Philips - Hue White A19 Smart LED Bulb - White

I enjoy my gadgets, so for years I've wanted to achieve the "Smart Home." This past year the smart home has become much more attainable through products like the Hue lighting system. There are lighting alternatives, from wifi switches to lights without a hub, but none of them offer the blend of value, flexibility, and power of the Hue system. You do need the Hue hub to control the bulb, though it will simply turn off and on with a normal light switch. But, once paired to the hub you simply name the light in the Hue app on your phone or tablet and you have full control of it. Just leave your light switch on and control the light through the app. The real power comes when you integrate it with either Siri or, preferably, Alexa (through an Echo or Echo Dot). From there everything is controlled by voice. My usage: - 4 Bulbs in the Kitchen - 3 Bulbs in the Dining Room - 2 Bulbs in the Stairway - 2 Bulbs in the Entryway - 2 Bulbs in the Office - Additional Color bulbs in the master bedroom and living room Combined with my Echo I can walk into my house and say, "Turn on downstairs lights." And, voila, all the downstairs lights. Just as importantly I can ask Alexa to dim them to a certain percentage of light, which is particularly nice. Combined with third party apps I issue commands like, "Turn on Wait," and all the lights in the house turn off except my entryway. Or, my favorite, "Turn on Show Time." All the downstairs lights turn off except my living room lamps which dim to 40%. Sweet. If that seems like a lot of money to spend, keep in mind that these bulbs are LED and draw very little power and they designed to last over 20 years! They are more expensive than normal LED's, but you're paying for the functionality and smart bulbs without a hub are much spendier--if you're doing a whole house then these are the bulbs to get. I did almost dock a star for reliability, as I have had two bulbs fail quickly. I have not had to deal with Philips on these, but Best Buy's return policy was very easy to deal with. I do believe those two were an anomoly--these bulbs don't glitch, they don't do anything weird, they've been flawless. App integration across multiple programs is always interesting to set up, but these bulbs have been awesome.

These little gems really are awesome. I hooked these up to my Amazon Echo and now i can walk into my bedroom and say "alexa, turn on my overhead lights" or "alexa turn on my mood lights" (i have the color ones as well in various fixtures around the room and call them my mooood lights) and boom they come on. I can even say "alexa, set my bed lights to 50%" and they dim. Even without the echo they are still quite awesome. If I am away from my house for the night (or multiple nights) i can switch lights on and off from my phone so i looks like someone is home. I have it set to an alarm that has them turn on on weekdays at the same time my alarm goes off so that I have light as well as sound to wake me up (and because i get up when it is still dark out, i can see where i am going) It also has a function that when you walk into the house (basically when your phone connects to your home wifi) it will turn on your lights. I am sure there are many more uses and functions I have yet to discover... im still playing though.

These are Philips basic smart bulbs and the ones you'll probably invest most heavily in. While the Ambiance bulbs offered by Philips lets you choose the precise hue of white you want a room, these are not stuck to just one. They have presets, or "scenes", to light a room. From Relax to Concentrate to Nightlight and named scenes such as "Savannah Sunset" and "Arctic Aurora" these bulbs offer good stock choices for lighting. Looking for something more personal? With the app, one can add a picture to the presets and a new scene will be set up. For example, I used a picture of a full moon in a dark night sky and the scene created (using two of these bulbs) did really well recreating the look of a moonlit sky. This process can be hit or miss but it works better than I had expected. The Hue app is a bit clunky to use so I suggest setting up your rooms slowly and deliberately within the app. Above all else, know where you're placing the lights so that you aren't switching them out as correcting this within the app later is a PAIN. These bulbs are the cheapest of the Hue collection and the ones you'll primarily use to set up smart rooms within your home. My suggestion is to purchase a starter kit with the Philips hub and the Ambiance bulbs (for accent lighting and lamps) and add these least expensive ones to major lighting in rooms. The hub can control up to sixty lights I think so slowly adding in lighting is easy. As long as you don't get your bulbs crossed between rooms (note my warning above) Siri and Alexa are great controls over your burgeoning smart home.

