Hue range are rather expensive. If the cost of colour bulbs could come down by 50% I'd be all expanding my setup straight away. As it stands though, it will take time to create the complete smart home lighting setup I still crave.

2.5.2017

I bought this starter kit in February 2017 so I've been running it for a couple of months. During that time I have purchased 2 additional Hue (white) bulbs, 2 Hue dimmer switches, a Hue motion sensor and a Hue light strip. In terms of brightness, these bulbs are 806 lumen which is the equivalent of a standard 60 watt bulb which is bright enough for me. The strip is a lot brighter at 1600 lumen. Overall I am very pleased with the system but there are still a few issues.I've worked in IT for the last 30 years, mainly in programming roles so I'm fairly technical. Having said that, I didn't need any technical expertise to get the starter kit installed. I only needed to connect the bridge to my router,create an account on the Hue web site, download their app for my Android tablet and follow the instructions to create two "rooms" - The "Lounge" and the "Driveway" at the front of my house. I named one bulb "Tall Lamp" and the the other "Outdoor Lamp Post" and assigned them to their respective "room". It was very simple. Next I set up a "routine" to automatically turn on the bulbs in both rooms at 21:00 and another routine to turn them of at 05:30. Again, it was very easy. I should mention that the bridge did require an update but the Android app downloaded and installed the update no problem. It only took a few minutes. So far so good. Next I used the app to configure a dimmer switch, linking it to the "Lounge" room. The switch can have multiple actions depending on the number of times a button is clicked but I decided to keep it simple and go for a simple "on" and "off". The dimmer increase/decrease buttons themselves did not require any configuring. They just worked straight out of the box.Before installing the rest of the kit I made my first mistake. I installed a Hue app on my Windows 10 PC because I spend more time on my PC so I thought it made sense to have an app on there as well. So I downloaded it from the Microsoft Store. It was called Huetro. It looked completely different to the Android app but it had good user reviews and it was free so I decided to give it a try. The reviews were right. It is a great app but there is a problem which (as a programmer) surprised me a little. The problem is, it doesn't like some devices or routines which have been configured via the Hue Android app and vice versa. For example, one of the routines I configured on the Android tablet appeared in the list of "alarms" in Huetro but the on/off times were missing. I corrected it in the Windows app and it appeared to be okay but the following day I noticed that the bulbs were not switching off at the correct time so I had to switch them off via the app. I encountered similar issues after installing the rest of the kit and creating more "rooms". Some of the rooms I created in Huetro did not appear in the Android app at all. The reason I find this odd is because both apps have to communicate with the "bridge" via a thing called an API (application programming interface) which is a program written by Philips which sits in the "bridge" connected to your router. The API will have command to "Create a Room" and a command to "Get a List of Rooms". Both apps can only create a new "room" by calling this command. Both apps can only show a list of rooms by calling the relevant command. The API should enforce a set of rules which ensure that both apps get the same list of rooms but this is not the case. The documentation for the API is freely available but I haven't had time to read it before writing this review so I can't explain the cause of the issue but I can offer a solid piece of advice for anyone installing the Hue system. DON'T MIX YOUR APPS! Install one app (either IOS, Android or Windows) then stick with it and you should be ok.And just to make it clear... I love my Hue lights.

