Philips - Hue Lightstrip Plus Dimmable LED Smart Light - Multicolor

I'm torn on how to rate this product. From a performance standpoint, I give it five stars so far considering I have only had it in place for a week or two. The lights are very bright and do a good job of lighting up the space (whites and colors look great to me). I used one of these strips above a bay window on a vaulted ceiling. The lights stuck well to the ceiling (so far at least) and are bright enough for me to not have to worry about going to all of the trouble and expense to retrofit canned lights into the same space. I pared these lights with one of the new Philips wall dimmer switches, which has worked very well. The lights are definitely a five star product if you are installing the lights in a straight line. Whether it's across the top of kitchen cabinets, or a vaulted ceiling, as long as you do not have to worry about any angles, I think you will be very happy with the lights. The lights are not very pleasing to look at if they are visible to the eye. I had intended on putting these in a few more spots such as under the trim below my windows, and in other similar areas. However, my wife did not like this and demanded that I remove the lights from any location where they were not completely hidden. In her defense, I did not really like seeing the visible lights either and we have decided to use them in only locations where they are completely concealed. I don't remove any stars for this since it is as intended I believe. The lights are thin, but you may be surprised by how visible the actual light strand is if you are trying to put these in non traditional areas. The power block that goes into the wall outlet is big, so that may be an issue for you. While it was not great, I was able to burry it behind furniture, so it can't be seen. The cord from the wall outlet to the lights is about six feet, so you may have to worry about hiding the extra cable depending on where you are installing the lights (there is a second smaller brick that the lightstrip plugs into that you will need to deal with as well). From an installation standpoint, I would give this a 3 1/2 star rating. While these strips are very bendable up and down, they do not bend well at all when installing on horizontal angles. You can forget about using these on any 90 degree angles, and 45 degree angles are not much better. You will not be able to easily install the strip flat at the angle if you have to bend the strip to the right, or the left since Philips does not offer any kind of adapter for this (as long as the strip stays straight, you are good). You will need to curve or loop the strip at the angle, which may throw off the light pattern a little in that spot. You will also need to make sure you have plenty of room to hide the curve/loop you need to make to get around the angle, or it will be visible. You will also probably need additional adhesive of some sort to strengthen the area around the loop on both sides of the angle. The few negatives aside, I think this is a great product if it matches what your intended use is. I held off buying the first generation because they were not bright enough, and not long enough. Hopefully Philips will incorporate adapters for future products that allow you to cut and install the strips easily around angles. Other brands already have this, so hopefully Philips will do the same. I also look forward to Philips producing a product like this that can be used outdoors. If these were rated for the outdoors, and could be installed at 90 degree angles, I would love to put these all around my deck out back (among other locations). I have also used the new expansion strips. They connect easily and have the same positives and limitations as mentioned above.

Some of you may be skeptical to purchase these lights as there are a plethora of much cheaper and possibly more versatile options available on Amazon etc... This review will mainly tackle this notion. These strips first of all are BRIGHT. Make sure to check each section of these lights when first opening to make sure every part is working. Back to my points, I ended up choosing these over the various other versions mainly because of its interoperability/integration with other devices, Android, and iOS. There are of course cheaper options out there but this is what I believe to be the main selling point of the Phillips Hue. One other thing I have often seen is that these lights technically aren't as versatile as others (at least easily) because they do not have any manufacturer specific L adapters that allow for wrapping around corners. You can also only shorten these lights by cutting at certain areas and there is a bit of distance between them before you can cut some off. Other RGB lights often give you the capability to customize more in this area and with L adapters at that. Still, I do feel that the integration outweighs all of this. The fact that I can control all my lights together and separately with one go to app is great. I also believe that the support that Phillips provides is great and they will only continue updating and adding onto their item roster. Something I also wish this could do is change lights in certain areas of the strip itself (let's say half white and half purple). Even then, I love the light strip and it has truly fulfilled my minimalist style needs and coolness factor. I've integrated probably half my apartment now and since I bought my first kit I have been addicted ever since. Something also to be aware of is that I am not sure myself how long the adhesive is going to be good for though I have reattached it probably 2-3 times and it is still sticking which is great. Pair your purchase with the Geek Squad protection, which by the way is a replacement plan, and you've guaranteed yourself some pretty nice things for the next 3-4 years with no worries. These also have a pretty long lifetime but I still turn mine off if I am not using them. Again, this product is great... give it a try and I guarantee you won't return it back to the store!

I picked these up (along with the new dimmer switch) at my local Best Buy Saturday. Apparently, they weren't supposed to be on the shelves yet. Who knew. Anyway, I got this to use as under-cabinet lighting in my kitchen. As anyone who has read the reviews will know, the first-generation strips were not bright enough to use for task lighting in a kitchen. The same can't be said about the new Plus strips. They can provide all of the light you need and more. Before I could set them (and the dimmer) up, I had to update the firmware on the hub. When I added the Plus strip, the app added 3 items, 2 Color Strips and an Extended Color strip. The two Color Strips were not reachable, though, and I later deleted them. This may be a glitch in the software, but didn't interfere with control of the strip. The only negative, at least in comparison to the original strips, is that the power brick is much larger than the first-generation strips. Given that the Plus strip can be extended out to 10 meters, I suppose it must be bigger, but it is something to keep in mind if planning to hide the wires and boxes. I already had two other original light strips in the kitchen. Because of the vast disparity in output, I will probably end up repurposing them and installing new Plus strips instead. These strips are real lighting, not just special effects. When running for pure ambiance, I'm running about 30%. The addition of white LEDs makes a world of difference in the color. The white is warm and brings out the color of the tile backsplash. In fact, I have a new appreciation for my tiling job now that it is no longer in the shadows. As I said, I will probably be adding more of these to my kitchen.