These are by far the best dimmable LED bulbs I've tried, but still not entirely perfect. I compared one to an incandescent in the same fixture, and Philips did an amazing job with the warming of the color. At fully dimmed, it was identical to the incandescent bulb I left in the fixture for comparison, really incredible. However, the dimming is no longer linear, so you can't mix with regular bulbs and get the same brightness through the dimming range. With these LEDs most of the dimming occurs in the top 1/3 of the slider of my Leviton dimmer, the next 3rd does pretty much nothing and then there is another noticeable drop in light output when fully dimmed. There is a slight delay before it dims as well. It's not really a problem, but there is room for improvement in the calibration. I also tested one in my nightstand touch lamp, and it only put out a dim light, with very minor level changes between the 3 settings. In fact, the brightest setting of the lamp was the dimmest of the bulb. Not sure when anyone will make an LED compatible with a touch lamp, but they aren't on enough to worry about it, until they stop making filament bulbs. Lastly, there is a very slight audible buzzing from these when you first dim them. It seems to less as they warm up, but if you really listen for it, you can hear it. Not enough to bother me, but if it's going to be close to your head, like a nightstand, it could be a problem.

The Hue smart white bulbs are a great option in places where color and white temperature control are not important. I have 9 of these in my home. They have worked perfectly over the months I have had them. I have experienced no failures or unexpected behaviors. They get nice and bright when needed and the dimming control works without issue. The Hue app is pretty nice, with the ability to group lights into rooms, allowing for both individual and room control. I currently control these lights via a few different methods, including Smartthings automations, Stringify automations, Apple Homekit, Alexa voice control and Google Home voice control. Because of how they work directly with Alexa, if Smartthings is down for an update or any other reason, I can still control the Hue lights with Alexa, which is definitely convenient. I know there are some less expensive smart bulbs available, but I have been very happy with these Hue bulbs. I also own some other Hue bulbs/products, and have been quite satisfied. But, these ”plain” white bulbs were my introduction to Hue, and their good quality convinced me to choose more Hue products.

I recently bought enough lights to do a number of rooms at my home. The experience is inconsistent in execution. Sometimes I tell Siri (on the HomePod) to turn lights on in said room and it does it with no hitch, other times it turns only some of them on. It is also frustrating when the iPhone and the HomePod jockey for control and they cancel the one you want to use out. The most infuriating thing is the leaving commands that it invariably screws up nine times out of ten. On the plus side set up of these lights is fairly simple. If I had to do this over I would have waited for the tech to be fully baked. My wife consistently messes up the system by manually shutting off lights and hates the system....which gives me a consistent headache. That said this is probably your safest bet on a light setup that will stick around. The Hue system is the dominate player in the market and it’s doubtful you will buy these and see them be bricked in a couple of years down the road. One tip I will give you is make sure you name the rooms in a fashion that everyone using them will remember. Also, if you are an Apple user I would suggest changing the generic leaving command to something you prefer.

Quick Summary WiFi connected lights that last longer than standard 60 watt bulbs, are cheaper to run, provide ample lighting, and are dimmable. Background I have a small number of color changing Philips Hue lights and I bought these lights to replace some standard 60 watt bulbs. I did not need or want to spend the extra money for the color changing Hue lights for these rooms but I did want to connect them to my existing Hue infrastructure. Features These are WiFi lights that are controlled through a smart phone app. They do not have the color spectrum that the other Hue lights have, but these are much cheaper. I use them to give me the lighting control that I have become accustomed to with other Hue products, but not necessarily needing ambient colors. For example, I use these in a bedroom or the kitchen where movies and media are not the focus and color effects are not really practical or necessary (let's be honest, they are never really necessary but it's way cool). These bulbs give me full control over all the lighting in each room from where ever I am in the house. They also allow for more control within a specific room. I have one room that has 6 light sockets on the ceiling and they used to be controlled with 3 different light switches (two bulbs per switch). With these lights, I can turn on each bulb separately or in any combination without having to rewire anything.

I really like our Hue system. Although it's cool using the system as hands-free light control via voice recognizing devices like our Echo, I really like the automated scheduling and off-site light control features. Gone are the old days of clunky plug-in mechanical light timers that were not only absurdly predictable but could get completely thrown out of sync if a power outage occurred during your absence. Now, when I'm away from home, I can set several different times so lights appear as if they were being manually controlled. If a power outage occurs, it won't affect my lights at all when power returns. These lights are typical 60-watt brightness. They don't have a very bright or a white high color temperature but they get the job done. And when they go on sale like the bulbs I just purchased here at Best Buy, you can add extra remotely controlled bulbs all over the house. You only need one Hue bridge. Once you have it, you can add lights all over on different schedules and voice-commanded by different names. No complicated setup is required. I took the new bulbs home, inserted them into my lamps, powered them on, launched my Hue smartphone app, found the new bulbs in the app and added them to the bridge. That's it.