12.12.2015

The Philips Hue system allows you to control bulbs via an app on your phone, using a bridge connected to your router. This kit contains 2 screw in white, non colour changing bulbs and a bridge - it's the newest version of the bridge which works with Siri as well as an app meaning you can instruct your phone to turn your lights on and off and dim them. I was interested to try this as an existing owner of other Hue lights - of the colour changing variety, but this is a stand alone set if you just require controllable bulbs - note these ones are white only. These bulbs are screw in - before setting up I purchased some adapters so that they would fit my bayonet lights.Out of the box set up is fairly easy.Once I'd downloaded the app and plugged in the bridge to the router and a power supply, it was a question of adding the bulbs in settings. The app talks you through the whole process. Disappointingly it failed to find the bulbs automatically so I had to enter the (extremely small) serial number of each bulb to get it all working. Once in place it's very easy to control the lights via the app. They work fairly well with Siri too though it's not a perfect system - probably renaming your bulb in the settings something original like "Bob" will make Siri less likely to bring up random internet searches rather than dimming your bulb. The commands I find most useful, and which work every time are "turn all lights on/off" "dim all lights" and "brighten all lights".The bulbs themselves when on are a very pleasant white and, at full whack, equivalent to a 60 watt bulb. They have a good range of brightness and seem really well made. The new bridge is sleek looking, although it has a bit of a over-large plug, especially compared to version one of the bridge. The addition of the ability to pair with Siri is a plus though.In terms of the Hue App, it is adequate in controlling the lights but, especially if you are going to use these bulbs with other Hue bulbs I would recommend trying some of the Hue compatible apps; I particularly like "Hue Lights" and "Magic Hue" which allow you to use your hue lights like disco lights or as part of a "scene". Currently I have my whole set up throughout the house on a firelight setting through one of these apps, with the white bulbs dimming and flickering and my coloured ones (not part of this set) changing colour. This really makes the most of the potential of these smart bulbs. I can also set the bulbs to come on in the morning at a time I choose, or set them on a timer. If I turn the white bulbs off at the wall, when turned on they go to their brightest setting - it would be nice to have some control over this and be able to save the brightness level, but I have yet to find a way to do this.Overall, I really like the Hue system, and this is a good starter set. For the British market the inclusion of bayonet bulbs would, however, be a better choice. I gave this 4 stars mainly because the app is a bit clunky and it was onerous adding the bridge and bulbs to the settings. It doesn't always work perfectly with Siri either. All things considered though for an existing Hue owner getting this set is a good way of upgrading your bridge and for anyone new to Hue it's a good way of getting into the system.

8.6.2017

I admit I bought my starter kit at Maplin. The price is same. I gave it four stars because I think it could be improved. Once up and running, I enjoyed the ease of turning lights on and off, dimming and setting schedules. The set up though took me more than an hour. I did have some Internet issues but Alexa refused to see my bridge. The instructions in the box are pretty much useless, no surprise there and not unique to this product only but common to most things you buy today. It basically tells you to install the Hue app which I did. I installed it, performed the update which took about 10-15 minutes. I then set it up by choosing both lights in my living room. Once done, I had Alexa do a discover.Alexa tells you to press the button on the bridge but it never found anything. I then powered off my bridge and The discovery was successful. Finally, then I ran into difficult controlling my lights. Commands were not as straight forward as I thought.Out of the box, I thought you did not need the app and Alexa would just perform the discovery but it isn't that straightforward. I also did a Google search for commands to turn lights off and turn on. These were not correct and misleading. Commands like Turn lights on and trigger did not work. The default names for your bulbs are hue light... and you need to use these names to control each bulb but you get the option to change the names, THANKFULLY. I simply called them 1 and 2.Here are my pros and cons and a brief guide to set this up. Hope it helps others. I only bought the kit today so still testing so will update my review further at a later date. Impressed so far.----- ProsImpressive once you set them upBulbs good quality and quite brightThe app is pretty good with the option to set bulbs for a particular room, dim, turn them off and on at various times of the day, etcYou can control your lights from anywhere providing you have internet connectivityI got the white light starter but there are many other options, coloured lights and even a sensor and remote control sold separatelyPretty smart and the future of a modern home---- ConsNot as straight forward as I thought to set upCommands slightly misleading on web and app. "Set good morning", for example did not work for me. Instead, Alexa would go on about something else which was annoying, other commands did not work eitherThe default bulb names is too long winded. Keep it simpleNot particularly cheap at £60 for the bridge and 2x bulbs---- Quick guidePut bulbs in lightLight switch must be on at all timesInstall app. This is essential to do the initial discovery and to chose each bulb and assign to a particular room in the houseHave Alexa perform a discovery. Command is "Alexa discover"Make sure you go into the app and change the names of your bulbsCommand is "Alexa, turn on 1", for exampleIf Alexa fails, power off the bridge and power back on. Make sure all three lights are on. For me, the right to need to be consistently on and not clashing. The left light can flashThat's it really.