The Hue Lightstrips Plus improve upon the previous generation's hardware in every way that matters. With the addition of the white LED to the existing RGB LEDs the strips can finally produce a myriad of true white light that can range from warm white (like regular incandescent bulbs) to crisp cool white light (like LED or florescent bulbs) as opposed to the previous generation's strips that could only yield a light greenish-ish "white" light. Perhaps my favorite change is the fact that the Plus strips are immensely brighter than their predecessors. I've used my new Plus Strips as upward ceiling facing recessed lighting and they are finally a viable option to illumining the whole room without the need for additional lamps. There previous generation's 120 lumens strips simply can not shine like the new 1600 lumens strips are able to. As far as the RGB LEDs on the strips they are just as responsive and vibrant as before, if not more so thanks to the major increase in lumens. In my opinion they seem like they can more accurately reproduce the colors you choose via the Hue app due to the addition of the white LED. The new ability to extend the Plus Strips up to 33 ft. is also a very welcomed addition as the strips can be used in more applications without the complicated need for additional power adaptors for every 6ft of strip (the maximum length of the old strips.) All in all I am extremely pleased with my new addition to my Phillips Hue collection.

I have many lights--so many that I have two bridges--and I had been reading about this addition to the hue family over the past month and was quite excited about them. They do not disappoint! The light output is very, very bright. I believe, depending on the color temperature, they are a little more than 10x brighter than the original hue lightstrips. They also have a much greater dimming range. The previous generation of lightstripts (and original hue bulbs, blooms, iris) went from off to about a brightness of 30-40 (on a scale of 0-254). That is, setting the brightness to a value of 10 was no different than 40. The hue Lightstrips Plus can be dimmed by quite a bit more to barely on, maybe around 5 on the same brightness scale. I have one of the Lightstrips Plus as a guide along the stairs and the other one runs along the ceiling of the upstairs hallway. I am waiting for the extensions to be available so I can extend them both as desired. I am also looking forward to the new hue bridge to allow Siri to control my lights. The only negative I have found is if you move your eyes quickly, with your field of vision crossing the lightstrips, you can see them flickering. This effect is not visible with the original lightstrips. My guess is they cycle on and off at a slightly slower rate than the original ones allowing it to enter one's visible perception under limited circumstances. If you're looking at them or they're in your periphery, it is not perceivable. They are an excellent addition to the Philips hue family and I will be purchasing additional ones and extensions.

Purchased the light strip kit and extensions. No one at the store told me that I would need the hub, so that was another trip back to Best Buy to purchase this item to make it work. Then, I asked if the strips were dimmable and was told yes, and i did not need to but the dimmer separately. Guess what? I did need the separate dimmer, so yet another trip back to Best Buy to purchase that, too!! Then, when I tried to install, it seems that the Hue Hub really, really likes you to have some of their lights, too!!! But if you call service tech help three times, they can finally tell you how to get the system to work without having any actual lights!! BUT, you have to take apart the already installed light strips and take them to within 3 FEET of the wifi ethernet connection to get them to link! The most ridiculous system I have ever seen! Finally got it all linked up, only to find that the strips do not DIM without the dimmer unit! They do have different settings, but no dimming on the basic Hue app. Final insult is that the sticky back application side doesn't stick to a painted surface. So plan on buying your own double sided tape to make the strip stick down! This system is rinky-dinky. It's a good idea, but very poorly designed and the lights are really bright and nothing like what they show on their photographs. My assessment is: Do Not Buy this. Maybe the lights work ok, but the strips do not!

I really like this product, but I do have a few suggestions for improvement. I have these hue light strips in my library on top on my bookcases and more in my kitchen for undercabinet lighting. They work really well in both areas. That being said, my biggest complaint is how large and bulky the power adapter is that plugs into the wall. While I was able to hide one away in a cabinet in the kitchen, another had to placed within sight and it is a huge eye sore. If Philips is able to reduce the size of the power adapter, this would be amazing, especially since there is already another switch that needs to be connected for the WiFi capabilities to work. My only other complaint is price...it's still very expensive for the length of LED lighting that you're receiving. Oh, and one final word of caution, these strips do NOT bend around corners well. I had the darndest time in the corner of my kitchen attaching them to the wall and had to resort to a little hot glue. As long as you're applying them on a relatively flat plane, you should have to worry about this. Even given all of these complaints, I still love these lights. I love being able to control them with Siri or Amazon's Alexa and I also like that I can pair them with a Phillips Hue dimmer switch so they behave like any other ordinary set of lights in my kitchen or library.

I been wanting to buy these hue lights for quite a while now until this past black Friday that they were on sale I went for it. They are amazing. I put them on the back of my dresser along the edge and work perfectly well. I downloaded the app and got the switch accessory for it and they change light just perfect. I can be away from home and still set up the light to my like. I am a big movie perfect when it comes to being at home and relaxing so I set the lights to my mood and voila! I love having the feel of being in a cozy room and the lighting just helps to do just that. Works great with the switch dimmer and you definitely need to get the hue bridge because without it, it won't work. The switch is an added accessory but it is really convenient because I get home from work late at night and don't feel like taking out my phone to use the app, so the switch dimmer turns it on just as soon as I enter my room. I have them connected with the hue go lights and work amazing. I highly recommend if you want to have that feel of a cozy room.