13.12.2015

This is a starter set containing the new Homekit compliant Hue hub and two white-only bulbs. It allows you to control the brightness of your bulbs from a smartphone, computer or a Hue dimmer, as well as offering compatibility with Apple's Homekit and some other ZigBee devices.The new Hue White bulbs, which replace the old Hue Lux bulbs, have two distinct advantages. First, they are slightly brighter, and therefore quite a lot brighter than the coloured Hue light bulbs. Second, they are available in both Edison screw and bayonet fitting. UK light fittings are mainly bayonet, but Hue Lux bulbs were, for a long time, only available in screw fit. They are also 'bulb shaped', though, like most LED bulbs,only half of the unit is illuminated, which might mean less light for your particular need, depending on our your light fittings are set up.The new hub is Homekit compliant. This is only useful if you are using an iOS devices such as an iPhone to control them. However, if you are upgrading from the old hub and also need more lights, this is probably the cheaper way to do it. If you don't have any Philips Hue hubs already (ie, this is your first set), then you are effectively getting the hub more or less for free, compared to the cost of buying separate bulbs.If you're new to Hue, then what this offers you is the ability to control up to fifty bulbs from your smartphone, computer, Philips dimmer or Philips Hue switch. You can programme them in scenes, and you can also control them with other devices using a Logitech Harmony remote control, ElGato Eve app, or IFTT app (if this then that). Smartphone apps offer all kinds of custom effects including DIY light shows, if you want to play around. However, for people who just want their house to look nice, there's a relatively modest investment of set up time and you can then have lights switching themselves on and off according to the time of day, dimming up as it grows dark, and dimming down for a romantic meal or watching TV.There are two kinds of Hue bulbs: these, white, bulbs, which are getting on for as powerful as 100W incandescent bulbs, and the coloured kind which are more like 60W incandescent bulbs. The white bulbs are fully dimmable, but they aren't 'tunable' (which Osram's Lightify bulbs are). The coloured ones can be set to virtually any colour except really strong green, but are three times as expensive.In our house at the moment we have a mixture of Hue, Hue Lux and Hue White bulbs. If you don't need colour changing, the Hue White bulbs (ie, these ones) are the best, because of cost and power.That's basically it. Expect to spend ten minutes setting the hub and the bulbs up when you first install it, and probably a couple of days playing with the lights before you decide how you really like them. After that, it's up to you — physical control with a Hue dimmer or a Harmony remote, smartphone control, automatic changes (based on time, geolocation, etc) or a combination.

8.12.2015

Picture the scene. It's early evening on a late autumn day. You're sat on the sofa engrossed in a film, and you want to turn the living room lights on as it really is quite dark. You could stand up, walk over to the light switch, and turn them on. Alternatively, with a Philips Hue setup, you can just use your phone to turn them on. Or dim them. Or to turn on any other Hue bulb in your house. Or even have them scheduled to come on at a certain time. That's the idea behind the Philips Hue setup, in any case. But does it actually work?This starter set contains a Hue Bridge (more on which in a minute), two screw light bulbs, and both a power cable and an ethernet cable for the bridge.The instructions for setup were brief and fairly simple. I replaced the two bulbs in our living room with the two supplied Hue bulbs, plugged the Hue bridge into the mains next to our wireless router, and then connected the bridge to the hub using the ethernet cable supplied. The next step was to download the Hue app for my iPhone; once this is installed, you simply open the app, choose "find bridge", and this is detected; you then choose "find lights", give the lights a name, and you're good to go. It couldn't be simpler.I've seen elsewhere that some people don't like the Hue app and prefer other third party ones, but I'm quite happy with it. You can group lights into "scenes" so that you can turn a scene (ie a group of lights) on and off simultaneously, dim bulbs (you don't need a dimmer switch - the app and the Hue bulbs handle all that), and cash even set timers so that the lights come on at certain times - even if you're not at home; all that is needed is for your router to be on, and the Hue bridge turned on and connected.So far my needs have been quite simple: I have grouped our two lounge lights, and am quite happy to control then from the app. I also set a timer this evening so they can turn on 10 minutes before we get home; lot and behold, we came home to turned on lights :-)So far, we are really impressed with this. It's easy to setup and easy to use, and we've had no problems with the app. The light given off by the bulbs is quite warm, and the dimming and timers that you can setup are great. The one thing I would say is that the bulbs are expensive to buy separately, it seems, so expanding the Hue setup beyond the starter kit could be expensive; however the quoted lifetime of the bulbs is good (25,000 hours), and if this is vaguely correct then the cost starts looking sensible. The next step is to get voice control working via Siri on our iPhones, and then, if we continue to be impressed, to invest in some more bulbs. Easy to setup, easy to use, and a great piece of kit. Highly recommended.

17.12.2015

I buy a lot of gadgets and have a somewhat jaded perspective about what might be 'the future', but I genuinely think this kit is an early step in the future of lighting solutions.Set up:The quick start manual is about two pages long and consists of three steps: plug the bulbs in (I put mine in two floor lamps, as my pendant ceiling fixtures are bayonet rather than edison screw), connect the hub to your router using an ethernet cable, and download the app. The app itself has further easy to follow instructions: press the button on the hub when it asks in order to pair the app/bulbs/bridge.You can then sign up for a Hue account to manage the bulbs remotely, but this is entirely optional.

1.1.2019

I would say brand says a lot here and with Philips you can be sure you're getting a good product.A lot of companies rip products off and I always try to go with the original or market leader because you do get quality although you pay a bit more but with these lights you will want to pay that extra bit for the quality.The hub was really easy to setup, you just plug it into your router, the only thing is it has to be wired so you better have a port free.The connection is reliable and it always works.The only negative thing and this could be the ECHO DOT but when you tell it to turn off "ROOM" sometimes it gets confused.~TURN OFF "MY ROOM"~ There is more than one device named "MY ROOM" which one

22.12.2015

The Philips Hue White set is a good way to make drastic changes to the way your home lighting works, without breaking the bank. The bulbs themselves are very good, as is the hub which connects to your wifi router in order to control the bulbs. The bulbs are controlled through a phone app, and this has recently had a new update and now performs very well.Setting up the bulbs and hub are easy enough, the bulbs come with screw connectors, so you will need to buy bayonet adapters if you need these connections. The hub plugs into your router and wirelessly broadcasts to the bulbs, and the connection seems strong and reliable.Through the app you can change the intensity of the lights and also set up various routines - which turn the lights on at a certain time,

21.12.2015

Didn't think much of this at first. Thanks to Amazon for supplying it as a review item, and I'm now happy to report I have completely changed my opinion of it after a good old play with the device and its associated app.Firstly, Philips needs to address a major shortcoming with packaging. This has lost it a star from me. There are praactically zero instructions in the box, and their obsession with multi-country boxes which can be shipped internationally means that the sides and rear of the box are covered in woefully small print. Could they not supply better start instructions and clearer packaging? There is also the multiple Apple compatability stickers on there. Don't they want us Android users to pick it up?

25.12.2016

Great item set up took a little while to complete about an hour due to unclear instructions on a set up without a light controller. The other option to connect is via its hue app.[...] For those who are not too savvy with technical settings the link will guide you through getting it up and running.First steps are to download the hue app and then register your hue hub through the app. You can use a google account to register or set up your device by supplying your email and a password. After you have completed that put your bulbs in your sockets and turn the lights on. Carry out a search of the bulbs (Note write down each bulbs serial number and put a remark to where that bulb is attached i.e.

24.9.2017

Ok here we go.....Having recently moved into a new house I thought it was about time that I finally accepted that technology was moving at a great speed and that I needed to do some catching up. Having already gotten an Amazon Echo and a Dot, plus a Nest Thermostat, (reviews are available in my profile), I already had the makings of a simple smart home.My first venture in smart wireless lighting was the Phillips Hue starter kit, that comes with the bridge, power supply for this and two smart bulbs.As can be expected for the price you get a well designed and thought out package with all the techno bumph to boot, the box draws eyes but sort of shows the lacking inadequacy of the purchase and as you can guess further bulbs are needed to really zoop up your house,

14.4.2018

I have Alexa and wondered, "What do I do every day, that requires very little effort that I no longer want to do". The answer? Turning my lights on and off.My laziness had increased 200% now I have the Phillips Hue bulbs. I can either control them from my phone, assuming I can be bothered to lift my arm, or scream at Alexa to turn the lights on.The system itself is very clever. You can control seperate lights in different rooms, or control individual lights on one room. I have three bulbs in 1 room and can turn them all on or off independently of each other. I can even have them at different brightness to each other. You can do this level of control from the app or Alexa.Using the app you are able to set routines such as 'wake up'

7.8.2016

I bought these lights as an upgrade to my existing Phillips Hue lighting system I have in my home. I had the old style Hue Bridge which was not Homekit or Siri compatible and I was curious about the voice activated features.After replacing the old Bridge with the new one, the white lights connected immediately but I did have a few problems with the Hue multicoloured lights in my existing system. Two of them, I had to take out of the light fittings and enter the code numbers stamped on the lights into the Hue app on my phone before they could be found. The last light would not be found by this method and after a search on the web found that there is an app to download to my PC which connects to the my router /

3.4.2017

The Hue system consists of a central controller linked to you wifi and individual bulbs that are also linked, meaning you can control those bulbs from a smartphone app. The system works well with an Amazon Echo (which is why we bought it), but also has some great features standalone. From my phone, I can control the light bulbs in the system, switching any of them on and off or dimming them with a slider. (If I had fancy coloured bulbs, I could also do colours, but I stuck to white.)By default you can only do this within the house, but if you register with Hue's system, you can also do it remotely via the internet.

Philips Hue Starter Kit - Bridge & 2 Hue Bulbs (E27) - Reviews

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